You’ve probably typed something like “custom t-shirts near me” into a search bar and gotten a wall of nearly identical results. Some of those sites belong to real print shops. Some are just a website that takes your order and passes it along to who knows where to be produced. It can be difficult to know what’s really going on behind the presentation on a website. The big question is, does it really matter?
We think it does. Because what happens when you have questions. Or worse yet, what happens when your deadline changes, or something goes wrong? A generic email or 1-800 number isn’t going to solve your problem.
At Kong, we’ve taken some of the conveniences of online shops and integrated them with the care, hands on production, and personal touch of a local print shop.
This guide walks through the different ways you can order with Kong and what’s worth checking into when evaluating any print shop.
The TLDR: two ways to order, same Kong behind both
For the quick answers, read this:
- For easy online ordering, check out create.kongscreenprinting.com
- For those that want guidance and recommendations, reach out to our team.
- You get an accurate digital proof either way, and if you want more, a photo proof or an in-person press check, before anything runs. Both are free.
- A real person answers the phone when you call.
- Your print job runs here, but our team. Not wherever a broker happens to route it that week.
- Reorders match, because we keep your art, order specs, and ink colors on file.
- Pantone brand-color matching costs nothing extra here. Most shops charge extra for a custom color outside their standard set, so it’s worth asking.
- You can walk into the shop and see the work.
Ordering online isn’t the problem. Plenty of people know exactly what they want and would rather not trade five emails to get it. The question is who’s standing behind the order once it’s placed.
Two ways to order, and who each one is for
Some customers already know what they want. For them, a back-and-forth email thread is a hassle, and a site they can use on their own time is the better tool. We built one. You can browse and place an order yourself at create.kongscreenprinting.com.
Other customers prefer a different route. Everything we make is custom, so the garment choices, the decoration methods, and the artwork questions can pile up fast. That’s where working with a real person helps. Our sales team will show you samples, answer the questions you didn’t know to ask, and steer you toward what will best achieve the goals of your project.
After that, our process is the same. Both options for ordering put you with a real Austin shop that answers the phone, cares about your merch, backs the quality, and keeps your specs for the next run.
There are the things that a broker site can’t do. You upload art, pick a shirt, pay, and the order gets forwarded to whichever print shop in the network has capacity that week. It could be a shop across the state or country. And it would likely be a different one if you ordered again. So the company you paid isn’t the company that printed your order.
That’s worth knowing before you order, because it changes who’s accountable for what shows up in the box.
The proof before the press
You shouldn’t have to wait until the shirts are printed to have a good idea of what they will look like. That’s what a proof is for, but it only helps if the proof is accurate.
Every Kong order gets a digital proof built with Seddi Decorator, which scales your design to the real specs of the garment you chose. So what you approve on your screen matches what will be in your box.
If that’s not enough, we’ll coordinate a photo proof or an in-person press check, free of charge, at any order size. You can watch your own shirt come off the press before we run the rest of the batch and stick around to capture the process for your social media. You can read the full breakdown on our process page.
A broker can send you a mockup, but it’s rarely very accurate and there’s definitely nothing you can check out in person.
Who answers when something goes wrong
No matter how hard anyone tries, not everything ends up perfect all of the time. This is when it really matters.
At Kong, we’re one team, from start to finish. If something’s off, there’s a person who picks up the phone and makes it right. The person that took your order and the people who printed it, are all right here in Austin.
With a broker model, a problem usually means a support email or a ticket queue, and even if you are able to get someone on the phone. They’ll likely not have much personally at stake to care about making it right.
Reorders that keep matching
A reorder is where inconsistency shows up. If your staff shirts, your fundraiser tees, or your retail merch don’t match the last batch, people notice.
We can make the promise of consistency because we keep your artwork, orders specs, and ink colors on file, so your next run matches the last one. With a broker, your second order might route to a different printer than your first, with no guarantee the ink colors or the print quality line up. You won’t know until the box shows up.
Questions worth asking before you order
Whether you’re comparing us against another Austin shop or a website you found in a search, a handful of questions will tell you what you’re buying:
- Where does my order get printed?
- Will I see an accurate proof before you run the full batch?
- Can I visit the shop, or ask for a press check?
- Who do I call if something’s wrong, and will they know what happened to my order?
- Will my reorder be handled by the same people who ran the first one?
If a company can answer all six without a pause, you’ve likely found a real shop. If the answers get vague around the third question, there’s a good chance you’re talking to a broker.
Key Takeaways
- The question isn’t online versus local. It’s whether a single real shop is behind the production, whichever way you place it.
- An accurate proof, a person who answers the phone, and a matching reorder are what a broker model struggles to guarantee.
- Kong prints in its own Austin shop that you’re welcome to visit anytime!
Ready to see the difference for yourself? Get a quote or reach out to our team, and we’ll take it from there.
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to order custom shirts from a local screen printer or an online company?
It depends less on local versus online than on who’s behind the order. Ordering online is genuinely easier if you already know what you want, and we offer that ourselves. What a national broker site can’t give you is a person who’s accountable to your shirts, a shop you can visit, or someone who cares about your order.
What’s the difference between a local screen printer and an online screen printing company?
A local screen printer has its own shop and prints your order itself. Many online companies, especially the national ones, work as a broker: you order through a website, and the job gets routed to a network of print shops, landing at whichever one has capacity that week. The site you ordered from may never touch your shirts.
Are national online screen printing sites printing my order themselves?
Often not. Many national, online-only sites operate as a broker over a network of contract print shops. Your order gets sent to whichever shop in the network has capacity, which can change from one order to the next. The shop that printed your first order may not be the one that prints your next one. That’s different from ordering directly from a local shop that is responsible for their own production.
How do local Austin printers compare to online companies on quality and price?
Quality comes down to the people producing your order – how much they care and closely they check their work. The best way for you to get a feel for that is to talk with them, or better yet – visit them in person. You can do that with Kong.
Price is driven by the order itself, quantity, colors, garment, and method, more than by whether the company is local or online. The real difference is control: you can see a proof, ask questions, and hold one team accountable.
Can I see a proof before a local shop prints my order?
It depends on the shop, but at Kong the answer is 100% yes, every time. A digital proof is standard on every order, and we’ll coordinate a photo proof or an in-person press check free of charge if you want more assurance before we run the full batch. Not every shop offers that, so it’s worth asking directly.
What happens if my order is wrong when I order from an online-only company?
It depends on the company, but the process is often slower than working with a local shop. You’re usually filing a support ticket rather than calling someone who saw your shirts get printed, and the company may need to track down which partner shop in its network ran your job before it can even diagnose the problem.
Does Kong print orders in its own shop?
Yes. Your order is made by our team here in our Austin shop. You’re welcome to come watch a shirt come off the press before we run the rest of the batch. Order through a broker site and your job goes wherever there’s capacity that week, which can be a different shop the next time you order.
Is ordering from a national online company cheaper than a local Austin shop?
Not necessarily. Price is driven mostly by quantity, colors, garment, and method, the same factors that shape a quote from any shop, local or online. A national site’s price can look lower upfront and then grow with shipping, additional fees, or a mismatched reorder. A local shop that quotes your actual project tends to be more predictable, even if the sticker price isn’t always the lowest in a search.
Ready to start
Your custom merch deserves a partner, not just a printer. However you want to order, self-serve or with one of our people, there’s a real Austin shop behind it. Get a quote and we’ll take it from there.
