Contract-DTG

Who It Is

Contract-DTG is a contract apparel printer in Erie, Pennsylvania, with its shop at 217 West 11th Street. The homepage calls the business "DTG & Silk Screen Fulfillment" and promises "Reliable, on-demand screen and Direct To Garment, DTG printing." Its main process is full-color direct-to-garment printing, and it adds screen printing, embroidery, vinyl cutting, DTF, pad printing, heat and vinyl transfers, sublimation and a few specialty services such as rhinestones, laser engraving and custom leather patches. The customers it describes are other businesses: the silk screen pricing page says contract printing is "sold to online retailers, website owners, legitimate resellers and storefront owners - not for the general public." For a seller, that makes Contract-DTG a white-label production partner that prints to order and ships under the seller's name, reached by quote, email and phone rather than through an app.

What A Seller Gets

The core offer is contract printing with drop shipping. The homepage says the company handles "everything from the design, prep and print, and drop ship directly to your customer," under the heading "Blind Shipping For Your Privacy," and adds that "no one ever knows we were involved." The printing services page says it offers "blind shipping and drop shipping to anywhere in the U.S." An order fulfillment service is pitched at Kickstarter and fundraiser campaigns and at anyone who has "an online store and need someone to provide you with high-quality products, printed and shipped fast."

Minimums are published on the value added service page: "one item for DTG orders and 12 minimum for screen printed items." The embroidery page lists a 6 piece minimum. The value added page also states "we never charge setup fees," and lists folding, drop shipping, blind shipping, no set-up fees and competitive pricing as extras at no additional charge. Hang tagging and barcoding are possible if the seller supplies the materials.

Turnaround is stated in several places. The homepage says "Most of our small DTG printing orders are shipped out within 72 hours," with rush or same day printing "at a up charge." The printing services and value added pages both say most small orders ship within 48 hours. Screen printing has a stated standard turnaround of 7 to 10 days, with 20% added to the price for rush delivery.

The garment range covers t-shirts, hoodies, outerwear, business wear, pants and hats, and the value added page adds workout apparel, sweat pants and promotional items. Blanks are chosen from a supplier catalog: the products page asks sellers to click a manufacturer logo and search, and says "If there is something you do not see let us know we will do our best to find it for you." The homepage also claims "hundreds of thousands of apparel pieces printed to date."

Print Methods

DTG is the focus. The pricing page says the company uses "the latest DTG printing technology and eco-friendly inks" on white and dark garments and inspects "each individual garment before we ship it to your customer." DTG prices sit on their own DTG pricing page.

Screen printing uses plastisol and water-based inks, and the company says its chemicals are "all soy and citrus based." The pages disagree on the maximum color count: the printing services page says up to 6-color silk screening, while the pricing page and the price table go to 8 colors.

Embroidery runs on machinery with "8 heads that can be ran independent or in production mode," from a department the page credits with "20+ years experience." It stocks Madeira and Royal threads in "over 300 different colors from solids, metallic and even marbles threads." The page lists embroidery's pros (bright colors, multiple colors at little extra cost, more durable than DTG) and its cons (6 minimum, longer processing time, not suited to complex designs).

Vinyl cutting covers window decals, promotional products and signage. Relabeling and tag printing covers pad printing, transfer labels and sewn-in labels.

Published Prices

Contract-DTG publishes much of its price list. Screen printing prices exclude the garment and run per print by color count and quantity. One color costs $4.50 a piece at 18 to 23 pieces, $1.25 at 401 to 600 and $0.70 at 1501 to 2000, with 2001+ on quote. Four colors run from $9.10 at 18 to 23 pieces down to $1.05 at 1501 to 2000. From 5 colors upward the smallest quantity bands are marked DTG instead of a price, and 8 colors starts at 151 to 225 pieces at $4.60.

Embroidery is priced by stitch count and quantity. At 6 to 12 pieces a design of up to 5,000 stitches costs $8.00 and one of 14,001 to 16,000 stitches $12.00, plus $1.50 per extra thousand. At 49 to 75 pieces the same bands cost $5.00 and $6.75, plus $0.95 per thousand. Digitizing starts at $25.00 per logo for up to 10,000 stitches, plus $2.00 per 1,000 stitches above, as a one-time fee per logo. Items needing EZ Aqua or Solvy topping, or special backing, cost an added .25 each, and the page asks buyers to allow a 2% average spoilage. Artwork help such as vector restoration, logo creation and embroidery digitizing starts at $25 per hour, and print files should be 300DPI PNG, PSD, AI or EPS with a transparent background.

Poly bagging with a descriptive label is a paid extra, from $1.85 per piece at 18 to 36 pieces down to $0.55 at 601 to 800.

Shipping

The company ships with USPS for smaller orders and UPS for larger ones. Single pieces in the US ship at flat rates of $3.50 for a t-shirt or tank top, $5.50 for a long sleeve, $9.00 for a crew sweatshirt and $10.10 for a hoodie, with each additional piece at actual cost. Bulk boxes by UPS Ground are estimated at $18.00 for 20 t-shirts, $25.00 for 40, $30.00 for 60 and $35.00 for 80. International rates are by quote: "Please request a quote for rates to your country and specific address." The office is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and orders and artwork go to info-sales@contract-dtg.com.

Who It Suits

Contract-DTG suits an online apparel brand, reseller or crowdfunding campaign in the US that wants a white-label printer able to ship single DTG pieces blind to customers and to move the same designs into screen printed or embroidered runs as volume grows. The published screen, embroidery, poly bag and shipping tables let a seller cost a run before asking for a quote. It suits less well a seller who wants a catalog, mockup generator and store app in one place, since orders go through quotes, email and phone, or a seller whose customers are mostly abroad, since only US shipping is priced.