Stuff you should know: Printing

All Status Symbols t-shirts are printed to order using a hot film transfer process. What this means is that instead of there being a giant warehouse full of, say, Cloudy t-shirts, when you order your t-shirt the nice people at Spreadshirt fly into action and make exactly the t-shirt you ordered. The hot film part means that instead of using conventional printing the t-shirt design is created by cutting out a piece of sticky plastic film and then pressing and heating it onto the t-shirt at 160 degress or so.

Printing to order

Probably the nicest thing about printing to order is that, if you like, you can design your own products with Status Symbols imagery. So if you really like the Monday Battery Life design, but instead of a sober grey t-shirt you want it on a bright pink hoodie, well, you can order exactly that. Or whatever else you want. To design your own products, just click on the 'design your own' link that appears on the page of the design you like.

Hot film transfer process

Status Symbols uses the hot film transfer process to produce t-shirts because the t-shirt you get at the end is much more colorful and lasts much longer than the usual kind of print-to-order t-shirt printing processes. Other print-on-demand t-shirts are usually printed using a very expensive version of a desktop printer. The advantage of this method is being able to print virtually any color, but the downsides include difficulty printing on anything that isn't white, fuzzy outlines and designs that fade rapidly with repeated washes. T-shirts made with hot film transfers can have a maximum of three colors, but those colors are guaranteed to be bright and sharp for a long, long time.

Status Symbols t-shirts are machine washable in warm water (<50 C/80F).