Journal

Where your order is printed, and why that decides your delivery
When you order from a shop abroad, two things usually go wrong: the parcel takes three weeks, and a customs bill arrives after it. Both come from the same cause. The item crossed a border. The order goes to the nearest workshop Rippwiller does not ship from one country. Each order is routed to the print workshop closest to the delivery address, among five territories: the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Australia. The artwork file travels, not the shirt. An order placed in Chicago is... Read more...
Why a made to order label never has a sale
Look at any clothing brand's calendar and you find the same rhythm: a collection arrives, sells at full price for a few weeks, loses twenty percent, then forty, then lands in an outlet. That rhythm is not generosity. It is the sound of stock being cleared. Where the discount actually comes from A traditional label has to guess. It decides months in advance how many pieces of each design in each size it will need, pays for all of them up front, and stores them. The guess is never right.... Read more...
How to wash a printed t-shirt so the print outlives the shirt
A printed shirt rarely dies from the print failing. It dies from the way it is washed. Here is what actually matters, in the order it matters. 1. Turn it inside out. This is the big one. In a washing machine, garments rub against each other and against the drum. That abrasion is what dulls a print, not the water and not the detergent. Turning the shirt inside out puts the cotton on the outside and the print on the inside, where nothing touches it. It costs two seconds and... Read more...
DTG or screen printing: what actually changes on the shirt you receive
Every printed t-shirt you own was made one of two ways. The difference is not a detail of manufacturing: it decides what the artwork can look like, how the shirt feels, and how the print ages. Here is what actually separates them. Screen printing lays ink on top A screen is a fine mesh stretched on a frame, blocked everywhere except where the ink should pass. The printer pushes thick plastisol ink through that opening onto the fabric, then cures it at around 160 degrees Celsius. The ink sits on... Read more...