0:03

Welcome back to the print on demand cast , and

0:05

in this episode , we're going to be talking about

0:07

the Print On Demand cast

0:09

. It

0:48

is great to have all of you here with

0:51

us again , as we are celebrating

0:53

the fact that the Print On Demand cast is

0:55

four years old

0:58

today and joining me for

1:00

this podcast and all of the

1:02

other podcasts for the last four

1:04

years . How many times can we work

1:06

in the fact that it's four years

1:09

old ? That's terrible

1:11

. Joining me is travis

1:13

ross . Travis , welcome man , and

1:16

uh , today's gonna be different . Little

1:18

little loose , not as formatted

1:20

, maybe as hard as that might be to believe

1:23

for people who have been listening to the show

1:25

for four years and they're thinking , wait

1:27

a minute , they haven't been just walking

1:29

on a high wire with no safety

1:33

apparatus . No , we have been structured

1:35

. This , though , is going to be a little bit more

1:37

loose than normal . Travis

1:39

happy Tuesday as

1:41

we're recording this . Happy four years

1:43

of the show . How's things , matt

1:45

? How was your weekend and what are your thoughts on the

1:48

show being four years old ?

1:50

Weekend was good , Just really busy , Did

1:53

a lot of stuff , so a lot

1:55

of work , A lot of just

1:57

kind of grinding . I was really tired

1:59

and you know , so it was a long weekend . But

2:01

back

2:04

at it this week , have several

2:07

local orders sitting over there ready to be pressed

2:09

and , um , have another one that could

2:11

be coming in any moment . He's got all the

2:13

everything he needs . He's just got to get me , uh

2:16

, the final details and uh , so

2:18

, you know , still , uh

2:20

, I , I feel like summer is kind of a good

2:23

time for , for local orders , so we've been doing a lot of

2:25

those . Um , besides that

2:27

, uh , you know , peeling

2:29

back the curtain a little bit , we actually looked

2:31

and , um , according to

2:33

our podcast host , the first

2:36

episode that we ever did was released August

2:39

31st 2020

2:42

. So I , I feel like we probably

2:44

put out like some bonus episodes and still

2:46

named them , and

2:48

so , you know , the

2:51

podcast has 208

2:54

episodes , Um , or

2:57

maybe I don't know , maybe maybe there's a bonus

2:59

episode in there or something that kind of threw off the math

3:01

, but 52

3:04

times four is 208

3:06

. So we're just going to claim it , right , I mean

3:08

why not

3:10

?

3:10

What else are they ? I mean , why wouldn't

3:12

they ? Why wouldn't we just do that

3:14

? Who's going to care ? So it's

3:17

four years old , is it's official and

3:19

it's wild to

3:21

think about that . Guys , just for a little bit of a uh

3:23

, I guess nostalgia

3:26

moment , we've got

3:28

this this here , not

3:30

this one . This one was the original

3:32

uh

3:34

logo for the podcast

3:36

, which is insane

3:39

, not the best granted . No

3:41

, uh , we just , you know , kind of sent

3:44

out a request . This is what our va gave us

3:46

. Um , we've been talking about

3:48

a lot about vas in the archive , but , uh

3:50

, this is what he said back to us . We're like , hey , uh , we're

3:52

gonna roll because we're gonna put the show out

3:55

in like a couple weeks .

3:56

So , yeah , well , I mean that's that

3:58

that goes to , I mean , our point . We always

4:00

talk about , um , you know , jumping

4:02

on before you have , you know , you

4:04

don't have to perfect it to put it out there , you

4:07

know . And so we put it out there like

4:09

this with this logo . And then eventually

4:11

we kind of revamped

4:13

that and came up with a what

4:16

we think is a way

4:18

better logo and

4:21

and it kind of it

4:23

not only like is a a better

4:25

logo , but it kind of informed our whole vibe

4:27

, you know of like the backgrounds and our

4:30

website and all of that . It really

4:32

gave us kind of that um , you

4:34

know , synth wave kind of feel for

4:36

for pretty much all of our branding

4:39

. So it was very , very advantageous

4:41

to us to to rebrand , but

4:44

had we waited until we had the perfect

4:46

logo , we wouldn't have launched in , you

4:48

know , august of , uh

4:50

, august 31st of 2020

4:53

.

4:53

Yes , yeah to travis's point

4:55

, it was just kind of like one of those things where I mean , I don't

4:57

think either of us were really stoked with with

5:00

this logo when we first went with

5:02

it . That the idea was like ink

5:04

from the printer kind of splattering

5:06

and having the letters and all that stuff

5:09

right so kind of whatever . But

5:11

once we had a conversation , I don't remember

5:13

, when we switched the vibe to

5:16

what it is now , what everyone knows and loves , uh

5:18

. But we kind of were like we kind of had to talk

5:21

about the aesthetic and wanting to do something

5:23

a little bit more

5:25

uh , 80s vibe

5:27

, nostalgia , kind of fit our personalities

5:29

a little bit better as well . And then

5:31

here we are , that's what we've got . So

5:33

, um , it's been interesting

5:37

to to kind of see the evolution

5:39

of the show . We're going to be talking more about that and

5:42

also talking about

5:44

what has changed

5:47

since we started in the podcast , both in

5:49

the print-on-demand cast industry as a

5:51

whole from 2020 to

5:54

now in 2024 , but also in our personal

5:56

lives . What has changed ? I

5:59

don't know if you guys want to take the over-under on which

6:01

category is going to have more changes in it

6:03

, but lots has changed in

6:05

both ways in

6:07

both categories . So before we do that

6:10

, we're just going to go . We

6:12

have a bit of an extended one

6:14

today for this week's

6:16

weekly dad joke time for the

6:18

weekly dad joke , but

6:22

by extended . it's not that it's one joke

6:24

that just keeps going and going

6:26

and going . A little bit of rapid

6:28

fire jokes here

6:30

as we celebrate the four

6:32

years of the show Travis

6:35

. I know you have just a plethora

6:39

. I'll let you go ahead

6:41

and start and we'll just

6:43

go from there you

6:51

go ahead and start and we'll just go from there .

