This video is all about the comparison between DTG T-shirt printing machine and Screen Printing. Also I will be talking about the costs and risks getting a DTG machine.
Good Video but most of us that buy DTG machines are taking advantage of the custom shirt market. We understand that screen printing shirts is far cheaper and is better for larger orders. But when it comes to customer color shirts DTG is far superior in colors for that market. It's about what you are willing to see above and beyond the basics of what you can put on a t shirt. As well DTG machines are improving in technology and the cost is going down as new companies develope and design new equipment for the industry.
I own a brother gtx and pretreat system. The first month of operation was a complete nightmare. Had to build a humidity controlled clean room in the shop. With the money I threw at being able to produce a few custom shirts a month, I could have added a 10 color automatic m&r sportsman to our production lines, and increased our output by another ~7,000 imprints a day. I will never bat an eyelash at dtg again. Closest thing to a good dtg is the m&r ds400 hybrid sytem, and thats a half million dollar setup... I can produce cymk process at 70dpi and have a full photo quality print with life-long durability on any one of our print presses and and produce a finished shirt every 4 seconds, for 16 hours a day. There is no comparison when you're busy. My gtx hasnt brought me a single client worth dedicating time to.
I am a DTG guy, I own the epson 2100. It cleans it self. I sell one offs for 25-35 bucks each all day long. This was an amazing investment and you should do better research. Pays for itself. I screen and heat press as well but for full color jobs with low numbers its amazing. True the screen printer is faster for larger jobs, but the amount of one offs I get is staggering and this machine works beautifully for just that.
Sure, DTG is brilliant if you keep the printer running as much as possible. No clogging, less cleaning, money all day long… But if you have to do 100 of the same design screen printing would be cheaper for you.
i had two dtg printers and lost my money ,at that time most of the designs that i printed could be done by htv or transfer paper. actually my printer and my cutter paid for the dtg printers. watching all those dtg printer videos on youtube drove me crazy . now i am trying screen printing and learn a lot from you. thanks again taino👍👍👍
I have to correct you on a few things because all DTG's are not the same. You speak of them as if they all have the same maintenance protocols, they absolutely do not. While the cost of purchasing one of these machines can be out of reach for some, there is a large market for them, especially if you are situated in a place with plenty of foot traffic, and for low volumes. I have two DTG's, the Brother GT361 and the Brother GTX. What you stated in your video about the machine needing frequent maintenance and wasting ink in the process is correct, but only for my GT361. I have had my Brother GTX for over a year now and the maintenance is almost none. I perform a nozzle guard, wiper blade and suction cap cleaning once a week, 15 minutes at most, that with changing air filters every 4 - 6 months is the only maintenance that I do. My printer does not waste a lot of ink. When it's not printing it only recirculates the existing ink that's within the tubes 4 times a day, does not use new ink or perform any cleanings. It only uses more ink when doing a cleaning process or refilling. I have often gone 1 - 2 weeks without running a single print and the printer doesn't use any ink while sitting, only when I start printing again. The machine has a wet capping station which keeps the printhead wet and ready to print at all times, even after long periods of inactivity. The most printhead cleanings that I have ever had to do to get the printer's test print perfect was 2, and that was only when two weeks went by without a single print. This printer is a far cry from previous models. The color gamut and feel to the garments printed with my GTX is off the chain. I can get a 16x21 image in 2 1/2 - 3 minutes. I now use the GTX in my new store. It's set up with Ink Soft software on a touchscreen flat panel monitor, so most of my customers come to the store design their shirt themselves, with minimum help from my staff, they can upload their artwork or choose from over 20,000 editable clipart and templates provided by Ink Soft. Your followers should be aware that not all machines require the same attention. The technology is changing so rapidly that a thorough understanding of the company and their machine is needed before an informed decision can be made on if a DTG machine is the right choice for your business.
@Andre Wes. Thank you for sharing this information. This is the reason I wanted to make this video. For people could comment on their experiences and inforn the pros and cons of this type of business. Thank you so much. Blessings!
