Background

In recent decades, T-shirts have been among the most popular casual wear among men, women and children alike and this long-term trend doesn’t seem to show any sign of stopping.
Fashion-wise, this type of everyday apparel takes a huge part of modern life for many consumers, essentially from all walks of life.
Additionally, it became an indispensable part of many businesses’ strategy for advertising and promotion.

Target Audience: Who Uses It?

Online T-shirt print shops harness advanced technology to offer the ability to easily customize a variety of popular clothing items with personalized text, design, or digital image.
It’s a fantastic form of self-expression that gives the customer the unique opportunity to exercise his artistic side and make a lasting impression on the people around him.

Custom printed T-shirts are used for a variety of popular purposes, such as:

• Businesses – For employee wear, promotional items, customer giveaways, events, tradeshows and conferences, corporate merchandize and brand ambassadors.
• Families – For family gatherings and reunions, cool baby, infant and toddler custom wear, funny pet clothing, birthdays and parties.
• Clothing companies – For brands that wish to sell their own clothing line in the market.
• Organizations and Nonprofits – For promoting a cause, fundraising and charity events.
• Kindergartens, Schools and Colleges
• Sports Teams
• Churches

T-Shirt Printing Methods

The printed T-shirt industry employs several techniques for garment decoration and each offers its own pros and cons for the merchant or the customer.

The most popular technologies are:

• Screen Printing
  Also known as silk-screening or serigraphy, this time-tested technique uses a finely-woven mesh screen that is tightly stretched over a rigid frame, to support an ink-blocking stencil (which bears the desired image).
  As the ink is forced onto the fabric through the area of the porous screen which is not covered by the stencil, the desired pattern is created.
• Direct To Garment (DTG)
  A modern process of printing digital images and computerized graphic designs accurately onto clothing using advanced inkjet technology.
  This relatively new fabric printing method applies specialized water-based textile inks directly into the fibers of the blank cotton garment that is being printed, through a modified version of the traditional desktop inkjet printer that so many consumers use regularly at home.
• Dye Sublimation
  Sublimation printing is a digital method that applies an image to polyester cloth, using the combination of three key components: sublimation ink, heat and pressure.
  At high temperature, the sublimation inks transform their dye particles into gas (without ever becoming a liquid) which penetrates and bonds to the fibers of polyester materials, infusing or embedding graphics, text or virtually any image into the target fabric.
• Heat Transferring
  A heat press, which can work either manually or automatically, utilizes the heat and pressure produced by this machine to imprint an ink-based graphic design onto the target garment.
• Embroidery
  One of the oldest fabric decoration methods that enables images, text, or other graphic designs to be stitched on apparel, using a needle and either thread or yarn.
  In the custom clothing printing industry it is a computerized process, done by a special machine.
  This technique is most often seen on caps, hats, outerwear, dress and polo shirts and more.

What Do Custom T-Shirt Printers Offer?

Custom apparel manufactures and suppliers offer a variety of men’s, women’s and kids’ clothing products as well as various accessories that can be fully personalized with a logo, image or any type of text.

Such items include:

• T-Shirts
• Tank Tops
• Polo Shirts
• Dress Shirts
• Hats and Caps
• Hoodies
• Sweatshirts
• Sweatpants
• Fleece
• Business Uniform / Workwear

Paying for Custom T-Shirts with PayPal

Even though PayPal is one of the most popular payment methods on the internet, many online apparel printers have not adopted it yet.
However, a fair number of players in this market do accept PayPal and hopefully, their number will increase with time.

Before Choosing: Features to Consider

In order to make sure that you receive optimal benefit from using this type of service, it is crucial to conduct proper research and verify that certain features that you need are actually being offered by the providers that you consider.
Doing so will help you decide which company is the best fit for your individual needs.

Such features may include:

• Payment via PayPal
• No minimum order / Small quantities
• Custom tags and labels
• Sleeve design and printing
• Group and bulk orders
• Online design tool
• In-house designers
• No setup / art fees