6:52

Okay , so I was in really bad pain I had actually

6:54

fractured my right ankle foot

6:57

kind of area , and I went to the doctor

6:59

and he administered some local anesthetic so

7:01

he could examine me better . But he injected

7:04

it into my left ankle

7:06

, which made me even more irritable

7:08

, and I honestly , I said some stuff to

7:10

him that I probably shouldn't have said and

7:12

, to his credit , he calmly

7:15

replied to me I'm sorry

7:17

, I think we got off on the wrong foot nice

7:33

, I like it , I like it all .

7:33

Right , that's travis's one , here is mine . You know , I realized the other day . You

7:35

know , we have a pretty , pretty peaceful neighborhood here and and , uh , it was a little irritated

7:38

, right , it's people

7:40

that they come and knock on your door

7:42

and they're like listen , you

7:44

need to get saved or you're going to burn . Stupid

7:48

firemen , it's

7:54

topical because there's a fire about 20 minutes

7:56

. Well , there was , there is , it's still happening , but other

7:59

direction , it burned to the other direction . Yeah

8:02

, it is good . I mean not good , but good for my own self-interest that it is the other direction

8:04

. So , all right , jarvis , what ? Yeah , it is good . I mean not good , but good for my own self-interest

8:07

that it is the other direction . So

8:09

, jarvis , what do you have next

8:12

?

8:13

Uh , so I was um , my

8:16

wife came to me the other day . She was kind of annoyed

8:18

. Uh , I sense a theme either

8:20

we're annoyed or people are annoyed with us . But

8:23

she's been

8:25

kind of studying like like

8:28

grammar and English and it's

8:30

kind of an overflow of my daughter who's actually

8:32

in college for for English she's

8:34

really loves to read and all that

8:36

. But so it's been kind of passed

8:39

on to my wife , I guess . And so she said in

8:41

the context of this conversation , she said

8:44

you need to do more chores around the house . And

8:47

I just calmly said , can

8:49

we change the subject ? And she said , okay

8:51

, more chores around the house need to be done

8:53

by you .

8:53

A little

8:56

sentence structure humor here

8:58

I like that , I like that

9:01

. So the other I didn't

9:03

tell this story on the show because it happened

9:05

, you know , in last Christmas

9:08

. But I was going to buy a new tree because

9:10

our old tree , when we moved it , got kind of damaged

9:12

so we had to buy a new , fake Christmas tree . So

9:14

I go up and the cashier says oh

9:16

, nice , nice , are you going to put it up yourself

9:18

? And I said , don't be disgusting , I'm going to

9:20

put it in the living room .

9:21

Oh , I'm going to put it in the living

9:23

room . Oh , no , no .

9:25

No , this

9:28

was a PG show . If

9:31

you're offended by that joke I completely agree

9:33

. Oh

9:38

, I don't know how to follow that .

9:41

I could not . I could not get it out , it's

9:44

so funny , it's it out so

9:46

bad .

9:48

oh , we apologize , uh

9:50

, for the mancast listeners . Um

9:52

, okay , I'm gonna keep going

9:55

because I I just can't . Um , I

9:57

was actually at a

9:59

bookstore a local bookstore the other day and

10:01

I couldn't believe it . They were literally throwing

10:03

out all the steven king novels . They were just like

10:06

chucking them out the window and I couldn't

10:08

figure out why .

10:09

But then it hit

10:12

me nice

10:16

you devil , nice

10:18

stephen king books . Yeah

10:20

yeah , I don't know I I would tell

10:22

the the I wanted to take a

10:24

stand .

10:25

I wanted to take the stand , the a stand

10:27

that I tried . I tried to get another one

10:29

in there .

10:29

It didn't end by me . You're gonna , you're

10:31

gonna try . No , you tried to the

10:34

stand .

10:35

That's , yeah , stephen king novel . Right the

10:37

stand the stand . And

10:40

by me novel . No

10:43

the stand . It's a novel by stephen king

10:45

.

10:46

Come on , man well , I guess that

10:48

just the whole thing just ended up in music you know

10:50

what we'll just ? That

10:53

was good .

10:53

I was gonna say we'd edit that whole part out

10:55

, you know , and then just leave it

10:57

in .

10:59

We salvaged it . So yeah

11:02

, uh , let's see

11:04

I'll do one more . My

11:06

boss perfect really . My

11:08

boss really hates when

11:10

I shorten his name to dick

11:12

, probably because

11:15

his name is steve you

11:19

are on a roll oh my gosh

11:21

and then before we pressed record

11:24

, we were talking about like how did that ? How

11:26

did richard go from richard and like

11:28

, dick is the nickname , and we did a whole search

11:31

and if you want

11:40

to know more subscribe to the newsletter

11:42

.

11:42

Oh man , yeah , that's going to be fun this week , yeah

11:45

, wow . Well

11:48

, what's your last one ? I

11:55

got the last one here and I figured you know Paris Olympics go USA . You know a lot , a lot of cool things

11:57

happen , but as I've been watching them , I've been really

12:00

getting into the different Nate

12:02

, the different national anthems . You

12:05

know the different countries at the Olympics

12:07

.

12:07

Yeah , I

12:14

guess you could say I've gotten into country music and

12:17

there it is with a Michael Scott clip to top

12:20

off this week's extended weekly

12:23

dad joke . Hope you guys enjoyed

12:25

that .

12:25

It was certainly more fun than it probably

12:27

should have been , you know I was

12:30

just going to say , like this episode's

12:32

kind of a little bit of peeling back

12:34

the curtain , like

12:37

what just happened . There is

12:40

usually what happens a

12:42

half an hour before we're recording

12:45

. We go back and forth with multiple

12:47

dad jokes and so you're getting to

12:49

see kind of the behind the scenes .

