We take our ability to deliver great customer service very seriously. That’s why we know it’s important to set our customers’ expectations appropriately when it comes to deliverability of printed apparel. We know that there are timeline emergencies even when it comes to ordering custom t-shirts. Occasionally, rush order tees are a necessity. We try to help out as much as we can by offering three different deliver by date options including “lightning” delivery in 3 business days. We guarantee our dates and in some cases we even delivery earlier than scheduled. Having an agile team of customer service reps, artists and printers makes us stand out in a competitive landscape. However, educating our customers on timelines is very empowering. Our goal is to give you the tools to order like a ninja. That’s why we’re putting this guide together to help you understand what’s at stake when you need custom t-shirts fast!
When you find yourself in a pinch these pro tips should help you have all your ducks together for a stress free ordering scenario. Don’t worry, even if you don’t have everything just yet, we’ll do all that we can on our side to help get the right information to us to process your order as quickly as possible.
Have a solid idea of what you want – When you’re looking to get t-shirts fast, knowing what you want is going to speed things up immensely. What makes t-shirt orders drag along is when there is a lot of going back and forth between you, your customer service representative and the artist involved in the order. Although we offer fantastic advice on all things related to t-shirt design and products, sharing your vision from the get-go will help everyone zero in on the perfect solution, fast.
Know how much you can spend – It doesn’t make sense for your sales person to offer you products and print applications that are too far out of your budget. While we do offer many types of products, having an estimated budget will help us narrow down our recommendations. Even down to the brand. With our knowledge of apparel products we can quickly ascertain what brands will fall in the realm of the price point you need to be at.
Have all assets on hand –If you know you’ll be submitting artwork, have those files ready to go on a moment’s notice. A huge part of our process is getting the artwork prepped for screens. Unfortunately if we’re given low resolution artwork, we either need to recreate the art which can be time consuming, or wait until you’ve been able to contact the artist who originally created the art to get it in a suitable format for printing. On a side note, when you have custom art created for you by an artist, try to get the artwork in as many file formats as you can so the artwork can be reproduced in a variety of mediums like print and web.
Specifics on colors – If you know you need an exact color, please deliver the information as a Pantone (PMS) color. HEX, CMYK, and RGB are not suitable for color matching on printed apparel. The matching system was formulated with the garment printing industry in mind. If you rely on the way a color appears on a computer monitor you could be surprised with the results. The only way to know for sure is to reference a PMS book in person with your own eyeballs.
Give us all the details – If you need your shirts for a specific function or event, sharing that information will help us determine what products would best suit your needs. For example, if you need custom t-shirts fast for the new construction crew starting work on a big job your contracting firm just landed, we would recommend a really sturdy t-shirt like the Hanes Beef T which can stand up to a lot of repeat washing and has a thick feel to it. If your rush t-shirt order is for a dance team, we might recommend performance wear like the Sport-Tek PosiCharge Competitor Tee or trendy eye-catching neon colors like The Concert Tank by District.
Have your quantity finalized – Once an order is placed in our system, that is our green light to go, particularly in a rush situation, your order will be queued ahead of other orders. That means the blank apparel product will be ordered in most cases on the same day. If you add more sizes or make changes to the order quantity, it can throw a wrench in the works and cause delays. Our warehouse is a finely oiled machine. The days print jobs are laid out ahead of schedule and an entire press cannot sit idly by while we wait half the day for the straggler products to arrive. If you must add more pieces to the order the deliver by date might have to change or other methods of print like direct-to-garment may need to be utilized and those pieces shipped as their own order using this alternative method of decoration.
Know your shipping address – Sometimes a rush order for custom t-shirts comes from a surprise event like a last minute decision to participate in a trade show. Knowing where you need the goods shipped is critical to receiving them in time. A change to the final delivery address even after the product has been shipped isn’t unheard of, but depending on the flexibility of the courier, it can cause a hiccup in delivery time.
Payment – If you’re stuck with a last minute custom t-shirt need, be prepared to pay by a method that offers the least hurdles. That is a credit card. Checks take time to reach us by mail and we don’t start production without payment. We do accept purchase orders from schools, municipalities, and government organizations but if you can pay by credit card, it’s the way to go for super-fast processing.
The last tip might seem like a no-brainer but your availability will be critical to ensuring a fast turnaround. If we’ve told you we will send an email or call for further verification on aspects of your order, look out for it and be prepared to reply. If you have requested a photo of the first shirt, you need to be available by phone at the time of the scheduled print. Setting up a press for screen print takes time and if you miss your window for approval, we tear it down and rebuild for another print job. Waiting on that job to finish could mean the difference of an entire day and when your timeline is crucial that could ruin your event.