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How we make Crypto Daddy T-Shirts

Posted by Taras Lanchev on

Hey everybody, I'm James, the owner of Crypto Daddy. Here at Crypto Daddy, I always seem to talk about the high-quality of our products, so because of that, I wanted to tell you about how our products are made.

Idea

Everything starts with an idea for a shirt. Sometimes I see something funny on Reddit or Twitter and decide to make it into a shirt or sometimes I create a design from a well-known crypto meme. For example "Hodl Don't Get Rekt" is a quote from the CNBC segment on crypto. It was super cringe and the crypto community quickly picked it up, so I decided to make a simple shirt from that. You can watch the segment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94mBwHsLhqw

A picture of the Crypto Daddy fulfilment centre

However, the idea doesn't necessarily have to be mine. A lot of people email or contact me on FacebookTwitter or Telegram and ask for something specific or a small tweak in the current design. I love it when people reach out because, at the end of the day, both of us benefit as you get the product you've wanted and I get a design which people are more likely to buy and enjoy.

Design

Once the idea is there, the design process begins. I normally use Photoshop to design everything, but I might use Sketch here and there to make some elements which I otherwise wouldn't be able to make in Photoshop. Also, sometimes, I get a designer to do something for me due to high demand or my schedule.

The designer is called, Mohim. He totally rocks. He can make something super quick, but also make it awesome at the same time. I met him somewhere online and his profile description literally said: "I LoVe Graphic Design", so I reached out and we started working together. Mohim designed shirts like "Green Market" or "Fiat Supper". He's good.

A picture of the t-shirt printing process

Printing

When we finishing designing the shirts, it's time to print. It is a standard practice for me to do a few test mockups before the actual printing to see how the shirt will look like once printed.

Before I started Crypto Daddy I had to decide whether I should use DTG (Direct-To-Garment) printing method or screen printing method. These two techniques are among the most popular options in the world.

A picture of a screen printer showcasing how Crypto Daddy prints its crypto t-shirts

Screen printing

In screen printing, the printer pushes the ink through the woven mesh stencil onto the fabric. Because of that, only one colour can be applied at a time and my choice of colours is limited. It also takes more time to print. Saying that this method is good for large batches.

A picture of a DTG printer showing how Crypto Daddy prints its crypto t-shirts

DTG printing

With DTG printing, a printer directly applies the ink onto the t-shirt with inkjet technology. It’s almost like printing on a piece of paper, except you print on a t-shirt. DTG uses special water-based inks, which are absorbed by the fibres of the garment. Because of that, with DTG printing my printing is precise, I can create images with a greater level of detail and I am also not limited in terms of colours. The disadvantage of this method is that it is not as cost-effective as screen printing, especially for large batches.

For me, the choice was obvious and I went with DTG printing. This allows me to create designs quickly and server variable and sometimes unpredictable demand.

A picture of the t-shirt printing process

Shipments

I don't print the designs myself. They are printed by 3 fulfilment centres across the globe. 2 in the USA and 1 in Latvia. The 2 fulfilment centres in the US essentially handle all the US orders and some orders from Australia. Most of the demand comes from the US, so it makes sense. The fulfilment centre in Latvia handles all other international orders.

Despite that, I still sometimes ship international orders from the US fulfilment centre. For example, we had a customer who wanted an XS "Green Market" t-shirt. The fulfilment centre in Latvia doesn't do XS sizes, so we shipped it from the US. Just reach out if you want something specific!

Quality and legal control

It may seem as if the fulfilment centres are just printing products for us, but it's not entirely true. Our fulfilment centres are also responsible for quality control and legal control. Each t-shirt is examined individually before and after printing to ensure that everything is ok and we can send it to the customer. For example, due to DTG printers, we can have semi-transparent elements in our designs, so they sometimes remind myself and Mohim about that.

As for the legal control, I try to research the design myself beforehand to ensure that I am not breaking any copyrights or trademarks, but I don't have a huge amount of legal experience, so it's good to have a second pair of eyes looking at the designs at the fulfilment centre.

A picture of a factory where Crypto Daddy produces its crypto t-shirts

One time where I screwed up was with my Yoda design idea (you may already see where the problem is). I designed a "BTC I Trust, Hodl I Must" shirt with Yoda on it and I liked it so much I just put it up on the store without checking if it breaks any trademarks. Ismails, a legal person from our Latvian fulfilment centre, emailed me a few hours later saying that I can't have that design on the store because Disney owns all the rights to Yoda. So yeah, shame it happened, but good experience for the future.

Once the product is printed, the fulfilment centre prints our shipping label and ships the product to you. We use a huge range of shipping options depending on where you live. That way Crypto Daddy can ship internationally with the most suitable and safe option for you.

Unfortunately, I can't ship to Cuba, Iran and North Korea because of sanctions.

Conclusion

A picture of the staff at the fulfulment centre Crypto Daddy uses

I hope you enjoyed the read. I tried to make it as exciting and informative as possible, but I totally get it if you don't find the same kick as I do from doing shirt printing. This is just super fun for me.

Also, I hope this brings more clarity to the process. I know a few people sometimes email me to ask where their package is, so I hope this raises the curtain behind the process. I am always trying to increase printing speeds and shipping times, but because crypto is such a hot topic right now it is always a race against demand and time. Anyway, hope you understand.

Drop me a line at james@cryptodaddyshop.co or reach out on our Facebook group.