In the t-shirt printing industry over the past few years, it has been trendy for companies to offer “Environmentally Friendly” printing services to their clients. Usually what they are really promoting is printing t-shirts with water based inks.

Now as someone who is an industry insider, let me shed some light on the reality of the situation.

The ink used in printing a t-shirt is really only a tiny fraction of the end products total environmental impact. So labeling the t-shirt printing service “Environmentally Friendly”, by only modifying the ink used to print the shirt, is quite misleading.

In the actual printing process, most of the environmental impact comes from the chemicals used to clean and reclaim screens ready to be used for another job. These chemicals are incredibly toxic, to the point where you really have to wear hard core protective gear to safely do the job. Chemical resistant gloves, goggles, respirators and aprons for splash protection.

Now the majority of printers in the country, are smaller operations, that can’t afford the proper waste water management systems, and most of these chemicals go straight down the drain.

So to use, so called “environmentally friendly” water based ink, which is applied in fractions of grams to the t-shirts and then clean the screens using the method above, you can understand my statement about printers that promote their environmental cred based on using these inks solely, is a little misleading.

The argument of whether water based ink is any more environmentally friendly than plastisol ink, is a topic for another discussion, but regardless, as a business, we wanted to focus on the far more damaging chemicals used in the reclaiming process than the tiny amount of ink used per t-shirt.

So to give you the true “environmentally friendly”, low impact choice, we set out to do more than a token gesture of using “water based ink” and eradicated those harsh, caustic chemicals completely from our process.

The search took us all the way to America to find a range of biodegradable cleaning chemicals, manufactured from soy and citrus. We have imported them and replaced our standard chemicals with these natural based products. These aren’t available as an optional extra, that costs you more, we use them on every job!

We are the only company in Australia to have taken the initiative to implement these products across the board. Something we are super proud of.

So if you care about the environmental impact that the printing process has on your t-shirts then get in touch and have a chat about what you are after…because it is as important to us as it is to you.

All t-shirt suppliers use this code when describing their different garment options, and you might have been wondering, what is GSM? We thought we might go through that for you to help clarify this term.

GSM stands for Grams per Square Metre – so it’s referring to the weight of the fabric. However, a lot of people often form the opinion that lightweight fabric equals poor quality and heavyweight fabric equals good quality…..this is not always the case!

In fact, a lot of t-shirt suppliers who have lightweight t-shirts available actually charge more for this option.

So what does equal quality?

There are a few different types of fabric finishes available, and these are usually the things that determine the quality of a fabric. Here’s a brief description of a few different terms you might come across when you’re looking for your next run of tees:

• 40s or 40 singles / 30s or 30 singles / 20s or 20 singles etc – This refers to the fineness of each strand of cotton thread used to weave your t-shirts. A higher number means a finer thread, so in turn a softer, finer fabric is created with better drape/hang – it basically flows better and sits nicer on your body.




• Brushed Cotton means exactly that! The cotton is brushed to remove any excess lint and fibers from the fabric, resulting in a soft, smooth feel.




• Combed Cotton uses a combing method to remove short fibers and to straighten or arrange longer fibers into parallel order to create a smooth, fine yarn. Combed cotton is usually used to produce finer (lightweight) t-shirts and is softer than Brushed Cotton. – American Apparel, AS Colour, Gildan (64000 style only)




• Ring Spun Cotton is made by twisting and spinning a rope of cotton fibers. This results in a really soft feel yet very strong fabric. – All American Apparel, AS Colour, Gildan (64000 style only)




• Enzyme Washed Cotton has gone through a special process using enzymes to produce a really soft finish and smooth look to the fabric. – American Apparel Power Wash tee

So next time you’re looking at your t-shirt options, take the GSM into account but be aware that there are other factors for consideration!

