CanCorp Branding
SCREEN PRINTING
Ink pushed through a screen, one colour at a time, onto tees, hoodies and jerseys that are pulled and printed at our own Calgary shop. There is no minimum on t-shirt printing, and standard turnaround is three business days from artwork approval.
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WHY CANCORP
Screen printing is really a setup business, because almost everything that decides how the finished shirt looks happens before any ink is pulled.
A multi-colour design has to be split into one film per colour, with the trapping set so that the colours meet without leaving a white gap or turning muddy where they overlap. That split is what decides whether the print holds its registration across the run.
Because design support and artwork approval both happen in house here, you hear about a design that will not hold on a dark garment before the screens are burned rather than after.
The press is at Bay 1, 2320 35 Avenue NE, so you are welcome to come and look at the first pull off the press before the rest of the run continues.
Several of the sites ranking for screen printing in Calgary print somewhere else entirely and ship the boxes in, which works perfectly well until something comes out wrong and there is nobody in the city to look at it.
Send in blanks you have already bought, or choose from the brands we carry, because both routes run on the same press.
It is worth telling us up front what the garment is, since ink behaves differently on a heavy cotton tee, a poly blend jersey and a fleece hoodie, and the cure settings have to follow the fabric.
Screen printing earns its keep on volume and a low colour count. Below that threshold, or on a photographic design, the setup per colour stops making sense and DTF will do the job for less money.
Since we run both processes in the same shop, the recommendation can follow your run rather than our equipment.
WHAT WE PRINT
Volume, flat colour and a design that stays the same across the whole order.
Stampede, tournaments, conferences and charity runs, which usually mean larger quantities of a single design on a date that will not move.
Practice tees, hoodies, supporter shirts and fundraiser runs, printed to match the rest of the club kit.
Shop tees and shift shirts across a crew, printed so that the reorder in six months still looks like the first batch.
Bands, cafes, shops and campaigns, where the print quality is the product itself rather than a logo tucked into a corner.
HOW IT RUNS
Four things drive both the price and the finish, and each one is a lever you can pull, so they are worth knowing before you brief the job.
Each colour needs its own screen, its own film and its own setup, so a two-colour design across a large run prices very differently from a six-colour one. Taking a single colour out of a design is often the largest saving available to you.
Ink sits differently on cotton, on poly blends and on fleece, and a dark garment needs a white underbase printed first so that the colours on top read properly. That underbase is a screen in its own right, which is why the same design prices higher on black than on white.
Front, back, sleeve and left chest all have their own conventions, and the print size is confirmed on a mock-up before anything runs. Where an order spans youth through to adult sizes, the artwork is scaled so that it sits right on both rather than printed once at a single size.
Short runs, photographic artwork, gradients, or a design that changes from garment to garment. There is no setup per colour with DTF, so the economics flip, and because we run it here too we will point you at it when it fits.
HOW IT WORKS
Start with the garment, the quantity and where the logo goes. You do not need finished artwork at this stage, because a sketch or a photo of an old print tells us enough to price the work, and we come back with garment options, pricing and a schedule.
Choose from the brands we carry, or send in garments you already own. Both routes run through the same workroom, and neither one is treated as the awkward exception.
Before anything goes onto a machine we confirm the placement, the size and the colours with you, and nothing runs until you have said yes to what you are looking at.
The work is made at Bay 1 on 35 Avenue NE, so you can collect it here in Calgary once it is finished, or we will ship it out to you.
QUESTIONS
Printing and embroidery are as low as $3.50 a piece when you supply the garment, or $10 with the garment included.
Beyond that, the price is driven by the number of colours, the quantity and the garment. Each colour is a separate screen and a separate setup, so a one-colour run and a five-colour run on the same shirt are different jobs.
Send the design and the quantity through the form and we will come back with pricing per garment.
There is no minimum on custom t-shirts or embroidery, so whether you need one piece or five hundred, the job runs through the same shop.
Worth it is a separate question. Setup happens once per colour whether you print twenty shirts or two hundred, so the cost per shirt falls as the run grows. Below a certain quantity DTF usually works out better, and we would rather say so than quote you a screen print you should not be buying.
Screens have to be burned and the press set up once for every colour, so that work sits inside every screen printing quote, whether it appears as its own line or is carried in the per shirt price.
Send the design and the quantity and the quote will show you how it lands, including what a reorder of the same design would cost once the screens exist.
Yes, although dark garments need a white underbase printed first so that the colours on top read properly. That underbase counts as an extra screen, which is why the same design usually prices higher on black than on white, and it is worth knowing while you are still choosing garment colours.
Yes, whether they are blanks you already bought, garments a supplier shipped, or stock left over from last season. Tell us the brand and the fabric when you get in touch, because both the ink and the cure settings change between cotton, poly blends and fleece.
Vector artwork is ideal, because it separates cleanly and scales without losing its edges, though a high resolution raster file can work depending on the design.
To get a quote, however, a sketch or a photo of an old shirt is enough. If the file is not print ready, our design team will work it up and you approve it before the screens are burned.
Standard turnaround is three business days from artwork approval, and if you need the order sooner than that, a 24 hour rush is available.
Screens are burned once you approve the mock-up, so the clock effectively starts at approval rather than at the order. If you have a fixed event date, put it in the message and we will tell you whether it works.
CanCorp is in its fifteenth year under the current owner, and the embroidery side is older still, because it grew out of JBM Embroidery, which has been running in Calgary since 1996.
We are at Bay 1, 2320 35 Avenue NE in Calgary, and you are welcome to come and check the first pull off the press before the run continues. Call 403-536-0759 to arrange it.
NEXT STEP
We will come back with pricing per garment, a recommendation on method, and a production schedule.
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