Print On Demand vs Buy in Bulk vs DIY Custom Clothing

There are a lot of factors to consider when starting a clothing company. Each process comes with it’s own set of pros and cons, all of which are circumstantial and depend on what you and your customers are looking for. There a three main routes to go when starting a clothing company.

Buy in bulk
Print on demand
Do it yourself
What we recommend

Buy in bulk

Purchasing in bulk is a pretty straightforward method. You work with a local or online printshop to design your items, then you purchase them in bulk. If you purchase a large enough amount, your margins are much better than any print-on-demand service. However if you misjudge your clients and spend thousands on something no one wants, well then you’re stuck with inventory you can’t sell.

Pros

Saves a ton of time. You don’t have to spend hours making shirts.
Won’t waste money on mess ups. Because the company you purchase from will eat the costs of mess ups, you will only receive, ready to sell shirts.
If you order enough the profit margins are very good, potentially on par with doing it your self.
Usually a bulk purchase means the designs were silk screened, which is the highest quality print.

Cons

If you don’t know your customer base yet. You could end up with a bunch of shirts that no one buys.
Once you order you’re stuck with that design on that shirt, you won’t be able to change designs once’s it’s printed.
In order for the shirts to be a reasonable price per shirt you have to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Doing back and front designs or sleeve designs can get very costly.
Multiple colors can be expensive unless you purchase large amounts.

Print on demand

Print-on-demand service is an awesome method for business owners new to the clothing industry. It has virtually no start-up costs (outside of paying to have designs made) and gives you the resources of a large warehouse. You can put your designs on shirts, tank tops, hoodies, flip flops, backpacks, coffee mugs, basically anything. All you have to do is market the items and hope for sales (the hardest part).

You can use print on demands services to find out what your customers like. Once you determine your best-selling items, you can later purchase them in bulk, or make them yourself to increase your profits.

Our recommended print on demand companies: Printful and Apliiq

How it works

Add your design to any product using a print on demand company’s design studio
Upload the product to your website
Market your product
When an item is ordered, the print on demand company will make your item and ship it to your customer
You pay the company the cost to make the product, then you keep the mark up

Pros

Your not wasting money on production mistakes, trial, and error, or trying to recoup from start-up investments.
You can offer an entire warehouse of items with your designs on them
You only pay when you make sales
Print on demand companies usually use a DTG printer, which allows you to have unlimited color designs with extreme detail, and has a soft feel and better quality than heat transfer vinyl / plastisol transfers.

Cons

The items will cost more per item than if you were to buy in bulk or make them yourself self.
There are limitations on where you can place designs on the items
Returns can be tricky

Do it yourself

Making them yourself has the steepest learning curve, takes the most time, and has the most expensive start-up. You may have to sell hundreds, potentially thousands of shirts before you start profiting. However, once you make your initial investments back, making them your self can yield the most profit per item. Furthermore you have the freedom of doing anything you want with the items. Having another company print shirts with designs on the front, back, sleeve, or in weird places can get expensive quickly.

Making them yourself gives you the ability to create truly unique one-of-one items at fair prices. There are multiple ways you can produce clothing; some easier, some better quality, some more profitable.

Pros

Complete control and unlimited design abilities. You can do back / front / sleeve / side or even unique design placements like by the collar.
Most profitable per item after initial start up costs.
You can make things on demand. So instead of making items and waiting for people to buy, you can keep your shirts blank, and only add designs once it gets purchased. This helps eliminate wasting shirts with designs people don’t buy.

Cons

Learning curve. There are multiple different ways to print designs on shirts. Not to mention different materials like polyester require different approaches, different inks, different printers. Black shirts are harder to print on than white. Sublimation only works on light color shirts. Heat press vinyl is good for one color but tough for multiple. Silk screen requires multiple steps and is hard to master etc etc. You’re going to have to learn a ton to figure which machines / printers / heat presses will be best for what you’re looking to do.
Mistakes mistakes mistakes. You will undoubtedly make mistakes in the beginning and lose money on shirts that designs didn’t adhere to properly. Even once you have your process dialed in you will still make mistakes every now and then.
Most expensive start up. Depending on which route you go (heat press vs silk screen vs dtg) you will be spending hundreds to thousands to possibly tens of thousands of dollars just to get started. So if you haven’t established a customer base yet. You could be thousands of dollars in debt before making a single sale. And since shirt profit margins aren’t that big anyways, you will have to sell hundreds to thousands of shirts to recoup your initial investments.
Time – you’ll will be spending so much time making shirts and learning to make shirts it will be hard to find time to market your items. Not to mention in the beginning making one shirt could take you an hour or more. So you will have to dial in your process to improve speed so that labor costs don’t eat up all your profit.