DTG is not for bulk printing, its not very profitable, maintenance cost are high, Inks are expensive.. so its definitely not good for growing your business. You can have one (if you can effort it) to satisfy customers small orders, but that's it, I don't see anything else. Having said that, you never know how technology can change overnight and the machine become faster, cheaper and reliable, or the inks cost just very little. You never know.. but till then DTG is not a good business if you are going solely depend on it without screen printing, heat press and sublimation.
Andre Wes I just got my GTX I love it best investment. I’ve been silk screen printing for over 18yr. DTG VS Silk Screen.. ha DTG all day. I’m making $2k a day and I’ve only been open for 2 weeks...
@@nicholasdjgive7671 Congratulations Nicholas, It's a great machine. Wow, your printing a lot of shirts 2k a day. I do about 15k - 19k a month right now, however, I am moving to a location where I will triple my foot traffic.
and also one point is that the price,Now in china we have the great mahicne only for 3200USD,if you want more information can whatsapp me 008615627868872
I trust your info more than any other RU-vidr! I appreciate your honesty bro! I was thinking about it...than I saw the kid Kenyonken video, I was like no way....for the same reasons you spoke on! Blessings!👑😎🤜🏾🤛🏾
Dude in one of kenyons dtg vids, you see a huge pile of shirts that were botched. All wasted time n costs. I wish he woulda talked more about his losses learning how to print correctlt with his machine.
@@devpac7861 yo, so you bought the DTG machine from China? I'm looking into one right now and I have a few sales people hitting me up. If you get a chance hit me up at BOARD FETISH@gmail.com. Do you still have your machine? Which one did you get send me a picture of it
where did you get your HP laser Jet printer? Can I ask you about the specific name of it? Is it a regular image transfer printer? or dye sublimation printer..? Does this printer work on either any colored or dark cotton shirts as well as polyester shirts? How about washability..? Do prints fade after a few washes or stay good just like the sublimation prints on polyester shirts? Thank you so much!
Great video, ive been contract screen printing high volume for 16 years. DTG has been for 20 years, and always will be inferior to screen printing, with the exception of the m&r DS4000 hybrid squeegee system. But thats a $400,000.00 unit that mates with a challenger or gauntlet press. Sublimation is the best alternative ive found, and when you get setup for sublimation transfers, you also add a new service to your business. You can start imprinting hard surfaces, like glass, Metals, porcelain, exe. with extremely durable life long impressions. Keep at it brotha! Peace n Love from California ✊
Yep that's right,but DTG effort and touching feeling is much better, and we have great DTC just sale 3200USD WHATSAPP ME 008615627868872 if you are interested in it
Liked the video. Informative perspective and things to consider. My demographic is the philly/Delaware area and I can change a little higher here because companies charge all kinds of setup fees on smaller orders of that 20 shirt range so I found my niche. I appreciate you video and like I said, Im using it to process my purchases.
Yep that's right,but DTG effort and touching feeling is much better, and we have great DTC just sale 3200USD WHATSAPP ME 008615627868872 if you are interested in it
I am an advocate for the art of screen printing because young entrepreneurs like me on a small scale income cannot afford the highly priced DTG. We should not bury screen printing because of technology advancement in digital printing. Screen print business is cheaper to start even right when you are in college.
Yep that's right,but DTG effort and touching feeling is much better, and we have great DTC just sale 3200USD WHATSAPP ME 008615627868872 if you are interested in it
What’s the name of that white printer you have or can I use my epson 830 or 640 printer But yeah what’s the name of the printer you have in the back that you were talking about
I had the brother gt541, and the brother gt3, I sold them both and now I have the brother gtx. It’s very expensive to maintain and purchase, but if you charge enough for the prints and hustle enough jobs, you can pull in a decent profit.
John DTG has it place in the garment industry, but nothing can compete with screen printing, cost wise the trick is getting those orders in that so called sweet spot like the 150- 144 pcs where it's nice enough that you can charge for the Art & Seps and screen charges but it small enough that you can knock it out in a couple of hours. Many Blessings and keep up the good work that you're doing. Peace
Thank you for the information. I attended the 2019 Las Vegas Magic Fashion Convention. A lot of vendors were pushing the DTG - toooo expensive for my pockets. But beautiful prints. Question: Which brand transfer paper are you using? Thank you!
