Screwed up band t-shirts - now what?

[chille01]

So we ordered a batch of t-shirts.  They look great.  Until you wash them, then half the design flakes off.  Apparently they discovered that their dryer was on the fritz, and they didn't cure properly.  So now we've got 80 t-shirts that will basically self destruct on first washing.  We got our money back, but now we need to figure out what to do with them.  Seems a shame to just toss them.  Some options we came up with:

wash another 10, to see if there is even any small percentage that don't crap out in the laundry.  Based on the results, we'll decide if we test wash the rest of them, or do something else

- See if hand washing them fucks them up.  If they stand up to that, then sell them on the cheap as hand wash only
- Give them away
- Suit the homeless in Belushis gear, with the assumption they never wash their clothes anyway
- Cut 'em up and make back patches out of them
- Sell them as "relic'ed", and charge $25

[JemDooM]

You got your money back, bin em!!

[RacerX]

Using the homeless as an army of walking billboards = brilliant.

[Lumpy]

Cure a few of them in an oven at 250 degrees (might release toxic fumes). Or run a hot iron over them (with some sort of paper barrier in-between, so you don't ruin your iron). Might release toxic fumes.

THEN try washing them. Maybe you can still get the ink to cure.

Doesn't work, give the shirts away to fans, Salvation Army, or recycle them.

[The Bandit]

Cum rags.

[xayk]

Cure a few of them in an oven at 250 degrees (might release toxic fumes). Or run a hot iron over them (with some sort of paper barrier in-between, so you don't ruin your iron). Might release toxic fumes.

This is what I was going to suggest-ish, only I'd use a heat gun on the lowest setting. Keep it moving, and give it 3-5 minutes, then a wash, to see if that made any difference. Assuming they used plastisol it won't release any fumes that'll kill you (or at least, haven't killed me yet.) I wouldn't put 'em in the oven, but that's more for out of concern for food I cook in that oven.

Otherwise, cum rags for the homeless.

[chille01]

Thanks for the advice all.  I thought about trying to cure them in the oven, but everything I read said not to unless you want all your food to taste like plasticol for the rest of your life.  Didn't think about the iron or heat gun though.  Do you guys think that would really have a reasonable chance of working at this stage?  It has been over a week since these things came off the presses at this point.  Another option is to take them to a pro.  We're getting the batch re-printed at a different shop, so I could ask him if he thinks running them through his dryer at this point could salvage them.  If so, pay him a little extra to do that.

Other than that, I'm liking the cum rags idea and the back patches the best.

[The Bandit]

It worked for the D!


Post some pics? I'm curious to see the design both before and after washing.

[Ombrenuit]

I bought a shirt like one of OP's once. Was so pissed when the design flaked into a mess at first washing. Do not try selling these unless you want one pissed off fan.

[xayk]

Do you guys think that would really have a reasonable chance of working at this stage? 

I'm not a chemist, but it's possible for the plastisol to have been heated enough to cure/handle/ship, but not enough to really bond. From what I understand plastisol will never air dry (or it just takes a long time,) so it's worth a shot. Worst case scenario is they're still shitty.

[VOLVO)))]

Heat gun is my call, 40 bucks at lowes, worth a shot to save the batch?


edit: send me a couple, I have a heat gun, no use in wasting the cash if it doesn't work.

[JemDooM]

Yeah if you got your money back surely it doesn't matter...

I wouldn't risk giving them to anyone for free because you don't wanna be that band "whos cheap ass Tshirts fall to bits" you see, even if you gave them for free and told them why there'd still be one person who hadn't listened and then went around complaining to people about it....

[Jake]

I think the art supply store, Michaels, has 12.5"x12.5" LP/album frames for 3 for $10 – or at least they used to. Frame the artwork and sell them at shows for $5-10, depending on cost. I'd buy one for a band I liked.

[grimniggzy]

send me one!

[Pissy]

Find a local screen shop and ask them if they'll let you run them through their dryer. Twice. Or pay them to do it. Make sure the print doesn't fold over on itself coming out of the dryer, lest it will stick and that sucks. Go through the dryer with the print face up. Light colored shirts can scorch easily, so watch out.

If the print is really thick, might take more passes.

Check for proper curing by pulling the print apart spreading the grain of the material. Use one shirt to test this with, in multiple spots until the plastisol doesn't break, rather springs back.

The beauty is that plastisol is not perishable, so it isn't cured yet, therefore not ruined.

Fwiw, I've heated my lunch in the shop dryer, and don't recall plastisol tasting food, but I also wouldn't do the oven thing either.

[HaystackMuldoon]

Pissy is 100% correct. Another alternative is curing them with a heat press or using an iron. Just put some parchment paper between the print and the heat source. Plastisol can be dry to the touch and far from cured.

I would call the closest screen printing shop and ask if you can run them through their dryer at the end of the day. Screen printers appreciate weed, fyi.

[Soundgardenia]

this might be a bit unrelated, but it's a t-shirt and it's screwed up

[chille01]

Thanks all... gonna go run a handfull through the dryer at another shop tomorrow.  If it fixes them, he said he'd do them for a buck a shirt.  If it doesn't, he'll re-print the batch for the same price we originally paid.  Solid dude... used him for a batch a few years back.  Should have just stuck with him rather than shopping around.

[Pissy]

Did it work?

[chille01]

Will find out this weekend.  The first four he ran through as a test last weekend were all good after a wash.  Now he's run all of them through the dryer, I'm going to do a random sampling of about 10 and put them through the washer... see if any come out fucked up.  If it did work, it means we got a hell of a deal on this batch of shirts!

[chille01]

So it sort of worked.  This was actually three different designs/types of shirts.  Two out of three types seem to be fine now.  The third design has about 50% duds still.  So I washed them all to make sure.  The ones that are duds are for the most part still wearable... the design is not fucked, just a little worn on the top edge.  So we'll probably use those ones as freebees or something.

[Mr. Foxen]

Relic shirts. Might be a thing. Hipsters can pretend to have dug your band before you were famous (which is now).

[chille01]

Doesn't that only work if said band ever actually gets famous?  The chances of which, in our case, are about as likely as Hendrix coming back to life and joining the band as third guitarist.

[VOLVO)))]

Doesn't that only work if said band ever actually gets famous?  The chances of which, in our case, are about as likely as Hendrix coming back to life and joining the band as third guitarist.

Then you'd be a deathcore band.

[Mr. Foxen]

Doesn't that only work if said band ever actually gets famous? 

Don't even need to exist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_IzYUJANfk