The must-have of merchandising: textiles

Reading time: 7 min

At Distrolution Merch, we offer many products in terms of textile merchandising. But you're probably wondering: "How to choose between short or long sleeve t-shirts, zipped or non-zipped sweatshirts, with or without hood, baseball t-shirts or tote bags?". A real puzzle!

To help you, we've written this blog article especially for you, so you can find your way around and make the most suitable choice. To start, we'll explain the screen printing process so you can show off and shine at fancy dinners because you know how your awesome merch is made, and it will also help you understand how to guide your choices. Then we'll give you lots of tips for choosing which products to take and guide you on choosing your design(s).

The technique of textile screen printing

Textile screen printing is an old technique derived from stenciling used to print a design on a flat surface.

Preparation

We print the design of your choice on a transparent film in opaque black. This film is called the film positive.

We completely coat a synthetic mesh screen with a photosensitive product. On a glass table, we place the film positive and the screen above it to cover the shape of the desired design. Under the table is a UV light source. These rays will harden the emulsion and thus block the pores of the screen that are not protected by the film positive.

Then, with a water jet, we remove the emulsion where it hasn't been hardened to free the screen's pores to let the ink pass through. There you go, the stencil is ready! You should know that you need a different screen and film for each color, because we apply the colors layer by layer. This is why the cost of your t-shirt will be higher or lower depending on the number of colors in your design.

Printing 

Once it's dry, we position the screen on a carousel with extreme precision. This is what we call registration. Indeed, each layer of ink must overlap perfectly. We then put the textile on a palette, making sure there are no wrinkles. We can start printing. We deposit ink on the screen fabric and scrape it, pressing well to let it penetrate the open pores of the stencil. And we repeat the operation for each color. You should know that on a dark-colored t-shirt, we also apply a preliminary layer of white ink called "underbase". This ensures that the colors chosen in your design are respected.

Once all the colors are printed on the t-shirt, all that's left is to dry it to properly fix the ink to the fabric.

How to choose my products and in which sizes?

You must have seen it on our site, we offer a wide range of textile merch and since we're cool, we'll guide you to choose the solution that will be the most suitable.

What to choose between unisex t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and beanies? The answer is up to you... Yes! You'll guide your choice based on the musical universe of your band and what your fans wear! For example: the snapback cap, the hooded sweatshirt, and the tank tops are must-haves for any self-respecting core fan. Obviously, the unisex T-shirt remains the must-have regardless of your band, but you have the choice between a straight cut that's more suitable for a metal audience or a fitted cut that's more suitable for a pop or electro audience.

Caps and beanies are a good compromise for varied and not too expensive merch. You'll surely find the model that best suits your band's style: snapback, mesh cap, baseball, or even the beanie, it's up to you to choose. It's cool and during a summer fest, your fans will always be happy to wear your cap to protect themselves from the sun and support their favorite band. Same for the tote bag, it's cool and inexpensive. You can take it everywhere and you can even store the vinyl records you just bought at the merch stand in it.

Don't forget that there are women who love your music and will certainly want to wear a t-shirt with your band's logo. It would be a shame to frustrate your fangirls who come to your stand and see your superb pieces, but find nothing that suits them.

The little extra at Distrolution Merch: we offer you a Tour pack which includes t-shirts, hooded zip-up jackets, square or round stickers, and badges in the quantity of your choice! It allows you to pay less than ordering them separately, so think about it!

As for sizes, we offer from S to XXL. "Why?" you're probably wondering; remember our little lesson on screen printing? Well, the screen with which we make the stencil is a precise size and it's the same whether it's for an XS t-shirt or an XXXL t-shirt, so if we make a medium-sized design, there's a good chance that on XS the design will be way too big and for XXL way too small. And since we want you to have merch that rocks, we can't accept you having big t-shirts with a tiny logo in the middle.

Our pro tip: opt for a visual width between 26 and 30 cm wide, it will work on all models.

Of course, we can provide you with a custom quote if you want different sized visuals for textiles ranging from XS to 4XL.

The design: the biggest problem with merch.

Now let's talk about design, and we need to make something clear! Please, whatever your design idea is, whether it's an illegible logo or a finely detailed illustration, a huge drawing or whatever, ask for help from a graphic designer who knows about screen printing and not your cousin who installed Photoshop on his computer three days ago. There are important parameters to consider, such as color separation, halftoning of gradients, or even the placement of the design on the textile. In any case, know that we check the design you send us, and that's included in the price! If you have a really cool design but no one can help you adapt it properly for screen printing, know that we offer this additional service on a quote basis.

It's important to work on the visual of your t-shirt so that it's attractive and your audience recognizes themselves in it. A white, "raw" visual on a black t-shirt will surely please any self-respecting black metal apostle, while a neon green logo on a brown t-shirt will certainly delight gore grind fans. Moreover, you might use it for different clothes, so it would be a shame to ruin your entire merch collection with a hastily made visual.

Your t-shirt also represents your band so it must be recognizable and create a sense of community among your fans, through the graphic style, your band's name and typography, a mascot... Be creative: the white logo on the black t-shirt is not inevitable. ;)

You too have certainly experienced someone coming up to you because they also dig the band on your t-shirt. The famous "Hey, cool t-shirt!", it's always nice!

Better too much than not enough.

As with all our items, the more you buy, the lower the unit cost, so don't hesitate to stock up to avoid being sold out and to make more profit! In any case, at Distrolution Merch, you can make series starting from 25 units if you have a limited budget. If you want to create exclusivity by selling a small quantity of copies, or if you don't think you'll sell much, it's possible.

Our pro tip: when mixing sizes, favor M and L, these are the ones that sell the most.

The quantity of t-shirts you're going to order will depend on the budget you want/can put into your merch, the number of designs, and the type of clothes you plan to offer. You can choose to make one design that you'll apply to several models, for example t-shirts and tank tops, or create several models with different designs. There's no right or wrong strategy. But keep in mind that the more models you offer, the more likely you are to satisfy everyone's tastes.

Ready? Go!

Now that we've given you plenty of advice on how to choose your textile merch, all you have to do is place your order. Don't hesitate to ask us questions if you have any doubts. We will answer you as soon as possible. 

And don't forget: choose your merch carefully, possibly with varied choices, ask a qualified professional to create your design(s) that will make your fans want to jump on them, and you're all set!

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