Custom Screen Printing in Austin, Made for Business.

Our Background & Expertise

Kong Screenprinting has been that partner for Austin since 2011. Printed in Austin, for brands like Topo Chico, Merit Coffee, Yellowbird, Rambler, Hai Hospitality, and Four Hands. Along with tons of other restaurants, breweries, trades, startups, schools, and nonprofits that keep this city moving.

This page walks through how custom screen printing works when you order in volume, what goes into your quote, and how we make sure your merch keeps working for you long after it leaves our shop.

If you’d rather just talk it through, get a quote and we’ll take it from there!

Why Austin organizations choose a local screen printer

Ordering custom apparel online feels easy until something goes sideways. The ink washes out. The shirts shrink a size after the first wash. Your rush order is “in production” behind a generic email with no phone number to call. When it’s critical for your work and your team, easy isn’t the goal. Right is the goal.

Having a trusted local partner is crucial. You can visit our studio to see your design on press before we run the full order. You can reach a real person when the timeline moves. And because we print here in Austin, on our own presses, there’s no middle person and no overseas guesswork. If something isn’t right, we fix it.

This matters most for the groups that reorder regularly. A one-time buyer might be able to roll the dice. But a brand that prints staff shirts every month, a school that restocks spirit wear every season, a shop outfitting a growing crew: they need consistency they can count on. We keep your artwork, your garment specs, and your inks on file, so your next run matches your last one. Not “close enough,” but the same.

Takeaway: For an organization that reorders, the real value of a local screen printer isn’t speed. It’s control, consistency, and a real person who stands behind the work.

What “custom screen printing” covers

At a base level, screen printing is the process of moving ink through a fine mesh screen onto the fabric, one color at a time. It’s the workhorse process, responsible for most custom t-shirts and hoodies, and for good reason. It looks and feels great, and it’s uniquely suited for volume. The price per piece drops as your quantity goes up.

It’s not the only tool, though, and a good partner tells you when something else fits better:

• Screen printing. The go-to for tees, hoodies, and bigger runs with a handful of colors. Best price and durability at volume.
• Embroidery. Stitched, not printed. The premium, professional look for hats, polos, jackets, and bags. Staff uniforms and corporate gear that need to last for years.
• Direct-to-film (DTF). A digitally printed heat transfer that shines on short runs, full-color designs, and tricky surfaces like trucker hats, synthetic fabrics, and tote bags.
• Promotional products. Drinkware, stickers, totes, and giveaways that carry your brand past the t-shirt.

Plenty of orders use more than one approach. Screen-printed tees for the whole team, embroidered polos for the ones that need a polished touch. If you’re weighing your options, our breakdown of screen printing vs. embroidery is a good place to start. And when you talk to us, we’ll tell you straight which method fits your goals, your budget, and how you want it to feel.

Takeaway: Screen printing is the best fit for most custom apparel, but the right answer depends on what you want it to accomplish. We help you match the method to the intent instead of forcing everything through one process.

Made for volume and recurring orders

Because replicating a design in large quantities is what screen printing was created for, most of what we print is for businesses, schools, churches, and community organizations ordering in bulk.

The setup work happens once. After that, every additional shirt costs less to print. A 200-shirt corporate team order, a full staff refresh, a retail merch line you’ll restock all year: these are what screen printing was made for. There’s a minimum because that setup happens no matter how many pieces you run. Generally for us that’s 25 pieces, though we make exceptions.

Volume only helps if the quality holds, because no one wants a whole bunch of things that don’t last. We pick garments that survive real use. Think daily wear, a busy shift, and commercial laundering. Then we dial in the printing and the ink cure so the design stays vibrant wash after wash, not just on the first wear.

That longevity is the whole point. A shirt that lives in a drawer is money spent for nothing. A shirt someone reaches for on a day off is still doing its job years later, which is why we steer you toward gear people want to wear, instead of picking the cheapest blank just to be the lowest bidder.

Plus reorders are a snap! We keep all your order details, artwork, and ink colors on file to ensure the new batch matches the old. Your team should never be able to tell which shirts came from which run.

We also help you plan ahead. If you know a launch, a season, or an event is coming, locking in your run early means better garment availability and a timeline that isn’t a scramble. Bulk doesn’t have to mean stressful. It just means planned.

Takeaway: Screen printing rewards volume with a lower price per piece, and we protect that value by building orders that hold up and reorders that match.

