Sourcing Garment and Merch Print: How Brands and Individuals Find the Right DTG or Screen Printer

You've got artwork, a rough quantity, and a deadline — but every garment printer's website asks you to fill in a different form, and half of them never quote back. Whether you're a brand launching a merch drop or an individual ordering a batch of tees for a stag do, the sourcing pain is remarkably similar.

The Two Worlds of Garment Print: DTG vs Screen

Before you can source properly, it helps to know which process actually fits your job. Getting this wrong is where most buyers waste money — either paying screen-print setup fees on a run that should have been DTG, or paying per-shirt DTG rates on a run that should have been screened.

Direct-to-Garment (DTG) works like an inkjet printer for fabric. It's brilliant for full-colour artwork, photographic designs, and short runs — anything from a single shirt up to about 50 pieces. No screens, no setup fees, and you can do one-offs profitably.

Screen printing lays down thicker, more vibrant ink through a mesh screen, one colour at a time. Each colour needs its own screen (that's the setup cost), but once you're running, the per-unit price plummets. Screen wins on runs of roughly 50+ pieces, on darker garments, and when you need Pantone-matched spot colours for brand consistency.

When it's not obvious

Plenty of jobs sit awkwardly in the middle — 30 shirts with a three-colour logo, or 80 hoodies with a photographic back print. This is exactly where getting several opinions from actual printers pays off, because a good garment printer will often suggest the process you didn't ask for if it saves you money.

What Buyers Actually Need to Include in a Garment RFQ

The number one reason quotes come back wildly different (or not at all) is a vague brief. Whether you're posting on ZeozGig or emailing suppliers directly, a tight RFQ gets tight quotes. Include:

1. Quantity and size breakdown — e.g. 10 S, 20 M, 15 L, 5 XL. Printers price by total volume but need the split.
2. Garment spec — brand and style if you have one (Gildan Softstyle, AS Colour Staple, Stanley/Stella Creator), weight in GSM, and colour(s).
3. Print positions and sizes — front chest, full back, sleeve. Give artwork dimensions in mm or inches.
4. Colours — number of ink colours per position, Pantone references if brand-critical, or note that it's full-colour photographic (which points to DTG).
5. Deadline — the in-hand date, not just the dispatch date.
6. Delivery — single address, or split shipping to multiple locations?

Attach the artwork as vector where possible (AI, EPS, PDF) for screen work, or high-resolution PNG with transparent background for DTG. If your art isn't print-ready, say so — some printers offer artwork setup, others don't.

The Sourcing Problem — and Why Phoning Round Doesn't Scale

Here's the friction most buyers hit. You Google "screen printer near me," get twelve results, and now you need to:

• Fill out twelve different quote forms
• Wait 24–72 hours for replies
• Chase the ones who ghost you
• Manually compare quotes that use different assumptions on garment, ink coverage, and delivery

For a brand doing this quarterly, it's a tax on your time. For an individual doing it once, it's genuinely off-putting — which is why so many one-off buyers end up on web-to-print aggregators that quietly add 30–40% to the printer's actual price.

The marketplace alternative

A two-sided print marketplace flips the model. You post one RFQ describing the job, and multiple garment printers — DTG specialists, screen shops, hybrid outfits — quote back competitively. On ZeozGig, posting a request costs $1, and if nobody quotes, that fee is refunded automatically. When you find a printer whose quote and portfolio you like, you open a direct connection for a fixed $5 to chat, share proofs, and confirm the order. No commission on the job itself, no percentage skim on your merch margin.

What to Look For in the Quotes That Come Back

Cheap-per-shirt isn't the same as best value. When comparing garment print quotes, weigh:

• Garment quality — a £4 blank and a £9 blank both exist. Make sure everyone's quoting the same tier.
• Ink type — plastisol vs water-based for screen; standard vs premium white underbase for DTG on darks.
• Included services — folding, poly-bagging, individual labelling, relabelling with your own neck tag.
• Turnaround — some shops run 5-day standard, others 15.
• Sampling — will they run a strike-off or a single sample before the full run? For brand work, this matters.

For brands specifically

If you're building a merch programme, ask about repeat-order pricing, screen storage (so you're not paying setup again next drop), and Pantone matching tolerance. Building a direct relationship with one or two reliable garment printers is worth more than chasing the lowest quote every time.

For individual buyers

Don't be shy about being a one-off. Plenty of garment printers genuinely enjoy small, weird jobs — leaving-do shirts, stag tees, art-project runs. Say what it's for; the friendliest quotes often come from smaller studios who get it.

Buy Local, Buy Direct

One quiet advantage of a marketplace over a national web-to-print site: you can find garment printers in your own city, cut shipping time and cost, and often visit for a press check on bigger orders. Local screen shops also tend to be more flexible on unusual requests — oversized prints, specialty inks (puff, discharge, metallic), or mixing DTG and screen across the same order.

Ready to Post Your Garment Job?

Whether you need 12 DTG tees for a birthday or 500 screen-printed hoodies for a product launch, post your RFQ on ZeozGig and let garment printers come to you. One request, multiple quotes, direct chat with the printer you pick — and 100% of your margin stays yours. If you're a garment printer, listing your services costs $1 and puts you in front of buyers who already know what they want.