WHERE TO PRINT BAND MERCH?
We created this page because we got tired of seeing how our designs are being butchered by various printing companies that our clients order from. The main issue is that most printing shops don’t specialize in band merch. They print marketing merch and shirts for employees. They have no idea what a metal band shirt must look like. As a result, you get a small print with weird placement, the colors are completely off, and the quality of the print doesn’t call for a good selling price. Or, what’s even worse, your design is rejected because it’s “too detailed”, “has too many colors”, or “too big for their equipment”. And let me tell you, in 99% of cases, this is complete bullshit.
We have contacted dozens of bands to understand what printing companies deliver the best result with our designs. We have two definite winners. One for the European market and one for the US/Canada market. This makes sense because you don’t want to order 50 shirts from another part of the world, do you? These companies are the absolute best in their industry. They specialize in printing band merch, they have all the best equipment, and they have years of experience and thousands of satisfied customers.
Where to print band merch in Europe?
REAL PIMP MERCHANDISE is our favorite merch printing shop in the EU. They print shirts not only for European bands, but also for many American, Canadian, and Australian bands that come for their EU tours. Janos, Real Pimp’s CEO, is a long-time metalhead and a touring musician in the past. He has created his company with a vision to deliver the kind of merch that he would wear himself. He knows what musicians expect, but he also knows what their fans want to wear. He set up an awesome printing factory in Budapest, Hungary, with the best equipment in the industry that allows them to screen print designs with almost any number of colors that cover the whole area of the shirt. They can make a lot of cool stuff like custom-printed neck labels, silicone surface treatment, etc. Their capacity is up to 3000 shirts a day, which allows them to deliver even big quantities of band merch fast. If you are a small band, though, don’t worry! The minimum order is 50 shirts, so you can get your shirts with minimum investments.
The guys have access to various textile brands. They know what models are good quality for good money, so they won’t leave you choosing from hundreds that all seem the same to you in pictures online. They have cheap yet quality options like Gildan Heavy Cotton (I’m sure 90% of band merch you ever bought was printed on this Gildan model), but they also have more expensive high-tier clothing like bulky oversized shirts or very soft hoodies.
To sum things up, here are a few bullet points about why we recommend Real Pimp:
They ONLY work with band merch.
They can print up to 10 colors, which allows the printing of almost photorealistic designs.
They print on the whole area of the shirt, which looks so much better than a standard A3 print that you would get from most companies.
They have an excellent choice of textiles from the classics like Gildan Heavy Cotton to high-tier quality clothing like versized shirts.
You can read more about Real Pimp on their website. Don’t hesitate to reach out to them for a quote. And once you get your awesome new shirts, don’t forget to tag us on IG or send a picture, so we can once again make sure that we made the right choice.
Where to print band merch in the US and Canada?
....coming soon...