You’ve probably heard of MJ, an active member of the contest community and the owner of Tee Magnet and Compete-tee-tion. Both of these sites are great resources for t-shirt fans, and her latest site, Point Click Apparel, follows suit. This site is dedicated to DTG (direct-to-garment) printing, a relatively new technology used by companies like Cafepress and Zazzle.
The highlights of Point Click, naturally, are the reviews covering seven print-on-demand companies, ranging from the big guys to the lesser-known Skreened and RedBubble. MJ sent the same two designs to each company: a flat black-and-white dinosaur logo, and a photographic image of a bird made up of leaves. These designs tested for printing on dark shirts and full-color printing, respectively.
The dinosaur image, printed at Spreadshirt
The bird image, printed at MySoti
I especially liked seeing the different results for the photographic image, since this is where DTG continues to have an advantage over screenprinting. In some cases, such as at MySoti (pictured above), the print turned out excellently. In others (Redbubble), not so much. For such situations, MJ reports back on the customer service for flawed prints. This is pretty important for print-on-demand sites, where it’s not possible to know how the final product looks until it’s in your hands.
MJ also makes brief comments on the packaging, customer shop services, and product assortments for each company. On the site’s main blog, she interviews individuals who have incorporated POD into their business.
Overall, a highly recommended read for anyone interested in DTG printing.
Thanks for the post!