A few months back we were sifting through our enquiries we get through the website, and we came across an intriguing email. It read…

“Good afternoon from the UK. I am writing because I have a request. I work for a company called FESPA, we are a federation of associations in the Screen and Digital print industries. We also arrange events and exhibitions for the industry. In October this year we have an exhibition in Singapore (FESPA Asia www.fespaasia.com) Having identified your company as being the leader in online screen printing in Australia, I would very much like to have a conversation about the potential of your CEO/Managing Director being able to present to other screen printers in the Asia Pacific Region at our event. I look forward to hearing from you.”

Now…we do get all kinds of spammers through the website, so initially I put this down to some sort of Nigerian scam, but it certainly stroked the ego a bit so I had to check it out.

Low and behold it turned out to be legit!

I thought, “What an awesome opportunity!” and was stoked on the idea. But as the show gradually got closer, anticipation gradually turned to flat out fear. I hadn’t spoken in front of people since school, and that was 20 years ago.

I hurriedly prepared my slides for my presentation titled, “The 8 Key Secrets to Growing Your Screen Printing Business Online”, and while getting the “keys” down I started thinking, “I’m going there to give give people these keys, and we haven’t even mastered them yet”

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a bit of a perfectionist and I don’t like to start or do something until the process is perfect. This was a real challenge for me, I was going there to share this stuff I “knew”, but also knew that we weren’t as good at it as we could be. I felt a little hypocritical I guess.

But I pushed on and the day came to jump on the plane to Singapore.

Once I arrived at the show, I met everyone and then nervously awaited my turn to present. I had a 45 min slot and was a little worried about filling the time.

Then it was my turn…eek!

The MC was very generous with his introduction making it sound like I had accomplished a lot more than I thought I actually had, (as you can probably tell I’m not that comfortable with being talked up!), and as I approached the stage my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest! I got up there looked, around the room and blurted out some Aussie greeting that I don’t remember but was probably something like “Hey, How ya’ doin’?”

Through a shaky voice I started talking…and the rest was a bit of a blur. After the initial minute or so, I really started feeling more comfortable and by the end was really amped. I actually said to my wife later on, “I think I could actually do more of this.”

After the presentation I got the opportunity to sit on a Q&A panel with a couple of other business leaders, which was great too. It was cool to see that what I had spoken about raised the interest of the attendees and generated a bunch of questions, which also gave me the privilege of being able to share everything I had learned over the years.

Making new friends and catching up with old ones…

The other great aspect of attending one of these shows is the friendships you develop with other people doing great things in the industry. We had the privilege of sitting down a couple of times with Mark Gervais who runs the print department in  China’s largest vertically integrated garment manufacturer Shenzou International. Vertically integrated means that they do everything from start to finish, knit the fabric, dye the fabric, cut the fabric…I think you can see where I am going here. They do this for companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma – all the big guys.

The company has 48,000 staff and Mark has 2,000 staff in the print department with 54 automatic printing presses. That sounds like a big job!

Something he said to me was interesting though, He said “Look in reality, you and I, we are doing the same thing. We are taking a design, separating the artwork, shooting some screens and printing some t-shirts. We both face the same problems and issues, ours are just scaled up.”

I guess that was him explaining what he does humbly, but it really made a point with me. At the end of the day we are both performing the same actions for the same end result – Making our customers happy!

We also got to sit down and discuss what they are working on and also how we can implement structured research and development time, into our procedures, to keep in front of the game here in Australia.

Someone who also reinforced this concept with us was Charlie Taublieb. Charlie is the industry’s leading print consultant. We had the privilege of spending an evening with him talking shop and trying to figure out how we can get him out here to work with us.

One thing we learned from him was that we should be working on developing our skills on producing specialty printing and finishes. A lot of printers are scared of them but when you can grasp the basics its not actually that difficult.

So we have implemented weekly R&D time to start testing and measuring everything we are doing and working on. This will continue to put us ahead of the pack, and help us achieve our goal of being the premier t-shirt printer in the country.

What would you like?

With all that said…what specialty finishes are you looking for? Are you trying to achieve a certain result that you haven’t been able to?

Let us know and we’ll do everything we can to make it happen for you.

