Making Shirt Happen!
Threadbare Print House is a water-based screen printing shop in Eugene, Oregon.
Threadbare Print House provides high quality screen printing with an emphasis on customer service and environmental responsibility. With a belief in giving back and strong roots in our local community, Threadbare has grown from a garage operation to a full service screen printing shop catering to the needs of creative businesses. Threadbare makes more than just T-shirts, we make relationships that last a lifetime.
We specialize in offering the best that the blank T-shirt industry has to offer in both fit and sustainability.
Request a Quote for any of our Screen Printing Services
We have a minimum order of 24 garments per design. However during peak busy seasons the minimum can be 48.
Screen Printing FAQ’s
How It Works: A Screen Printing Order In 6 Easy Steps
Eco Friendly, Environmentally Sustainable Screen Printing Practices
Based In Eugene, Oregon
Water Based Inks: Replacing Plastisol
Plastisol inks are used in the majority of screen printing shops around the globe. These inks contain phthalates which function to transform the naturally hard plastic into a soft, malleable one. These phthalates are released into the ecosystem during the printing and curing process, resulting in cumulative harm to the environment and, potentially, even to human health.
In addition to the harmful content, plastisol also doesn’t dissolve with water. Harmful chemicals must be used to strip the plastisol from the screen, and these chemicals are often-times sent down the sink.
Considering the sources and energy used to manufacture inks, water-based ink comes out ahead of plastisol. Water-based ink on a shirt is also recyclable, making water-based inks even more eco-friendly than plastisol. In addition, water-based inks have significantly less plastic content relative to plastisol and contain zero phthalates, which reduces the overall usage and disposal of chemicals and plastic fibers. Here at Threadbare, we only purchase and use water-based inks. One brand of water-based ink, in particular, is Green Galaxy, and it’s definitely our personal favorite!
Links to the Info Used in This Section
Eco Friendly Screens
For the bulk of Threadbare’s beginnings, our screens have been coated and broken down with chemicals. While we’ve always tried our best to store and reuse burned screens to reduce our chemical usage, it hasn’t been possible to entirely step away from these chemicals until very recently. With new innovations, we’re officially able to get designs onto screens without the use of chemicals. Ryonet’s Eco Screens (see photo below) work by providing a metal base and mesh panels which are woven into a plastic locking strip. This locking strip replaces glues, ensuring that the mechanism used to hold the mesh on the frame won’t break down over time. Overall, the mesh used for these screens has more longevity.
Today we’re focusing on the recent innovations that have allowed us to burn designs onto screens in a more sustainable manner.
86’ing Aerosol Spray Adhesives
Aerosol sprays contain chemicals that are carcinogenic and toxic to our bodies as well as our environment. To limit our usage of these harmful products, we’ve stepped away from spray adhesives commonly used to secure garments onto the platen. In place of these, our printers apply dual-tack platen tape to the platens, which is a platen tape that’s sticky on both sides to hold the shirt in place without having to apply spray adhesives. The adhesive of this dual-tack tape can be reactivated by wiping it down with a wet sponge – only water is necessary, no soap!
Overall this platen tape is a game changer as it not only allows us to ditch the spray adhesives, but it has also limited the amount of platen tape we dispose of as the fuzz from garments can be scrubbed away with a damp sponge, allowing us to reuse this tape for much longer.
Earth Day Every Day!
While sustainability and environmentalism should permeate our day-to-day practices, on Earth Day many organizations, companies, and even individuals make great strides to reduce their impact on our ecosystems.
At Threadbare, we prefer to say “Earth Day Everyday” whenever April 22nd rolls around. That being said, we still like to do something extra special on Earth Day!
This year, while rocking some Allmade tees, we picked up litter from the streets and alleyways that surround our shop. This excursion was not only a positive move (when is picking up litter not a nice thing to do?) but it also serves as a way for us to encourage the business owners in our local community of Downtown Eugene to task themselves and their employees with being more sustainably-minded.
Our clean-up excursion was inspired by Allmade’s Earth Day Pledge for themselves, and other businesses who signed up, to clean up 10 garbage bags of trash.
