Custom Kickball Team Tshirts

March 29, 2017 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Kickball T-shirts

Custom Kickball Team Tshirts

St. Louis is a growing hot bed for adult kickball leagues. What better sport is there to relive our playground youth in a fun environment where age doesn’t determine the enjoyment. With more and more teams getting organized the need for custom kickball team tshirts arises.

Hey, we get it and we don’t blush easily. So when someone comes in with and wants their team name Shift Kickers or Dragonass on a shirt, we love the humor.

So if you are looking for custom kickball tshirts Kirkwood Trading Company has you covered. We have a full catalog of the most popular shirts from cotton, blends, performance tees, and even the really soft trendy tees from the most popular manufacturers. We’ll take your design and print it on some tshirts and you can be the big hit of the league.

Need help with for a graphic for that awesome team name you came up with? No problem. Our graphic artists can put anything together.

Short on time, no problem. Our typical turn around time is 3-5 business days in most cases. We can print, number and letter your custom tshirts in just a few days and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to be unified out there on the field of battle.

Give us a call and we’ll be happy to put a price together and earn your custom t-shirt printing business.

#kirkwoodtradingcompany #screenprinting #customtees #Stlouis

Design T shirts Cheap

February 2, 2017 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Kirkwood Trading Compay. Custom t-shirt screen printing in St. Louis

Design t shirts cheap online today and have your shirts in a few days, not weeks.

Design T shirts Cheap – what you don’t know

There is no such thing as free shipping. The last time I checked UPS and the Postal Service were not willing to ship the shirts I printed to a client for free. Personally when any business says shipping is free I look at that as a back handed way of them making it appear I’m getting a deal when I’m really not getting any such thing. If they want to simply pricing and give me one number, I just assume they say shipping is included. At least that way I know they aren’t trying to sell me on something that just isn’t true.

When it comes to the big screen printing shops online, not only are they trying to sell you on free shipping which we know is not true, but they have additional shipping costs that they wrap into the final price of the custom printed tees.

You can design t-shirts cheap but what you really don’t know is this. If you go online and design your shirts and order them from Company A. Company A doesn’t actually print your shirts. They drop ship the shirts to company B who actually prints the shirts and Company B is the company that then ships them to you. There is nothing unusual about that with the exception that the company you are buying your custom t-shirts from never actually sees the shirts you ordered. What’s more is that Company A ships custom printed boxes with their logo on it to Company B to box your shirt order in before sending. So there is an added cost to have custom boxes printed up and there is additional shipping to have Company A logo boxes shipped to Company B. What’s this mean? First, it means you are paying for all that additional shipping and the cost to print a box with Company A’s logo on it. So you are paying more than you need to for custom t-shirts. It also means that if you order is randomly sent out to any given printer Company A uses to print the shirts, quality control has to suffer a bit. At the end of the day you are receiving an order that costs more which may be a high quality print job. But you also risk something going wrong when so many different hands are involved in a particular order.

And make no mistake, all of those hands that are involved in the custom boxes, printing, shipping, are all getting a piece of that pie which is your order.

You can design t shirts cheap by using a local company. If they have been in business for any significant length of time you can be assured their quality is the highest possible. Their customer service is probably pretty good, and their prices and turn around time is competitive. A printing company who has been in business for a significant length of time is going to have all their printing done in-house under one roof. So the quality and consistency is going to be the same order after order. At the end of the day you are paying less for a high quality custom t-shirt. Even if you have to have shirts shipped to you from one of these companies. THere are still fewer hands involved in your order which even with shipping, keeps your price significantly lower than the larger online companies.

Design T shirts cheap – Don’t sacrifice price for quality

So you can design t shirts cheap and not sacrifice price for quality. Companies who are business for many years aren’t in business that long because of luck. They are in business because they provide a superior product at a fair price and chances are their customer service is impeccable. The word cheap is often times confused with poor quality. These days people want something cheap, meaning they don’t want to pay more than something is worth or valued. When it comes to custom t-shirts you can design t shirts cheap and cheap meaning the latter. The quality can be superior with out the superior price.

If you’d like to contact us for a price quote we are always happy to quote your job. You can get that quote by calling us, emailing us, or using our online quote form here. Online Quote Form

If you like to have fun with your custom t-shirts and have created control. You can use our online design studio and get a price quote that way as well. You can do that here. Design Online

choosing the right custom tshirt

February 1, 2017 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Kirkwood Trading Company

Choosing the right custom tshirt can be a daunting task if you have never ordered them before. There are many factors that come in to play and while it may sound complicated at first, it’s very simple.

To determine the right custom tshirt for your specific needs a few questions need to be answered.

1. Is there a budget? There is always a budget but how realistic the budget is determines the actual shirt you order.
2. What activity is the shirt going to be worn doing?
3. What type of printing are you wanting?