DTG is great for those shops that get a lot of walk in traffic that only require a couple shirts. We had our Epson F2000 for a few years before we got rid of it due to the ink costs, maintenance and people not wanting to pay a premium price. The current Brother GTX and Epson F2100 now have a wet cap station to prevent the head from drying up, but the ink cost is still really expansive. It would cost us over $1000 just to get our inks and that's a lot of shirts that you have to print to make that money back and then you have to make profit on top of it. It usually takes 15 min from start to finish to print 1 shirt if you have to pretreat.
What's the best transfer paper now for a full color imprint? The transfer papers here in Jamaica by the time you start washing it get wash out unless I do a Print and Cut Vinyl. What can you recommend?
Thank you. All transfer papers are going to crack with time but I use tne self weeded transfer paper which is pretty good and lasts longer than the regular ones.
Dtg prints can look really great. I still love the nuances of screen printing. Mesh selections, coating methods, squeegee selection, and all of the little things every printer does a little bit differently to make their prints unique. I also happen to like cars without lots of techy features.😁
I have an f2000 and f2100. 60,000 prints in first 3 years, at $12-$20 a print its very profitable but you have to have the right business model and customers for it. also if its not epson or brother i wouldn't touch it.
Well said! That's a great price point and very justified for a DTG print. It's also understandable to see how, coming from the screen printing world, one would naturally charge screen printing prices, lose a ton of money and never realize that the problem was their business model or customer base.
Look into omni. Their printer has a ciss type ink system with tanks. So it is like 1/3 the cost if epson etc. I love my sublimation but it is limited to white shirts or printable vinyl.
Hey, I'm not one who who is artistic, I try going on iStockphoto, Shutterstock, Freepick and a few others, which one would you suggest or should I pay for one image at time. Thanks!
Nice video👌So when you do your design you don't send it off for somebody else to print. What computer program do you use and what was the name of your printer?
I have a HP laser Jet printer. And the transfer paper I use is from Best Blanks. They have all types of transfer paper and good prices. Go to bestblanks.com
I agree with you, last year I bought dtg printer , it cost a lot for white ink and everyday white ink will be use for auto cleaning for printhead be wet.. Use or not use, the white ink must be circulation and goes to waste ink... But it also have pros and cons.. It make my on demand shirt run fast..
Sou de Manaus/ Amazonas e faço serigrafia raiz, é o que gosto, e não gostaria de ter que perder a essência da serigrafia original, a arte desse belo trabalho que comecei ainda quando criança é incontestável.
We do spot colors and cmyk. It all depends on how many colors you have on your press. I have a four color press so O only could do about four color graphic. Cmyk is the other option. I have a video on that.
DTG is good for brand building more then print business. For brands it's good for custom shirts for customers and testing concepts. Also, in business sometimes you have to sacrifice profit for growth. Lastly the 20k can be a tax write off.
i alos know a couple people who started their own pritning business's with a dtg. one even had the brothers first g3, and he printed for several youth sporting groups and allways had huge orders coming in. even had run sevreral 1,000 plus shirt orders. every time i see him hes telling someone about it. especially when theyre thinking of a dtg. the most talked about i his 3,000 shirt run for a convention. and he only had the one machine. yeah it took him a bit of time to do it. he made excellent money on it. but he got it done and did it on a dtg. so it is possible is it the smarter way not harder way of doing it maybe not. could he have done that all in a day or three instead of 7 sure. but it worked for him and he made it work for him. like i said i still use both methods. but i use dtg more. once again its whatever works for each of us.
Yep that's right,but DTG effort and touching feeling is much better, and we have great DTC just sale 3200USD WHATSAPP ME 008615627868872 if you are interested in it
great points, some of these new cats coming in thinking they just invest in a printer and voila. Not a chance. wait till a main board or some real issues come up with it and its a 5k repair that takes 2 weeks to resolve. I run a 30k printer and fixing to dive in on a 50k one once i get back from some Asian manufacturers. End of the day for mass runs you need screens...
