How to Start a Surf T-Shirt Company
Graphic designers and artists transferring artwork onto t-shirts have benefited by starting their own labels and companies. Designers often gear the graphics toward a specific target market, such as the surfer lifestyle. The t-shirt fabric, graphics and trimmings are all designed with the target market in mind. As surf t-shirt companies grow, designers have expanded the t-shirt line into surf-inspired apparel such as shorts, shirts and accessories.
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Things You'll Need
- Sketch pad
- Graphic paper
- Color swatch cards
- Trims
- T-shirt samples
- T-shirt blanks
- Printed postcards
Instructions
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Designing the T-Shirt Collection
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1
Sketch graphics that are surf-inspired, such as surfboards, ocean scenes, palm trees and sunsets on your sketch pad or graphic paper. Start by choosing the type of graphics you want to represent your company, such as conversational, humorous or surf-related terms. For example, incorporate surfspeak such as "gnarly," "the Bu," "rad" and "choiceamundo," or surfer expressions such as "s'later," "as if" or "nar nar."
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2
Choose your t-shirt's color story, keeping your graphics as well as selling season in mind by starting with color swatch cards from color services such as Pantone. This will impact the colors used to dye your t-shirt fabric or the types of t-shirt color blanks purchased. The term blanks refers to pre-made silhouettes.
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3
Add novelty graphic finishes or embellishments to your t-shirts such as embroidery, appliqué or heat seals. Keep your surfing theme in mind when selecting trims such as braiding, taping or eyelets.
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4
Hire a graphic designer with your budget in mind. Freelance graphic designers with hourly rates are quite costly. Start by providing your sketches to the designer as an artwork guide point. This will reduce the cost significantly by not purchasing original work.
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5
Conduct a screen printing facility Internet search. Start by inquiring about how many colors the printer is able to print, t-shirt production minimums and the cost. For example, the more colors within your screen, the higher the cost to produce and the larger the t-shirt quantity production, the lower the cost to produce.
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6
Make t-shirt samples with your graphics. You will need to ask the screen printer how the artwork must be submitted, which is usually electronically. Computer formats, size scales and color separations must also be discussed prior to development.
Starting Your Surfing T-Shirt Company
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7
Conduct an Internet search for wholesale t-shirt blanks, as well as textile mills. Start by choosing the quality of your t-shirts by purchasing different fabric blanks. For manufacturing your own t-shirts, choose fabrics that are geared toward your target market such as jersey, jersey/Lycra, organic, bamboo or hemp.
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8
Calculate your t-shirt production costs, including the shipping costs incurred to and from the screen printers. This will impact your overall cost.
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9
Advertise your t-shirt surfing collection with your budget in mind. For example, if you started an online store, hand out printed postcards advertising your website. For brick-and-mortar stores with a larger advertising budget, contact local radio stations for air-time rates and advertise on the radio.
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10
Register with Internet social media sites and create a business account. Send out surfing-related messages such as information on tides, surfing weather and new gear. Offer an extra 5 percent discount for customers that register on your media account.
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11
Contact surf, athletic and beach retail shops and ask for the buying department. Ask the buyer about the new vendor sample submittal process. Major retailers often have specific dates for new vendors to showcase their brands and samples.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep your delivery schedule and customer orders in mind when placing t-shirt and screen graphic production. This will help you avoid excess inventory and unnecessary financial risks.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit surf image by bacalao from Fotolia.com