Choosing the right custom tshirt – materials

Basically there are 3 types of tshirts that we customized.

1. Cotton – These days they are preshrunk so you no longer have to worryy about loosing a full shirt size after the first washing. A lightweight 100% preshrunk cotton t-shirt will be the most budget friendly. Cotton tshirts basically come in two different weight, lightweight and heavyweight. With the latter costing a bit more. There is also pima cotton and rinspun cotton which are just different ways the fabric gets spun and determines it’s softness. The softer the shirt typically the more expensive.

The cotton shirt makes a great fit no matter the occassion and I’d only steer clear of 100% cotton if you will be wearing the shirt during some type of sport or activity where sweating is involved.

2. Blends – These are going to be a softer than 100% cotton and be made of up either cotton & polyester as a dual blend or cotton, poly, and either spandex or rayon as a triblend. Typically these are more trendy light wight very soft feeling shirt. They are higher priced than the basic cotton shirts. Great uses for these shirts are branding. People like soft shirts so if you are using your custom t-shirts to promote something, these shirts are always a hit.

3. Performance Poly – 100% polyester has moisture wicking capabilities which make them a great shirt for any kind of athletic activity or activity where persperation will happen. These are light weight and thin and allow sweat to wick away from the body. These are moderately priced and brands offer a performance or tech tshirt now. So pricing is competitive amongst brands and these are a great cost effective shirt option.

Choosing the right custom tshirt is easier than it might seem. At Kirkwood Trading Company we strive to provide our customers with the best options and shirts for their specific needs keeping in mind any specific budget they may have.

Give us a call the next time you need to order custom printed t-shirts and we’ll be happy to work with you and discuss options and provide you with pricing. We will help you in choosing the right custom tshirt.

Making money with Spirit Wear

January 27, 2017 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Kirkwood Trading Company – Spirit wear headquarters

Making money with spirit wear – where to begin

Making money with spirit wear is a solid way to raise revenue for a school, sports team, or any kind of organization. It’s a very old fundraising method that has actually gotten easier over the years. Aside from being a cost effective marketing tool it also raises awareness of unique. I’ll use a youth baseball organization in this example. Youth club baseball is a competitive industry and the various organizations do a great job of promoting their organization through their custom jerseys, t-shirts, jackets, bags, sweatshirts, etc. In this day and age these baseball organizations are not limited to a blue sweatshirt with white writing. The options are endless so now the goal is to not only to market the organization through spirit wear, but marketing through unique spirit wear. Now they can get a blue sweatshirt with white contrast stitching and camo piping down the sides to allow them to stand out even more. It’s not just about using apparel to raise funds but using apparel that is unique.

Making money with spirit wear – The market

The easiest thing about making money with spirit wear is you have a captured audience. Every school has their student body and every team has their fans and every foundation has their supporters. Sometimes the market can dictate what you want to offer and bouncing ideas off the potential buyers is a great idea. Often times people just want to have something to wear to show support.

At Kirkwood Trading Company we print a lot of custom spirit wear for area schools and teams and foundations. There are always going to be those staple pieces of apparel that will always sell no matter what. However since we are in the business we are always trying to present our spirit wear customers with new trendy ideas that they can include in an order form or incorporate on their spirit shop website or school store. We have one particular high school client who sells tons of basic sweatshirts of varying school colors with a simple school name printed on the chest. Those aren’t going to go out of style but from a profit standpoint, once a student buys that sweatshirt they may buy one more throughout their school career. So the idea is to offer different pieces each time as well so those kids who have the staples will also be interested in new and different spirit wear.

making money with spirit wear – basics

Making money with spirit wear can be simple. Nobody has to reinvent the wheel. You simply need to know your audience and their taste for the types of logo wear they’ll wear to promote. Basics will always be in style but you also want to offer a few unique pieces of apparel as well. Introduce a ladies cut or a youth style shirt. Today the most popular styles are the moisture wicking performance fabrics. There will always be people who strictly like cotton but today it’s almost a 50/50 split between customer preference.

Simple designs go a long way. A unique eye catching design not only attracts the buyer but also attracts people to look at it in passing. There is a reason why every major professional sports team has multiple outlets to sell their apparel. They know they have a loyal following that crosses state lines and ever countries. Spirit wear for youth sports and schools is no different, you just have a smaller demographic.

making money with spirit wear – exposure

Physical brick and mortar spirit shops will always thrive. Especially in a setting such as a school. With the technology we live in today people can increase their sales by 50% with a simple online presence. I know Kirkwood Trading Company offers our clients free online spirit stores. We put them together, handle order processing, and if need be shipping as well. Schools for instance can increase their sales with an online presence to their alumni. We have introduced online spirit stores to our clients and they have all had a significant increase in sales mainly from alumni and parents of kids who don’t have the time to go to the school during the stores open hours.

