Services
At the First Coast T-Shirt Company we maintain our commitment to providing you with quality products at a competitive price. We do this by combining over 30 years of experience with the latest in technology. We offer the latest in custom apparel, screen-printing, and embroidery services. We are also offering a select line of specialty advertising.
SCREEN PRINTING
With both manual and automated screen printing, First Coast Tees can produce hundreds of thousands of printed products a year. With a printing staff of nearly 20 people, our production team can ensure your project is on-time and on-budget. We have an M&R high-performance automatic textile press at First Coast Tees. Designed for quick setups and high-speed production, it’s loaded with time-saving, output-enhancing features and range from 4 color to 14 color models. Our automated press feature servo-driven indexers, electric print-heads, and multiple print-stroke capability.
Standard features like independent squeegee & flood bar speed adjustments, adjustable rear screen holders, independently-set angle and calibrated pressure adjustments, and independent print, reset, and print/flood speed controls on each print head further simplify setup.
EMBROIDERY
Embroidered shirts, embroidered hats, and other embroidered items can be a great way to set your custom apparel apart from the rest. At First Coast Tees we combine over a decade of experience with the latest in technology. This formula allows us to deliver the utmost in service and value on each of our customer’s orders.
We have several different SWF models in our Embroidery department, one is a 4-head, 12 needle machine and the other is a 6-head, 15 needle machine. The multi-head machines allow us to embroider the same design on several garments at once, giving us higher production capabilities and faster turnaround times.
SPECIALTY ADVERTISING
The specialty advertising field is your way to get the promotional products you need to attract the clients you want to your company. They can be used to generate new business, increase repeat business, for fundraisers, company picnics, and trade shows. Items imprinted with your company name goes a long way to reaching your target audience and attracting them to your business. Promotional products reach those who may never see a traditional ad or media publication. Handing a potential customer a FREE gift and thanking them for their time will speak volumes and will be the first step into creating a new customer.
Promotional products are essential business promotion items for community health care promotions, senior’s fairs, hospitals, healthcare clinics, doctor’s offices, home health care, nursing homes and pharmaceutical products. Healthcare promotional items such as bandage dispensers, first aid kits, lip balm, thermometers, pill boxes, medication tray organizers, custom badge holder lanyards and promotional clip boards are just a few of the many promotion products to select from.
Our Process
When printing shirts at First Coast Tees, the first step is to work with your sales or customer service representative to choose the appropriate t-shirt blank for your needs. By choosing shirt color and style, we can ensure that the art file you sent or we have designed will work for your needs. We are experts in sourcing goods, and have a department dedicated to that very purpose. We will send you a quote based on the parameters of your order.
Next, we need to prepare the artwork for your order. We can work with your files, or recommend to your designer the necessary technical aspects for the graphics. First Coast Tees also has an outstanding art department that can assist you in designing anything you need.
If you have submitted art to First Coast Tees for printing, we will evaluate your file for the best method of reproducing your art onto the t-shirt style and color that you have chosen. The two main methods that we employ are spot color printing, and ‘simulated process’ printing. Spot color printing involves mixing an exact hue of each color that you need to print your design. These are specified using the Pantone Matching System (PMS), which is the graphic industry standard for specifying exact color.
Due to limitations in the technical aspects of four color process printing, we have found that altering the file to print with spot colors will achieve better printed results on the shirt. This technique involves printing a range of colors on the shirt to emulate the four color process (or CMYK) image. The industry term for this is ‘Simulated Process’… as we are simulating the results of CMYK with regular spot color ink. Typically we will need more screens to achieve the final image, but the results far exceed how CMYK images appear on a shirt.
Our artists then ‘separate’ the file for printing, by outputting each color to its own screen. Each color of your t-shirt design is then exposed to a high-intensity light onto an ultra-fine mesh screen that is coated with a photosensitive emulsion. (This type of screen was historically made from silk, thus the origin of the term silkscreen. Today we use a polyester blend.) When the emulsion is exposed, it hardens and becomes insoluble to water. The areas of artwork on the screen will prevent light from exposing the emulsion, and those sections will not dissolve in water. Each screen is then placed in a large ‘wash-out’ tank where a high-pressure water jet removes the unexposed areas of emulsion on the screen. What’s left is basically an intricate stencil for that particular color of ink.
While the Art Department was working on your image, the blank t-shirts were being ordered from our key wholesale vendors. When your goods arrive, they are checked in and counted against the order to ensure accuracy.
Your order will be scheduled for a particular time and day. The blank shirts, screens and all specially mixed inks are brought together to one of our presses to produce your order. The blank t-shirts are loaded onto a ‘platen’, and the platen rotates around the press…and with each stop receives a different color of ink. The ink is transferred to the shirt by ‘pulling’ a squeegee across the screen, shearing the ink through the stencil and onto the shirt.
When the shirt has received all of the ink colors for the design, it is removed from the press and placed onto a large belt that feeds into a high-temperature dryer – textile inks cure by heat, not by air or time like paint. As the shirts come off of the dryer, they are each inspected for quality and then counted again for accuracy.
Any post production for your order such as hang-tagging, pricing, custom folding or poly-bagging is done at this time. After this step, the shirts are re-counted and packaged ready for the Shipping Department.
We can ship via any method you prefer, but we commonly use UPS, DHL, FedEx, SAIA, Pilot, & many others.
Once shipped your order is marked complete and is ready for invoicing. After you receive your order, if you have any discrepancies regarding what you have received, you have 5 business days to notify First Coast Tees concerning the problem, so we can outline a solution for you.