On the day, live printing looks easy: a guest picks a design, a printer pulls it, and two minutes later they're wearing it. For a Louisville event most of the effort comes earlier, because the shop that does the prep sits 1,813 miles away in Fullerton as the crow flies.
The weeks before
You send the logo or art and we proof it with you. Once it's approved, about a week out, screens get burned and DTF transfers printed, and the blanks are ordered to your headcount. Then presses, dryers, tables and garments are crated and put on a freight truck to your venue. For a Derby-week date, art locks earlier, about ten business days out.
Load-in day and the event
- Arrival: the crew flies in the day before and meets the freight at your dock.
- Build: roughly 10×10 ft and two 120V circuits per station. We set up and pull test prints before doors.
- Choosing: guests pick a garment, a size and a design, or a cap and a patch. Picking is half the appeal.
- Printing: one press handles up to 60 an hour, and a two-press station clears 100+ while the line holds.
What the venue provides
Floor, two dedicated circuits per station, level ground and a line that doesn't block exits. At the Kentucky International Convention Center that power is ordered through the venue. At a backyard Derby tent in the Highlands it usually means a generator. The details are on venue requirements.
Which station to run
A crowd that wants one design points to screen printing. Full color or names point to DTF. A hat bar or embroidery reads as a nicer gift. The short version lives in how live printing works, or tell us about your Louisville event.
Louisville notes
Before the crates leave Fullerton
A Louisville job gets mapped on paper first. We want the dock location, which outlets are free, how guests will line up and where they'll choose sizes, because once the truck has left there's no running back to the shop for a missing cord.
What ships: presses, flash dryers, heat presses, blanks, tables, signage and the printers who run them.