Field note · 31 July 2026
Choosing a jersey printing company for events
Anyone can rent a heat press. Very few outfits can run a queue of several hundred people through one without the wheels coming off. These are the questions that tell you which one you are talking to — and what a good answer sounds like.
1. How do you size the station for my event?
A good answer asks about your hours, your jersey target, your garment source and your run of show, then talks in lanes — one press plus one operator each. A worrying answer quotes a jerseys-per-hour figure before knowing anything about you. That number came from someone else's best case.
2. What method do you use on polyester?
You want full-color DTF transfers and heat press for anything applied live. If you hear screen printing on site for jerseys, or cut vinyl on mesh, ask harder questions. Twill and embroidery should be offered as pre-event options, not live ones.
3. Will you test on my actual garment?
The answer should be yes, before the event, on a sample from the real production run. Fabric coatings and sublimated panels do not behave like their spec sheets. A crew that will not test is a crew that will find out on your jerseys.
4. How does intake work?
Tablet entry that creates a numbered ticket, distributed across lanes by least-pending-work, with staff on a queue board. Paper lists and shouted names do work — right up until roughly the fiftieth guest.
5. What happens when the line gets long?
Listen for three specific levers: open another lane, cap the queue so nothing is accepted that cannot clear before close, and text-when-ready for premium tiers. Vague reassurance is not a plan.
6. What are your name and number limits, and when do you tell guests?
Roughly nine characters, one to three digits, and the limit should appear on the tablet before the guest types. A vendor who has not thought about where that message lives has not run enough of these.
7. Can you handle our own jerseys?
Client-supplied garments should be routine, not an exception. Ask what they need from you: a test sample, a count and size breakdown, and any name list you already have. Ask what they hand back — a flag list of over-length names and duplicate numbers before printing is the sign of a crew that has done this.
8. What do you need from the venue?
A dedicated circuit per lane, a stated footprint, and a load-in window. If a vendor does not raise power unprompted, raise it yourself and see how quickly they can answer.
9. What is included in the hours you are billing?
Setup and teardown should be quoted openly, not discovered later. Our staffing is $250/hr and counts from load-in to the last case going back on the truck. Travel should be stated too — ours is $0 inside Orange County, Los Angeles and San Diego and $900 beyond.
And one thing to look at rather than ask
Photos of real builds with real crowds in them. Not renders, not a press on a clean studio table. A jersey line under load looks like a line under load, and a company that has run them will have pictures of it. Ours are here.
Put us through it
Ask us all nine. Merch Troop crews have run live merch stations for Riot Games, Sony, Coca-Cola, Hyundai and Dickies, and we will answer every one of these specifically. (562) 614-4800 · Send the brief