Finding and vetting suppliers
Where do we find a merch printer, and how do we check them?
The quickest way to a merch printer is through the companies that sell to printers: the makers of plain garments publish lists of the print shops they supply, and the merch you already rate names who made it. Check any supplier the same way, with a paid sample, a delivery date and a minimum in writing, its terms on shortages and proof of insurance, before an order is placed.
Who does what
A printed shirt passes through several companies before a fan holds it, and most acts only ever speak to one of them. Five kinds of supplier do the work between a plain garment and a sale. A merch line rarely needs all five.
- The garmentBlank wholesaler
Stocks plain garments from many makers and sells them by the box, to trade customers.
- The printPrinter
Puts the design on, by screen, transfer or embroidery. Many also label, fold and bag.
- One at a timePrint-on-demand network
Keeps plain garments on the shelf, prints one item after each order and posts it to the buyer.
- Stored stock3PL
A warehouse for hire. It stores printed stock, then picks, packs and posts each order.
- On tourVending partner
Staffs the merch table at a show, counts the stock in and out, and settles with the venue.
Not every item passes through all five. A print-on-demand network does the first three jobs itself.
Which of them a line needs depends on how it is sold. A store that prints on demand needs one supplier, because the network buys the blank, prints it and posts it. A run printed in bulk needs a printer, who normally buys the blanks as part of the job, and somewhere to keep the boxes. A tour adds the people behind the table.
Some companies run the whole chain for an act and deal with every one of these suppliers themselves. Divini, which writes this Manual, is one of them.
Where to find each kind
Suppliers mostly sell to each other, not to artists. A search for a merch printer finds the companies that advertise to the public and misses most of the trade. Each kind of supplier has a better way in.
| Kind | In the UK | In the US |
|---|---|---|
| Blank wholesaler | Ralawise and PenCarrie, each by trade account. | The list of distributors a maker of blanks publishes. Bella+Canvas’s is sorted by state. |
| Printer | Stanley/Stella’s list of official dealers, which it links as “Find a printer”. The label and the store footer of merch you already rate. | The same label and footer. Printers that publish their lead times, as Threadbird does. |
| Print-on-demand network | The print-on-demand category of a store platform’s app store. Prodigi has its own facilities in the UK. | The same category, where Printful and Printify are listed. |
| 3PL | The UK Warehousing Association’s member directory. | By quote. ShipBob, in Chicago, prices each customer separately. |
| Vending partner | Bandstand Merchandise Services, registered in Solihull. The partner pages of atVenu, which makes settlement software. | PDS, in Las Vegas. atVenu’s partner pages. |
Examples, not recommendations, and not a complete list. Every company named was trading on the day this guide was reviewed.
Filed or disclosedEach company’s or association’s own pages. · Source: Ralawise, About us, PenCarrie, About us, Bella+Canvas, Distributor locator, Stanley/Stella, Official dealers, Threadbird, Turnaround and shipping FAQs, Shopify App Store, Print on demand, Prodigi, About, UK Warehousing Association, Member directory, ShipBob, Pricing, Bandstand Merchandise Services, PDS, Event merchandising, atVenu, Partners in Action · checked
Blank wholesalers
Wholesalers sell to businesses that decorate garments, and an account has to be applied for. Ralawise, a UK distributor, stocks over 100 brands and 4,000 styles. It takes sole traders as well as companies, and passes an applicant who does not qualify to a supplier who can help. PenCarrie, another, describes its trade as distributing clothing to the decoration industry.
Filed or disclosedSource: Ralawise, About us, Ralawise, Trade registration, PenCarrie, About us · checked
The United States works the same way. Bella+Canvas, which makes blanks, says its wholesale distributors sell only to buyers who are registered to resell. Its advice to a brand without that registration is to order through a print shop, which sources the blanks as part of the job.
Filed or disclosedSource: Bella+Canvas, Where to get Bella+Canvas blanks · checked
So most acts never open a wholesale account. The printer buys the blanks. What a wholesaler or a maker is useful for is the name of the garment: the brand, the style code and the colour that a quote will be priced on. The trade also meets in public. Printwear & Promotion LIVE!, a show at the NEC in Birmingham, had more than 120 exhibitors of blank garments and decorating equipment in 2026, and returns on 21 to 23 February 2027.
Filed or disclosedSource: Printwear & Promotion LIVE! · checked
Printers
The makers of blanks know who prints on them. Stanley/Stella sells through what it calls official dealers, and publishes the list, by country, behind a link that reads “Find a printer”. It describes them as textile decoration experts across Europe.
Filed or disclosedSource: Stanley/Stella, Official dealers · checked
The second route is the merch itself. The neck label names the blank. The store it was bought from often names the company behind it. In September 2026 Divini read 1,099 online stores belonging to artists and creators, to see who ran each one. The outside companies it found were named in places a buyer rarely reads: a “powered by” credit in the footer, an “operated by” line in the terms of service, and the email address on the returns or contact page.