What is discharge printing? Have a look at the video below and keep reading to find out more…(WARNING: Loud music alert in the video!)

Well, in order to get bright opaque colours onto dark coloured t-shirts, you have to use a “base” print. This is a “bridging” layer of usually white ink that you print the colours on top of. So white goes down on to the t-shirt and then all the colours go on top of the white print. This gives them “pop”. If they went directly onto the black t-shirt they would look very dull and transparent, which some people don’t mind, it gives a “vintage” look to the print.

But it also leaves you with a heavy feeling print. What a lot of people call “plasticy” (I know…a very technical term). The technical term is “heavy hand”.

This is undesirable for a lot of people. The trend at the moment is to have very soft prints that feel part of the t-shirt, or have a “soft hand”. So this is where discharge printing is awesome. Discharge ink actually bleaches the colour out of the fabric and replaces it with the colour you have mixed into the discharge ink. So the result is an opaque but very soft print, as you have dropped the white base print you would normally have to do in order to get the opaque colours on dark t-shirts.

When initially printed the print looks very dull. The colours are almost completely transparent (as you can see in the video). But as they t-shirt goes through the heat in the drying tunnel, the discharge activates and bleaches the dye out of the t-shirt and replaces it with the colour printed. Cool hey?!

Now, before you run out and place your order for discharge printing there are a few things you need to be aware of.

Firstly, different garments discharge differently. Between suppliers, colours, styles and even between identical t-shirts. It comes down to how the garments were dyed, what colour the base fabric was and also if the garment is constructed of 100% cotton, which it has to be, well in most cases, we have successfully discharged American Apparel Tri-Blend t-shirts. For this reason we can’t guarantee results, but will always print a test garment first, and if any issues arise we’ll get your approval before proceeding.

Secondly, PMS colour matching can’t be guaranteed. Colours will be as close as possible. Because of the potential inconsistencies of the original base colour of the t-shirt fabric, you sort of don’t know what to expect. It may also slightly change between different coloured t-shirts as they can discharge a little differently.

Lastly, it costs a little more than standard inks. Once the ink is activated it can’t actually be stored and at the end of the print run needs to be discarded. So to allow for this wastage and the additional time it takes to mix up the inks the pricing is marginally higher…but don’t worry we are talking cents not dollars!! And hey, you have an awesome super soft print on dark t-shirts!!

So I hope you are keen on trying out a discharge print on your next run. Let us know if you’d like some print samples. Just get in touch by calling 1300 853 474 use our contact form to let us know what you are after and we will get in touch from there.

We have been stoked to work with Earth Hour over the last couple of campaigns to provide their t-shirt printing.

This year we donated the wardrobe for their TV commercial. All those people are wearing trackies and t-shirts that we supplied. They prepared a special branded copy for us. You can see it below…

Here is what was involved with doing their t-shirts…

Their logo is a full colour image. This originally posed a few problems for us. We sampled it using four colour process but they just weren’t satisfied with the limited detail and colour range that four colour process can replicate.

We decided to try digital vinyl transfers just for the full colour part of the logo and we screen printed the text. They were stoked with this and decided to run with them.

Transfers aren’t something we would usually recommend for this sort of job but in this case turned out to be the most appropriate solution.

We screenprint the white text areas first and then heat press the vinyl on after.

We can do the same thing for you. Just get in touch and let us know what you need. Call us on 1300 853 474 or use our contact page. We’d love to work with you!

This week we had the pleasure of printing t-shirts for the John Butler Trio.

Pictured above is a 6 colour discharge print. Discharge printing allows you to have a very soft feel on dark t-shirts. It basically removes the dye colour in the t-shirt and replaces it with the colour mixed into the discharge ink.

We also provided them with a 1 colour discharge print.

