Start a Clothing Brand Using a Vinyl Cutter & Heat Press: A How-to Guide

AMBITION Clothing Line by Tika Gregory is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

With the recent economic upheaval in the past few years, many people are looking for opportunities to start up their own business. Doing so means having a sizable investment along with skill sets that the average person simply doesn’t have. But there are businesses that can be started for a much lower start-up investment and with only basic skills.

Start Your Own Clothing Brand

The idea of starting up your own clothing brand might seem like an impossible dream. You might think that you have no fashion design skills and you haven’t been trained in any way. So how could you possibly start your own clothing brand? Today, more than ever before, there are tools and opportunities that allow anyone with the ambition to build such a business.

Starting a business making custom shirts and building your own clothing brand has proven itself to be quite lucrative. The investment to get started is not nearly as much as many other traditional businesses. There’s no need to set up a physical shop because there are so many venues and opportunities online. Selling from the internet is also less costly.

The easiest way to get started in the t-shirt business is by using a heat press for vinyl and making t-shirt vinyl designs. Heat transfer films are the easiest and people love them. It’s simply a matter of coming up with a saying or words that they relate to or an image or combination of the two.

Equipment Needed

If you’re already in the sign business making vinyl signs, this will be easy for you as it uses the same tools. But if you’re just starting out then you will need vector software, a vinyl cutter, heat press and a computer. When starting out, it’ll be important that you bootstrap your way to success. That means that you’ll need to look for these items and buy only the basics, to begin with.

It’s a common mistake of many entrepreneurs to get the biggest and the best of everything when starting out. But this is not the best way to get started. As an entrepreneur who is just beginning to build your business, it’s important that you reserve as much money as possible for marketing your business online. You will need tools that will allow you to make quality t-shirts but the rest is marketing.

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Software For Fabric Imprinting

If someone is adding their t-shirt clothing brand onto their sign making biz, then using the software will be something they’re already familiar with. The main difference is that when you cut it out you’ll have to do it in reverse. Once you send your T-shirt design from the software to the cutter it needs to be a mirror image when making t-shirts. When you load the content on to the cutter the lining will be facing upward.

After you have finished cutting the graphic, it is simply a matter of weeding the vinyl. Once that’s completed, the clear liner will have the graphic under it. You’ll need to make sure that you set the vinyl graphic correctly before using the heat press. If it’s still showing in the mirror position then it will stick to the heat press which is not what you want.

It’s recommended that you use a Teflon sheet or something similar. It will distribute the heat evenly and ensure that nothing sticks to the plate. Once that’s ready, you set the press for the recommended pressure, temperature, time for the material. Once it’s all done, it’s just a matter of waiting the recommended amount of time and then removing the liner.

At this point, the t-shirt is now ready for selling. Making these t-shirts will follow that exact same process again and again. Of course, making a t-shirt is not the same as selling it. So once it’s made, you need to have a way of marketing your merchandise.

Vinyl Supplies

Polyurethane is the material that is recommended for t-shirt graphics. These will be thinner and they will stretch more which allows them to feel like they are part of the fabric. They tend to be soft and more comfortable. PVC is less expensive but it is thicker and it is not as flexible. This type of material is not considered safe for children which is another consideration.

Fabrics

The vinyl is suitable to be used on cotton, acrylic, and polyester fabric. These are the most common fabrics used for casual t-shirts in the industry. Other Fabrics such as leather and nylon are not suitable for this process and could not be used because the vinyl would not stick well.

Video: How To Start A Clothing Line With Less Than $50

Marketing

Once you have the tools and you have learned how to use them and you have begun to make t-shirts, you will then need to have a way to market them online. Learning the details of marketing will be an important factor in your success. Setup a website that displays all of your designs in an attractive way. If possible, have an attractive man and woman model your designs and make videos showing them off. Social media sites such as Facebook and Pinterest as well as Instagram have all proven themselves a highly effective place to market and sell t-shirts.

It will likely take some effort to learn how to market on those platforms but learning to do so can quickly become lucrative and worth the effort. At first, you can begin by building an online presence using organic methods which won’t cost that much out-of-pocket. But in time, you should definitely try to develop a budget for paid ads online.

It may take a bit of practice but building your clothing brand using a vinyl cutter and heat press business can do very well using online marketing methods. Entrepreneurs know that the best time to start a business is now. Start building your own clothing brand using a vinyl cutter and heat press today.

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