Hanes is Still Here: Their Best Value

Hanes still makes great T-Shirts when all is said and done. While the Hanes Beefy-T no longer rules the roost, it is still a big seller, although maybe a bit overpriced.
As a custom screen printer, I think the best value from Hanes is the #5280. It is a medium weight all cotton T-Shirt that comes in a stack of colors. It wears well -- the lighter medium weight shirts have replaced the heavy weights in overall popularity.

Of course, Hanes call it a heavy weight. but it's listed as a 5.2 ounce cotton T-shirt, and any screen printer will tell you, that means medium weight, baby!
The 5280 is priced about the same as the Gildan Heavyweight T, and a bit more than the Gildan medium weight T. It may have a slightly softer feel than the Gildan.
As ever, drop me an email if you would like to price out your custom screen printing job on the Hanes 5280.
Steve Lafler
Manx Media

Longlseeve Ts: Gildan vs. Fruit of Loom

Longsleeve cotton T-Shirts continue to be a popular style for decorating with screen printing. My two favorite longsleeves are the Gildan 2400, a heavyweight cotton T, and the Fruit of the Loom 4930, a middle weight cotton T.
Both have their place, with the Gildan the choice on a brisk day. Both come in a wide range of colors. I prefer the Fruit of the Loom, as I am more comfortable in a medium weight T these days, for ease of wear and style.
Drop me an email if you would like to quote your screen printing job on either of these excellent shirts.
Steve Lafler
Manx Media

Teamwear Time

Manx Media custom screen printing is now offering the A4 line of sportswear for all your athletic and team wear needs. As usual we offer the highest quality screen printing.

Features of the A4 line include:

100% performance polyester interlock stain and odor resistant.

Ultra tight knit resists snagging.

Moisture management wicks away perspiration from the skin.

The moisture evaporates quickly from the fabric surface. 

Zip me an email for a quote!

--Steve Lafler 503-213-3671

Bella: Made in USA women's T

Bella has added a stylish made in the USA women's T-Shirt to their catalog, style #6004U. It features a feminine fit and a longer body length to show those curves. This 100% cotton T comes in seven color choices.
Zip me an email if you'd like price information for printing on this new item.

Adventures in Full Color T Shirts

Here at Manx Media, we have had a season of strong demand for full color printing on both light and dark T Shirts, mostly on slinky women's styles from Bella and American Apparel.

We printed the Spring / Summer line for Eden Dawn Apparel of Portland. The line featured 14 items, including six full color designs. It was both a technical and production challenge to pump these clever designs out, but by all accounts the shirts looked great. This is a young designer with a lot of style and a great future, so be sure to visit her site.

Next up was a new color design from beloved kick-ass comedian, Margaret Cho. Margaret is now doing a show called "The Sensuous Woman", and the shirts feature a faux-forties style pin-up illustration of the notorious Cho in full lingerie. Wow! Who knew? This is one of the best shirts we've ever done, it just looks superb (thanks to the great illustration of Margaret by Olivia).

Okay! What have we at Manx Media learned about printing full color on Tees? Simple! With our level of technology, the best results come from enhanced process color printing, usually using an underbase white and either a "popper" spot color, or a high light white. Before this rash of challenging jobs, I usually would go with "simulated process" or index color for full color on a dark shirt; I've had good results with these techniques before. But to tell the truth, I've gained experience and confidence with process printing that makes me ready to tackle more full color images.

One caveat to full process color printing--with the cost of setting up six films and screens for a job, best to consider a minimum of 100 shirts to defray the cost of set up. There are always transfers for short color runs...

Kudos go to David Perkin, my stalwart press operator who couldn't print a bad shirt if you paid him. You're the man, David!

Steve Lafler

Full Color T-Shirt Decorating

Manx Media is able to offer our customers two great options for decorating T Shirts with full color graphics.

Screen Printing
Traditional screen printing continues to be the best way to produce full color images on T Shirts when you need a large quantity of shirts. Our minimum order for full color (4-6 colors in your design) screen printed shirts is 72 pieces.
In terms of the brillance of color and the durability of the print, there is no technology better than screen printing to decorate garments.
Depending on the nature of your design, we can use spot color, index color, simulated process color, or index color to recreate your graphic on a shirt. We use a Photoshop plug-in program created just for the apparel decorator to generate the best possible version of your graphics for T Shirts.
As it is necessary to produce a film positive and screen for each color in your design, the economies of scale kick in nicely at the six dozen quantity.

Digital Imaging
The revolutionary good news in the shirt biz is that transfers are back. These are not your dad's transfers--the cheesy muscle car design that washed off before you could even break it in. With improvements in ink and transfer technology, todays digital transfers look vibrant and are washfast.
For full color apparel decorating on quantities less than six dozen, transfers are a great option. Working from your digital image, we create transfers that are heat pressed onto shirts. You get a great full color shirt that is easy on the budget.
At present, this technology works best on white or light colored garments.
If your design requires one, two or three colors, screen printing is still the way to go even with smaller quantities.

Questions? Send Steve an email at steve.lafler@gmail.com with your apparel decorating question.

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