The t-shirts we used were from the EarthPositive range. They are a 100% organic and 90% carbon reduced garment. What does that mean? Well here is a little more info…

• LOW IMPACT FARMING – They have specifically chosen to work in regions where organic cotton is planted and harvested by hand, without mechanization, and because organic farming does not use
  petroleum based chemical fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide, it is less reliant on fossil fuels.
• ORGANIC PRODUCT – EarthPositive is a 100% organic product, produced under the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and certified by The Control Union and The Soil Association. EarthPositive® is GM free.
• CARBON NEUTRAL – EarthPositive apparel is made in carbon neutral manufacturing facilities in India, from ‘low impact’ organic cotton, and is distributed through carbon neutral warehouses and offices in London that use only renewable green electricity.

For even more info on the range check out the information page here – http://www.continentalclothing.com/page/about_earthpositive_apparel

These t-shirts are exclusive to PSI Screenprinting. You won’t find these with another printer in the country. Get in touch with us for more information and pricing. Also ask about our Eco Friendly print service. Scroll down for our contact info.

How do you like getting free stuff?

Last year, my email marketing service provider, MailChimp, sent me out a free t-shirt – http://blog.mailchimp.com/holiday-shirts/ – A cool print on an American Apparel tri-blend t-shirt.

Now for someone who deals with t-shirts all day, every day, you might not think that would be so cool, but honestly I was stoked.

I just got their newsletter and they had a little piece in it about visiting their t-shirt printers and at the end linked to an article by Adam Nash , VP of Product Management at LinkedIn.

The article is basically about the psychology behind giving and receiving t-shirts as it relates to business. Check it out here – http://blog.adamnash.com/2010/11/29/why-t-shirts-matter/

Sending you this might now seem a little self serving, and in a way it is, I need to sell t-shirts to put food on my family’s table. But it made me think back to receiving that MailChimp t-shirt in the post and how it made me feel. I thought it was the coolest thing (maybe I am a bit of a nerd though?).

I agree with everything that Adam Nash said in his article but here is something I experienced first hand with MailChimp’s tees…

We had a prospective client call us up wanting some t-shirts printed (hey Sacha!!). As he was going on to tell us what he was after, he explained that he got this t-shirt from an email company called MailChimp, and how he loved it and wanted his t-shirts to be just like it etc.

Jodi was speaking to him and said “Yeah my husband Joel got one too”.

Sacha was so stoked that he met someone else that used MailChimp and had the same t-shirt. In the end he couldn’t wait to place his order with us.

The point to the story is, that by giving away those t-shirts to a limited number of customers, MailChimp has created a little “club”, manufactured a feeling of exclusivity in their clients. Could you do that in your business?

It does take a little more than just slapping your logo on a t-shirt though. I think the design is a big part, people have to want to wear it. But that gives you another opportunity…run a t-shirt design competition to generate some serious goodwill amongst your customers. That’s a topic for another time though.

Anyway just some interesting stuff I wanted to share with you guys. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you could use it in your business. Just pop them in the comments section below.

Whether we like it or not, T-shirts that have been made in Australia are often more expensive than those imported from various other countries in the world, and most Australians aren’t so patriotic as to automatically spend considerably more on a T-shirt simply because it was made in Australia.

Any business wishing to compete with low-cost alternatives needs to provide additional sources of value to its customers, to warrant the difference in price.  Money talks, but thankfully, it isn’t the only voice we heed.  We also believe that we get what we pay for.

So what are these additional sources of value?  Why buy Australian made T-shirts, rather than the cheaper ones imported from overseas?

Reason #1 – High Quality

Australian products are manufactured to meet high Australian standards, so you can be confident in their quality.  They’re good.  Indeed, surveys commissioned by the Australian Made, Australian Grown (AMAG) Campaign to examine exporters’ activities and attitudes towards the Campaign logo (the green triangle with the golden kangaroo), indicate that Australian exporters increasingly report that “Australian products have a good reputation in export markets” (30% in 2010).  See http://www.australianmade.com.au/research/ for more information on these surveys.

Reason #2 – Support Australia’s economy

When you buy Australian products, you are clearly supporting the Australian economy and Australian workers.