12:50

So lucky

12:52

you know , for for

12:55

you guys , on the four-year episode

12:58

, yeah , we usually iron out the dad joke before

13:00

you actually really dive into what we're going to be actually

13:02

talking about . So we have an idea and

13:04

then we focus more on the dad jokes and then we dive deeper on

13:06

the main event , and that's just how

13:08

how it goes sometimes

13:10

. So , uh , what we're

13:12

going to do now I guess , um

13:14

, for this week's uh , for

13:16

the segment , is going to be

13:19

some pod trivia

13:21

for this week's point of

13:23

interest point

13:33

of interest

13:36

Nice . That

13:51

would use my

13:54

favorite point of interest bumper that

13:56

we have in all four years of the show . That's

13:59

the one , awesome . So

14:01

we're going to do do some trivia . And you're thinking , trivia

14:04

, how's that gonna work ? Well , basically , here's

14:07

, here's what we should do . Um

14:09

, well , that actually won't work at all . So I told you

14:11

it's gonna be a little loose in formatting

14:13

. So we're we're just gonna go

14:15

back and forth here . We have some , some trivia and

14:18

hopefully this will be um , interesting to you . If

14:20

you guys know any of the answers , shout

14:22

them out , and shout them out right now

14:24

as you're driving , and uh , and then maybe

14:27

record a video of you shouting them out while

14:29

we're asking it and then post it to the Facebook

14:31

group , because otherwise we'll never know if you're telling the

14:33

truth or not . So , uh , what we're going

14:35

to do , we have a little a 12 second

14:37

timer here . You'd

14:44

second timer here . You'd think 12 is a weird number . I know , uh , we're gonna go for 10 , but , uh

14:46

, the whole process behind the reason we got to 12 is really , really ridiculous

14:48

. So it's 12 seconds to answer , um

14:50

, and so , travis , you just want to go back

14:52

and forth on these , or , or how

14:55

? Okay , well , you take the first one , I'll

14:57

start the timer and we'll go from there

14:59

.

15:00

Okay , the first print on demand cast

15:02

trivia question is and get

15:04

ready , guys , you need to . You know , put

15:06

your thinking caps on . We're going to give you 12 seconds . What

15:09

was the first year that merch

15:11

by Amazon allowed signups

15:14

for their print on demand program

15:16

? Start the

15:18

timer .

15:19

All right , shout them out , shout them out . We

15:21

need to hear you . What do you guys think I'm

15:25

gonna say ? And I actually didn't , didn't know

15:27

this . 2015 is

15:30

when they did that so

15:36

right , yeah , that's , that's

15:38

right .

15:38

I just the timer was off or something

15:40

and you like answered that five

15:44

seconds left and I was like give him 12 seconds

15:46

. Man , you're a jerk , you know , let him . Let him

15:48

. Yeah , that's true . We

15:52

should probably let the timer ding

15:54

.

15:55

And then say the answer .

15:56

Give them , give them a little time , okay , okay , see

16:00

yeah , that's what .

16:01

That's what rehearsals are for , and

16:03

them a little time , okay . Okay , see , yeah , that's what that's what rehearsals

16:05

are for and that's why we're recording this rehearsal , okay , number two , the second

16:07

question in this trivia what

16:10

type of printing process is used for

16:12

creating durable prints on items like mugs

16:14

, phone cases and

16:16

metal prints ? 12

16:19

seconds , go and

16:21

enjoy this , alright

16:35

, what do you guys think it is ? Let us know , shout it out

16:38

, we can hear you . Travis , what's your guess

16:40

? We've got passion .

16:45

We have done a million mugs here and we use the process

16:47

called dye sublimation

16:49

that is

16:51

a correct dye , sublimation

16:54

for the win . All

17:01

right , travis you take the next

17:03

one I

17:05

was going to say . If you want to learn more

17:07

about that , we have . If you search sublimation

17:10

or sublimating in our

17:12

archives , you can

17:14

figure that , or you can find a lot

17:16

of episodes We've talked about sublimating coffee

17:19

mugs and different things like that , so check

17:21

that out , all right . Next one , number

17:23

three , in 2020

17:25

, which print-on-demand

17:27

platform surpassed $1

17:31

billion , that's billion with a B in

17:33

cumulative payouts

17:36

to artists and designers

17:38

Go 12

17:40

seconds .

17:44

Go . Scooby-dooby-doo , where

17:47

are you ? We have some

17:49

work to do now . Scooby-dooby-doo

17:53

, where are you ?

17:57

Alright , and for those that just heard

18:00

that , you need to know that I've waited four

18:02

years to find an appropriate time to use that bumper

18:04

and we found

18:06

it . So all

18:08

right , the answer to this is

18:11

Redbubble . I thought my

18:13

first guess initially was Etsy , but

18:15

tis not the case . I was thinking

18:17

Merch by Amazon , that was

18:19

my guess yeah , but

18:21

Redbubble who knew ?

18:24

Somebody knew , because they wrote the question .

18:27

Yep , very good , here

18:29

we go . Number four what

18:32

year was the Printful , a

18:34

major front-end film company , founded

18:38

?

18:39

There we go . I'll fix

18:41

that in the notes . Yeah , no

18:46

.

18:47

And then Mark Zuckerberg just said drop the the . And

18:50

I was like , okay , You're

18:52

going to learn today .

18:55

Thanks , Mark .

18:57

All right , the answer is

19:00

2013

19:02

. 2013 .

19:05

Yes , okay

19:08

, I'm going to take number five Okay

19:10

, this one's a bonus . So where are you at

19:12

? Are you 4-0 ? All

19:15

right , this one's going to be . It's

19:17

not going to be any harder . You'll get it too . All right , here's

19:19

the bonus . Question Number five what is

19:22

a significant advantage of using

19:24

a direct to film or DTF

19:26

printing method over DTG

19:29

in print on demand ? We

19:31

are at . We are specifically looking

19:33

for a particular advantage

19:36

, a significant advantage

19:38

.

19:39

So six seconds left in mind . Do you got ?

19:40

it ? You got it , you got it . Six seconds left

19:42

. Do you got it ? You got it ? You got it Two

19:44

seconds . All

19:49

right , the answer is DTF

19:52

or direct-to-film printing can be used

19:54

on a wider variety of fabrics

19:56

, including those that are not 100%

19:59

cotton . So there

20:01

you go , you can . Dtf on leather

20:04

. You can do it on polyester . A

20:06

lot of things you can't do it you can't do

20:09

with DTG . So that was the significant

20:11

advantage we're looking for . If you got

20:13

all five of them right , tell

20:15

them what they're doing , bob .

