Looking for T-shirt help

[stacyeb]

We are possibly looking for a new tshirt vender. We used a local guy the last few years and he is great!! We did a simple design in one color got $6 a shirt. We purchase around 300 shirts for staff and kids. Due to rising cost his prices went up to $8 a shirt. I've been looking around and thought I found good deals at $5 a shirt and then find out it is another $8 to buy the shirt. I just want to see if there is anyone else out there that can help me keep the cost down closer to $6 shirt & design!!

Any ideas?:confused:

[TrinityJen]

I've never ordered from this guy, but I think others from the board have.
http://vbs.innovativeb2b.com/

[JoleenTX]

Hi ~

I have ordered from the guy that Trinity Jen just posted for 4 years now and plan on ordering from him again. I think it somewhere around 5.95 a shirt and he will even put your church name on the sleeve for a small charge. The shirts wash and wear great. My hubby had 2006 on yesterday and it looks new!

[stacyeb]

Thanks. I sent an email with a few questions. If anyone else has any other companies or people to contact let me know. Thanks!!

[youthgumc]

My vendor is in Central City KY. Less that $5 a shirt for shirt and one-color single side imprint. I had the SonWorld logo put on with the church name and year. There is no sales tax (because it is a franchise out of TX) and they ship UPS, so shipping costs are passed along. They use a Hanes Heavyweight 50/50 shirt, great quality, great prices. Go Logo/PAR Products is the name, 270.754.1171 is the office number. Talk with Melissa.

[brutgers]

well for starters.....get white tshirts and no color printing....we are using the black outline/white letter sonworld logo from the clipart for this....and as a craft we have the children color their own shirts with fabric markers (10.99 for qty 50 at www.ssww.com)
our printer is cutting us a great deal because his costs are minimal

[stacyeb]

Thanks for the idea, but white shirts are frowned upon for us. The kids wear there shirts each day and then again at the service on Sunday and as you can imagine between snack and recreation they can be pretty stained by Sunday. Also our staff has the same shirts and the women aren't pleased with white. They are a bit concerned with all the water games we play. I love the idea of the kids coloring them though, but the crafts have already been planned and I don't think that would leave enough time. I will definately save the idea for next year if I can get people on board with the white tshirts.

[sara2002]

This year I went with a new company. It's a christian company based in California. If you order 100 shirts or more I believe that they are $4 a shirt and the set up fee is waived. They are an amazing company to work with. There website is www.4dvi.com .

[TrinityJen]

How do you guys do the bulk ordering, pre-registration or just a bunch of each size?

[sara2002]

I only ordered for my staff this year. I knew it would be to hard to get sizes in time to get my order. Most of my students don't register until the day of. So I just went with staff shirts this year.

[youthgumc]

We do pre-registration, then look at the kids from church that haven't registered, then just think about ages groups and guess for the rest of what we need to order. My supplier only needs just over a week to get them to me, so that helps with putting in a late order. I ordered May 15 and they were done May 23. We do a different colored shirt for each age group - makes rotations easier too. This week, everyone knows the purple team needs extra love and help because they are the little ones!! The kids love identifying with their group shirt color too. We did white shirts last year that the kids decorated for the first night craft, but it is way easier just to order colored shirts.

[stacyeb]

Thanks for all the help. My church just loves the entire VBS crew in t-shirts. Between staff and children I order 325 shirts. It is getting more difficult in these economic times to spend $1,600 in t-shirts while still making the week affordable to families and not going over my already generous budget. My co-director and I are looking into the options given to us here and also looking to stimulate our local economy.

Thanks for all your help!!

[youthgumc]

Just wondered if you found a good supplier that none of us know about yet!! Did you end up going local or from a online/national supplier?

[stacyeb]

We still are searching. I contacted the first company posted with the white-shirts. I had a few questions, it's been a week and they haven't contacted me yet. Hmmm. We are taking the prices from the site shared here and then are asking a local vendors if they can do the same prices. The search continues..... Luckily our VBS isn't until the end of July so we have time.

[stephsmith]

I am probably crazy, but we make our own t-shirts. I have a small press that I bought from a sewing supply website. I buy the shirts from a wholesaler online. They deliver in about 1 day. I am using the Gospel Light transfer this year, but have made my own also. We are going to average $2.50 - $3.00 per shirt. (some sizes are more expensive). We are making lime green shirts this year. I don't know if this helps anyone.


Stephanie

[stacyeb]

I guess they used to do there own shirts here. But once the number of children and staff exceeded 250, everyone stopped volunteering because it was too much.

[jruckman]

I am so amazed to learn that so many of you do t-shirts. We did t-shirts one year. Everyone wore them on Monday, and then they were sweaty and in the laundry for most of the week! A few of the staff and kids had them on again before the week ended, but very few! We've done baseball caps and visors with somewhat greater success, but many don't want to wear them inside.
Janet

[Mari-Jo]

We give a T-shirt iron-on to each person. I personally, have 3 shirts! We wear them all week and do wash them during the week. Kids, too!