Dtg printers are cheap nowadays and yeah man it’s just like voila I bought my house off buying a dtg printer lol and trust me I’m not knocking inkjet and heat press because I have that also along with the Cricut.
Faith Kings I am the younger generation. Small batch makes no money. (Profits). Large runs or speciality products turn margin. But have at it. If you want some strategic business consultations holler at me. First hour is free.
I agree. I have been looking at DTG when they first came out. It seems like a lot of wasted consumables. I get that it’s nice, it prints wonderful. But I still don’t see spending 20-30k on a machine that needs so much maintenance.
@@tainoink 20 to 30k, any experienced printer can 3x to 5x that easy. Man thats enough to startup a small tee biz and then some. Too many ppl fallin for the hype from what youtubers say, most youtubets i seen on dtg, never get into detail of the cost of ownership of these things. That 20k for a dtg machine is better well spent on primo equipment, like a hotronix press or invested in a full color print n cut vinyl machine that can print both full color tee applications and hq decals. Love ur channel, subbed, keep it real brotha
@@devpac7861 I have a Brother GTX DTG and a Roland SG 540 solvent printer and cutter, 95% of my clients don't want vinyl transfers on their tee's, they want DTG, I only use my Roland for sports jersey and polyester garments and making stickers, My Brother GTX makes me a lot more money than my Roland solvent printer cutter. But I'm not saying a solvent printer and cutter is not a good way to print Just telling you the facts at my business what people want.
@@footprint68 nice, thanks for the info, its really hard to find any real information from hands on experience. Ive experienced PU vinyl and the full color sample i have has withstood about 10 washes so far, which really made me think about goin the print n cut route for personalized one offs. But i still dont know what printer is best. I was thinkin bn20, but a friend of mine that has a sign business and said dint waste your time in tje bn20 cause its super slow. The vids on RU-vid make em look like theyre great investments but real exp says otherwise.
@@devpac7861 Don't buy the BN20 For a few more $ Buy the SG 300 or 540 they have some good deals on them at the moment as they are just releasing SGmk2. I was going to buy the BN 20 and went had a look at the show room they started the BN 20 and a SG 300 both same print and cut and the SG was finished before BN 20 was half way through cutting only. SG 300 And 540 are real industry built machines. BN20 is a home hobby machine or office. Other good thing about the SG 300 is it can be set to cut first and then print so you don't need to have any ink dry time before cutting due to path rollers marking. Great Machine for price. Anyway something to think about.
I was using an hp laser printer. Don't remember the model because I just through it out because it got damaged. It lasted me 6 years so I guess is time for a new one. Looking around for something better. But I got a lot out of that printer. Thank you.
Thank you. The printer to heat press doesn't come close to DTG. I was comparing it to silkscreen. The printer to heat press is for clients that are looking to get something cheap and quick.
Yes, I have an Oki920wt white transfer printer and I'm transitioning to DTG because of the papery feel and the prints cracking and fading. Did a demo at the NBM show the Brother GTX printed my clients design on a black shirt in :55 seconds. This costs me $2 with heat transfers and it was a third of the cost on DTG.
@@daltontyson bro if ur really lookin to go dtg, check verified suppliers from China, 1/4 the cost but superb output. Only thing is maintenance is a bitch.
Thanks for the info I was contemplating on weather I should buy a DTG printer and after looking at some videos including your thank god I didn’t buy one…
DTG is good for someone that has his own brand and prints seasonal designs for themselves or a couple of shirts here and there for others but for bulk printing nothing as of now will ever replace screenprinting
So true. I believe that if you are starting your own brand like you said, DTG is good for you. Thank you. Loving all these great comments. Let's inform people.
Hola hermano I am starting a small shop at home in Queens N.Y.. I would love to get to know you and maybe get a few pointers. Love your channel and thank you so much.
For those wanting to try DTG printing but not wanting to spend thousands on a machine . You can modify one out of a Epson printer for under $1000. Why not go through the process so you know exactly how the machine works .