Reason #3 – Care for the Environment

All things being equal, buying locally produced goods is better for the environment, if for no other reason than reduced transport distance (i.e. less usage of fossil fuels).  In addition, many (although not all) Australian T-shirts are manufactured from organic cotton.  Australians are increasingly concerned about environmental impact, so it’s no surprise that eco-friendliness is one of the differentiators many Australian farmers and manufacturers have chosen to use as a value-add for their products.

Reason #4 – Fight against sweatshops

Sweatshops are workplaces where employees are…

• paid lower than living wage (e.g. $3-$4 an hour)
• forced to work incredibly long hours (e.g. 18-22 hours per day)
• children (yes, really)
• working in poor conditions, often under arbitrary discipline and verbal and/or physical abuse

Unfortunately, buying a T-shirt made in Australia is no guarantee that the garment wasn’t made under ‘sweatshop conditions’ (e.g. through outsourcing to new immigrants who don’t know their rights in this country); however, Australia does have an accreditation process for garment manufacturers to be certified as ‘sweatshop free’.  The process doesn’t entirely rule out poor treatment of industry workers, but it does give you the option to discourage such unethical practices by making informed choices as to whether you’ll financially support it or not.

Here at PSI we can supply you with Australian made t-shirts as well as Organic Australian made t-shirts. The company we use for this is Certton. Here is a little bit about them and their product…

Certton T- Shirt Facts

• All their Certton t-shirts are manufactured in house at their company owned factory in Sydney, Australia.
• They do not employ or contract any home workers or outworkers.
• They only use fabrics made in Australia from 100% certified organic cotton.
• Their factory is guaranteed sweatshop free.
• Their factory and head office is carbon neutral.
• They reinforce their t-shirts with shoulder to shoulder taping for quality and durability.
• The fabrics they use are coloured using accredited Oeko Tex 100 Eco dyes for colour fastness and sustainability

Why Buy Certton t-shirt’s?

• Quality: ‘Certton’ – Made in Australia, twin needle reinforced neckline, cover stitched hems.
• Australian Manufacturing: Their t-shirts last a long time and offer excellent value for money. They combine the best manufacturing techniques with the best organic cotton fabric to produce a high quality t-shirt that lasts.
• Certified Organic Cotton: Control Union Certified Organic Cotton,  is grown without the use of pestcides, synthetic fertilisers and from non genetically modified seed + organic cotton uses little or no irrigation and water stock piling to grow.
• Australian Made Fabric: Premium 180GSM, 140GSM, 1×1 Rib & 90% organic cotton/10% Spandex Australian made fabric from certified ringspun organic cotton single jersey yarns.
• Fit: Their t-shirts are a great fit and cater their styles to suit different body shapes from Babies, Infants, Kids & Adults.
• Colour: The colour range is inspired by the country we live in. We use Oeko Tek 100 Eco dyes to get guarantee a colour fastness that lasts.   They provide earthy and rustic tones in combination with well worn classic’s that are perfect for every occasion.
• The Environment & Sustainability: Purchasing quality products manufactured from sustainable methods in your own back yard is one of the easiest way’s you can help to strengthen the natural state of the world’s environment and your local economy.

Get in contact with us if you want to use Australian made t-shirts and we will be happy to send you out some samples.

Post image courtesy of Kent.Conklin

Besides providing highly amusing free entertainment, people-watching can be a great source of inspiration for all creatives and business people.  For example, let’s take a look at some tactics T-shirt designers might use to get creative inspiration from people-watching.

• Notice the T-shirts people are already wearing.  Figure out what works and what doesn’t.  Maybe the design that old guy is sporting would look much cooler if it was larger, stylized, done in discharge ink, and centred on a purple tee, rather than plastered in orange on a pocket of a white polo shirt.
• Watch people’s gestures and habits, the way they walk, the facial expressions they use while talking.  Can you capture an expression or an interaction between people in a simple caricature?
• Try dreaming up some what-if scenarios, based on the scene around you.  What’s that stressed-out looking guy over there talking to himself about?
• Listen for snatches of conversation.  Kids in particular, with their innocent view of the world, can come up with some truly hilarious questions and one-liners which can be used to good effect in a T-shirt design.
• See if you can figure out what’s hot and what’s not.  Perhaps you can guess what future trends are going to be, and create your next release of designs accordingly.  What colours are popular?   What sort of clothes are the people in your target market wearing?  Perhaps someone has put colours together in a way that you haven’t seen before … and it works …

