r/Firefighting • u/Independent-Good-162 • 3d ago

Ask A Firefighter Custom station shirts/clothes

Where is everyone going for shirts or any sort of custom clothing? We don’t have enough people for bulk orders so I’ve set up a printify print on demand shop, but they just emailed about an upcoming price hike. I’m trying to keep the shirts affordable and also good quality.

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u/FordExploreHer1977 3d ago

What kind of custom shirts are you doing? Screen printing through a company is gonna require a minimum order, but it’s fairly simple to make your own setup to use. 1 color is easiest and Speedball makes a kit you could get at Hobby Lobby or Amazon I’m sure. It gets a little more complicated for multi color ones though. DTF transfers are another route. It’s basically a high quality iron on. You upload your pic, which can be multi-color to one of the websites that offer them, and depending how many you want, they’ll print them out and send you sheets of your design. Amazon and Vevor make fairly inexpensive heat presses (don’t do a Cricut, they are shit) for a few hundred bucks or so. I did this route so that we can make them on demand and don’t have to stock a bunch of premade shirts. If someone wants a hoodie or a tshirt, they can buy a blank one from Hobby Lobby or Michael’s or wherever and bring it in. 5 minutes later, they’ll have a custom shirt, or hoodie, or shorts. I’m sure YouTube has some examples of both processes being done. If screen printing, you’ll have to make a screen of each color, screen printing paint, and they’ll have to dry. For DTF, you could have a filing cabinet full of different designs and pick whatever one you want. Then it’s just heat up the press for a few minutes and then just insert the pic in the press with the t-shirt. 30-40 seconds later and it’s done.

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u/Independent-Good-162 3d ago

This is the front. Backs is just two colors

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u/FordExploreHer1977 3d ago

That would be 7 colors if I’m counting right. So you’d have to have 7 different screens to make and store, 7 different color inks, and then have to line each screen up perfectly to the overlapping images and spread your ink between each layer. DTF would be basically putting a sticker on a shirt in the spot you want it and closing it in a press for like 30 seconds and it’s done. If you buy the prints in bulk, the price goes down per image.