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!

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

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.

Multiple links, quotes, and some thoughtful commentary from readers make this already interesting and informative article even more entertaining and useful.  Check it out here – http://www.gomediazine.com/design-articles/interviews/designers-guide-apparel-production/

Let me know your thoughts below.

It is the first in a series on everything to consider when you are starting a t-shirt business.

We are actually working with a bunch of clients at the moment assisting them with anything they need in making their business a success. So if there is anything you would like to know about starting and running a successful t-shirt label just drop a comment below and we will help you in any way we can.

Just click on the image below to check out the post.

We sent out a survey to all of of our customers that are t-shirt labels to learn a little bit more about their challenges in running  their business.

We invited them to send us any questions they had about their business for us to attempt to answer.

Here is one I wanted to share with everyone from Brendan. Hopefully there is something useful in there for you.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or further questions just add a comment at the bottom. Its great to be able to learn from each other.

Brendans email…

Hey Joel,

Got a question about selling to stores.

Well first of all, once my label is up and running, I
would prob be selling tees on website i make for say
45AUD.

So my cost price for tee is $16. thats $29 profit.

So if my cost price per tee is $16 and I sell to a
store for $30 then they would sell it for $60
correct? Or how ever much they want to sell it for.

How would I go about contacting say someone like…
www.thegrandsocial.com.au
www.squeakytee.com.au

Thanks
Brendan
______________________________________________________________

Hey Brendan,

Thanks for sending this through.

Its great to see you are serious about getting your t-shirt label cranking. Here are some answers to your questions.

Firstly these are answers from my experience an in no way am I suggesting that this is definitely what you should do but from my experience this is about the norm (just our disclaimer

Ok…so when attempting to work out what to charge stores for your t-shirts it is always good to reverse engineer the prices. Start at your retail price and move backwards. So first you want to set your RRP (Recommended Retail Price). This allows you to price position your brand.

So choose what price you want your t-shirts to retail for. Lets say for ease it is…$50 in this case. Generally the stores will want a 100% mark-up if possible. So that means you would want to wholesale your t-shirts for $25.

So now you have to make sure that your costs come in well below this so that you are making a profit on your sale. How much profit is enough?

Well obviously the more the better But there will have to be a minimum of course to cover all the other expenses you incur as a business and not just how much the t-shirt cost to produce. Even if there aren’t many costs now starting out…there will be in the future and you have to at least consider that now.

So ideally as the wholesaler you should aim for around 50% profit (as a minimum). Why so much less than the retailer you ask? Well when you think about it they are taking all the risk. They are purchasing in bulk and those goods are sitting on the floor in the hope that they will sell. But as the wholesaler you have it good because you get paid for the goods…you have sold them already. Even if the retailer has 30, 60 or 90 day account they have commited to purchasing your t-shirts.

So here is the formula for you to find you ideal cost price

Cost Price = Sell Price/(1+Profit Margin)…So in this case CP = $25/(1+.5) = $16.67 (You can use the same formula to go from RRP to wholesale price as well)

So Brendan…you are estimating your costs at $16 per t-shirt and you have chosen an RRP of $45 lets see how that works out for you…

So to figure out your wholesale price to the retailers – CP = SP/(1+M) = $45/(1+1) = $22.50

So you should be selling to the retailers at $22.50. Now what cost should you be aiming for to get a min 50% margin on your sale?

CP = SP/(1+M) = $22.50/(1+.5) = $15

So at the moment you are just a little over your target cost price of $15. At this stage of your business I don’t think this a big issue because as you increase volume of orders then this price will come down. But there are a bunch of things you can do to decrease your production costs.

The other thing I noticed was that you gave different RRP prices for your website and for the retailer. I’m not sure this would be a wise move unless your web one was the more expensive. In effect you can become your retail clients competition and they won’t be happy that you are undercutting them on price. Thats another reason to have a fixed RRP price. On the other hand you may want to revisit your business structure and re-evaluate if you want to retail online as well as wholesale to retailers. If you decide to sell online as well as wholesale this can be a deterrant for retailers as you become their competition.

Those websites you mentioned…the first actually seems like something that would be a great start for you. It looks as if you can start your own online store with them. Might be worth checking it out a little – http://www.thegrandsocial.com.au/help_pages/store_owners/opening_a_store

The second is a retail outlet that looks like they only sell big name stuff. But theres no harm in approaching them and seeing if you can show them your stuff. The big thing with that sort of experience is learning. If you get knocked back be sure you ask them what you would need to make them say yes.

