T-Shirt Printing News

We recently moved to a new low carbon, sustainable T-shirt printing factory.

The solar panels powering our organic T-shirt printers

Our new 12,000 square feet factory, powered by renewable energy, is located in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight and features a 12kw photovoltaic solar panel array, LED lighting and insulation throughout, low power electric gel heaters in the offices and electric dryers to dry tees produced by our organic T-shirt printers. 

The move from Cowes is a result of our recent rapid growth, fuelled by increasing demand for our custom bespoke T-shirts and our supply chain’s commitment to sustainability.

“What’s really cool about this factory is that it is powered by renewable energy. When the sun’s out our solar panels contribute to the energy needed to power our screen printers and DTG T-shirt printers here in the UK”

This building reflects our values. It’s practical and the choices we made in the renovations make an important point: sustainability and economy don’t have to be opposing forces. We’ll actually make savings in the long run by investing in solar, insulation, low power lighting and heating.

Our sustainable T-shirts for B2B are made from organic cotton in an ethically accredited, wind powered factory in India. Business has been expanding rapidly and we are proud to print branded promo and work-wear for some of the world’s largest brands and charities.

If you’re ready for your business, charity or organisation to benefit from wholesale printed T-shirts produced in a low-carbon factory get a quote now.

 

 

Each year UK businesses spend an average of £120 per employee on uniforms and promowear totalling more than half a billion pounds. Meanwhile studies show that 81% of customers expect businesses to be doing something about sustainability.

Rapanui started as a fashion brand with a difference using organic T-shirt fabrics made in ethically accredited, wind powered factories. We also created interactive traceability maps which lets customers find out where their clothing comes from and how it’s made. It has been a hit with mindful consumers but real success has come from a different quarter: this kind of traceability is exactly what procurement professionals want from an UK on-demand, wholesale T-shirt supplier. 

“It’s not that people don’t care about this stuff, it’s just super hard to make the right choice when you can’t see where stuff comes from or how it’s made. It turns out that many buyers out there experience this frustration every day. We’ve been delighted to help them achieve their goals by supplying more sustainable T-shirts at accessible prices”

The last part, affordability, is our special sauce. As well as commanding industrial volume price breaks to pass on to business customers, we have invested heavily in technology to automate large parts of the manufacturing process at our UK factory. The efficiencies absorb the normally higher cost of being a quality organic T-shirt manufacturer, making our products more competitive with basic, low-value merchandise. Our dedicated B2B T-shirt supply website gives some hints at this process with a fully automated quote form.

“The sum of marginal gains across the technology aspect of our business is what makes it possible to produce more sustainable, yet highly competitive,printed promowear and uniforms for the UK’s top businesses and charities”

Our use of organic cotton and renewable energy gives the purchasing business a genuine carbon-reduction and sustainability story included in the price.

“As well as auditing overseas suppliers for a wide range of social and sustainability criteria, we inspect our supply chain personally. Sharing photos and video of our organic cotton T-shirts and work-wear being made in a renewable energy powered factory creates amazing engagement with consumers – and now other business can benefit from that story. People really do care”

In the 21st century, consumers expect buyers and sellers to work together to solve the challenges in our supply chains. As a business, we’re working to make it easier for procurement professionals to do something about sustainability in a way that does not make concessions on product or price – in fact we’re finding that far from being a compromise, the benefits of sustainability and business growth often go hand in hand.

With so much of the world’s garment industry saturated in poor quality products, it’s important to know the source of your materials as well as the level of standard. More and more consumers are wising up to what they wear, as traceability is a hot topic in today’s press, and ‘Eco-fashion’ has made its way into the mainstream.

As a clothing brand, you must be able to explain how and why you chose a certain supplier as well as being aware of the whole production process. There are several key benefits to using organic sustainable clothing for printing.

Better quality and longevity

By using organic sustainable clothing for printing, you are ensuring that your products are built to last. Organic cotton t-shirts, for example, have a higher quality and comfort level that can withstand more machine-washes than most other non-organic clothing. The chemicals used in producing non-organic cotton can break down threads during the growing process which in turn shortens the garment’s life expectancy.

Protecting the environment

By buying organic clothing you are investing in the planet’s future. Organic cotton farmers have to adhere to several strict guidelines which prohibit the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, resulting in breathable, softer and cleaner garments. By minimising negative impacts and promoting positive ones, organic cotton farmers are producing sustainable clothing without needing synthetic chemicals and other long-term environmentally harmful processes to yield crops faster.

Brand Reputation

In recent months, several large clothing companies have received criticism for their choice of garment suppliers. By choosing ethical, sustainable and organic clothing, you are ensuring that every measure has been taken to guarantee the highest quality, eco-friendly garments for your consumers.

UK T-Shirt Printing provides organic, sustainable clothing for printing. Use our online calculator to get a quote in less than 30 seconds.

T-shirt printing used to require big volumes, tricky artwork and setup costs. Not any more -Modern digital t-shirt printers have made it possible to print full-colour photo-quality designs directly onto clothing.

With modern, automated and web-connected factories like ours, it’s now possible to order custom digital t-shirt printing online for same-day printing and next-working day delivery – one at a time, with no setup costs or artwork delays.

Digital t-shirt printing is different to screen printing. With screen print it’s normal to put down one colour at a time in a design, and first you have to cut a load of screens, mix the ink and set up the machine. All of that takes time and costs money – this is why screen printers usually ask that you pay a setup charge, or order more than 50 items at a time, or both.

With our modern digital t-shirt printing technology, we can take any image and print it straight onto a t-shirt automatically in full colour. There’s no setup costs or minimums. You can order one at a time if you like.

 

DTG Artwork Preparations

The best part about digital t-shirt printing is the easiness of preparing the artwork and the massive number of potential colours and shades you can create. True, the artwork compared to screen print sometimes doesn’t have the same “pop” to a professional eye – that’s minor compared to the fact that it unlocks loads of stuff not possible with screen print. Like gradients, and full CMYK colour spectrum, or just the speed and convenience of ordering loads of different styles one at a time to try out with no fuss. With our t-shirt design studio, you can design and order online with minimal fuss.

Digital T-Shirt Printing Quality

The quality is great too. Particularly on white tees, where the fabric is pure and takes up the colour keenly, it’s like printing onto a piece of paper. The ability to print photos onto t-shirts is game changing – in fact, if you’re the kind of person who does not relish spending a day on CorelDraw or Illustrator perfecting a vector-format piece of artwork to specification, you’ll love the easiness of ordering digital printed clothing:

You can upload a simple .JPG file and it will print beautifully (although for transparent backgrounds, we recommend PNG24).

Another great reason to go for digital printed clothing via our factory is that it’s much better for the environment. Our digital printing technology applies the ink directly onto the fabric and mixes in real time, meaning there’s no waste. We are also one of the only certified organic t-shirt printers in the world, and our award-winning range of organic cotton t-shirts, sweats and accessories (designed specifically for best digital printing results) means very high quality custom printed products with cutting edge sustainability, all at wholesale prices. If you are wanting a small run of under 50 items it is best to use our digital printing design studio, for larger orders get a online quote.

DTG Print On Demand Service

As well as printing custom digital orders via our t-shirt design studio online, we also offer a print-on-demand service for individuals, businesses, brands or charities selling t-shirts online. It’s called Teemill and it’s a web store platform connected to our digital t-shirt printing factory in the UK that allows orders to be printed and drop-shipped direct to your customer in real time. It’s totally free – find out more about our print on demand service here.