Ordering for a group

Collecting sizes from ninety people is its own job. Anyone who has run a school fundraiser, a PTO order, or a church event knows the spreadsheet, the reply-all thread, and the three people who never answer.

So we set up webstores and online ordering to take that off your plate. Everyone in your group orders and pays on their own, in their own time. You get the finished order without chasing anybody down. For schools, PTOs, teams, and nonprofits, this is often the difference between a merch run that happens and one that doesn’t.

It’s a newer part of what we do, and it’s one of the parts we’re proudest of. If coordinating the order is the thing standing in your way, tell us and we’ll set it up.

Takeaway: If collecting sizes and payments is the hard part, a webstore solves it. Your group orders individually and you skip the spreadsheet entirely.

What goes into your quote

We quote every project instead of posting a price list, because no two orders are the same. A real quote is always more accurate and fairer than a one-size-fits-all number. Here’s what shapes it:

• Quantity. More pieces means a lower cost per piece. The time and costs involved in setup get spread across the run.
• Number of colors and print locations. A one-color front is simpler than a four-color front plus a sleeve and a back. Each color and location adds a bit of setup time, complication, and cost.
• Garment choice. A basic tee, a premium ringspun shirt, and a heavyweight hoodie all sit at different price points. We help you balance feel, durability, and budget.
• Print method. Screen printing, embroidery, and DTF each carry their own setup and per-piece math.
• Turnaround. Standard timelines are built into a normal quote, but we’re always trying to work on your schedule. Let us know when you need it, no matter how ridiculous.

The honest version: tell us what the merch is for, how many you need, and when you need it, and we’ll build a quote around your actual goals. We won’t upsell you into more than the job requires. You can start that conversation on our quote page or give us a shout at 512-851-7024 and we’ll walk you through the trade-offs.

Takeaway: Your quote comes down to quantity, colors, locations, garment, method, and timeline. We’d rather explain those drivers than hide behind a generic price.

Our process: a proof before the press

The fastest way to waste money on custom apparel is to skip the proof and hope for the best. We don’t work that way. Every Kong order moves through the same five steps, and you sign off before anything gets pressed:

1. Discover. We learn what the merch is for, who’s wearing it, and what success looks like.
2. Quote. We’ll review your art and estimate the costs based on the specs that fit the goals of your project.
3. Proof. For mockups we use Seddi Decorator, which scales your design to the actual specifications of the garment you chose. So what you approve on your screen matches what you’ll get in the box.
4. Produce. We print here in Austin. So you can visit any time you want and be as involved as you want to be.
5. Follow up. We stand behind the work. If something is not right we want to know so we can make it right. And we keep all the details on file for the next round.

That “see it before we run it” step is the one that saves you. You’ll know how your colors will look and where your logo will sit before we commit a single shirt. No guessing, and no surprises when the boxes show up. If a digital proof isn’t enough, we’re happy to coordinate a photo proof or an in-person press check, free of charge. You shouldn’t have to pay extra to see your own order before it runs. You can see the full walkthrough on our process page.

Takeaway: An accurate proof before anything is made sets all of our expectations to the same level, and it’s standard on every Kong order.

Turnaround, timelines, and rush orders

Standard turnaround is about three weeks after your order is approved. That window covers everything that protects your order: confirming your art, ordering the right garments, printing, and a quality check before anything ships.

Need it faster? Tell us the real date. For screen printing, our approach is simple. If we can get it done, we’ll do it, and in most cases there’s no rush fee. Embroidery runs on a tighter calendar, so the sooner you tell us, the more we can do.

There are times when an extra fee is unavoidable, and we’ll say so up front. We’ll also tell you honestly when a date isn’t doable. We’d rather turn down a deadline than blow one you’re counting on.

The single best way to protect your timeline is to start early and get your artwork in clean. Which brings us to the files.

Takeaway: About three weeks after your order is approved. For screen printing, most rushes carry no extra fee. Tell us the real date and we’ll tell you the truth about it.

Getting your artwork print-ready

The quality of your print starts with the quality of your file. Vector files (AI, EPS, or PDF) print sharpest because they scale to any size without going fuzzy. If all you’ve got is a logo pulled from your website, send it anyway. We’ll tell you what we can do, and we can help with file prep if it needs work.

Brand color is its own conversation. If your logo has to be one exact shade, and for most organizations it does, we match to Pantone formulas so your blue is your blue on every run, this year and next. Oh yeah, and we do it for no extra cost. You shouldn’t have to pay extra to make sure the colors match your brand. Send your brand guidelines or color codes along with the artwork and we’ll take it from there.