DIY (Silk Screen)

Silk screen printing is the oldest and most trusted method for printing designs on shirts. Basically you have a screen with your design burned into it. You set the shirt underneath the screen, put paint on the screen and use a squeegee to press the ink through the screen and onto the shirt. There are a ton of youtube videos, blogs, and companies to help you get started with silk screening. This method has the best quality and is the best for quickly pumping out hundreds of shirts, but is by far the hardest to learn.

Pros

Highest quality. It has the softest feel and when done properly will last the longest
Great for large orders. After set up costs. The design price per shirt is the lowest of all design methods.
Multiple colors can be achieved once you have the process dialed in.
Fast printing – can pump out hundreds of shirts an hour (if using same screen / color)

Cons

Not ideal for small orders. Because of the cost of photo emulsion and setting up the screens, you won’t be using this method for single shirt orders. Unless you’ll be reusing the screen.
Expensive start up. You’ll need a silk screen press, multiple screens, (have to figure out best mesh count for your projects) photo emulsion (which has a short shelf life so you’ll be wasting some until you start getting more orders) Need a pressure washer and wash out booth. Need to set up a dark room. Need an exposure unit. Need a flash dryer. Need squeegees and an emulsion scoop coater. Need a printer and transparency paper. Emulsion stripper, ink, and a few more things.
Learning curve – You will have to learn and master all the steps which silk screening is the most involved and hardest to master.
Paint – you’ll have to figure out best way to dispose of paint, can’t exactly wash it down your drain with implementing a filtration system. Not to mention your station is going to get messy so be careful where your silk screening.
Lining up the shirt so the design isn’t crooked takes practice
Printing on dark garments sometimes requires white paint on the shirt first before adding color.

DIY (Heat Transfer Vinyl)

This is very common method for making shirts, especially for DIY crafters. Basically you purchase these plastic sheets (vinyl) in whichever color you want. You then load the vinyl into a vinyl cutter like silhouette cameo. You then put your design in the vinyl cutter software and hit send. The software then tells the vinyl cutter where to cut your vinyl. Once the vinyl cutter is done you have to weed (peel) out the extra vinyl that is not needed, leaving behind just your design. You then place your design on your shirt on a heat press. You press down the heat press and your design permanently adheres to you shirt. (A heat press is basically a big iron)

Pros

Great for one color designs.
Great for single orders.
Affordable. A 12×15 inch design will cost around $2.50 – $3.00 for the design. So smaller the design better the profits.
Perfect for simple one color typography designs
Make on demand. Wait til someone orders it, then make it.
Can press designs on to black shirts easily and don’t have to worry about the opaqueness.
When pressed correctly it will last a good amount of time on the shirt.

Cons

It’s not as expensive and as invoked as silk screening but still has start up costs. You will need a heat press, vinyl cutter, and heat transfer vinyl (we recommend siser easy weed) Can get started for less than $500.
Learning curve – learning the vinyl cutter software takes some time and all vinyl comes with different heat press settings. Example some press at different temperatures for different lengths of time. Some are hot peel some are cold peel.
Weeding – after using your vinyl cutter to cut the design out. You have to weed out the the excess vinyl. This isn’t bad if your design is simple. But if your design is complex with lots of tiny pieces, one shirt could take you almost an hour to make.
Not ideal for large orders. Because of time it takes to cut and weed each design. It could take you hours to pump out a few shirts.
Not great for multiple colors. Multiple colors can be done but it’s time consuming and lining them up can be tough. Not to mention you shouldn’t be pressing vinyl on top of vinyl.
Not the best feel. Even with the thinnest vinyl, it can still feel like a sticker on the shirt.
Puckering. If you press on 100% cotton. If your customer drys their shirt on hot which most people will. The shirt will shrink but the design won’t. Which will make the design look wrinkled on the shirt. You can remove this from ironing from the back of the shirt. But I don’t think your customer wants to constantly iron their shirt.
Heat press marks – when pressing some shirts like red shirts. The heat press it’s self will leave a square of discoloration on the shirt that doesn’t look good at all. Sometimes it comes out after being washed but for some colors/shirts it may be permanent.
Lining up the design so it’s not crooked on the shirt takes practice.

DIY (Plastisol Transfers)

This process is similar to the heat transfer vinyl, however you pre purchase designs made by a transfer printing company which eliminates using a vinyl cutter (which can be very time consuming). Basically what the transfer printing company does is silk screen your design on to a piece of paper, they then dry the ink so it won’t smear when touched. You take this piece of paper with your design on it, place it on your shirt, then using a heat press, you adhere the design to your shirt. This process is a mixture of silk screen and heat press, but you don’t have to do the silk screen part. All you do is order the transfers then press them to your garments with a heat press.

