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?

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Ok…so we have been doing a lot of discharge printing lately and have got it down to a fine art!!

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!)

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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Band merchandise can be any product you brand with your band’s logo, name or photo – T-shirts, framed and signed band photos, caps, bags, stickers, lighters, posters, you name it.  Fans love to collect souvenirs and wear fashionable T-shirts and useful accessories which express their personal taste in music, and the consequent exposure of your band to other potential fans works in your favour, too!

Obviously you can use band merchandise to publicise your band’s sound, identity, overall image, and even website address, but you can also focus on marketing a particular single or album by incorporating the ‘cover’ design into your website, T-shirts, and other merchandise.

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Imagine the number of T-shirt designs a screen printer sees in the course of a year – hundreds, if not thousands.  And with all that experience of the t-shirt design industry, just imagine the wealth of knowledge and advice we would be able to offer a new designer!

In ‘Designers’ Guide to the Apparel Printing Industry’, Adam Wagner of GoMediaZine shares some wonderful insights and tips from his interviews with representatives from five major US apparel printers, covering topics such as design trends, file preparation, printing techniques and complex designs.

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Make a statement, bond a team, and raise money for a good cause – it’s not surprising that charitable activities and screen printed T-shirts so often go hand-in-hand.  Grandma’s cupcakes might taste magnificent and sell … well … like hotcakes … but T-shirts are bigger and they stay fresh longer.

Inedible or not, there are still quite a few ways you can put T-shirts to work for fundraising:
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