Takeaway: Vector files print sharpest, but send whatever you have. We’ll tell you what’s workable and match your brand colors with Pantone formulas.

Who we print for in Austin

We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re built for organizations that care how their brand shows up and tend to come back for more. A few of the worlds we know well:

• Beverage and CPG brands. From Topo Chico to Yellowbird to Rambler, we print merch and team gear for brands whose look is part of the product.
• Restaurants, breweries, and hospitality. Staff tees that survive a double, retail merch as good as the food or drink, and gear for groups like Hai Hospitality, The Peached Tortilla, and Real Ale Brewing Company.
• Skilled trades and contractors. Durable, professional workwear that holds up on the job. The kind of gear Radiant Heating and Air relies on.
• Tech and startups. Onboarding swag and launch-day hoodies your team reaches for, made to feel like the brand instead of a generic giveaway.
• Schools, PTOs, churches, teams, and nonprofits. Spirit wear and fundraiser shirts that will outlast the school year. Plus webstores and online ordering that make coordinating a large group a breeze.

We also print for design-forward brands like Four Hands and Merit Coffee, where the details have to be exactly right. If your organization lives in one of these worlds, or somewhere adjacent, we’ve probably solved a version of your problem before. Take a look at some of that work on our case studies and past projects.

Takeaway: Kong is built for repeat buyers. Beverage, hospitality, trades, tech, schools, and the organizations who care. We bring real Austin experience to each.

Why printing in Austin matters

Some buyers would rather set the whole thing up themselves, and some would rather talk it through with a person. Both work here. You can start your own order at create.kongscreenprinting.com, or call and walk through it with a salesperson who will pull samples and answer questions. Either way it gets printed in our own Austin shop, on our own presses, by our own team, and the same people are here when you come back for the next run.

We know that whatever we’re printing, it’s not really about the shirts. It’s about the small business you’ve poured life into, the school fundraiser you’re volunteering for and just need to go smoothly, or the crew that finally looks like a team.

Mistakes, delays, and poorly printed merch don’t represent you, your work, or your organization well. We get that, and that’s why we do the things we do.

Quality control. We care. That’s really where it all starts. We catch problems before they become your problem. Every project gets our eyes and our hands and our hearts.

Turnaround you can trust. We control the press schedule, so we can give you a timeline and keep it.

Accountability. One team, start to finish. If something’s off there’s no finger-pointing, there’s a person who picks up the phone and makes it right. That’s why so much of our business is repeat business, and part of why we’ve earned more than 100 five-star reviews from Austin customers.

Takeaway: Printing in Austin means we own quality, timeline, and accountability, and that ownership is exactly what an organization depending on its merch is paying for. It also means you can come in to visit, press check, or get content for your social media anytime you want.

How to choose a screen printing partner in Austin

Austin has a lot of good print shops. Most of them are the real thing, with presses in the building and people who know how to run them. What is worth checking is who stands behind the order once you place it, whether you started it online or over the phone.

So ask where the press is. Ask whether you’ll see a proof before the run, and whether you can stand next to it when it prints. Most importantly, ask what happens when something goes wrong, and listen for whether the answer involves a person or a support queue. Ask how they handle your second order, because repeat business is the tell. A shop that earns reorders is a shop that makes things right.

Compare us against anyone in town. We’re confident in where we land.

Takeaway: Ask where the press is, whether you’ll see a proof, who picks up the phone when something’s wrong, and how they handle your reorder.

Getting started: what we need from you

Starting a run with Kong is simple. The more you can share up front, the faster we can get you an accurate quote and a proof:

• Your artwork, in the best format you have. Vector files (AI, EPS, PDF) print sharpest, but if all you’ve got is a logo from your website, send it and we’ll tell you what we can do. We can help with file prep and color matching, including Pantone brand colors.
• Quantity and sizes, even a rough range. It helps us scope the right technique and price.
• Your deadline. Tell us the real date you need them in hand.
• What it’s for. Staff, retail, an event, a fundraiser, a giveaway. The use shapes our recommendations.

From there, we’ll send a quote, create your proof, and once you approve, print it right. Ready to start? Get a quote or contact our team and tell us about your project.

Takeaway: Send your artwork, a rough quantity, your deadline, and what the merch is for. That’s enough for us to get you a quote and a proof.