150 Staff Shirts and 1,000 Totes in One Week

Every so often a job comes in that tests how fast the shop can really move. Last week was one of those.

In mid-September, a local town recreation department asked us to make staff shirts for their big fall community event. They needed 150 charcoal tees in men's and women's cuts, sizes XS through 4XL, with a one-color print on the left chest and a one-color full print on the back. Final sizes came in on a Wednesday, and they needed the shirts in hand nine days later so they could hand them out before the event.

Two days after the shirt order was set, the same department called with a second problem. Their tote bag vendor had fallen through, and they needed 1,000 printed canvas totes for the same event the following week. We sent proofs that morning. They asked if the design could be a little bigger. Totes print on a smaller board than T-shirts, so there is less room to work with, but we found enough space to enlarge it by about an inch. They approved it that afternoon, with their main artwork on the front and a sponsor panel on the back.

We ordered the blanks right away. Both jobs were finished and packed into nine boxes less than a week after the totes were approved, a day ahead of the shirt deadline. Between the two orders, we used both screen printing for the totes and DTF (Direct-To-Film) printing for the staff shirts.

Our usual turnaround is about two weeks from order approval. When a date is tight, we will tell you plainly what we can and can't do, and then work hard to hit it.

If your group has an event coming up and a deadline that has you worried, give us a call and we'll see what we can do.