Pros

Great for large orders or even medium sized orders.
Make on demand. Can order the transfers and only press them to an item when it gets ordered. This way you can have a bunch of blank hoodies, t shirts, tank tops, and only add the design when they get sold.
Can do multiple colors
Pretty good feel – not as good as silk screen or DTG but definitely feels better than heat transfer vinyl. (Some plastisol transfer are better than others)
When stored properly the transfer can last longer than a year with out being used.
Fast printing – set up your shirts / transfers next to the press. Put the shirt on the press then put the design on the shirt, press down the heat press and boom, done. Can knock out 50-100 shirts in an hour once you got it dialed in.
Prints well on black shirts (just make sure when you order them you let them know there going on dark colored garments)

Cons

The transfers can be spendy for small orders. You will have to purchase a few hundred designs for the cost to come down and be a reasonable per design cost.
You have to have faith in the design or have already made the sale. Cause once you buy the transfers you can’t go back. If you purchase a bunch of transfers and no one likes the design, looks like you just wasted money on them.
Can get costly for multiple color designs. So you’ll have to order more to bring the price per down.
Plastisol transfers usually require higher press temperatures which puts your garments at risk of being scorched and leaving heat press marks. This is especially risky with polyester. This can be avoided by lowering the temp and lengthening the press time but you will have to do your own testing.

DIY (DTG)

This is a newer method for printing on shirts and definitely one of the most expensive to get started with. It’s basically a printer that instead of putting paper in, you can put a shirt in. The printer then prints directly to the garment hence the name DTG (Direct to garment).

Pros

Multiple colors / extreme detail – can easily do high detailed designs with lots of colors
Great for single orders or small batches
Great feel – second to only silk screening (barely) but way better than vinyl and plastisol.
Make on demand – wait til an order is place to make the item.

Cons

Expensive – you’ll be spending $5,000 to $10,000+ for one of these printers.
Maintenance – the print lines can get clogged and dry up. So you’ll want to be using this every day. Not ideal if you’re just starting out.
Placement – printing in odd spots or near seams is a tough and potentially not possible.
Dark color garments may require a white base or extra steps
Not ideal for large orders. Can’t match the speed of silk screen or plastisol transfers. Nor the price per.
Even though you can do unlimited colors and high detail. It may not print out the correct color on your shirt so you may have to avoid certain colors.
Learning curve – like the other methods, you will have to do lots of testing before you get things figured out.

Those are the four main ways to make shirts your self but there are still more ways and other processes for special purposes like sublimation for polyester. Other methods include: sublimation, printable HTV, and white toner printers.

Each method comes with its own benefits and downfalls. We’ve provided a few links and some extra details to help you decide which method is best for you.

2020 DTG vs White toner vs Screen printing vs Heat transfers

Printable heat transfer paper vs Sublimation

Plastisol Transfers vs Heat transfer vinyl

Sew and Embroidery

Sewing is different from all the other methods. The other methods all involve using ink or vinyl to place designs on clothing. Sewing gives you the ability to change the structure of the item. For instance, you can switch out the inner linings of a hoodie or sew pockets onto shirts or customize it in just about any way you see fit.

Embroidery uses a special automatic sewing machine to thread designs into the shirt. This is a high-quality and long-lasting method. Additionally, embroidery is rare and you usually only see it on high-end brands, but it’s not impossible to do on a budget. (Example Brother PE800 or Brother PE535)

Start with a print on demand service like Printful. It’s the lowest start up and gives you the opportunity to test out unlimited designs and clothing types and the only expense is website hosting fees (we recommend Shopify for $39 monthly)

You will be able to offer your customers sweatshirts, t shirts, girl shirts, guy shirts, kids clothing, tank tops, pants, crew necks, hats and more. You can offer these items in all sizes and colors. You will be able to use multi color / high detailed designs on all of these items. You only get charged when an order is placed. Yes, it will be less profit per item, but you won’t be trying to recover from start up costs or spending hours on labor.

As your get more sales and begin to notice trends then start implementing other processes to increase profits. Some examples:

If one of your designs is really popular on a hoodie.

Order that hoodie in bulk from a print shop to reduce your cost per hoodie so you can increase your profits on that item.

If you have one or more designs that are really popular and your selling them on hoodies and shirts you can:

Order blank shirts and hoodies from a wholesale company like Sanmar or Jiffyshirts
Order plastisol transfers with the design from companies like Transfer Express or FM Expressions
Then using a heat press you can press the designs to the garments and shirts and sell them on demand

If your really doing tons of sales you can move into silk screening to maximize profits and quality.

Print On Demand vs Buy in Bulk vs DIY Custom Clothing