20:19

Bob Pritchard , you've won a resounding round

20:21

of applause from uh the

20:24

live studio audience here and also

20:26

you have won

20:28

our respect . And , uh , we really

20:30

want to see

20:33

the videos of you screaming the answers out

20:35

at the uh the car and

20:37

at your stereo , because otherwise there's really no way to validate

20:40

the fact that you actually did get all five right . But

20:42

we'll believe you , because print

20:45

on a man cast audience would not lie . So just

20:48

that would never happen , never happen

20:50

. All right , we're gonna go to this week's main

20:53

event ladies

20:59

and gentlemen , the main

21:02

event . All

21:14

right , travis , we're going to be talking about what's changed

21:16

in print on demand in the last four years and what's

21:19

changed in our lives

21:21

in the last four years . So I'll let you pick which

21:23

category you want to start with . Maybe we start with

21:25

print on demand industry , but I'll

21:28

leave that up to you . But you know

21:30

, we always talk about how this

21:32

industry is very it's

21:35

quick . There's lots of things that are always

21:37

changing , rapidly advancing , rapidly evolving

21:39

, whether it's platforms and their

21:41

rules and regulations , whether it's the print technology

21:44

that is being brought to

21:46

you by the manufacturers , some of the big players

21:48

like Epson and Brother and Mamaki . There's

21:51

so many facets of this that can change so

21:53

quickly . I remember when I was working

21:56

for Verizon Wireless , it was

21:58

a lot of the same way in the cell phone game

22:00

, where every six months there was a new training on the

22:02

new cell phone that was coming out , or a

22:05

new training on the iOS update that was about to

22:07

drop , and you never felt

22:09

like you were ever caught up on

22:11

the continuing education portion

22:13

of that industry , of your job

22:15

, and so this is very similar to where

22:17

it's constantly evolving and constantly

22:19

moving . So , travis , what do you want to

22:21

start with ? Which category , and

22:24

then we can just kind of dive into some of the things

22:26

that we have seen and observed

22:28

in the industry or that we've kind of lived through in the

22:30

last four years of life .

22:32

Yeah , I mean there

22:34

is some overlap , of course , but

22:36

I was just thinking like maybe we

22:38

could go back

22:40

and forth and I'll share one and then you share

22:43

one and I share one , or whatever . But

22:46

I'm interested because I guarantee

22:48

we're going to miss some of those

22:50

things that our listeners are

22:52

like yelling at their

22:54

car radio or whatever . Or

23:01

wherever you're listening to this , you're probably like going

23:03

no , you forgot this . So if there is something

23:05

that we forgot , it'd be cool to have like

23:07

a little post in the Facebook group and we

23:09

talk about some of the things that have changed in the last four

23:11

years . But one of the things to kind

23:13

of kick it off , when we started

23:16

four years ago and we had already

23:18

been doing print on demand , so

23:20

this is probably more like six years ago

23:23

, so I'm kind of cheating . But , um

23:25

, I just remember , uh

23:27

, white ink and

23:29

a DTG machine was like , wow

23:32

, this one can do white too . It

23:34

was , it was kind of new . It was a new

23:37

thing because they couldn't figure out

23:39

, um , the white ink actually

23:41

has like I can't remember

23:43

the actual chemical compound

23:45

, but it has one of the pieces

23:47

of pieces

23:49

of the ink , if

23:53

you will , I guess is actually a metal , and so what would happen is , when

23:55

they try to put white ink in these printers

23:58

, it would clog the printheads , and

24:00

so they were having to constantly replace

24:03

these , you know . And so I guess that

24:05

is a change , because at at

24:07

first , even when they started putting white ink

24:09

, they were having so many problems with

24:11

it and like printheads

24:14

getting clogged , printheads having to be replaced until

24:17

the , even with some of the , they

24:19

started doing like recirculation

24:21

, you know , with the whiting so it would , it would constantly

24:24

recirculate . If you left it plugged

24:26

in , even after you quote , unquote turned it off

24:28

, the circulation would still like cycle so

24:31

that ink wouldn't stick , you know . And um

24:33

, and they did some stuff with , uh , some

24:36

different types of filters and they

24:38

did some stuff with just all you

24:42

know , like a kind of a agitation where it would like shake it up and try to

24:44

move those particles around in there . So there were

24:46

so many companies trying

24:48

to figure out how to make

24:51

these white ink , you

24:54

know , this white ink not clog

24:56

the printheads . And in

24:58

fact even the ink companies were like trying

25:00

to figure out better chemical

25:03

solutions to be able to produce the

25:05

bright , vivid white that like a screen

25:07

printing could do , but not have as

25:09

much of that compound that clogs the

25:11

heads . So it was kind of coming from both , both

25:14

directions , and I think they're still doing that

25:16

. You know , I mean still attempting

25:18

to do that , because white ink isn't just on DTG

25:21

. We had a , a MAMAC , we

25:23

had a couple of MAMAC-y , um , uh

25:26

, uv printers and

25:29

they had white ink in them as well , and so

25:31

it was the same type of thing and had to . I remember

25:33

you'd you'd be in there in the middle of the night and you'd

25:35

hear that thing . It was on the other side of the wall

25:37

from my office and I'd hear it every

25:40

15 minutes cycle on and just

25:42

cycle that white ink . So

25:44

, um , I think that's you

25:46

know , as far as the industry goes . That's something

25:48

that's definitely changed over the last four

25:50

years . So that's mine

25:53

. You can jump in there .

25:56

Yeah , I mean so much , I

25:58

think for me and I've alluded to this

26:00

in the beginning or multiple

26:02

times in the show , and

26:05

it's directly

26:07

related to how we kind of built our

26:09

business in the beginning

26:11

. But one thing that's changed over the

26:13

last four years immensely is social

26:16

media's and influencers's

26:19

need and or the saturation

26:21

of providers in

26:24

that space and

26:26

the idea of dropshipping or print

26:29

on demand and no cost upfront and

26:31

those types of things . I remember when we first started

26:34

and I first started reaching

26:36

out to people , there weren't a lot of folks that had

26:39

merchandise or had stores or

26:41

so it was really easy to find

26:43

people to send messages

26:45

to , because they're . Hardly

26:48

anyone had a merch store and I'm like , has

26:50

no one heard of this ? And and part of it is

26:52

known it was so new in

26:54

terms of what is print on demand and the

26:56

idea of um , of

26:58

screen printing and having to hold physical

27:00

inventory . All of that was very much still very

27:03

prevalent in people's ideology and

27:05

thought process . When it came to create , creating

27:07

merch and so to

27:09

to pitch them on a , on a , on a

27:11

model that was no cost upfront and

27:14

you didn't have to invest heavily

27:16

in inventory was brand

27:18

new to them and then , as things progressed , it

27:21

got a little more difficult and now I'm not even doing

27:23

that on the day to day , but I can . You go on Instagram

27:25

or Tiktok and everyone has a flippin

27:27

merch store of some sort , whether

27:29

someone's providing it for them or they're running

27:32

it for themselves . It's

27:34

, it's everywhere now and , as we've alluded

27:36

to in the last couple of episodes , tiktok shop

27:38

is a thing now where people are

27:40

ordering shirts from there , don't know how they're

27:42

being fulfilled , but you can get shirts and merch and

27:44

stuff from people's tiktok shop

27:46

directly . So it's

27:49

uh , yeah , that's that has

27:51

changed wildly . Just think the number

27:53

of people who are taking advantage

27:55

of the print on demand , direct to garment

27:57

kind of drop shipping model

27:59

seems to have skyrocketed , especially

28:01

in that space .

