I am trying to get some shirts printed and have gone to a popular internet based company. For a low quantity (under 15) they want £38 per shirt inc VAT!!!! and that’s with me doing all the design work.
Does anyone work in printing and know what kind of printing it is they use on race jerseys and why it’s sooo expensive?

that seems like a good price to me

vistaprint! or there are usually some good small businesses in every town that would do it (and would be my preference over vp).

Cycling buddy has his own business i-d give Steve a shout. I’m sure he’ll sort you out. steve-id at hotmail.com

For a low quantity (under 15)

I’d say your quandary lies there.

A lot depends on your design. If heat transfer can be used, the price will come down as there is minimal setup. Sounds like there quoting for screen printing which has a high setup cost

So is screen printing what Troy lee and Royal etc use?

38 is a lot less than you’d pay for a decent quality cycling shirt, so its a bargain for a personally designed cycling jersey.

Problem is, it’s not.
While RRP on a named jersey may be in the high 40’s or early 50’s what you actually pay is a lot less. It’s easy to pick up a Troy Lee, Royal or Fox jersey for £30 or less if you look around.
I understand what you mean but I guess I was making the comparison with T-shirts. £20-25 for a good quality printed one from the shops or £7 if you go to a shirt printer with a design to put on it.

Cycling jerseys are sublimation printed. The ink costs a fortune (0ver £250 to fill a printer).
If you go to Impsport or Owayo they will onto plain white panels and then sew them together – hence the cost.

You say you’ve done all the artwork, but I bet my house it’ll need a lot of work before it’s print ready.

£38 per shirt is cheap.

Anything like this in small numbers results in a relatively high unit cost, regardless of whether there are physical set up costs, or artwork prep costs, small jobs from novice customers are a pain in the arse and are often expensive for that reason alone. But the price you are being quoted isn’t expensive for what you want.

Cycle shirts are sublimation printed, as noted above. They have to be printed on flat material, which then has to match up when sewn together, and then have to resist sweat, (bloody leaky valve camelbak…) drink, blood, snot, and lots and lots of washing. They start off white, which is why every colour other than white usually causes an extra cost.

The original drawing has to be a vector thingy, not just done on a fag packet.

Worth trying http://www.thecyclejersey.com/tcj-custom-jerseys.htm done some good stuff for me in the past.

They start off white, which is why every colour other than white usually causes an extra cost.

Number of colours doesn’t affect sublimation costs. One colour or full colour, it’s all the same.

Number of colours doesn’t affect sublimation costs

It does if the producer charges for it…

we have used owaya for years and the quality is top notch, not the cheapest but you get what you pay for.