If you’d be interested in learning more about increasing profits and getting the most out of your spirit wear feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to show you how we can help. Here are a couple links.

check out our online quote form

And we have a page specifically geared towards spirit wear.

St. Louis Original Custom T-shirt Screen Printer

April 1, 2015 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Custom T-shirt Printing in St. Louis

They say imitation is the best flattery and we can dig the fact that younger local t-shirt companies use our marketing materials and blog posts to build their content. But it’s not original, Kirkwood Trading Company was printing custom t-shirts when many of these companies founders weren’t even born yet. We printed our first t-shirt over 30 years ago and started our business over 20 years ago. We have seen many t-shirt companies come and many t-shirt companies go. Just about every year one company will open and one or two will close. I think 3 companies fell victim in 2014 because it’s a competitive market and it’s not just about printing t-shirts for people.

As a Saint Louis custom t-shirt screen printer we operate with old school values and we’ve taken a few jobs in the teeth to get those customers to come back and give us another opportunity. Every company makes mistakes and we are no different. On occasion things go hey wire and it’s how you handle those situations that makes a customer come back for another shot or go elsewhere next time. There are no statistics available on customer retention across our local industry but as a company with continued growth, we have to have one of, if not the highest customer retention in the area. As a custom t-shirt screen printer in St. Louis with a lot of competition I wouldn’t fathom that we are the only company offering the highest quality custom tees. I know there are lots of companies who print very well and have experienced printers just as we do. I would however take the Pepsi challenge on customer service and turn around time. As a custom t-shirt screen printer we build relationships. We want our customers to keep coming back to us. While there may be a hiccup on one out of one hundred jobs, we are going to make that hiccup right. We treat every customer like they are our only customer and we treat our customers how we here at Kirkwood Trading Company like to be treated when we are someone else’s customer. It’s simple old school ethics that I think a lot of companies in all industries take for granted. I’m going to retire one day but I’m not going to retire from any one customers order. I’m going to retire from a lot of orders from a lot of repeat customers over a period of many years. There aren’t many businesses that are a custom t-shirt screen printer in the area who are older than we are. The fact of being one of the oldest companies in a city in a particular industry is a testament to the people who work at a business, the way they do business, and the quality and reliability of their business. Nobody turns orders around on a consistent basis as quickly as we do here at Kirkwood Trading Company. We do have a 12 shirt minimum because there is no money in single t-shirt orders and 9 times out of 10, for us to make money on an order less than 12 pieces, the price per shirt is cost prohibitive for you as a customer. We have a 12 shirt minimum because that’s how our business model has always been. As a custom t-shirt screen printer in Saint Louis, we offer our clients the highest quality product at a very fair price and a quick turn around. When we tell you your order will be ready, it will be ready. If you tell us it has to be done by a certain date, 9 out of 10 times it will be before that date and on the 1 time it isn’t, it’s still ready on your deadline date.

If you have a need for custom t-shirts, hoodies, jerseys, hats, bags, shorts, sweatpants, coffee mugs, performance shirts, ladies apparel, oxfords, polos, youth apparel, spirit wear, team wear, school store, school play, etc, whew!, contact the Kirkwood Trading Company. We’ll be more than happy to speak with you about your order and provide you with no hassle price quote.

Design T-shirts Online

March 26, 2015 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Design your own t-shirts online

Design t-shirts online with our Online t-shirt design studio only at Kirkwood Trading Company. Technology is fantastic and one of the great innovations for the custom screen printing business is the ability for people to design their very own t-shirts and then order them. For those to love to have creative control on your custom tshirt designs, this online design studio is great.

When you design t-shirts online you have two options now which is really cool. The first option enables you to upload your very own design or logo into the studio and place it anywhere you want on the shirt. Depending on the format of your file you may or may not be able to change colors of your design and play with it. So upload your logo or design in the color you want it to be printed for convenience. The second option is our online design studio is chalk full of clip art and fonts that you can choose and create your custom t-shirts from scratch.

To design t-shirts online is to have creative control and hands on input in on something really cool! Our online design studio gives you access to all of our products including sweat pants, shorts, t-shirts, polos, and a variety of performance apparel, youth apparel, and ladies apparel.

Since we print in-house we save our customers a ton of money compared to other online t-shirt design companies. Those companies take your order and send it somewhere else in the United States to get printed. The fact that the company taking the order doesn’t do the printing means you are paying more than you need to because they take a big chunk, and printer gets a chunk and then there are higher than normal shipping costs. Since we print in-house and we order shirts in to be printed and then ship out direct when finished, there is no middle many and shipping costs are very minimal. Depending on shirt quantity and design we typically save customers $1.00 – $3.00 per t-shirt compared to the big online based companies. Over the course of a 100 shirt order, that’s $100-$300 savings we provide our customers when they choose to design t-shirts online with Kirkwood Trading Company. The best benefit is that when you have questions we answer the phone too.