28:03

Yeah , I think actually printify announced that they

28:05

were fulfilling for tiktok . Now they had

28:07

an integration that's huge , I know another

28:09

company , merch eyes . they are

28:11

doing tiktok fulfillment , and tiktok is just like every other platform as far as like they keep changing an integration . I know another company , MerchEyes . They are doing TikTok fulfillment

28:13

, and TikTok is just like every other platform as far as

28:15

like they keep changing the rules and they say

28:17

, well , now you have to get your thing to them in this

28:19

time and you have less handling time . And

28:21

so all of these print on demand companies that said we'll

28:24

do it , they're having to , you know , figure

28:26

out how they actually are going to do it to

28:28

continue to not only

28:30

satisfy the platform's

28:34

requirements but also

28:36

keep their customers happy , because their customers can get

28:38

in trouble with the platform if they're , you know

28:40

, blah , blah , blah . So

28:42

yeah , that's a big one . I mean , just TikTok

28:44

itself is , you know , was not

28:47

really a thing four years ago .

28:49

It was in its infancy not

28:53

really a thing four years ago . It was in its infancy

28:55

and yeah , so it's very in its infancy in 2020 and

28:58

it was a lot of just viral dance videos , or you know what I mean . Like the dance

29:00

challenges a lot of and and it's it's

29:02

just exploded over

29:05

the last four years . So , yeah , it's , it's been

29:07

wild no , that's a good one .

29:08

Um , one kind

29:10

of uh one thing for the podcast

29:13

. Um , we got new mics a

29:15

while ago yeah , it's just listening

29:17

to like our first episode . Just

29:19

a little nostalgia and

29:21

it's like we sound like this . You know we're talking

29:24

through . It's not that bad , but it's . It's definitely

29:26

not the quality that apparently , yeah

29:28

yeah , um , that's kind of a fun

29:31

one . But as far as the print industry goes , I I

29:33

think the a very

29:35

easy um thing to say

29:37

that has happened in the last four years , um

29:40

, the proliferation of dtf

29:42

direct to film printing . And

29:44

if you listened , a few episodes

29:47

ago I was talking about , uh , or several episodes

29:49

ago I was talking kind of sharing

29:51

my experiences at um a

29:54

trade show that I had gone to in was

29:56

it the Atlantic city one ? Yeah , the Atlantic city

29:58

, uh , uh

30:01

impressions expo and um

30:03

, and I got to have dinner with

30:05

uh , a lot of cool people

30:07

, but one one person that was there was

30:09

, uh , the president

30:12

of Omniprint , and we

30:14

were taught Omniprint does um

30:16

like kind of cut their teeth with DTG

30:19

uh printers and they and

30:21

actually when I was looking at my first

30:23

DTG printer , I was considering an Omniprint

30:26

printer . I ended up going with an Epson

30:28

, like you guys did , and stayed with Epson

30:30

for the duration

30:32

, but Omni print was definitely one

30:34

of those . They have , you know , some entry

30:36

level and then obviously some more

30:38

larger

30:40

printers . You know more commercial size

30:43

printers , but they recently came out

30:45

with some DTF machines

30:48

. And when I was at the

30:50

trade show in Atlantic Citylantic city

30:52

this past . When was

30:54

that ? It's probably april . Um , I

30:56

was talking to him and I just asked him . I said so what

30:59

, uh , what percentage

31:01

, like how has dtf affected your business

31:03

, and what percentage of machines are

31:05

you guys selling now compared to your dtg

31:07

? And he said we sell eight

31:09

dtf machines for every two DTG

31:12

machines we sell . And

31:15

they weren't even I mean DTF

31:17

wasn't even a gleam in their eye . You know , back

31:19

in the day they were all DTG

31:21

and and it's it's transitioned

31:23

so quickly over the last since

31:25

, really since COVID , you know . So probably when

31:28

we were starting they were starting to

31:30

come out , but now it's

31:32

just everywhere and everyone

31:35

and their brother has a new DTF transfer

31:38

company that you can buy

31:40

new transfers and all that . It makes

31:42

it really cool . If you have a heat press , you can do

31:44

a lot of cool things from

31:46

your home . I mean , that's what I'm doing now . I don't

31:48

have a DTG machine anymore . That's

31:52

what I'm doing now . I don't have a DTG machine anymore . I just have a heat

31:54

press and I order my , my t-shirts and I order my you know my DTF transfers

31:56

and I'm off to the races and that's all I have to do

31:58

and price pricing keeps coming down

32:01

just like it . You know it always does

32:03

. When a new thing comes out , it's as

32:05

high as it's going to get priced , and then it's slow

32:07

as competition comes . Everybody kind of races

32:09

to the bottom as it comes to monetize . That's

32:12

what's happened with DTF . That's

32:14

another one . I don't know . Do you have another

32:17

one you thought of ?