You can people-watch anywhere – outside one of the stores you sell your T-shirts to, in cafes, on park benches, in a local shopping mall, or at the arrivals terminal at the airport.  Take advantage of times when you have to wait.  The important thing to remember is that inspiration comes from observing and thinking, from finding a fresh perspective.  By standing back to observe humans you don’t know, from an objective distance, rather than during the course of your everyday interactions, you might just find it easier to let your imagination fly.

Image courtesy of Milori Blue

At the age of 69, Toby is a fit and energetic man who’s still heavily involved in the daily operations of his industrial plumbing business.  He calls himself a realist, and he has a self-professed distrust of advertising.  He won’t watch commercial television or listen to commercial radio, and if he spends time on the internet, his wife closes the door on him to muffle the sound of his non-stop grumbling about marketers being brainwashers.

Toby’s not unusual.  People want information, but they want it at their own convenience – more often than not, they’ll hang up on telemarketers, delete spam emails, mute the TV when commercials are on, and pointedly ignore billboards while driving.  It can be really hard for a business to make potential customers aware that it even exists, when so many of those people are determined to close their eyes, block their ears and sing “blah-de-blah-de-blah-blah, I can’t hear you!”  The money you pour into advertising can easily disappear straight down the drain, resulting in very little, if any, return to you at all.

That’s where promotional t-shirts come.  It has any number of advantages, but here are four of the most important ones – it’s useful, it engenders goodwill, it reminds your prospective customers that you exist, and it helps you appeal to more qualified leads.

1. Too useful to trash

For all Toby’s dislike of advertising, you’ll hardly ever see him wearing an unbranded T-shirt or cap.  If you’re thinking that the brands he wears are advertising his own business, or fashionable designer labels, think again.  This pragmatic, advertising-despising man nearly always wears the loot he’s been gifted by suppliers to his business.  Why not?  It’s a perfectly good shirt/cap/sweater/jacket, and it didn’t cost him anything.

Promotional merchandise largely overcomes the don’t-bombard-me-with-annoying-advertising pitfall by attaching the advertisement to an article which is intrinsically useful to the prospective client.

2. Warm and fuzzy

“Warm and fuzzy” is not a reference to the texture of Toby’s T-shirts … well, not most of them, anyway.  Toby would grumble if you called HIM warm and fuzzy, too, but like most people, he appreciates generosity.  Scratch Toby’s back and he’ll scratch yours.  If you give him something he likes, he may like you better and be more inclined to do business with you.  If he’s already doing business with you, giving him a useful gift will remind him that he’s valuable to you, and will encourage his loyalty.

3. Memory hooks

Toby’s mind is still as sharp as it ever was, but as is true for most people, he finds it much easier to remember things he’s seen or heard multiple times.  Many promotional items meet this criteria by being reusable, but there is an added advantage to a wearable promotional item, be it shirt, cap or sweater – in addition to providing a strong memory hook for the wearer, it exposes your company to everyone the wearer comes in contact with.

4. Right on target

Cleverly distributed gifts can attract highly qualified leads to your business in a way that most other advertising techniques can’t hope to match.  Toby’s shirts, caps and pens are usually gifted to him by his potential or current equipment and materials suppliers – at trade shows, during work site visits, along with product deliveries, and via direct mail on special occasions (e.g. Christmas).  An advertising dollar stretches a lot further when it’s spent on an audience which is already comparatively interested in purchasing what you have to offer, and even further when your existing clients like you enough to gratuitously recommend you to others.

If you see the benefits in giving away promotional t-shirts in your business please get in touch with us for any help you may need with it. We’re here to make it happen as easily as possible for you so your business can reap the benefits!