Questions, answered

Screen Printing

The classic. Best price-per-piece on bigger runs, durable as it gets.

How it works

Each ink color in the design gets its own screen (a tight mesh stretched over a frame). Ink is pushed through the screen onto the garment one color at a time. Once cured under heat, the print is bonded into the fabric.

Best for

• Solid bold designs with a small number of distinct colors
• Larger orders - setup is a fixed cost per screen, so it spreads out fast
• Tees, hoodies, crewnecks, totes - anything cotton-rich
• Special inks: puff, metallic, glow-in-the-dark, UV-reactive

What to know

• Every color needs its own screen. That cost is already inside your per-piece price — never a separate line on the invoice — so the price per piece rises with the color count. Most efficient at 1–6 colors
• On dark garments, white ink needs an underbase (extra screen, factored into your quote)
• Photographic art doesn't translate well - consider DTF instead
• Holds up through hundreds of washes when cured properly

Embroidery

Stitched, not printed. Highest perceived quality - great for logos and corporate work.

How it works

Your art gets digitized into a stitch file (a path the embroidery machine follows). Threaded needles stitch the design directly into the fabric in the colors you specify.

Best for

• Logos on hats, polos, jackets, beanies - that elevated, premium feel
• Designs that need to look the same after years of wear
• Smaller designs (typically 2–4″); fine detail can get muddy at small sizes
• 3D puff embroidery for raised, sculpted lettering

What to know

• One-time digitizing fee for new logos (we bake this into your first order)
• Per-stitch pricing - bigger or denser designs cost more
• Heavy designs add weight to the garment; not ideal for lightweight knits
• Color matching is approximate - thread colors come from a fixed palette

DTF (Direct-to-Film)

Print anything. Newer tech - a good fit when screen printing won't work.

How it works

Your design is printed onto a clear film with full-color ink, dusted with a hot-melt adhesive powder, cured, then heat-pressed onto the garment. The result is a flexible, durable transfer that bonds with the fabric.

Best for

• Photographic art, gradients, fine detail, lots of colors
• Small batches and one-offs (no screens to burn)
• Hard-to-print substrates - performance polyester, nylon, blends
• Designs you'd otherwise need 6+ screens for

What to know

• Slightly different feel than screen print - you can feel the transfer if you run a finger over it
• Cost-per-piece is roughly flat regardless of color count
• Wash fastness is solid (50–75+ washes) but generally below screen print on cotton
• Can’t do specialty inks like puff or metallic

Turnaround, deadlines & rush

Short version: tell us your date at checkout and you get an answer immediately.

The standard timeline

• 10–14 business days of production, starting when you approve your proof — not when you order.
• We get your proof to you, and review your art, within 1 business day. Approving promptly is the biggest thing in your control.
• Then pickup in Ann Arbor, or shipping with tracking on top.

If you need it sooner

Put your date in the “Need these by” field in your cart and we tell you on the spot whether we can hit it — before you pay anything. Guaranteed rush service is real and priced:

• Under 5 business days — +15%. Guarantees your date.
• Under 48 hours — +50%. Covers overtime and expedited blanks.
• 5–10 business days — no fee, but we can’t promise it up front. Submit and we’ll confirm within 1 business day; that places a hold, not a charge. Add rush if you want it locked in.
• Next day has to be placed before 2pm — our blank suppliers cut off at 3pm. Same-day we can’t guarantee at all; email us and we’ll be straight with you.

Your date is when you need it in hand. Picking up in Ann Arbor, that’s the day it’s ready. Having it shipped, we count back the shipping time first — about 2 business days around Michigan, up to 5 coast to coast — so a date that’s fine for pickup can need rush when it ships. Your cart shows the exact ship-by date once you pick a carrier.

A rush fee is only ever added when you tick the box. Typing a date never quietly changes your total.

Ordering blanks instead?

Undecorated blanks skip proofing and production entirely — there’s nothing to approve. Those ship as soon as they arrive from the supplier, typically inside a week, and they ship at cost rather than free.

Your artwork & the two one-time fees

There are no per-screen or setup fees. There are two art fees, and both are avoidable.

Vector vs. everything else

A vector file stores your logo as shapes and curves, so it can be scaled to any size without going fuzzy and each color can be pulled apart onto its own screen automatically. Those are .ai, .eps, .svg, and PDFs saved from vector software.

A raster file is a grid of pixels — .png, .jpg, .gif, most Canva exports, anything screenshotted. It has no separate colors inside it, so a human has to trace and rebuild your design before it can be screen printed.

The fees, plainly

• $50 art separation — once per design, for screen printing from a raster file. Send a vector file and it doesn’t apply. Choose DTF instead of screen print and it doesn’t apply either, because DTF prints your file as-is.
• $50 digitizing — once per logo, for embroidery. Converts your art into a stitch path. Send an .emb or .dst and it’s skipped, and it’s waived on reorders of a logo we’ve already stitched.

Both are one-time and per-design, not per-garment, so they get smaller the more pieces you order. Neither is a screen fee: screens, setup, and ink really are included in the per-piece price.

Not sure what you have?

Upload it anyway. The designer tells you which fee applies, if any, before you reach the payment step — and if your file turns out to be unusable we email you before your card is ever charged. If you’d rather we simplify a busy design for you, there’s a $35 option at the point where it matters.

Ordering, changes & returns

The honest version, before you commit to a size run.

What you can and can’t send back

• Decorated garments can’t be returned or exchanged. Once your art is on the shirt it isn’t resellable, so all sales are final once you approve your proof and we start production — that includes wrong size, wrong quantity, or a color that looked different on screen. This is standard across custom printing; it’s worth double-checking before you approve.
• If we got it wrong, we fix it. A misprint, the wrong item, decoration that doesn’t match your approved proof, or a manufacturing flaw is on us — we’ll remake or refund it. Email orders@nomidscustoms.com within 7 days of delivery with your order number and photos.
• Not covered: small variations that come with hand-decorated apparel — slight placement or ink differences, blank-supplier color lots, minor shade shifts between screen and fabric — and errors in artwork you supplied.

Before anything is charged

• Submitting places a hold on your card, not a charge. A real person reviews the order first.
• If the review changes the price — tricky art, an exact ink match, an extra screen — we email you the new total for approval before capturing anything. Don’t approve, and we release the hold.
• Need to change or cancel? Reply to your confirmation email. Before we order blanks or burn screens that’s usually easy; after, less so.

Sizing

• Where the mill publishes measurements, they’re on the product page under “Size & fit chart”.
• Where they don’t, ask — we keep blanks on hand and will measure the actual garment or send a sample.
• Youth sizes run roughly six inches shorter than the same letter in adult. We label them “Youth” for exactly that reason.

Full detail: Refund & Returns · Terms.