32:18

Yeah , I would say definitely . We've

32:21

talked about this a lot in the last handful of weeks

32:23

and months of the show , but artificial

32:25

intelligence certainly wasn't a thing

32:27

in 2020 . It was

32:30

not something that was as prolific

32:32

. I'm

32:34

sure in certain sectors people knew about

32:36

it , but from a public kind of awareness

32:39

or consumption to where people were using it

32:41

in the day-to-day , like generative

32:44

fill on Photoshop

32:46

, which we've talked about , that's been a point of interest

32:49

here on the show as well

32:51

, but kind of putting AI in

32:53

the hands of creators

32:55

, designers , whether it is

32:57

in terms of the graphic image and helping

33:00

create or generate those images , or if

33:02

it's in the realm of ChatGPT

33:05

or Claudeai

33:07

and these other platforms

33:09

that allow you to generate

33:12

a good starting point . Never

33:14

going to advocate that you should just copy

33:17

paste , because it's not going to be , at

33:20

least for now , foolproof

33:22

and just probably wouldn't advocate

33:24

that you do that anyway . But

33:26

it's wild to see how far

33:29

that it's come . Um , not only in print on

33:31

demand , but just , you know , showing my sister the other

33:33

day these AI covers

33:35

of , you know , michael Jackson singing Bruno Mars

33:37

and the whole voice synthesis that

33:39

is that's happening and it's

33:41

wild and she's she's getting ready to

33:43

to move um to

33:46

to Alabama and so she is

33:48

resigning her job and

33:50

she's like I need a letter of resignation , but I've never written

33:53

that before . And I said sit down

33:55

, grab your laptop , go to cloudai

33:57

and type this . So I kind

33:59

of walked her through like how to get a good template

34:02

and she was like that's

34:04

incredible . So it was her first encounter with AI

34:06

, so it has been wild

34:09

to see how it's grown

34:11

and it's going to be even more interesting to me

34:13

to see how sustainable it

34:15

is , what the ripple effects are on the industry

34:18

, how they're going to police some of it . When

34:20

it comes to the design aspect , and are

34:22

you going to be allowed just to

34:24

generate something on AI and put it on a T-shirt

34:26

? How is AI creating

34:28

an image ? Where

34:42

are they scrubbing the information from ? So it's going to be interesting

34:44

in the coming years on multiple levels in culture , print-on-demand industry

34:46

just to see the effects , the long-term effects of AI , but certainly in 2020

34:49

, it was one of those things that it was a boy . That would be cool if , and now it's happening .

34:53

So AI is a huge one yeah

34:56

, and it's yeah , it's really changed the game

34:58

with print on demand for sure , um , but

35:01

uh , I got one

35:03

more and then I mean we can transition , we can keep

35:05

going . This is fine . But yeah , I was just thinking

35:07

about , like the , I

35:10

was thinking the the overall number

35:12

of people that are jumping into

35:15

the print-on-demand game . You know there's just

35:17

so many more people and

35:20

obviously you know we started in 2020 . That

35:22

was the COVID year and

35:24

a lot of people were stuck at home . They

35:26

didn't have anything to do . They wanted to figure

35:28

out a way to work from home , and

35:30

so a lot of people started Etsy

35:33

stores and maybe they were

35:35

crocheting a little

35:38

frog or something , but those

35:41

who didn't maybe have any crafty ideas

35:43

or whatever . A lot of them jumped into

35:45

print on demand . And so I was just looking

35:48

at kind of Etsy

35:50

revenue year over year and in

35:52

2019 , they had reached

35:54

818 million in

35:57

revenues . 818 million , it's pretty amazing

35:59

. 2020 , they more

36:01

than doubled . They were 1.7

36:03

billion in revenue in 2020

36:06

. And so in the last four years

36:08

, where are they now ? Well , obviously we're

36:10

in 2024 , so we can't say but

36:12

2023 , they had 2.75

36:15

million or billion . So

36:17

they've gone up a billion since in

36:19

the last four years . So I guess

36:21

it's probably because of the print on demand cast

36:24

. We are really feeding them

36:26

a lot of new customers and a lot of

36:28

new , you know , sellers , and

36:30

so it's probably us . Um

36:32

, I'm still waiting for that check

36:35

in the mail , uh , where they pay

36:37

us but , um , but yeah

36:39

, I . That's just one example

36:41

of how much this kind of shopping

36:43

online thing has just blown

36:46

up , particularly etsy , but there's all

36:48

. I mean . Similar numbers

36:50

are going to be found if you look at Amazon and

36:52

Walmart and all these other online shopping platforms

36:54

, because people are being becoming more and more comfortable

36:56

, even old people , you know , or

36:59

older people . They're becoming more

37:01

and more comfortable with buying online

37:03

. And then , obviously , kids are

37:06

growing up with a phone in their hand

37:08

and they're figuring it out . So it's the

37:10

proliferation of of online shopping

37:12

, as well as the

37:15

number of print on demand

37:17

shops that are opening every single

37:20

day , is just skyrocketed .

37:22

Yeah , it's and

37:24

it is . I think it is because of the print on demand cast

37:27

. So I'm glad , I'm glad you said that , just to

37:29

kind of clear the air Right and just

37:31

put that out there , get it off my chest . It just needs

37:33

to be said . Really is what

37:35

I'm thinking .

37:36

I've been holding that back for a while , you know

37:38

, I just haven't wanted to say anything . I didn't want

37:40

Etsy to get embarrassed .

37:42

So yeah , I needed to say it , yeah

37:45

, well , and now it's been

37:47

said , so it's out there and you guys decide whether or not

37:49

that's true , I guess . So , yeah

37:52

, transitioning , I guess , into some what's

37:54

different in personal

37:57

lives . I think for me

37:59

, the biggest , probably

38:02

from when we started , is that

38:04

I'm not

38:06

in the print on demand industry on a day

38:08

to day anymore , and

38:10

haven't been since 2022

38:13

. Ish , right , and

38:16

so , yeah , in the beginning

38:18

it was , you know , we're both running

38:20

and gunning , uh , in in

38:23

the thick of it every day , both at

38:25

production facilities

38:27

, um , at certain

38:29

points , and so , uh

38:31

, which was nice , to have contingencies

38:34

. Again , we talked about Inc and the many

38:36

conversations like I'm running long-winding , they're not

38:38

going to be here , the new one's not going to be here

38:40

in time . Can I borrow ? Then you come get it . And then there was lots

38:42

of that , you know , helping each other

38:44

out when we were low on supplies

38:46

, so that was very nice and

38:48

it's something that you take

38:51

for granted when that contingency is no longer there

38:53

, when there's not that shot be like hey guy

38:55

, I need some , I need a loaner

38:57

. So . But yeah , in 2022

39:00

left the industry full

39:03

time and so it's been

39:05

interesting for me to

39:07

to still hear and learn

39:09

by proxy , kind of like secondhand

39:12

, of what's happening , instead

39:14

of implementing it in my day-to-day and then not really

39:17

having to implement any of it in my

39:19

day-to-day or really chase any of the

39:21

new trends and stuff down , because I'm not

39:23

really implementing or selling

39:25

designs anymore . So I think for me that

39:27

would definitely be probably top of the

39:29

list in terms of what

39:32

is different between 2020 and 2024

39:34

for me .

