Earlier this’d year, I stopped by a GT-541 owner’s shop in downtown New York City. The owner mentioned how much she has been printing on to pieces of fabric using her GT-541 printer. Being so close to to the fabric district, I can understand how she has this business. Then recently, I had a conversation with a GT-3 owner in the southeast that is doing a similar thing for the local crafters.
In both conversations, the question came up as to how to hold the fabric in place during the printing. Most of the time, the fabric is providing in yards of material that is folded an creased. These DTG owners were pre-pressing the fabric prior to printing and then using binder clips or tape to hold the fabric in place. The Gripper Kits are a great solution of for this type of printing to improve workflow. Being mounted below the GT platens (Adult, Youth and Oversized), they allow the operator to quickly and easily load a piece of fabric on to a GT platen flat and securely.
Below is a short video showing a couple of pieces of fabric being printed.
So what type of customer can you as a DTG printer speak with about trying to get this type of business? The best advice I can give is to hang out for 15 minutes in a local fabric store or a sewing machine store on a Saturday morning. Most of these types of stores put on a variety of events throughout a year on how to do different types of crafts. Bring some printed samples of work you have done with your contact information printed on them and just start showing the samples to the other customers. If you want to pass out your printed samples, your contact info is on it. Even try to see if you can leave a printed sample with the instructor of the class.
Hope this helps to generate some more sales! Best wishes.