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.

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.

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!

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.

Selling band merchandise, online, through a merchandising partner, or during a gig, can also generate income to help you cover the costs of recording and touring and perhaps even make a profit in its own right.  Indeed, it’s not uncommon for artists, large and small, to make more money through merchandising than they do through album sales and concert tickets!

Appealing and durable band merchandise that resonates with your consumers and is appropriately priced to meet their budgets can go a long way towards building fan loyalty and getting your band’s name “out there” in public.  People really do notice and talk about each other’s clothing and accessories, particularly if they’re attractively designed and of decent quality.  (The flipside is that poor quality merchandise can also impact on your reputation … negatively!)

If you’d rather not do the design work yourself, rather than hiring a designer, you can run a design competition to involve your fans in the creation of your band merchandise.  This approach can save you money, while giving you priceless insight into your fans’ sense of style (and awareness of which merchandise will appeal to them) and engendering a sense of personal involvement and belonging.

We have a lot of experience when it comes to band merch and we are here to share that with you. From using the best blank t-shirts to our designers who have worked with some of the countries biggest bands we’ll make sure your band stands out from the crowd with their merch.

Get in touch today for an obligation free consultation.

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.

We have always been able to do bulk t-shirt printing but we have recently been able to invest in some innovative screen printing equipment that has given us the ability to print more of these wholesale jobs, faster

and at lower prices.

This means that if you have a t-shirt printing job of more than 250 pcs (sometimes even less) you can benefit from these reduced prices.

We have been inundated with these bulk runs in the last couple of months and are currently booked right through to early November.

Here is an example of the clients we have been printing for and the quantities they have been doing to take advantage of the wholesale pricing…

Monash University 10,000 Steps Challenge – 2000 t-shirts – 2 colour front + 1 colour back
Cable Chick – 2000 t-shirts – 2 colour front + 1 colour back
Middletons – 900 t-shirts – 1 colour – front, back and lower back
Flint Clothing – 2100 t-shirts – 7 designs
Relient K – 1152 t-shirts – 2 designs
Red Frogs – 2000 t-shirts + 300 hoodies – 2 col front + 1 col back + 1 col sleeve
Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council Kick the Habit campaign – 500 t-shirts – 3 colour
Dot Dot Dash – COON Cheese – 1000 t-shirts + 10 Aprons – 4 colour front + 3 colour back

Here is a video of the machine working.

By taking advantage of this innovation you can save up to 20% on you printing costs.

So just get in touch with us if you want to know more about how you can save on your t-shirt printing.