Divini’s own dataDivini’s own reading of storefronts, run in September 2026. It tried 1,350 stores and could read 1,099. · checked
A printer found either way can be asked for its price list and its terms. Printers that publish their terms, as Fifth Column in London does, or their lead times, as Threadbird in Florida does, can be compared before anyone picks up a phone.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, Terms and conditions, Threadbird, Turnaround and shipping FAQs · checked
Print-on-demand networks
Print-on-demand networks are the easiest kind to find, because they list on the store platforms. Shopify’s app store has a category for them. What differs is who owns the presses. Prodigi runs its own facilities in the UK, the US and mainland Europe, and adds partner printers around them. Gelato routes orders to more than 250 print providers in 32 countries, and Printify to a partner network of 141 facilities. Where an order is printed decides how long the parcel takes and whether it crosses a border, so it is the first thing to ask.
Filed or disclosedSource: Shopify App Store, Print on demand, Prodigi, About, Gelato, Printify · checked
Warehouses
A 3PL is worth having only once there is stock to store. In the UK the trade body is the UK Warehousing Association, and it publishes a directory of its members. Expect a monthly floor. One UK fulfilment company advertises its service from £1,500 a month. ShipBob, which runs fulfilment centres in the US, the UK and elsewhere, lists the kinds of fee it charges and no prices, and says every quote is made for the customer.
Filed or disclosedSource: UK Warehousing Association, Member directory, Huboo, Our fulfilment costs, ShipBob, Pricing · checked
Vending partners
Vending companies are the hardest kind to find. They sell to merch companies and to venues, not to acts, so they do not advertise where an act would look. Bandstand Merchandise Services, registered in Solihull, offers artists “sales services, sales management and advice” and venues concession services, and says it is independent of any merchandise provider. PDS, in Las Vegas, supplies stalls, trailers, trained sellers and a till system, and says it sold nearly 2.5 million items at 23 venues in 2022. atVenu, which makes settlement software for merch tables, publishes interviews with companies that sell on it, and vending companies are among them.
Filed or disclosedSource: Bandstand Merchandise Services, Companies House, Bandstand Merchandise Services Ltd, PDS, Event merchandising, atVenu, Partners in Action · checked
None of them posts a rate. In September 2026 Divini went through fourteen companies that staff merch tables or hire out merch trailers, in the UK and the US. One published a price list, and it was for a trailer.
Divini’s own dataDivini’s own check of fourteen companies’ sites, made in September 2026. · checked
That one is TCM Trailers, in Lichfield. It hires a merchandise trailer for £1,755 to £2,200 plus VAT for a day, and £2,295 to £2,740 for a week, delivered to and collected from any site in England or Wales. Everything else is quoted, show by show, against the tour’s dates.
Filed or disclosedSource: TCM Trailers, Merchandise and retail trailer hire · checked
How to vet one
The checks are the same for every kind of supplier. See the work. Get the dates and the quantities in writing. Read the terms. Find out who pays when something goes wrong. Fifth Column, a London printer that began printing shirts in 1977, publishes its price list, its answers to customers’ questions and its terms in full. That makes it a fair example of what any printer will say once asked.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, Our heritage, Fifth Column, Our prices, Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s, Fifth Column, Terms and conditions · checked
The company
Start with who it is. The footer of a supplier’s site should give a company name and number. Look up the number, not the trading name: a brand can pass from one company to another, and the age and the accounts that matter are those of the company being paid. In the UK the search is free. Companies House shows a company’s registered address, its date of incorporation, its current and past officers, the documents it has filed, and any insolvency.
Official sourceSource: GOV.UK, Get information about a company · checked
Samples
A sample is the only proof that this printer can print this design on this garment. It costs money, because a press has to be set up to make it. Fifth Column charges £50 to £140 for a printed sample, by the number of colours, and takes the charge off the invoice if the order that follows is for more than 500 pieces. Plain samples of a garment can be bought as well, and cannot be returned.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, Our prices, Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s · checked
Wash the sample before approving it. With a print-on-demand network the sample is an ordinary order sent to your own address, and it tests more than the print: how long the parcel took, what it was packed in, and whose name was on the label.
Turnaround
A quoted turnaround is production time, and the clock does not start when the order is sent. Fifth Column quotes 7 to 10 working days plus shipping. It calls that an estimate, and starts counting only when the order is paid for, every detail is in and the proof has been approved. Threadbird quotes 10 to 15 business days for printed apparel, or 15 to 20 where tags, folding or bagging are added, and then 1 to 5 days in transit. Printful, a print-on-demand network, quotes 2 to 5 business days to make and dispatch an order, before the carrier’s time.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s, Threadbird, Turnaround and shipping FAQs, Printful, Shipping · checked
So the useful question is not how long a job takes. It is what day the boxes will arrive, and what day the artwork has to be approved for that to happen.
