(upbeat music)
- Hey, everybody.
It's Wes, here with BELLA+CANVAS.
We're taking a little field trip today
across town to go visit one of our friends
at a local print shop.
We have a brand-new product out,
and we're gonna go learn
how to do some eco-friendly printing on it.
If you watch the end of this episode,
you'll learn about this printing technique,
and our new product.
We made it here to Apliiq.
They're a print on demand company
for direct consumer fashion brands.
They offer fulfillment on all types of apparel,
but today, we're gonna learn
how we can do eco-friendly, sustainable printing
to help elevate our recycle tee.
Let's check it out.
- Hey.
- Hey, what's up man? - How's it going, man?
- Doing great.
Everybody, this is Ian.
He runs a Apliiq here.
(hands clapping)
What all do we have in store today?
- I heard about rumors of recycle tee.
I'm super excited to see it.
Come on in.
- Yeah, let's see it.
Here are the tees, right here.
It's part of our FWD Fashion line that we have.
- Oh, so excited to see BELLA+CANVAS
jump in and do really sustainable products.
Feels super, super soft-
- Yeah.
- Just like the 3001CVC, right?
- Yeah.
- 'Cause it's the cotton poly blend-
- Mm hmm.
- But this time, we have organic cotton and recycled poly.
So excited.
What are we gonna be printing today?
- Well, we're actually doing a partnership
with this local organization called "Tree People,"
here in Los Angeles.
- [Ian] Yep.
- They're a great nonprofit,
and so we're doing a little Earth Day partnership with them,
and so we're here with you to help kind of fulfill
the whole sustainability eco-friendly mission of this tee,
and so we're gonna get some help
doing eco-friendly printing.
- Yeah.
Well, you've come to the right place,
so that's great.
(laughing)
- Excellent.
- Yeah.
There's a bunch of different things
that are built into the print on demand business model
as it relates to sustainability.
Obviously, the printing equipment that we use
is very, very sustainable-
- [Wes] Mm hmm.
- So unlike screen printing,
which is typically done
with plastic based inks like plastisol,
direct to garment printing is using a different type of ink.
It's a water based ink system,
so it's non-toxic, non-hazardous, no heavy metals,
and then on the positive side,
it's vegan, organic, and biodegradable ink.
So as of now, if you're printing apparel,
let's say like direct to garment printing,
it's probably like the most earth friendly, eco-conscious
kind of way of doing things, overall.
- Well, you just answered all my questions.
(soft music)
- What's the design inspiration?
What are you guys going for?
- Yeah, well, our inspiration is just kind of like
a really cool design trend that's going on
with lots of major retailers and fashion brands,
and it's kind of this simplistic, minimalist print
that will be on the left chest
that kind of explains the whole collaboration
that we're doing here about the sustainability.
- Yeah.
- So you kind of get to wear it as like a badge of honor,
(thighs slapping)
and then we're also gonna do a neck print,
and highlight our-
- Tear-away. - Tear-away tags.
- Yeah, so that's-
- Yeah, we'll print right there.
- All right. - Cool.
- Let's jump in and check it out.
(upbeat music)
(machinery whirling)
All right, guys.
Welcome to our production floor, here in Los Angeles.
We got our Direct to Garment printers,
we have our artwork loaded up,
we got our T-shirt loaded up.
(machine sizzling)
Let's let it rip.
- [Wes] Yeah, let's let it rip.
- All right.
So now that we got this print done,
let's get it on the dryer.
Basically, the way direct to garment printing works
is that dryer's like a glorified hair dryer.
It's gonna evaporate all the liquid out of the print,
and that'll kick off a chemical process that'll bind
(dryer sizzling)
the print to the shirt for life.
- And what's next?
Let's see, we switched out our platens,
is that what it's called?
- Yeah, as soon as that thing pops outta the dryer,
(fist slapping)
we'll get that thing loaded up,
and we will start our neck print next, 100% private label.
- Now, besides our recycled tee,
all BELLA+CANVAS products are made eco-friendly.
Check out this video right here
to learn all about our eco-friendly efforts,
and for Apliiq...
- Check out the link in the description down below.
If you guys need help with your direct to consumer
(thighs slapping)
fashion brand or any printing.