Anyway Brendan…I hope this has been helpful for you.

Thanks mate
______________________________________________________________

Brendan got back to me with some further questions and I will share them with you soon.

We recently did a survey of all of our database who have told us that they are a t-shirt label. Basically we wanted them to let us know what they saw as their biggest hurdles in taking their t-shirt company to the next level.

We are now going to compile some sort of information/training based on the responses we got so that people will be a little better armed to grow their existing business. To do this we will call on a lot of our industry contacts and existing clients who have succeeded with their t-shirt and clothing companies and they will share with you what got them to where they are and how you can do it too.

Here are the results…

Q1 – What Best Describes Your Niche Market?

The most popular niche was “Streetwear” with 32%  of the results. Next was “Boutique” with 19%.

It was interesting to see the varied markets that everyone represented including “Motorsport” and “Music Scene”. It just goes to show the massive potential in the market when you can niche yourself into a certain group of interest.

Q2 – Where Are You At With Your T-shirt Label?

The results to this one were quite surprising. I assumed that more people would be further along in their business but the results show that the majority of people are just starting their journey into getting their t-shirt label going.

“Starting to design – I have ideas but need help to put them together” was the highest response we had with 40% choosing that answer and 31% choosing “Got a bunch of designs but nothing printed”

This is even more surprising when you see the results to the next question.

Q3 – What is your biggest hurdle in moving to the next level with your t-shirt label?

The way this question worked was that you ranked our pre-defined answers with the top ranking being the greatest hurdle and descending to the lowest hurdle. The top result for this ranking question was “Marketing – Not enough people know about my stuff” very closely followed by “Sales – Not enough people are buying my stuff”.

I said above that I thought this result was surprising. Why? Well as you can see in Question 2, 71% of people haven’t even had their t-shirts printed yet. I found it a little strange initially that people that didn’t yet have a product were concerned with the marketing and selling of that product. But as I thought a little more about it, it actually made sense whether intended or not. A good business plan would take these things into consideration before the launch of the product. So the fact that people are considering marketing and sales before they have a bunch of t-shirts printed is really smart!

The rest of the results went in this order…

Suppliers – Can’t find reliable suppliers
Money – No cash to get more stuff printed
Stockists – Can’t get it in enough stores
Design – No creative motivation
Staff – Need someone to help me out

Q4 – What you would like to learn more about to benefit your t-shirt label?

This question, above all, interested us the most. It is the basis for which we will build our information on. It took the same direction as the previous question…which is to be expected. Sales and marketing were two of the most popular topics. These are the results in order of popularity…

Marketing Strategies
Custom Manufacturing (again surprising due to the number of people yet to print a t-shirt)
Sales Strategies
Branding and Customisation
Design Tips and Tutorials
Business Planning
Blank T-shirts
Sourcing Suppliers Offshore
Digital T-shirt Printing
Specialty Printing Methods
Technical Printing Methods
The Screen Printing Process

It was really interesting to see that people really didn’t prioritise knowing about the actual process involved to get their t-shirts printed. Because that’s what we do we assumed everyone would want to know all about it. (That’s why it is good to ask)

In the above 2 questions people also expressed in the “Other” section that they want to know more about selling direct to customers via the internet rather than selling to stores etc.

Q5 – What sort of promotions do you see the most value in for you?

You saw the most value in Free Set-up and Free Shipping. So we will do that for you guys very soon…so keep an eye out for it.

Q6 – What do you want most from your t-shirt printer?

I’ll share a few of the response with you…

“A Quality Product, a smooth print and sweet shirts, stickers etc. As long as its a great product and great service.”

“Complete supply chain partnership. Sharing of ideas to improve designs, ease of printing, quality and competitive pricing. Anything to help the sales for all.”

“A good and communicative service, excellent results, and affordable prices.”

So there you go. We have a whole bunch of data there to show us how to structure our information and training on taking your t-shirts business to the next level. So keep your eyes peeled for that info as it comes through.

Let us know in the comments below if there is anything else you would like to see us cover as we develop the material.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM)- Some students at a Calvin College in Grand Rapids are boycotting a company because of its provocative clothing ads.  The company, called American Apparel, often shows it’s models in see-through shirts and underwear.

