More often than not, the T-shirt printing industry is a dangerous balancing act between speed and quality. We want to produce the best garments while delivering them within the shortest amount of time possible — and as anyone that’s had the mission of creating something of value and quickly will attest, it can be a hassle.

But it can also be the beginning of something new. Strong relationships are formed in times of hard work and that’s exactly what happened to us with Shazam UK. It is that first experience that we’re going to talk about today. An experience that led to, we’re proud to say, more work opportunities with this great company.

We would like to thank Cagney Roberts, Marketing Coordinator and Events Producer at Shazam UK, without whom creating this case study would have been much more difficult, not to mention boring!

Would you like to download this Case Study as a PDF? Click here!

Shazam: Helping you recognise and engage with the world around you

Shazam is one of the world’s most popular apps for smartphones. Hundreds of millions of people globally log in to instantly identify music and learn what others are discovering. Aside from its sound and visual recognition services, it also offers instant connection to the world around them with one-tap access to endless video clips, song lyrics and streaming services.

Trivia: Back in 2008, Shazam was one of the first apps up for download on the App Store.

We need T-shirts for yesterday

The first days of autumn 2015 were dry and featured some unusually high temperatures. London was feeling the heat, and it wasn’t just the weather, one of the year’s most important events was about to take place and Shazam was collaborating. For the occasion, the company’s marketing team had organised a breakdance workshop.

The challenge?

The participants of the mentioned workshop needed to be decked out in branded tees and these could not just be any T-shirts, these needed to be top quality garments and be delivered ASAP.

“It’s always refreshing to have an account manager that gives you alternatives when you can’t go through with what was originally planned.”

Finding the London Agency

After conducting online research, Roberts came across Printsome’s website. According to him, what first stood out was the user-friendly design and the catalogue’s wide range of products. Thankfully, he decided to trust our colourful home page and fill out the contact form.

The way it works is that once a contact form has been filled, an email is sent to our sales department and the on-duty account manager will start processing a quote. In this case, it was Ryan who received Shazam’s message and, without missing a beat, replied. As we talked with Shazam, the team realised that this was no ordinary order.

Our mission was to:

• Charm them with our T-shirt printing knowledge
• Prove that we can produce some fine quality tees
• Adapt their artwork for printing
• Produce and deliver (if the above steps had gone well!) the garments before the fast-approaching deadline

From the first moment, the conversation was about quality. Understandably, Shazam doesn’t want to associate their brand with anything cheaply made. Promising wasn’t going to be enough, though. So we made the decision to ship a couple of samples to their office. In a shop, we try clothes on before we buy them, right? So just because we’re an online business, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get the same benefit.

A few hours later, we were notified that they had fallen in love with the Bella Canvas Shirt (which has become one of our clients’ favourites as of late) and we received the Okay-to-go.

Production starts.

Gradients and Screen Printing – it’s different

The artwork Shazam originally wanted had a very light gradient effect that, while possible to reproduce with Screen Printing, required a couple of tweaks — in order for it to work, the design needed to include more colour steps.
Ryan gave constructive feedback and warned that it would be slightly more expensive, but not without mentioning other solutions that were just as attractive and would cost less. Following this advice, Shazam’s design team voted and in the end decided to stick with a flat version of their logo, which was just as cool as the first one and easier to print.

Our main concern was to create an end product that the client was happy with.

3, 2, 1, breakdance!

Once the final artwork was agreed upon, T-shirts were sent into production. The final order was:

Quantity: 250 T-shirts

Printing Technique: Screen Printing

Garment Type: Bella Canvas Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee

Artwork:

• 10cm x 10cm left breast design
• 28cm x 28cm back centre design

Size Breakdown:

• 60 – Small
• 100 – Medium
• 70 – Large
• 20 – XL

The T-shirts were shipped on the afternoon of Friday, November 6th and arrived the next Monday before 10:30 am with more than enough time before the event on the 12th of that same month.

When we asked Roberts to describe his relationship with Printsome in 3 words, he said:

Easy, Friendly, Knowledgeable

Ultimately, they were really happy with the quality of the T-shirts and the turnaround time.

Join the Printsome Family!

Would you like to join the Printsome family? Others like Shazam, Rockstar and IKEA are already part of it. Get in touch with us and we’ll help you sort out your T-shirt printing needs.

T-shirt Printing for Events

Thanks to our five years of experience in the apparel-printing industry, we were able to design a platform catered towards the needs of event planners and brand managers who need efficient solutions. Printsome’s T-shirts are produced locally and from the best-quality garments.

From the moment you get in touch, one of our printing experts in either London or Glasgow will answer all of your questions and find efficient solutions to your needs. It is our mission to help you reach your goals.

We ship all over the UK with flexible delivery services that can adapt to most deadlines. Fast T-shirt printing has never been this easy. Need to to print in bulk? We got you covered. Why worry about inventory or logistics when we can take care of that? To find out more, simply visit our website by clicking on the banner below.