FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
These are some of the questions that pop up in our customers mind once in a while. So go ahead , if you dont see something you want to know about – Contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible
Although we manufacture 2000 pieces a day, in order to cater to each and every customer who approach us, the minimum quantity has been kept as low as 50 pieces per print per style which no other supplier will accept to supply. These can be given from our ready stock of colors and styles.
We normally maintain a wide range of color options throughout the year to meet the urgent requirements of our regular clients. The standard colors normally available with us are white, Black, Navy Blue, Red, Grey Heather, White Heather, Hunter Green, Aqua Blue, Royal Blue, Lemon Yellow, Sky Blue, Maroon, Ivory, Tangerine, Orange, Lime Green, and Black Mélange. Please see the color card in ‘making of t.shirt section’.But if a specific color other than the above is required the same too is possible and the minimum quantity is 100 pieces and more per color. The delivery time will be around 15-20 days and the cost will be little higher than the t.shirts made from ready stock colors.
Yes. You can very well design your own T Shirt. As we normally keep fabrics in ready stock and make t.shirts only against orders, we can give you any style, patterns in t.shirt styling in any color or combination of colors.But if you choose to order t.shirts in colors other than readily available with us, the minimum order quantity should be about 100 to 200 t.shirts depending on the colors and pattern selected. The cost will also be little higher than the t.shirts made from ready stock colors.
Printing and embroidery are the most popular ways of branding.
If you choose to do printing, we can recommend you the best type of printing based on your purpose, style and fabric.
A few of the popular printing options are given below:
1. Pigment Printing: This is the oldest type of traditional printing and is a water based method .It is possible only on white or light color garments. Printing can be ironed upon.
2. White Opaque Water Based Printing (locally called as ‘Khadi’ Printing.) – This was the age old method used to print on dark garments. It has a poor opacity. Printing can be ironed upon.
3. Plastic/Plastisol Printing: Ideal to print on light/dark garments and it has good opacity. In these, fine letterings and alignments are easy to attain. This is the most popular technique of printing the world over. Printing cannot be ironed upon.
4. Transfer sticker printing: Ideal to print halftone designs like photographs and sceneries and works very economical in large scale production. For small quantities, the development cost may constitute to a significant amount of the cost per piece of printing. Nevertheless the printing cannot be ironed upon. The edges may start fraying after a few washes. A thin film is formed on the garment.
5. Sublimation Printing: Printing is possible only on 100% Polyester garment. Excellent vibrancy of colors. Printing of small quantities is also possible. Unlike transfer printing there is no development cost. The layer of ink cannot be felt.
6. Direct to garment printing: Also known as DTG printing, digital garment printing and inkjet to garment printing, is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology. This technology is still at a very primary stage and is evolving. Printing lacks vibrancy.
7. High Density printing: High density printing is done through a process of adding layers of ink on top of one another to create depth and 3D graphics.
8. Foil printing: Foil applications are a great way to add shine to your custom garments. Makes your t-shirt stands out with this special effect technique.Types of foil possible are gold, silver and brass. The foil may peel off after a few washes.
9. Discharge printing: It is also called Extract Printing. This method involves printing a ‘color destroying’ agent such as chlorine or hydrosulphite, to bleach out a white or light pattern on the darker colored ground. In color discharge printing, a dye impervious to the bleaching agent is combined with it, producing a colored design instead of white on the dyed ground. In this type, it is difficult to give exact print color matching.
10. Rotary printing: Images to be printed are curved around a cylinder. Large volumes of the same repeat printing such as the camouflage printing is attained through rotary printing.
11. Flock printing: It gives a velvet kind of a feel to print. After printing a layer of gum onto the garment, flock powder (available in multi colors) is sprinkled over the printed gum.
Like printing, we can embroider all designs and matters on the t.shirts in any size and at all places. But shades of colors or halftone images or photographs etc. cannot be embroidered. Only cut color images can be embroidered.
It is always preferable to know the sizes of the users and order accordingly. Various brands follow their own size specifications. Therefore, to avoid disappointment to the receiver due to misfit, their shirt size should be taken into account. Irrespective of the brand, shirt sizes are almost standard and then the same should be converted into t-shirts sizes as per the table below. It is also advisable to check the measurement chart given for each category (regular fit & slim fit) before finalizing the sizes.
Normally, we require around 10 to 15 days for manufacturing order specific styles. It also depends on various factors such as style, quality and quantity. In case of urgency, our delivery time could be just 24 hours with printing/branding if you choose from our stock colors and styles.
The t.shirts can be delivered anywhere in India. Delivery will be free within city limits in Chennai & Bangalore and a nominal charge will be levied if delivery has to be made in suburbs. We ship the goods via air, rail, road & sea to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Trivandrum, Ernakulum, Cochin, Coimbatore, Trichy, Thanjavur, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Salem and to the destination of your choice anywhere in India on a freight ‘To-Pay’ basis.
Knitted cotton always shrinks on wash. However, all our t.shirts are made from pre- shrunk fabric. The fabric is subjected to a process called ‘compacting’ whereby the shrinkage is controlled to less than 5% (internationally accepted norm).
Color fastness: T.shirts of SK Enterprise are guaranteed for color fastness when washed carefully following wash care instructions for cotton garments. The T Shirts will not bleed or soil other clothes washed along with it. Color bleeding normally occurs when poor quality of dyes is used to save on cost of manufacture.
Fading: Sunlight contains ultraviolet (UV) radiation and it is this that causes colors to fade. When we dry the clothes in sunlight after washing, they fade very fast. We can take some steps to reduce fading when we hang our clothes out to dry after washing them. As a first step, we should try to dry them in shade. Secondly, turn the clothes inside out when we hang them out to dry. Any fading which occurs on the inside of the garment is not likely to be noticeable. Finally, do not leave the darker clothes on the line for longer than it takes to dry them. .