The clothing is sold globally and is targeted at college students and young adults.  Here in Michigan, there are stores in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.  The clothes can also be found
online.  It’s those ads that some of the students say are too sexy.

Calvin College students Abbie Belford and Hannah Whyte call it pornography.  Images show topless women, with bare bottoms.  “It’s extreme.  It’s disgusting,” says Hannah.

The ads can be seen on the American Apparel website.  The company has over 200 retails stores and makes all of it’s clothing in the United States.  The company also promotes fair labor practices.

The socially conscious business practices impressed leaders at Calvin College.  Abbie says students were given American Apparel t-shirts at orientation.  She was told the college purchased them again this year.  “I was like, oh great, another chance to support a good company and then he said, but don’t visit their website.  It’s almost pornographic,” says Abbie.

That’s the first time Abbie and Hannah, who are involved in a student-led group called “Democracy Matters”, looked at the website.  They are now boycotting the company.  “I want to see the rest of Calvin, all organizations, sign a petition, saying we will not buy from American Apparel until it changes it’s advertising techniques.”

The women have printed up petitions.  They’ve also created a Facebook page called “American Apparel: The Bare Facts” to protest the company and its ads.  “We want to let them know that no, we are youth, but we do have morals, we have standards.  This just crosses the line,” says Hannah.

Calvin College says it already received the new t-shirts, but says it will support the student-led effort and will likely choose another company next year.  The student group plans to hold a petition drive Wednesday on campus.

Here is the complete response from American Apparel:

We appreciate the sincerity of the views expressed by these students. Our advertisements and photographs are occasionally controversial — we feel that these images are evocative because they feature real people instead of professional models done up with makeup artists or Photoshop. American Apparel’s website is filled with photos of friends, employees and fans of the company who volunteered or even collaborated by submitting self-portraits.

Our advertisements are just one part of what we do. American Apparel is the largest garment manufacturer in North America. The same factory where our photo shoots take place produces more than one million Sweatshop Free garments every week. We hope that the students in Grand Rapids who don’t appreciate our imagery can still enjoy our basic clothing.

By Sarah Sell – from http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=120702&catid=14

What do you think? Leave a comment below to let us know.

They held a massive sale that went viral through social media. Thousands of people turned up and trouble started brewing. This is what the BBC had to say –

“Up to 10 police officers were injured after scuffles broke out when 2,000 people descended on London’s Brick Lane for a sale by a US clothing chain.

The Met Police said it was called to the American Apparel event, the first day of a planned four-day sale, because of the unexpected turnout.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

More video footage here – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601361.stm

While we don’t approve of the behaviour it is a good example of how popular this gear is and how well you would position yourself if you were to print on them.

Check out the range here – http://www.americanapparel.net/wholesaleresources/

Let us know if you want to use them – http://www.psionline.com.au/contact-us-psi-screenprinting/

Hopefully your t-shirts will cause a riot like this!!

By now you should know your market and have developed a suitable image and label for your T shirt printing business. Now it’s time to move on to sourcing your t-shirts and choosing a printing method which does your designs justice.

Material Sourcing:

Whatever quality of t-shirt you are looking for, you’ll find them being manufactured in china. Bear in mind that these manufacturers will charge base rates for shipping and manufacture, so the larger quantities you can buy, the better deal you will get. If you’ve got a particular cut or fabric you’d like use then send them out a sample and they will probably be able to match it quite closely.

Inks and tools for screen printing are best purchased from local suppliers who can offer after sales support and equipment. If you are providing a custom t shirt printing service then the same applies but you can get ink cartridges more cheaply from budget suppliers on the internet.

Printing:

When it comes to printing you’ve got one final choice to make: Screen printing, or digital direct to garment printing? If you are looking to design your own t shirt range then the choice will primarily depend upon the bulk and quality of the printed T shirts you require. If you want to produce t shirts from other people’s designs on demand, then the screen printing cost will be prohibitive, but Direct to Garment Digital Printing will suit your business model very nicely.

If you are screen printing, then it will be important to ensure your designs translate well to the medium; screen printing is not easy, particularly for newcomers so be prepared to experiment and have some failed prints before you get the hang of the process. If you are short of time and capital, consider getting shirts printed by an expert screen printing company to ensure your products look and feel as good as they can.

By following this guide, and researching in more detail the action points it raises, you’ll ensure a successful launch and a relatively trouble free t-shirt label. Best of luck!