Young Enterprise Idea - Transfer Iron On PET Shirts

BusinessStudent

Hello All,

Im In a group of 10 at college that are doing young enterprise, and we had the idea of selling customised shirts with pictures of pets on FOR THE STAFF to wear.

We have been told that this would be very popular with the staff at the college who have pets (by our tutor)

I have found that this could work,

The cost of the tranfers would work out at 89p each using (HP C6050A Iron-On T-Shirt Media A4)

- We then need white t-shirts and I have a quick look on ebay and have found them to be about £3.00 each - BUT we need quality t-shirts so can anyone recommend any good retailers, Im sure H&M AND M&S might have some cheap basic quality shirts for about £3.00

- Ink, I reckon that It would cost 50p's worth of Ink to produce use on A4 transfer?

- Total unit estimate of production would be £4.39
- Retail Value - I reckon we could sell them to the staff for £9.99 each??

Any suggestions / comments please

JonathanA

I can't help with a supplier, but would suggest you try to find wholesale suppliers close to you and see if you can't strike a deal with someone. How many tutors are there at your college? If you are producing something purely for that audience, you may find yourself a little restricted when you get to the other stages of the competition. If, for the purposes of the trade fair etc, you go out to the general public, how are you going to get pictures of their pets? Is the fact that someone can't take the Tshirt away on the day going to deter them from making a purchase? Are there any other shops etc in your locality doing something similar & if so, how much do they charge?

I'm not sure I'd pay a tenner for a T-shirt unless it was very good quality - & I'd want to know that I could stick it in the washing machine and not worry about it fading / running etc.

What other ideas have you come up with? I think this does potentially have legs, as long as you get your research right up front.

Hope that is of some help

Raksha

I seem to remember that Fruit of the Loom do various grades of plain T shirt, which would be suitable for your needs.

powerbase

Hi,

I run a t-shirt business so I may be able to help you.

As for your shirts. Quality is key. The iron on transfers you are talking about are for people making t-shirts at home. I started like this years ago before going into business and setting up professionally so it's a good springboard (note I never sold items made from what you are thinking of using). I know this is young enterprise course (I remember this from years ago at school or some version of it) and there are many things you can do/make. Some ideas I've seen students do are clocks made from cds (blank cds and clock workings are pretty cheap), money box made with various things from the tech dept, personalised key rings/magnets mousemats etc.

A few points.
The paper you are using can be bought by anyone on the web or in pc world and with a cheap ink jet printer and an iron. So you are providing people with something they can do themselves and sometimes the fun is doing it yourself.

Know your market. Do people really want these? Do some research to make sure. Don't rely on what other people tell you. See for yourself.

The quality of these t-shirt transfers is not great (good for home but not commercial). Years ago when I used to make t-shirts for myself for fun, the shirts would crack quickly and were most certainly not commercial quality though you will see people on ebay selling these shirts.

Do you own the copyright to the pictures you will be using? You cannot just use any old images you find and put them on a shirt. Check into this.

If you do want shirts, do not buy shirts from tescos/m&s etc but proper shirts for printing. If you are still interested you can PM and I can look into giving you some ideas where to get blank shirts cheaper than what you have quotes already. If you are looking for small quantities it may be more difficult. Many places that give you the best t-shirts at the best prices make you order 72 (a carton size) of a specific style, size and colour. So if you are offering 4 sizes that is 72x4 t-shirts (worst case scenario).

One note about white t-shirts. White more than any other colour needs to be heavyweight that means over 200gsm (not 150, 185 that many shirts have). Any less than 200gsm you can spit through and the t-shirts will not inspire anyone to buy.

One other thing is you don't have to print the t-shirt transfers yourself. Many online printing places sell professional transfers (We have never used them but I know they use different techniques than you are using so their transfers should be of higher quality) and you could buy these quite possible cheaper than your paper if you buy enough (and no printing). This is not an option if you are printing pictures supplied by people.

So t-shirts is still a real possibility, but do your research. The selling point of your business is they are custom made so you can make the shirt specifically for someone (i.e. you don't have a warehouse full of premade shirts) for their taste and size.

You should also consider the fact you might not get your shirts right the first time and there may be wastage though this is likely with anything you make.

Ideas along the same line which I mentioned briefly are mousemats, keyrings, magnets etc. These use similar equipment to printing t-shirts but quality is maybe not as big an issue. The issue for t-shirts is they don't wash well but how many people wash their magnets and mousemats all the time? You buy blank mousemats and some mousemat transfer paper and way you go. For the magnets you can buy special magnetic printing paper on ebay.

Some of these items are less expensive to buy (thus more people may be interested as it's hard to convince people to part with £10 for a product they are not sure of), you can produce better quality items though profit margin per item may not be as big but you'd probably sell more items so it makes up for that.

Some ideas. Personally over the years the cd clock was my favourite from the local school and young enterprise as they were well made, it's the kind of thing you buy in gadget shops but a fraction of the price. So good I bought two.

I hope this helps. I don't want you to be put off just some things to think about. It's good to bounce business ideas off other people, generally helps improve the idea and your business.

It's coming up to Christmas, cash in on that market.

Good luck