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• Email: sales@ventureapparelgroup.com •
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What information is required from the customer to receive a full quote?
What are screen charges? Do I own the screen?
Why are artwork, screen charges and printed shirt costs separate?
Why is there differences in the feel of 100% cotton shirts?
Why are the darker shirts so much more expensive than white?
Why is it so expensive to order one shirt?
What are separations?
What is camera-ready art?
Why do you have to have separate screens for different size prints or placements of prints?
What range of products do you offer?
What labels do you offer?
Do you originate designs or do I have to bring my own?
Can I save money by purchasing larger quantities?
How do you price by sizes?
Do I have to pay for screen charges each time that I repeat an order for the same design?
What is your turnaround for orders?
Can I see samples of the blank products to make a choice?
Can I get a sample of the print before the order is processed?
How do the number of prints in a design affectprice?
1.
What information is required from the customer to receive a full quote?
The following items are necessary in order to give a full quote:
Contact
Company Name
Telephone number
Date order required
Print or embroidery
Number of items
Size range
Number of items by size
Color or colors of item by size range
Preferred brand
Any Art application-logo, design, lettering, etc (description of art)
Number and description of locations on item to apply art
Number of colors in the art application, by location
2.
What are screen charges? Do I own the screen?
Screen charges are one of the most confusing elements of pricing to customers. A screen charge is the price for preparation of a screen prior to printing. This includes the cost of labor, materials and 'wear and tear' on use of the screen. A screen must be prepared for each individual color of any art design that is printed as the colors are applied separately to complete a design. Screens are used over and over and changed out many times in their life utility (unless a customer has a recurring design that can be printed on a regular basis over time, usually multiple times per month). To prepare a screen each time that it is used in a printing job, there is labor and there are certain materials used to prepare a quality screen for a quality print. Customers sometimes have the misconception that a screen charge includes the cost of the screen; the screen remains the property of the printer.
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3.
Why are artwork, screen charges and printed shirt costs separate?
These are provided to educate the customer to their charges. At request, we also will quote certain customers a 'full-price' amount inclusive of all of the charges. Volume purchases sometimes eliminate certain charges as a bonus for the order.
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4.
Why is there differences in the feel of 100% cotton shirts?
This is because of the different grades of cotton which are determined by the manufacturing standards of garment construction. The weave of the cloth and the thread counts determine the 'weights' of the shirt. You hear of 6.1 ounce shirts (the more common structured and used) such as the Hanes Beefy-T and you hear of 5.4 or 5.5 ounce shirts, which are lighter in feel because they are not constructed in the same manner. There are several grades of cotton...generally, the cheaper a base shirt is, the cheaper grade of manufactured cloth.
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5.
Why are the darker shirts so much more expensive than white?
The cost of shirts are directly influenced by the color. The cheapest shirt is a white shirt, while the most expensive are the Black, Red, Navy and Hunter Green. Also, you have several seasonal shades that are in the higher cost range. The reason is that there is an added expense in the dye costs of shirts or the cloth that is used in the manufacture of the shirts. The darker the shirt, the more expensive process costs in the dye. Not only is the process to dye an expensive undertaking, but getting consistent shades from dye lot to dye lot adds time and expense to the process. You might equate this from experience in the dyeing of Easter Egg...you put egg after egg in the same dye, but unless you really have close control of time and other elements, the shading is always a little different...this applies to cloth and explains the added costs to maintain consistency and to provide a quality looking garment.
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6.
Why is it so expensive to order one shirt?
This is one of the most frequent questions asked in printing. The reason that the cost of orders decline as the volume goes up is primarily in the set-up time. Printing is still a very manual labor oriented process and while the industry enjoys automatic printing machines, the process to prepare any printer for a job still includes manual labor. Thus, the time spent to get the screens set up and aligned on the equipment is the same, whether you are printing one shirt or 10,000. To allocate this cost to each job means taking the total set-up time and dividing it by the number of shirts in the particular job. As you can see, the larger the number of shirts that are divided into the total set-up cost, the less the costs. When there is only 1 shirt or 12 shirts, they have to absorb more costs. Also, when you add the screen charges to this, for a 1-shirt job, you can see that the costs are almost prohibitive. But, we will, and have done many 1-shirt orders and will be glad to quote you on any size order. To note, the set-up cost is not the same for every job; there are several elements, including number of screens, preparing ink and so forth.