Organic Garments & Apparel
Every business today should make an effort to implement sustainable practices. In the world we are living in, there is a corporate responsibility as well as a consumer demand for goods produced in a way that creates a lighter impact. While no one can deny that our industry is guilty of having a harmful effect on the environment (the fashion industry is, after all, the second-highest polluting industry in the world behind oil) our shop has been working at finding solutions to sustainable T-shirt printing for the last 10 years.
We choose to seek out apparel brands that are making strides towards reducing water consumption and paying livable wages. We start by educating ourselves and our customers on what we know of apparel brands and being transparent with customers about the garments they are buying.
We try to only show our customers brands that are transparent about manufacturing, environmental standards, and labor practices. We explain the benefit of paying a little more for garments manufactured with less water, or with better working conditions. Our showroom is organized with sustainability in mind since lots of buyers want T-shirts made from organic cotton or recycled materials. While not all clients want an eco-friendly shirt, we introduce those products, along with sustainable T-shirt printing, as an option.
We’ve also organized all of this information into a PDF with visuals. This helps educate our clients on each supplier’s practices, how they make their products, and the materials they source.
Links to environmentally conscious and ethical wholesale brands:
Implementing A T-Shirt Recycling Program
In this industry, there’s no such thing as perfect. Everyone makes mistakes! That being said, our misprints don’t get the same treatment as many other shops.
Instead of sending our misprinted garments into the landfill, we reuse every single misprinted tee until there are absolutely no other ways to put it to use. From re-utilizing these misprints for test-prints, donating the misprinted garments to artists/schools for their own projects, cutting these garments up and using them as cleaning rags, or even taking them home and making rugs! Ultimately, we ensure that nothing goes into a trash can unless it’s entirely un-repurposable. This not only minimizes our waste, but it also saves us money on cleaning rags and test-print sheets.
A T-shirt rug made by yours truly using TBPH misprints and other scrap fabrics
One issue printers/embroiderers may encounter with this method is that some customers would prefer that their logos don’t end up being used in ways that contradict their company values. This is entirely understandable! For this reason, we make sure that we cover these logos with black ink (or cut them out of the fabric) before sending the missprint to other groups/artists for repurposing.
Cool, Artsy Projects for Misprints and Scrap Fabric:
Make a Rug out of Fabric Scraps
Sustainable Shipping: Methods & Supplies
One area we’ve dedicated time to make more sustainable is our shipping department. Given the amount of plastics that are commonly used in this department, this is necessary to address for most, if not all, industries.
An example of the waste produced in shipping is one-use plastic mailers and plastic packaging (e..g bubble wrap). These materials are frequently sent off to the landfill even though they could have been reused. Instead of contributing to this, we’ve been saving each and every one of the paper/plastic mailers we receive as well as the plastic bags used to package garments from some of our wholesale distributors for the last couple years. So far, these efforts have not only limited the amount of waste we produce, but it’s also saved us money along the way as we don’t have to purchase as many mailers or packaging materials.
When we must purchase mailers and other shipping supplies, we always ensure we’re buying products that are recyclable and/or made with recycled materials.
Here’s a master list of our methods and materials for sustainable shipping:
Reuse all mailers, boxes, etc. sent to us (unless they’re unusable due to large holes or other issues) – To accomplish this, it’s important that all employees are opening packages carefully as to maintain the quality of these materials. This ensures we, and our customers, have the option to reuse them!
Refilling Jumbo Markers (and other pens) – The jumbo markers we use to label the boxes holding customers’ orders are refillable, so we’ve been purchasing the ink refills instead of new markers. This can also be applied to other pens within your office/shop.
Re-using the plastic packaging that’s sent to us – Some companies individually wrap things in plastic before putting them into a box. While it frustrates us to see large companies using plastic willy-nilly, it makes things a little better if we reuse these bags for our own shipping/packaging purposes. So far, these little plastic bags have come in handy for mask orders as well as other small items like patches, stickers, etc.
Recycled-Content Mailers – Sourcing products that are made with mostly (or entirely) recycled/repurposed materials is a step in the right direction. A brand we enjoy using is EcoEnclose – they’re the leader in sustainable packaging, offering many different eco-friendly packaging options (products with 100% recycled content, products that are recyclable/compostable/biodegradable, Plastic-free products, etc.) Their products don’t break the bank, either!
