How a husband and wife team diversified their promotions and photography business, and brought custom t shirt printing in-house.
From the motor sports track side, owners of Hi-Octane EventsRyan and Amanda Cobb decided to bring production in-house and launch their merchandise business - Shirts 247. With the help of Machines Plus and their new Epson garment printer, they’re set to put Shirts 247 in overdrive, as their lead income earner.
Deciding to in-source with DTG printing
Ryan and Amanda know how to promote motor sports. Their motor sports promotions and photography business, Hi-Octane, takes them all over Australia. But it was time to step into t- shirt printing and DTG. After having outsourced their merchandise to a local printer for many years, they decided it was time to do it themselves.
“Finding quality merchandise was difficult”, says Ryan, “and at smaller quantities. And bringing production in-house and extending our merchandise range was a natural next step for our promotions business.”
“We started looking at an alternative to screen printing. Screen printing is a big investment needing large quantities. When we found we could print just five to ten shirts at a time with DTG printing, we were very interested in becoming self-sufficient and producing our own merchandise.”
Choosing the right technology
After four months of research, Ryan and Amanda settled on the Epson F2160 to do all of their garment printing. “The Epson F2160 ticked all the boxes”, says Ryan. “We had been seriously looking at the F2000, but when the F2160 model became available we jumped straight to that.”
“We knew the reputation for quality that Epson has. The reviews of the F2160 read well and the price was right.”
Work by day. Print by night
In between their day jobs, they promote, photograph and host motor sports events around Australia and print merchandise by night. So you could say they’re fairly busy. HQ is on the beautiful Sunshine Coast.
And they’re loving their new t shirt printer. “It’s awesome”, say Ryan. “We use it each day and it just works.”
Integrating the Epson F2160 to the business environment
Gus Altmann, Founder and Product Manager for Machines Plus says “Shirts 247 have an Apple environment, so we made sure that their machine was set up to support this.”
“We were on-site for two days, installing and training. With Shirts 247 being a start-up, and knowing where Ryan and Amanda want to take their business, we knew that the F2160 was the right choice. The machine will grow with them.”
“The F2160 is easy to use, easy to clean and easier to print”, says Gus.
What’s next?
Over the next 12 months, Shirts 247 are on track to have their lead business come from their merchandise.
They’ve also got plans to build a climate-controlled shed on their Sunshine Coast property, build out their production team, extend their merchandise range and really put their business into full throttle.
We can’t wait to see where they take their customers next.
Machines Plus are a digital print supplier for garment and digital decorators, of any business type or size. Gus and his team help digital decorators to get ahead in their business by selling the latest in machines, consumables and apparel for garment printing (DTG), UV printing, sublimation and heat transfer. Brands such as Epson, Ricoh, Roland DG, SawGrass, Hix, Stahl's, Siser, and Image Armor.
They partner with customers, matching the right solution to their business and provide unbeatable value and experience. Gus and his team support customers in regional Australia as well as the major cities domestically and internationally.