If you want to check out the online design studio and start to design t-shirts online with us and see how fun it can be, you can click here and start having fun. Design T-shirts Online and if you like us give us a like on Facebook. Like us on facebook

Logo Placement Guide For Custom T-shirts

January 9, 2015 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Guide showing traditional logo placement on custom t-shirt printing

This logo placement guide for custom t-shirts is meant to assist anyone looking to have t-shirts made who may not be sure where to put the print. While most people ordering custom t-shirts have an idea where they want their logo to go, many people don’t. Truth be told, depending on your logo, certain logo’s actually need to be placed in a certain location to be effective while other logos can be screen printed anywhere and look good.

Logo Placement on Front of custom t-shirt

You really have 3 logo or design placements when it comes to the front of the t-shirt. The full front is traditionally 12 inches by 12 inches or smaller but squared. Then there is the smaller front center print which is great for certain logo and ladies tees. Then there is the left chest. The left chest is a different beast honestly. Left chest is typically a personal preference. For me personally if you are going to have a single print on the t-shirt my suggestion would be to do a full front print, not a left chest. Some people like a left chest because it’s subtle and not so in your face. But for a single print I prefer my message, logo, design be seen and I prefer a full font or center print. A t-shirt is a walking billboard and the purpose of the shirt is to simply get your message out there.

Logo Placement on Back of custom t-shirt

The back of t-shirts are always a good option so people see your message coming or going. You’ll see on the logo placement guide for custom t-shirts that you can have a traditional back print or a tag print. The back print is an attention grabber but so to is the tag print because it’s a trendy print placement. I’ll never be a fan of back only prints and if you are going to have one print on a t-shirt it always needs to the be front. With back prints, full back prints make a great compliment to a left chest print and a tag print compliments a full front print very well.

Hopefully this logo placement guide for custom t-shirts helps you visualize your own design on shirts you will be ordering. As I mentioned earlier, some designs lend themselves to a certain placement. Kirkwood Trading Company can help you on that decision and provide you with digital mock ups so you can see first hand what your logo will look like on the finished product. Part of the ordering process with us is that we provide all of our customers a digital mock up to approve prior to printing.

You can contact us anytime to place an order or to inquire about placing at order at Kirkwood Trading Company website

Custom Printed Ladies Cut T-shirts

January 8, 2015 admin Custom T-shirt Screen Printing St. Louis, custom-tees

Several ladies style shirts that can be custom screen printed

Now more than ever is the best time to be a woman looking for custom t-shirts. Custom printed ladies cut t-shirts have come a long long way in the past few years. So much so that for every unisex or men’s style shirt there is 8 ladies styles to choose from. There are now specific brands catering to the women’s style shirts and to make men feel not so out of place they at least offer one of two men’s styles as well.

If you are thinking about buying custom printed ladies cut t-shirts there are a few things to keep in mind. Mostly you have to think of about the style or cut of the shirt and imagining where your design or logo will go on the shirt. Personally, while deep v-neck t-shirts are sexy and trendy, they make a bad option for customizing. Really the only viable options I see are a very small print just below the v-neck or a tag print on the back of the shirt. A lot of people want to put a traditional left chest print on a deep v-neck shirt and when it comes to reality, you have about a 2 to 2.5 inch space to place the print before it starts wrapping under the ladies arms. Another thing to consider is the size of print on a ladies cut t-shirt. First no matter the style there is always the “Boob factor.” Since women are traditionally smaller standard size printing requirements don’t work. A traditional 11inch wide design would look hideous on a women’s small crew neck t-shirt. No matter the style, it’s always best to go with a smaller design than a larger one on all styles of custom printed ladies cut t-shirts. Left chest prints are okay and even suitable for most v-necks. However look at the cut before you decide your logo placement.

Rayon, Poly, spandex, and Triblends are the popular fabrics for custom printed ladies cut t-shirts theses days. Women like soft t-shirts and anything with Rayon, Poly, or a triblend will be very soft. Ladies I’m told also like spandex because while more fitting, does allow for a comfortable relaxed feel.

Custom Printed ladies cut t-shirts brands

Some brands to look at when looking for custom printed ladies cut t-shirts would be Gildan, they offer a great style called their softstyle. They have v-neck, crew neck, and long sleeve options. Next Level is another company that makes high quality soft feeling ladies t-shirts, and Bella Canvas, one of the originals, continues making great shirts for women. The only downside to women’s t-shirts is they run small, and even within different brands shirts will fit differently. However I know this also to be true when women are shopping for themselves at any retail store.

Kirkwood Trading Company is a local St. Louis custom t-shirt screen printing company. They have been serving the St. Louis area for over 20 years and have a lot of experience in providing custom t-shirt orders for women. Contact them for a free price quote.