RTP Apparel kick started the Ready To Print DTG shirt market in 2016 and has continually worked to improve our products over the years. In this article we wanted to take a quick look at the "differences" between many of the new Ready To Print type shirts that are entering this market space by bigger players.
First and the most obvious if the construction and quality of the shirts. Yes, many competitors utilize a 30/1 fabric, however the quality of the RTP Apparel fabric provides a much smoother, more noticable print surface. In addition the color density of the black shirts are extremely noticeableThe RTP Apparel black shirt is actually a rich black making it considerably "blacker" the competing shirts.
In addition, competitors to RTP Apparel have decided to go with a tubular style shirt vs the RTP Apparel which is a side-seamed shirt. This play big into fit as well as after the fact washing. Many people prefer a side seamed shirt which offers additional benefits such as twist resistance after washing. This is especially susceptible in a tubular shirt that has pretreatment technology built into the shirt. What can happen is the print may look great on a tubular style shirt, but after washing the shirt body can twist (think like a pretzel stick) and thus distorting the image originally printed as well as the actual "fit" of the shirt.
Some DTG Ready shirts really do not stack up to the print quality of the actual RTP Apparel shirts. As can be seen in the image below that the solid white layers are much whiter (more solid with a higher opacity) than the white layer on competing shirts. This results in brighter whites with the same printer settings as well as increased vibrancy of the colors printed on top of these white underbases.
(ABOVE: Left side is a competing DTG Ready to Print shirt while the Right side is the official RTP Apparel Black 1600 Style shirt)
In addition, RTP Apparel currently is available in 13 colors in our standard short sleeve t-shirt, as well as having youth sizes in many of these colors, having a Women's Racerback tank top and a long sleeve T-Shirt. All DTG Ready To Print and capable of being printed on anywhere on the shirt, even the tag area (which all tags for RTP Apparel products are tear away tags).
And finally we come to the question we get asked often about which is shelf life. RTP Apparel is the ONLY company manufacturing Ready To Print shirts than can quantitatively show that we have NOT found a shelf life yet for our DTG shirts. We still have original shirts from 2015 (remember we launched in 2016 commercially) that still print perfectly fine. As far as our shirts sitting on a shelf outside the box and bag, we again have not really quantified a shelf life. We highly recommend that DTG Ready To Print shirts no matter the brand do not sit on a shelf like that due to the collection of dust, lint and UV exposure from the sun or fluorescent lights. The best print results from a shirt that is as clean and lint free as possible.
We can see that in these examples shown above that RTP Apparel has set the bar extremely high for anyone wanting to create a Ready To Print shirt. We have the experience, the quality, and the stock to make DTG printing easier, faster, cleaner and more profitable. RTP Apparel is the original O.G. in this market and we are working hard to maintain that status.
SPECIAL NOTE: RTP APPAREL IS IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP - just visit our website at shop.rtpapparel.com to view our