Print Room heads Stateside

In July of this year, we made our way to the home of screen printing, the United States of America. We connected with some of the best in the business over two weeks across the East Coast. Check out the shops we went to, the people we met and the places we went.

Feels So Good, Austin.

We flew from Auckland to Houston, and while slightly hazed and hot, we managed to locate our bags and find our rental. If driving jetlagged wasn't hard enough, the right-hand driving threw a real spanner in the mix! We loved Austin for its jazz, bicycles and bats (and swimming with turtles in the Barton Springs). But our visit to Feels So Good takes the cake.

FSG has a vibe like no other shop. Walking in is like entering t-shirt heaven. 70% of what FSG print are their own t-shirts so in the front there's the retail shop with tees and records, and a stage for gigs in the winter (it's too hot in summer). Out the back is where the magic happens on press. If you're in Austin be sure to stop by. If not, check them out online and buy a tee. 

Night Owls Print, Houston.

Night Owls are known for being experts in water-based screen printing - they do it bloody well. Thanks to Eric and Tim for taking time out of their day to give us a shop tour, meet the team and show us their ways. Night Owls continually innovate with new products and machines to create the best water-based-ink printed tees. Night Owls have 3PL and fulfilment nailed, which is a large part of their business. Any system or process is super slick and the shop is soooo clean! Thanks for having us, team. 

Denver Print House, Denver.

We made sure to visit the Mile High City of Denver and see Will and the team at Denver Print House. Their 30,000-square-foot facility can pump out a lot of large orders in a short amount of time. Denver Print House don't muck around. Most of their orders start at 1,500 pieces. A touch more than our MOQ of 24... Denver Print House work hard to be as kind to the environment as possible, and many of the garments they print on are made from organic cotton and polyester-blended garments made from recycled plastic bottles. We love what Denver Print House is about and were stoked that they opened their doors to us for a few hours. 

Superior Ink, Denver.

You're in for an absolute treat if you haven't encountered Dom's videos from Superior Ink before - they're so good. And the best way to see what Superior Ink offer. Dom is one of the co-founders of Allmade, a company that creates blank garments using organic cotton and recycled plastics. Dom and his team have printed over 82,345 Allmade tees, saving 6,287,040 gallons of water and re-using 18,157 pounds of recycled plastic, all while using water-based ink in their production process. We loved sitting down and talking shop with Dom and appreciated their hospitality. 

Independent Print Ship, Cincinnati.

We'd been chatting to Brandon for a while now on social media. He's one of the most talented screen printers we'd come across, so to visit him and his new shop was a highlight of the trip. Brandon is a water-based ink screen printer who recently went out on his own and set up his new shop, Independent Print Shop. We spent the day geeking out on everything water-based screen printing while lending a hand to print a massive order for an upcoming Wiz Khalifa tour. Brandon has always been keen to help us with queries about anything screen print related, so it was nice to hang out and provide a helping hand mid-way through his 6,000-piece order! Cheers Brandon. See you next time.  

M&R Factory, Chicago.

Most of our screen printing machines are from M&R and were made in their 340,000 sqft (31,587 sqm) Chicago factory. 80% of their machines are built on this site, and it's incredible to see raw steel coming in and complete machines ready to run coming out. The M&R team went above and beyond, taking the time to show us through the factory, having us for lunch and then spending time with their expert technicians to learn how to dial in some of our equipment when we returned home. M&R is innovative and has a full working showroom for every machine they make. It was exciting to see what the future holds regarding machinery in our industry, and our visit inspired us to keep up with it. Thanks, team. #bluecrew

Culture Studio, Chicago.

Culture Studio creates most of the music and entertainment merch you see at shows. Their 133,000 sqft facility has produced merch for Post Malone, The Beatles, Kiss, Billie Eilish and many other major players in the music industry. With seven automatic presses and double shifts running, their production power is like no other we have seen. The processes and systems they'd implemented to run a business of that size impressed us the most. And they know the importance of customer experience. So much so that they've developed their own software to ensure you're informed at every step of the apparel ordering journey. Thank you to Joey, for taking the time to show a few Kiwis around the shop floor and get an insight into one of the busiest screen printing shops in the US.  

Lancaster Print House, Lancaster, New York.

After a few days in New York, we were excited to jump in the rental and head to Lancaster to meet Josh and his team at Lancaster Print House. LPH print some of the raddest halftone work we've seen. Their work is super crisp and jumps off the tee. Again, we were lucky to jump on press for the day and compare notes. LPH is known for their high-colour halftone work. Instead of us explaining how epic it is, you're best to check it out for yourself on their Instagram. 

The countryside in Lancaster is open and beautiful, and to top off the trip, we detoured through Philadelphia for one of their famous Philly Cheesesteaks. It's fair to say the boys were knee-deep in the meat-sweat trenches after inhaling those...

MAYB TMRW, Hudson, New York.

A massive shoutout to Gabe from MAYB TMRW. We loved our day in the bustling wee town of Hudson, an easy two-hour train ride out of New York. The train hugs the Hudson River, and if you stay on, you'll eventually get to Toronto, Canada. Initially based in New York, Gabe moved his Brooklyn-based shop to Hudson and hasn't looked back. We were stoked to get the opportunity to jump on the tools with Gabe across screen print, heat-applied products and embroidery and talk shop. Gabe is one of the nicest dudes you'll meet - we loved sharing trade hacks and yarning about everything screen print. Like us, MAYB TMRW only uses water-based inks, which gave us plenty to chat about. If you're ever in New York and need to escape the city, head up to Hudson for the day. Although next time we visit, we'll be sure hang around longer than a day. Cheers Gabe!