Add Cap Printing to Your T-Shirt Business
Are you looking to expand your t-shirt business? An easy next step is to offer head wear.
Heat printing on caps is easy. All you need is a cap press and the same custom transfers you have been ordering.
Get Your Cap Prints for Free
You are already using custom screen-printed transfers to print your shirts. Use that leftover real estate on your gang sheet to add cap prints for free. If you are using Easy View, your online design center, the sheet size is noted on the art board with the dotted lines. On any order where there is left over space you can add a cap print to generate additional sales. On a standard cap we recommend making your cap print about 2.5” tall. This will fit on most head wear.
Why a Cap Press?
A cap press is a heat press made with a curved platen and heating element to fit the curved style of your cap. Our cap press also has interchangeable platens available with our cap press package. You will want to use a platen that will fit your cap, and your print should be no bigger than the platen you are using
Types of Head Wear
5 panel caps
If you want your print to be centered on the front of a cap, we recommend using a 5-panel cap. This cap does not have a seam in the center of the cap giving you the room to center and press a print. There are different styles including the foam trucker cap, safety cap, the baseball cap and the unstructured fashion cap.
6 panel caps
A recent trend has made printing 6 panel cap a lot easier! It is now popular to print ½ of that centered 6th panel. This way the seam is out of the way
Visor
Your cap press is used to apply visors and all platens will work; however, a visor is not as tall as a standard cap so you will size your print smaller to fit on a cap. Visors vary so be sure to ask how tall the print area is before ordering—most will be 1-2” tall
Beanie
The easiest beanie to heat press is the fleece beanie. This is 100% polyester, so we recommend a low temperature transfer. Some beanie has acrylic in them which is extremely heat sensitive so use Elasti prints or Express Matte 250 and make sure the 275-degree needed temperature won’t cause an issue to the stretch.
Headband
Headbands stretch and have Lycra or Spandex in them so UltraColor Stretch transfers are the perfect transfer for heat printing headbands.
Wide Brim Hat/Bucket Hat
These beach friendly headwear can also be heat printed. We recommend measuring the flat print surface you will be printed. You can even get creative and add printing to the brim. This one was applied in two steps.
