FAQ

Recycled fabric t-shirt line are made from pre-consumer fibers and clippings that are collected after the cut and sew process, sorted by color, blended, spun and knit into new fabric. There are numerous benefits to recycling discarded fabric cuttings to make new t-shirts, including:

  • The discarded fabric is not sent to a landfill as waste.
  • The recycled fabric made from pre-consumer cuttings requires no new dying, saving energy, water and other manufacturing resources.
  • No land use, no water intensive irrigation, no fertilizers or pesticides as are used in growing new cotton

Step 1: Textile waste or clippings are collected from several pre-consumer venues, primarily apparel.

Step 2: Clippings are sorted by color and chopped into a fine linty material called “shoddy.”

Step 3: Shoddy is then spun into a yarn that is used to produce fabric.

Step 4: The fabric is used to produce Anvil® Recycled tees.

Anvil® is a proud member of the Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding organic agriculture, with a specific focus on increasing the production and use of organically grown fibers such as cotton.

There is no straight forward answer, but there are a couple of thought processes that make sense.

100% Cotton: Everyone loves cotton! Its soft, very durable and your Mom insisted on it. If your printed tees are going to be worn mostly indoors, then we suggest 100% cotton. Outside in Florida’s humidity, cotton absorbs, but takes a little longer to dry than…

50/50 (Tee made of 50% cotton & 50% polyester): We print for a large amount of trades and kids camps in Florida. Both are outside or work in hot humid environments and both swear by 50/50. Because Florida is very humid, a 50/50 printed tee will retain all of the wicking properties of 100% cotton, but because of the manmade fiber component, the slightest breeze will allow it to dry quicker. Not unlike the cotton tee, it is soft and very durable too.

Remember, this is just a guide. We will print on anything you want!

 

Shawn said I need my art emailed or converted to vector format. Why? There are essentially 2 types of art used by computers: bitmap (BMP, JPG, JPEG) and vector. Bitmap art utilizes pixels that are saved in a file as a series of numbers. Pixels create several dots of color in order to create the image, which is how the human eye sees pictures. Vector art, on the other hand, saves the image as lines with coordinates of their starting and ending points. This creates simple images, and research has demonstrated that this is the way the human brain sees and stores images. Check out “What is screen printing?” to see why the vector art is important to us.

 

 

 

It’s the process of forcing ink through a fine mesh onto different types of substrates (tees, magnets, signs, license plates) in order to create an image. We take your vector art, separate the colors of the art and create film positives of each color. We then take the positives and burn a screen for each color of the art. The burned screens are then loaded onto a carousel press, where each color is a station. The blank tee is loaded onto a pallet and in the case of the automatic presses, the pallet is rotated under each color station where the ink (not paint) is automatically forced through the fine mesh by a squeegee. The process is slightly different with one of the manual presses. The blank tee is loaded on a pallet and the color stations are rotated over the blank where the ink is hand drawn across the mesh with a wooden squeegee. Watching one of the guys hand-craft your tee is something to see!

 

 

 

We adapted digital tee printing as one of our printing options for 2 reasons: it allows us to meet the demand of our customers who are seeking single tee orders, and it allows us to fill orders for customers who are looking to print many colors on relatively small runs of tees (12–60). At Great Western, we have experimented with every digital tee printing process currently available and have agreed on one. We take your image (high-res bitmap or vector) and digitally print it onto sheeted ink. We then take the finished art printed on the sheeted ink and heat cure it to a tee blank. This process allows for better color vibrancy, durability, and allows the garment to be stretched without causing gaps in color.

 

 

  • For traditional screen printing 24 pieces.
  • For digital printing 6 pieces.
  • For embroidery printing 10 pieces.

There are essentially two factors that have the biggest impact on price for a screen printed tee: locations and colors of ink.

The more locations (Front, Back, Left Chest, Sleeve, Side), the more cost because each location requires a separate positive, separate screen, and separate setup.

The more colors, the more cost because each color requires a separate positive, separate screen and separate setup.

The last factor is based on how many tees are going to be printed in a single run. The more you print, the better your per tee price is.

 

 

 

Our normal turnaround time is 7–9 working days after art approval. Because we strive to exceed your expectations, we are equipped to accommodate rush orders. Most of the time there is no impact on cost, but in certain instances, there will be a rush charge disclosed up front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Embroidery is the embellishment of garments or accessories with threadwork. Actually stitching onto the shirt or bag. Embroidery on a polo-style shirt presents a look of professionalism that is unmatched.

 

 

 

Digitizing your logo is the process of converting your logo into an actual stitch file so that an embroidery machine can read it and stitch out your logo. This is a one-time cost and usually runs around $65–$75 for a normal left chest or hat logo. Larger logos cost more to digitize. Digitizing takes 48 hours to complete.

 

 

 

Embroidery cost is based on stitch count. Depending on the thread type (polyester, cotton, metallic) it normally costs $1.50/thousand stitches. An average left chest logo is 10,000 stitches, so approximately $10–$15 per shirt. A hat usually requires a little more stitches than a left chest logo.

 

 

 

Because we do all of the work in house, and the setup is a little easier than screen printing, we are at 5 working days after digitizing for completion.

 

 

 

Yes, and it is all done in-house; none of it is sent out. We control the entire process from start to finish.

 

 

2 words: Crazy Awesome!! The T‐Shirt Cannon is a 6” diameter clear acrylic cylinder that has a trigger and is powered by a portable CO2. You load a specially folded tee shirt into the cylinder, tilt it at approximately a 40 degree angle, pull the trigger, and watch your customers, fans, or event patrons go crazy trying to get it. You have seen them at sporting events, now you can be the person or business unleashing the tees to your own potential customers. The T‐Shirt Cannon will cause a great deal of excitement and effectively get your name out there.

It can be rented for:

  • $50.00 with a tee printing order
  • $100.00 without a tee printing order.
  • Free with any 1000-piece printing order.
  1. Seeds are untreated and never genetically engineered.

  2. The soil in which the seeds are harvested is strengthened through crop rotation, compost application and the use of cover cropping and mulch. It also retains water more efficiently because of the increased organic matter.

  3. Weeds are removed physically instead of with toxic chemicals, and they are further controlled through cultivation and hand hoeing.

  4. Pests are controlled through the use beneficial insects that are natural predators. Trap crops also may be planted, to lure some insects away from the cotton.

  5. Harvesting relies mostly on seasonal freeze for defoliation and, on occasion, defoliation may also be stimulated through water management.

  6. Anvil® uses organic cotton that is certified by independent third-party certifying bodies to the USDA’s NOP standard.

  7. Gin, spinning, knitting and weaving machinery is cleaned out before use to avoid any contamination.

  8. During dyeing and finishing, only chemicals and materials that meet organic processing standards are used. Anvil uses products that conform to the Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic Pigment Manufactures (ETAD) agreement standards.
  9. During cutting and sewing, organic fabric is clearly identified and tracked.


Anvil® is a proud member of the Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding organic agriculture, with a specific focus on increasing the production and use of organically grown fibers such as cotton.