The quality of a t.shirt depends upon the following:
a. Good quality of yarn: There are many varieties of yarn like carded, combed, semi combed etc depending upon the cost. Combed cotton is superior to semi or carded. Combed yarn will give a smooth fabric whereas the carded yarn will give a coarse fabric. Cotton balls start surfacing after a few washes if the yarn is a semi combed or carded.
b. Knitting where yarn is converted into fabric: There are Indian and imported knitting machines and fabric will be fine when knitting is done in high quality imported knitting machines.
c. Dyeing/Bleaching: This is a very important process and when dyeing or bleaching is done by a soft flow dyeing process using azo-free dyes, the result will be good quality fabric with color fastness and good finish and feel.
d. Compacting: This is the process whereby the fabric is converted into ‘pre shrunk fabric’. Doing this process with an imported, American or German machine will give a better result than doing with a local machine.
e. Printing/Embroidery: Printing should be done in a multi head machine with quality dyes by skilled and experienced persons, followed by another process called fusing, for a perfect finish, bright look and long life. If we use inferior and cheaper printing dyes, the printing will not last long and will go away after each wash. Embroidery in Japanese machines will be very good whereas done in a Chinese/Korean machines will only be average.
f. Production: The compacted fabric is then made into quality garments using imported Japanese sewing and other necessary machines. Then each and every garment is subjected to thorough inspection with respect to ‘export standards’ by trained quality controllers. Finally they are ironed and packed.
SK Enterprise uses only combed yarn for most of its products, fabric is knitted by ‘Mayer& Cie’imported machines, dyeing done by eco friendly azo-free soft flow dyeing proces
You must have heard people talking about GSM when they discuss about t.shirts. GSM means ‘grams per square meter’ of the fabric which is used for making the t.shirts. It is not possible for a non industry person to determine the GSM of a garment unless a lab test is done to determine the same.
GSM for t.shirts is decided depending upon the actual purpose of the t.shirt, season, climate, country, individual’s preference etc. For example, during summer the GSM may be less and for winter orders it will be higher. For uniforms it may be higher and for casual wear it can be less.
This is a myth. The longevity and quality of a t.shirt is assured only by quality of raw materials and processes (refer earlier question) and not simply by GSM.
The quality of a t.shirt is assured only by quality of raw materials & processes and not simply by GSM. It is very unfortunate that many people while comparing the price of a garment of various manufacturers use GSM as a bench mark. It is an absolute myth, which many people believe, that higher the GSM, higher the quality of the t.shirt is.
In order to give cheaper prices, many companies increase the GSM alone and compromise on other parameters like using inferior quality carded/semi combed yarn, knitting of fabric by old machines, dyeing processes at out dated polluting units with cheaper dyes with no color fastness, steam calendaring instead of compacting , printing with sub standard dyes and embroidery at local machines. And the garments are made by sub contracting to local job work units without any quality inspection or procedure.
As a result of this, the t.shirt looks heavy but it will fail in all other qualities like dyeing fastness, feel, finish, shrinkage control, print/embroidery quality. Thickness of a garment does not guarantee its longevity. So, it is advisable to go in for professional companies like ‘SK Enterprise’ for your t.shirt needs though the prices may be little higher compared to those smaller fly by night companies, to get a guaranteed quality.
For printing, if the design is a simple one like a slogan or sentence etc.without many colors and intricate designs, a JPEG image would be enough. But if the design has many colors, detailed designs or company logos which have to be reproduced exactly, we need a .CDR (Corel draw with convert to curves or publish to service bureau) or .AI (Adobe illustrator) or EPS file with text converted to curves to get a perfect output in printing. For embroidery a good quality JPG file will suffice. In either case a physical printout is very much necessary to match the colors. This is because the color on the monitor may vary from computer to computer and output may differ from your expectation and therefore a signed printout is necessary.
The first important point we should consider is whether the image is copy righted or not. Even if is a free usable one without any copyright problem, the images given in the websites are good enough only for web with resolution not more than 72 dpi. The lower the number of dpi, the lower is the quality of the image. For screen printing the resolution should be high in the range of 200 dpi or more. If the resolution is not good, the detail in the image will suffer tremendously. Secondly, it is difficult to print if you give a jpeg image that has multiple colors in it. It is better you ask your agency for a VECTOR image to get a good result in screen printing.
Yes. You can get paid samples from our ready stock of plain t.shirts if you wish to see or show the t.shirts to your colleagues or higher authorities for quality approval. But if you need sample of your exact requirement of t.shirt in the design, style, color, size of your choice with printing/embroidery, you have to pay the sampling costs which will include designing, screen making and printing charges along with t.shirt making expenses which will vary depending upon the t.shirt design. These sampling charges may be adjusted in the order value when the order for that particular t.shirt is placed with us.
We suggest you to order an additional buffer quantity while placing the initial order itself. Ordering an additional quantity later will cost a lot more.
Any copy righted logo or name is illegal to print unless you have the rights to do so. SK Enterprise, as a company which follows ethical and moral values in business does not believe in stealing or using copy righted designs and does not entertain such requests.
The cost of a t.shirt depends on many factors like style of the t.shirt, quality, color, printing/embroidery works, delivery time and above all the quantity of the order. More the quantity less will be the price and vice versa. To give you an approximate idea of the prices, round neck t.shirt will be in the range of Rs.150/- to Rs.250/- each, collar t.shirt – Rs.200/- to Rs.400/- each, sweat shirt/pullover/hoodie – Rs.350/- to Rs.550/- each, caps – Rs.50/- to Rs.100/- each. Relevant taxes will be extra.