Minimums
Minimums follow the print method. Screen printing needs a screen made for every colour, so it has a floor. At Fifth Column that is 50 garments a design, and a standard screen costs £30 a colour to set up. A white layer under a light ink on a dark garment is a screen of its own, so white on black is priced as two colours. DTG, which prints without screens, has no minimum there.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s, Fifth Column, Our prices · checked
The same terms hold a rule that catches people out: an order can arrive short. Fifth Column does not reprint a shortage of up to 10% of a design. It refunds the missing pieces, and advises anyone who needs an exact count to order 10% more of each size. Faults have to be reported within 72 hours of delivery. Screens are kept for two months, after which a repeat order pays £15 a screen to reset them.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, Terms and conditions, Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s, Fifth Column, Our prices · checked
Ask for the minimum order quantity for each design and for each colour of garment, and for the price at the next break up. Fifth Column’s prices step down at 100, 250, 500 and 1,000 pieces.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, Bulk wholesale t-shirt printing · checked
Insurance
Ask three questions, and ask for the certificate each time. The first is about stock. A warehouse does not insure what it stores. Under the UK Warehousing Association’s standard conditions, which its members can contract on, the warehouse’s liability for loss or damage is limited to £100 a tonne unless the customer pays for more. For printed clothing that is next to nothing, so stock in a warehouse needs its owner’s own cover.
Filed or disclosedThe association’s own account of its conditions of contract, published in April 2024. · Source: Warehouse & Logistics News, Gold standard protection for warehouse keepers · checked
The second is about people. A UK employer has to hold employers’ liability insurance of at least £5 million, and can be fined £2,500 for every day without it. A company that puts sellers behind a table should be able to show its certificate.
Official sourceSource: GOV.UK, Employers’ liability insurance · checked
The third is about the product. In the UK, a business that makes, imports, distributes or sells a consumer product is responsible for its safety, and manufacturers, and sometimes others in the supply chain, are liable for it under the Consumer Protection Act 1987. Government guidance says many businesses take out product liability insurance for that reason, and that it is not the same as general business cover.
Official sourceSource: GOV.UK, Product safety advice for businesses · checked
Two more questions for a vending partner
A vending partner is asked two more things before price. The first is who is the merchant of record at the table: whose till the sale goes through, whose bank account the money lands in, and whose tax registration covers it. The second is what comes back after each show. The answer worth having is a count by item and by size for every night, because the next print order is built on it.
- The company is on the register, and activeLook up the number in the site’s footer. In the UK, Companies House is free.
- You have a printed sample of your own designOn the garment you will order, paid for, and washed.
- You know where the work is doneIn the supplier’s own building, or passed to another company.
- The turnaround is a date, in writingThe day the boxes arrive, and the day your approval is needed by.
- You know the minimumFor each design, and for each colour of garment.
- Every one-off charge is listedScreens, artwork, samples, labels, folding and bagging.
- You know what happens when an order arrives shortWhether a shortage is refunded or reprinted, and up to what share of the run.
- You know how long you have to report a faultIt can be a matter of days.
- You know how long the screens are keptAnd what a repeat order costs once they are gone.
- The payment terms are statedWithout an account, a first order may have to be paid in full, up front.
- You have seen the insurance certificatesEmployers’ liability, where the supplier provides people. Cover for your stock, where it holds it.
- A print-on-demand network: you have ordered to your own addressAnd you know which country your orders will be printed in.
- A warehouse: you know the monthly minimumAnd the limit on its liability for stored stock.
- A vending partner: it is the merchant of record at the tableIts till, its bank account, its tax registration.
- A vending partner: it reports every show by item and by sizeAsk to see a report from a past show.
- A vending partner: unsold stock comes back countedTo an address you name, by a date you agree.
The quote request
A vague request gets a vague price, or no reply. A printer prices five things: the garment, the print, the quantity, the finishing and the delivery. A request that fixes all five can go to three printers in the same words, and the answers can be laid side by side.
- The garment
- Brand, style code and colour. Say whether an equivalent would do.
- The quantity
- By design, by colour and by size. Ask for the price at two or three quantities.
- The print
- The method, the position and size of each print, and the number of ink colours in each. Say if the garment is dark.
- The artwork
- Attach it, as a vector file or at 300 dpi at the size it will print.
- The finishing
- Neck labels or neck prints, hem tags, folding, bagging and size stickers. Each is priced by the piece: Fifth Column charges 45p a garment to fold and bag, and from 75p a label.
- The delivery
- The address, the day the stock is needed in hand, and whether it goes to one place or several.
Filed or disclosedSource: Fifth Column, F.A.Q.s, Fifth Column, Our prices, Fifth Column, Garment finishing · checked
A garment made to order, and not bought plain and printed, needs a tech pack sent with the request: the drawings, measurements and materials a factory makes it from.
Ask for the same things back from each.
- A unit price at each quantity, with the garment and the print shown apart.
- Every one-off charge: screens, artwork and samples.
- The turnaround from approval, and what a rush costs.
- The price and the lead time of a repeat order.
- The terms on shortages, misprints and faults.
- The payment terms, and whether the prices include VAT.
A vending partner is sent something different, and will not price without dates. Send the routing: every date, city, venue and capacity. Give one estimate of what a show will take, and say that it is an estimate. Ask for the same show priced each way it might be charged, as a share of sales, as a rate for the show, and as cost plus a fee, so that the offers can be compared. Ask for a trailer as a line of its own.