Free-DC Shirts & Stuff

OK, I've setup the necessary graphics for t-shirts, hats, mugs, & mousepads over at CafePress:

http://www.cafeshops.com/freedc

Additionally, it turns out that one of our founders, JTrinkle, works for a company that handles stuff like this as well. JTrinkle's company, however, has some stuff that looks much nicer than the Cafe Press stuff. The drawback? There are some startup costs & we'd do all the organizing on our end (i.e. one of us buys the stuff on behalf of everyone who wants one). There are also minimum requirements for a run of the various items.

Personally, I think these hats are a winner. I have one (with the Ping logo on the front) and it's fabulous. It's soft & very high quality.

Unlike CafePress, we can get stuff from Jim's company with embroidered logos instead of screen printed logos. Swanky! :thumbs:

Jim says that we could do a run of shirts or hats with just 12-24 pieces. They'd cost about $15 a piece. This includes some markup to cover the cost of initially digitizing the logo ($100) and then eventually some return to go into our 'Free-DC' fund. Seeing how the golf shirts over at CafePress cost more than that with no markup & a cheap screen printed logo, this might be a good way to go!

So, do we have anyone interested? The selection of shirts & hats over there is truly boggling, so we're not lacking for choices...

/me prepares to buy a mug, and maybe even a mousepad

I'd be willing to buy one of the black t-shirts, especially if it is all cotton. White, or even grey...well, no, I don't think I would.

I don't need a hat, since I'm not a balding guy <g>.

Narrow bottom travel mugs would rock, since my new car doesn't have cup holders that fit the majority of my travel mug collection.

Embroidered is MUCH better. Don't know what you want to try to get set up, but count me in for at least a couple of Black Tees, a Mousepad, and pair of Mugs. (and I already bought a White T and mug from the other place....)

Large mugs at Cafepress...I have one. Coffee cools too much before I can finish it. (And, I'm a coffee fiend - my nickname has been coffee-girl at my last 4 jobs, I roast my own, own 15 coffee makers, 7 coffee grinders, etc).

They rock for tea, though, if you are being low-brow, and using a tea bag, as well as pseudo-British, and leaving the bag in while you drink.

I went over to the Cafepress site and rumaged through their forums and found out that the shirts are NOT screen printed. They are done by the sublimation process (heat transfer from paper printed on an ink jet). Thats how they can do items with no minimums (you just print the design on paper and basically iron it on). I have done sublimation for close to 15 years and in time the imprints on garments will start fading though repeated washing (~a year or so) (Mugs are ok).
Another thing to think about: you cannot sublimate dark fabrics at all without using white backed sheets that have the image printed on them (kinda like a decal).

But...if thats what you want, we can do that too...

Personally I like the Embroidery avenue... one time digitizing fee, can embroider any color shirt or hat with any color thread and most important...since we do them in-house... I can get small runs done.


BTW: Nice choice on the cap Dyy.... thats one of the most expensive caps in the industry :eek:

-JT

OK - so what do we need to do to get this going ?

(I hate iron-on transfers.)

i will buy one of everything just to help out :drums:

I'd be in for a mouse pad and at least one hat..maybe a tshirt or two.

Anything I can do to help out?

Quote:

---

OK - so what do we need to do to get this going ?

(I hate iron-on transfers.)

---

I'll check at work on Monday and try to nail down the pricing on this stuff

-JT

Iron on bad:eek:

embroidery good:D

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

Yeah, I'd like a couple of black shirts & probably a hat. If the price is right, I'd probably do some mousepads, too. Hell, I can leave them laying around work & customers offices. Might need to make a logo with a URL on it for those. ;)

I agree with the embroidered route, you can count on me at least getting a shirt and mug.

w00t ! Sounds like we're gonna be in the apparel business.....

T, cap & a mug for me, at least. :D

Maybe a couple, for gifts.

This place looks promising.

LINK

Quote:

---

Originally posted by outlnderFDC
This place looks promising.

LINK

---

Oh man ... Stuffed animals:scared:

Don't let A99 see this:crazy:

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

with the four season's of Idaho being: almost winter, winter, still winter, and fishing, is there any chance of a long sleeved shirt? I would take a mug and some mouse pads and probably a black t anyway.


HEY! I just noticed, that this is my 100th post! Woo Hoo!

Quote:

---

with the four season's of Idaho being: almost winter, winter, still winter, and fishing,

---

You don't have mud season out there, RacerX? You poor, deprived potato people! <g>

Although, I don't think Free-DC wellies would be very popular. Not even if we sung many choruses of "These boots were made for walking..."

I second the long sleeve shirt we may just have to render our own spud ver 1.1 :D

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

ya stuffed animals for the killing :cheers:

Im in on all accounts, just tell me where to buy from and Im there:D

How about some stuff with the old logo for those like me that love the original logo :D

I was wondering, is the design set for all the products or are we (Dyy) going to be providing additional designs to be incorporated into those products?

Also, I read somewhere that we are going to have a black t-shirt with the Free-DC words on it, how is it coming along?

/me goes off to buy some Free-DC stuff. Woo Hoo! :thumbs:

Hi All,
I checked on costs at work today and found out the following:

white coffee cups are on sale right now.. my cost is 99 cents each + a $40.00 setup charge + shipping here (roughly $8).... minimum order is 144 pieces though.

cost is roughly $1.32 each... that's $5.28 for a set of 4 (36 sets)

Caps are also on sale... the bare caps cost $1.29 and it is $2.50 each to embroider them. cost per hat = $3.79...

The Ping Hat Dyy mentioned costs $5.99 each blank

T-Shirts Hanes Beefy-T's cost ~$3.00 each + $2.50 to embroider or to screen print them in 1 color costs $1.54 each + 12.00 setup charge + the shipping back and forth to our screen printer.

If you want shirts with a Large logo across the front... use silk screening
If you want shirts with a small left chest logo on the front... use embroidery
I don't think we will have enough quantity to offer both styles.

And yes we can do Long Sleeve shirts too... as well as 2XL & 3XL (They do cost more though... +$1 for 2XL... +$1.50 for 3XL).

The charge for digitizing the logo is going to be ~$100 (one-time charge).. this charge has to be amoritized into the total cost of the shirts and caps.
Example: 12 cap and 12 shirts = 24 pieces... $100/24 pieces = $4.17 each... Therefore the more total shirts and caps we do... the less the "per piece cost is"

Tomorrow, I'm gonna try and get some pictures and firm up the shirt costs a little more (I was kinda busy today)... The cap and mug sale lasts until the end of the year so we have plenty of time to take advantage of it.

as far as what to sell them for to make a few bucks to make the site self sustaining.... I dunno.... thats not my call.

-JT

Ooh, this keeps sounding better and better! I'm gonna set up a poll, so everybody vote. It'll give us an idea of what we need. :thumbs:

Whatever became of all this neat stuff?