A day in production

It’s amazing how much work is put into producing a single T-shirt. I saw this first hand during my day in production. To get an idea of how Spreadshirt prints a T-shirt, every member of staff gets the opportunity to spend a day in production.

The first thing I learnt here was that production has a rather early start! It became clear to me when I set my alarm to 4:15am the night before I went to work.
So I was still a bit tired when I was greated by Michael, who was in a really good mood already. Michael has been responsible for supervising Spreadshirt’s production for 8 years already. He explained all the steps of production to me that precede the path of the T-shirt until it reaches the customer.

Having inspected all the areas of the production area, we set out from the storage area for colour foils, where 59 different colours are readily stacked up for production. A computer software puts the designs in the right place on the foil. Then the respective print foils are prepared by customised plot printers. A small knife cuts out the templates on the foil. In a matter of a day, this leads to an average consumption of 500sqm per day.

The production next step threw me into the action. It was my task to ‘weed out’ the designs. This is done with the aid of a small needle to get rid of all the parts of the foil that aren’t needed for printing. The next step involves tailoring and allocating the 100cam times 50cm foils to the respective orders.

Then we had breakfast, and I went on to inspect the warehouse afterwards. There are some 165 products in a variety of colours stacked up on shelves in long corridors waiting to be adorned with designs and slogans. After half an hour of bustling around, we manage to put together a selection of T-shirts, hoodies and baby gear in different colours and sizes. Having spent a whole day in the warehouse, a member of staff will have covered about 12-13 miles. I have to confess that walking a half-marathon every day is not for me.

But to see the product meet the design and both of them merge to an inseparable item is quite impressive. And this is precisely what happens in the next step. At a temperature of 160°C and under pressure of 4 bar, product and design become one. You need a good eye to put the design in exactly the same spot as desired.

The next step is to estimate exactly just that. Before any product leaves the house, they all have to pass the quality check. Here it is important to see whether the design is without fault and in the right place, and whether there is nothing wrong with the product. If all is well, it will be dispatched. But the T-shirts and hoodies need to be folded first, and every box comes with a delivery note and invoice as well. Then the parcels are sorted according to the country of destination.

After the lunch break, I was shown how to print on a tee by means of DD – digital direct print. In contrast to flex or flock print, digital direct can display fine colour gradients perfectly. Flex and flock print use heat to press the design on the fabrics, whereas DD sprays the designs immediately onto the product before entering a continuous hot press. The procedure can be compared with an inkjet printer for textiles. Printing with digital direct takes up about 100 gallons of ink per month to print your ideas on our threads.

At the end of the day, I was able to get a glimpse at the test lab. Before new products are adopted to the product range, the materials undergo a thorough quality and durability check. If a product doesn’t meet the criteria, they are either not going to be included, or the lab people try to identify a way to make printing on them possible.

After completing a hard but educational day in production, I’ve come to appreciate how much meticulous work and attention is put into creating an individual item.
Our info graphics specialist Doreen has created a nice visual depiction of all the production steps – check it out. Enjoy!