39:36

Yeah , I would . I mean for me

39:38

. When we started this show , excuse

39:41

me , when we started the show , I was outsourcing and

39:45

had planned to do that . I was outsourcing

39:47

all my products and then I had an opportunity

39:50

to purchase a bunch of equipment and

39:52

I jumped in with both feet and whether

39:54

or not that was a good idea , who's

39:58

necessary ? Who's to say I learned

40:01

a lot . I , you know , grew

40:03

a lot . I was able

40:05

to , I think , help other

40:07

people grow . You know , in that , in

40:09

that space , I eventually shut

40:12

that down . I think I actually talk about that

40:14

. I was just going to see if I could figure out what

40:16

show that was when I talked about

40:18

, uh , shutting down . Yeah , episode

40:21

one 58 . If you want to check that out . Learning about

40:24

POD the hard way . And

40:26

uh , I just kind of lay it all out . And you know cause

40:28

I always wanted

40:30

to be , you know , I just value authenticity

40:33

and it was a hard

40:35

thing to decide to shut that down

40:37

and at the end of the day , it was because

40:39

I just couldn't figure out a way

40:41

to compete with the printifies and the printful

40:44

. So that's one thing

40:46

that's also increased over the

40:48

last four years is the volume . While

40:50

the volume of print on demand has increased

40:52

the efficiency

40:54

and the user experience

40:56

of the , the creators

40:59

on platforms that have millions

41:01

of dollars of investments and are really technology

41:04

companies that happen to print . You

41:07

know we're a printer . You know

41:09

we were and were trying to fit the

41:11

technology in in the background and

41:13

trying to . I used

41:15

a software called Order Desk that I called

41:17

my poor man's API , you

41:19

know , because I don't know how to do an API , but

41:22

I can tie , I can use this software

41:24

to tie to your Amazon and your Etsy and

41:26

your whatever , yeah , shopify

41:28

, and I mean it's a great piece of software , um

41:31

, but there's a lot of extra

41:33

work . I couldn't make it look really pretty

41:35

and you know , just drag your art onto

41:37

a picture of a t-shirt and have it show up

41:39

and that's how it's going to print . So , um

41:42

, with them being able to do that , obviously

41:44

that's very attractive because the user experience

41:46

is awesome and and and so

41:49

having to compete with that

41:51

and having rising labor costs

41:53

, um , you know , it was just very difficult

41:55

. So , but , um , I

41:57

didn't want to . Yeah , I didn't . That's changed

42:00

again , cause now I'm to outsourcing

42:02

, um . So , yeah , if you want to check that out

42:04

, you can listen to episode one 58

42:07

about kind of my transition out

42:09

of having a production

42:11

facility , having employees , all

42:13

of that stuff . Now I'm just again

42:15

I'm back to being a one-man show and

42:18

it's kind of full

42:20

circle , I guess .

42:22

Yeah , full circle in the

42:25

four years . For sure

42:27

, I

42:29

think , man , a lot has

42:31

changed in the last four years for me personally . I

42:34

don't live in the same

42:36

spot I did when we first

42:38

recorded that show in

42:40

2020 . I've moved

42:42

a couple times between

42:45

then and now and , of course , now in Loveland

42:48

, colorado , here in the northern Colorado

42:50

area , so that

42:52

changed um locationally

42:54

. We don't do as many in person

42:56

, but I think what we did were for the 200th

42:58

was the last time we did , like you

43:01

, keep moving further and further away from me . It's

43:03

like you don't like me or something , so uh

43:05

, while

43:07

there's no plans on moving any further North

43:10

for sure . So Well , there's no plans on moving

43:12

any further north for sure , so , or anywhere really

43:14

. So yeah , that I mean , that's something that's definitely changed

43:18

as well . Can you think anything else , travis

43:20

, personally for you , that has

43:22

has changed since

43:24

the inception of the show .

43:26

I definitely can . I

43:32

think if you actually just say , can you pull up our website

43:34

real quick ? Yeah , I mean , that's one thing . We we didn't

43:37

have a website when we started , or if we

43:39

did , it certainly wasn't as

43:42

cool as it is now

43:44

. But pull up the website and throw it . So there

43:46

we go , go to the keep scrolling down , keep

43:59

scrolling down , keep scrolling

44:01

down . And that guy on the right , who

44:03

is that ? No , go up , go

44:06

up , go to our

44:08

picture . That guy on the right . Who

44:10

is he ? Because he has really

44:12

short hair . And that , my

44:14

friends , was how I started the podcast , and now

44:17

my hair is longer

44:19

than most women's hair .

44:21

Okay , yeah , it's

44:23

funny that you say that because while you

44:26

were talking about your

44:29

from from facility to not

44:31

, I was looking on our

44:33

print on a man cast facebook page to try and

44:35

find a photo to document

44:37

like and this is what travis looked like . yeah , in

44:40

the beginning , you know wearing

44:42

. I think there's a picture of you , like wearing a resound flat

44:45

bill hat and I'm like , yeah , hey , there's no

44:47

hair there , it's just the hat , uh

44:49

. So in terms of this guy , yeah

44:51

, he had hair there too and now he doesn't . So both

44:55

having shifted and changed , uh

44:58

, over , I'm going one direction , the other goes

45:00

for sure yes , yes , like

45:02

ships in the night just passing by

45:04

one another . Uh , how

45:07

long are you gonna let that grow ? When ? When do you

45:09

forecast a cutting of the hair

45:11

? I don't know .

45:12

I I , I've , I've talked

45:14

about it , um , but

45:17

yeah , I don't know . You're just gonna have to keep listening

45:19

every week and watching the videos . You guys

45:21

watch the video version and

45:23

be like you know what the hell I did

45:25

figure out and I'm not gonna do it right now , but I

45:27

did figure out how to do a really kick

45:30

butt man bun , probably like five

45:32

years too late , but

45:36

I had , like , when we were on the camping

45:38

trip , we were hanging out with a guy who who always

45:40

does a man bun and um , and

45:42

I had him show me how to do it , surprisingly

45:45

not as difficult as I had made it to be in my

45:47

head , but uh , I digress . So

45:49

, um , maybe one of these times I'll just , I'll

45:52

shock you and I'll , I'll actually

45:54

do .