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7.
What are separations?
Separation is the process by which a design that is multi-colored is broken down by the individual colors of that same design. In printing, each color within a design must be printed separately, which demands that there is an individual screen for each color. A precise process takes each individual color and allows (where applicable) for some overlap, but is sized on the same scale so that when the screens are aligned properly and the ink passes through, the design looks as if it were a single stamped presentation.
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8.
What is camera-ready art?
Camera ready art is preferably the breakdown (or separation) of each design in negative form (such as a photograph or in the form of an overhead transparency), sized according to the final objective of the print on the item. In laymens terms, it is a negative of each color used to create a screen.
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9.
Why do you have to have separate screens for different size prints or placements of prints?
As explained above, you have to have a separate screen for each color in a design. Once that screen has been prepared, it is a permanent form in that one size until the job is completed. The size of the print cannot be manipulated to different measurements in that screen. To be able to print the same logo or design on two sides of a garment, for example: A smaller version left chest print and a larger full back print, two sets of screens of the same design are required. It is like making two pairs of pants, different sizes...you have to have two distinct patterns.
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10.
What range of products do you offer?
Unless it is a private label such as Gap, Polo, Old Navy or something of that nature that is not exclusively labeled, we can pretty much find anything that you desire. We offer a full range of wearables and other textile items that are printable or available for embroidery.
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11.
What labels do you offer?
Any label that is not exclusively manufactured under a privately owned name. Some of the more common are Hanes, Gildan, Delta, Fruit of the Loom, Jerzee, etc.
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12.
Do you originate designs or do I have to bring my own?
We can custom design artwork for you. We can use yours or have you describe or show us an example of what you are trying to create and we can bring that idea to fruition. Of course, this will incur additional charges and these are also customized by job. Our quotes are free.
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13.
Can I save money by purchasing larger quantities?
Yes. The greater the volume, the lower the costs. After we receive all of the elements of a project, we can give you a free quote by ranges of volume.
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14.
How do you price by sizes?
It is a factor of volume by size. The larger the number, by size, the less price. Generally, the sizes 'small through extra large' are the same price. As you go higher into the 2XL through 10XL, then each size usually goes up because of the basic cost of manufacture of the shirt.
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15.
Do I have to pay for screen charges each time that I repeat an order for the same design?
That will depend on the frequency of the reorder cycle. If you are printing on a regular basis, such as weekly or monthly, there would probably be no charge. If you go past 60 days, but your orders are large in volume, there would be no additional charge. The determinant factors would be frequency and volume. If you are ordering on a small volume basis and it is more than 60 days between reprints, then there would probably be a charge of some amount.
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16.
What is your turnaround for orders?
We prefer 10 working days (Mondays thru Fridays are the counted days); we do offer 'rush orders', which will incur additional charges, depending on the volume, timing and situation. We make every effort to expedite orders if our scheduling permits and we can deliver faster than promised. We have actually turned orders around in 24 hours or less in special situations. "You do not know unless you ask" and we apply that philosophy here. A word of caution would be a 'special-order' item and the availability and size of order.
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17.
Can I see samples of the blank products to make a choice?
We will provide samples of blank product for comparison or decision making on most items. If we have to order something out-of-the ordinary that we do not get other calls for, there may be a cost/freight charge.
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18.
Can I get a sample of the print before the order is processed?
Samples of the print are possible, but they do cost money. As explained above, small orders are costly because of labor involved and the same applies for sample prints. You must agree to view the sample the day of scheduled order and if you decide not to order, you must pay for equivalent charges of a 1-garment order, by print color.
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19.
How do the number of prints in a design affect the price?
The more colors in a design, the more expensive the process. Again, labor is involved in every process of printing, yes even on automatics. Time is a factor in printing that also is a determinant of the price. The more time spent on each printed design (meaning the more colors) the more time it will take to print an individual design, and the more cost will be involved.
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