Our Journey
We own and currently run 2 streetwear brands. We have always loved streetwear and were inspired by the likes of Carhartt, Stussy & Supreme. With my business partner being in the tattoo industry and a lover of art, and me from a design and print background, we just knew we wanted to venture into it. We came across a lot of obstacles along the way—not only from suppliers but in the way we were designing too. It took time to understand that DTF was different and had its own behaviors when it came to printing artworks correctly as you see them on screen. Translucent pixels were a big one, and also not being able to blend our colors and do faded shadows. On the supplier side, we faced inconsistent colors every time we received our prints; the white was choked back too far or, very often, not enough, which led to nasty white showing on dark garments or small text just not adhering to the garments. Another big issue was how plastic some prints felt.
We had had enough of inconsistency, so we decided to research DTF printers. Due to my background in print and having worked on so many large format printers, and being the UK's first on a lot of them—from small solvent machines right up to multi-million-pound UV presses—I've worked on them. I know my stuff, so I knew this wouldn't be a problem for me. We took the plunge and sorted our issues out straight away.
We know what works, we know how to get the best from the printers, and we know about colour.
Print Industry Expertise
My experience in the print industry spans over 25+ years, starting out working at a sign company to eventually buying it from the owners. I loved it, and as soon as full-color printing came to the industry, I had to be in on it. I got my first-ever printer, which was at the time a Roland ColorCAMM. It was amazing being able to print something we used to have to make out of multi-layered vinyls, and it was far superior. My passion for print grew and grew, and I eventually bought a Mimaki, a Mutoh, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, my business was hit hard in the recession, and I was forced to close. That didn't stop me, as I went on to be the production manager at a nearby screenprint business. I converted that business into a large-format print powerhouse by installing one of the UK's first HP Scitex UV flatbed printers. I went to Barcelona and trained on it and even did my Level 2 training on it so I could make sure I kept that thing running, as downtime was money down. I then went on from there to start a large-format department for a very well-known and very large print company, where again I was able to make my mark and play with some of the best kit in the industry—one of them being the UK's very first installation of the Agfa Tauro.
I have trained production staff, installers, and sales directors, but I have also been heavily involved in color profiling printers to get the best out of them and worked massively on workflow and automation to make web-to-print seamless.
Time passed, and the time came for me to get back to doing this for myself. DTF came along, and I had to be in it. Teaming up with my partner, we invested and learned every single day, transferring my print knowledge into DTF—and let me tell you, it just worked. We are so invested in this, and we love it.
Customer Focused Solutions
Like I said earlier, the problems in getting DTF prints right are obvious, and they take time to get to grips with—you waste time and, more than that, you waste money.
We wanted to run a DTF print business that would actually be on the customers' side, help them succeed, because ultimately, that helps us too. Too many DTF printers out there just bought machines, and they watch the roll print and send it out the door... did they check the print? Did they really check the files before they did? Some do, but a lot don’t. You even see on the websites that prints will be printed as per the supplied file—well, that’s just taking your money and running, in our opinion.
We want you to have the best results. We check your gang sheets, spot issues, and will tell you about them. We also offer an artwork checking service, so you can send us your files before you even gang them up. We will identify any issues and even offer to correct them if we can. Getting great results for you is our mission, and we wouldn’t be responsible printers if we did anything else.
Our Philosophy:
We want you to succeed, and our aim is to do everything we can to help you achieve that. We want to be more than just your supplier; we want to be a partner in our customers' success.
Quality control plays a huge part in our business, and we constantly monitor our outputted prints, recalibrate regularly, and have a very strict maintenance program for our printers.
We are different, and we are very proud of it.