45:54

Ah , there it is there

45:56

it is yeah you can kind of see it there

46:00

, yeah so it's facing the

46:02

wrong direction but yeah

46:04

, tune in to see what travis does with his hair next week

46:06

on the

46:08

print on demand cast . Uh

46:10

, that'll just be uh a running , a

46:13

new running bit like what's different about

46:15

travis's hair ?

46:17

yeah , oh , the other thing we've done

46:19

. I mean , you look at the first uh

46:21

episode . We've added so many different segments

46:23

and I don't know if that's good or bad , but I

46:25

really enjoyed the dad joke segment . I

46:27

think it's fun . Yeah , I feel like

46:29

we've kind of embraced that as one of our I don't know like uh , something that it's it's kind , and I feel like we've

46:32

kind of embraced that as one of our I don't know like something that

46:34

it's it's kind of part of our identity now

46:36

. And you know we put it in the newsletter

46:38

and extra dad joke . We talk about it a lot

46:40

and , and I feel like it's

46:42

also we

46:44

bring it to poker . We bring these dad jokes

46:46

to poker now , which is , you

46:49

know , improved our like actual

46:51

lives . So thank you podcast

46:53

.

46:53

Yeah , thank you , beauty cast , for

46:55

enriching our lives . Yeah , in the beginning

46:57

I think we just had a main event , maybe

47:00

a point of interest , I don't remember . But I know we've

47:02

, we've , we've done stuff like , of course , the dad

47:04

joke is probably the most , um right

47:07

, kind of a pillar of the

47:09

show now , but we've done mailbag segments , we've've

47:11

done , you know , equipment rants and

47:13

apparel rants and you know

47:15

, last week , this week , updates and

47:17

you know all this other kind of stuff

47:20

, um that that we've , uh

47:22

, implemented over the last four years . So

47:24

, yeah , the number of segments has definitely increased

47:26

, for sure . Yeah , it's been

47:28

fun it's been fun .

47:30

It's been fun , fun four years . Um

47:32

, we've got a lot , of , a lot

47:34

of topics out there , guys , and uh

47:36

, we would love to hear from

47:38

you if you have any ideas or

47:40

future topics you'd like to hear about . Um

47:43

, yeah , it'd be

47:45

, it'd be great . Just post in the facebook

47:47

group or send us an email info

47:49

at printondemandcastcom and

47:52

let us know .

47:54

Absolutely . Again , you can go to printondemandcastcom

47:57

slash Facebook to join the Facebook

48:00

group . If you have other ideas

48:02

of things you haven't heard us talk

48:04

about or you have heard us talk

48:06

about , want us to revisit , dig a little deeper on

48:08

, let us know and it would be greatly appreciated

48:11

. Also , you can always and it would be greatly appreciated and also you can always

48:13

go and subscribe . We mentioned

48:16

it earlier , but by going

48:18

to printondemandcastcom slash VIP

48:20

, you can go subscribe to the weekly newsletter

48:22

where you get a bonus dad joke and

48:25

you get more information , tips

48:27

, tricks and insights on

48:29

stuff that's both been on the show and hasn't

48:31

been on the show as of yet . But

48:33

if you want to stay in full know

48:36

of everything print on demand cast that

48:38

is the place to go to get that weekly newsletter

48:40

. We won't spam you . You're not going to receive a bunch

48:42

of stuff from us . It's one news , one email

48:45

every Wednesday or Thursday

48:47

, one once a week . We'll just say that that

48:49

will go to your inbox and

48:51

then again you're supplied with that bonus dad joke and in exchange

48:54

for that you'll get the design calendar . So

48:56

that'll help you kind of keep on track of what's coming

48:59

up that you need to be ready to sell

49:01

and capitalize on in terms of holidays and

49:03

events . Our Q4

49:05

check-in is going to be coming up . We do the one every

49:08

year , so that is going to be coming up

49:10

here very shortly because , whether you know it or not , friends

49:12

, uh , we're almost at the end of

49:14

q3 , so go figure

49:17

that out . That's nuts , it's august

49:19

. Um , so , travis

49:21

, anything else you want to say before we ? Uh , wrap

49:24

this one up no , I don't think

49:26

.

49:26

So this was a . It was kind of a shoot

49:28

from the hip type episode , but it was uh , it

49:30

was fun , it was . I think it was needed . Both of us kind of came into from the hip type episode but it was uh , it was fun , it was . I think it was needed . Both of

49:32

us kind of came into the pre-production and we were like

49:35

uh , so

49:37

tired . My weekend was nuts , your

49:39

weekend was nuts and we were just like oh

49:42

well , it is the four year anniversary , so

49:45

we can kind of get a pass to do whatever

49:47

we want to do Totally

49:49

, and so you're welcome . So

49:51

you're welcome , exactly Hope you . We want to do totally and so you're welcome

49:53

.

49:53

So you're welcome , exactly . Hope you guys enjoyed

49:56

it . Uh , let us know what you thought in the

49:58

facebook group and comment . You can leave a post . You can email

50:00

us again info at printer demandcastcom . But

50:03

we will see you guys next

50:05

week for the beginning of year five

50:07

, as we I guess the beginning of year

50:09

four , but as we approach and

50:12

start the approach to year five

50:14

of the show . So I

50:16

don't know , I can't do the math

50:18

. It's hard and I suffered the pressure

50:20

. So until then

50:22

, until next week , guys . For travis

50:24

, I'm josiah , we'll see you right here on

50:27

the print on demand cast . See

50:30

ya . Print on

50:32

Demand cast .

50:33

See ya , hey babe . Thanks for listening to this week's episode

50:36

of the Print on Demand cast . We

50:40

hope you enjoyed the Totally Tubular show . If you've got a question or a suggestion for the

50:42

show , send Travis and Josiah an email

50:44

at info at printondemandcastcom

50:47

. Want to be wicked nice ? Take

50:49

a minute to rate and review the show on iTunes

50:51

or wherever you get your podcasts . And

50:53

don't forget to subscribe now so you don't miss

50:56

next week's episode . See you next time

50:58

, for sure .