EcoEnclose sends you these awesome (and free) cards to include in your shipments
Compostable Mailers – Ideal for those who know their customer base is likely to compost the mailers! Otherwise, these mailers won’t reduce your ecological impact considering new materials (plants and veggies) are required to make them and, if they’re thrown away rather than composted, they’ll ultimately lead to relatively equal amounts of wasted materials/energy. If you’re interested, a compostable mailer we know of is NoIssue’s. Their mailers are made from a combination of a bio-based polymer (PBAT) which is compostable, and PLA which is made up of plant materials such as regular wheat straw and field corn. This company’s use of PLA makes up barely 0.05% of the annual global corn crop, making it a significantly low-impact resource!
Environmentally Conscious, Ethical Brands for Office Supplies
For many businesses, big or small, many of the run-of-the-mill office supplies are purchased without a second thought. Most of the time, price is a contributing factor. This pattern not only contributes to much of the plastic waste filling our landfills, but also to massive corporations that have been at the forefront of large-scale environmental destruction for the last 50+ years and increase this damage day by day.
At Threadbare, we think one of the best ways to make an impact is to purchase as much of our products and supplies from environmentally-conscious, ethical brands. While this initially takes time and can cost a little more money, this investment is something that each and every business should already be making in order to reduce our ecological impact.
To save you some time and headaches, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite brands/products that not only align with our personal mission of ethical sustainability, but also provide quality products at manageable prices.
Office Depot’s GreenerOffice™ – This is the most budget-friendly option. We mainly use Office Depot for our printer paper needs since they offer many recycled-content and chlorine-free options. For those who are trying to purchase strictly from sustainable and ethical companies/manufacturers, some investigative work may be necessary as large companies like Office Depot don’t often confirm that the products they market as eco-friendly are, in fact, sustainably and ethically produced.
BlueLand – This is a great company making eco-friendly cleaning products that don’t break the bank! Additionally, BlueLand is Cradle to Cradle Certified®. This certification is a globally-recognized measure of safer, more sustainable products that have positive impacts on people and the planet.
Marley’s Monsters – An awesome, local business in Eugene, Oregon that makes eco-friendly alternatives to paper towels, napkins, straws, utensils, and even household cleaning supplies! While the pricing isn’t as low as some of the online-based eco-friendly brands within this list, this is because all of the fabric and wood items sold by Marley’s Monsters are homemade (and high quality, as well!)
Who Gives A Crap – This company is one of our personal favorites. As a subscriber, you can get 100% recycled content TP (as well as a 100% bamboo option) that is ethically sourced and relatively budget-friendly at ~$1 per roll. They also offer “Forest-Friendly” tissue paper and paper-towels made with bamboo and sugarcane.
Alternatively, if DIY suits you better, there are tons of ingredients that can be used to make your own eco-friendly cleaning products, and you may already have some of these laying around! Here’s a blog post from EarthEasy that lists all of the natural ingredients that can be used to make safer cleaning products. It also lists plenty of different recipes for nearly every single cleaning task one could possibly imagine.
Water Based Inks: Replacing Plastisol
Plastisol inks are used in the majority of screen printing shops around the globe. These inks contain phthalates which function to transform the naturally hard plastic into a soft, malleable one. These phthalates are released into the ecosystem during the printing and curing process, resulting in cumulative harm to the environment and, potentially, even to human health.
In addition to the harmful content, plastisol also doesn’t dissolve with water. Harmful chemicals must be used to strip the plastisol from the screen, and these chemicals are often-times sent down the sink.
Considering the sources and energy used to manufacture inks, water-based ink comes out ahead of plastisol. Water-based ink on a shirt is also recyclable, making water-based inks even more eco-friendly than plastisol. In addition, water-based inks have significantly less plastic content relative to plastisol and contain zero phthalates, which reduces the overall usage and disposal of chemicals and plastic fibers. Here at Threadbare, we only purchase and use water-based inks. One brand of water-based ink, in particular, is Green Galaxy, and it’s definitely our personal favorite!
Links to the Info Used in This Section
Eco Freindly Screens
For the bulk of Threadbare’s beginnings, our screens have been coated and broken down with chemicals. While we’ve always tried our best to store and reuse burned screens to reduce our chemical usage, it hasn’t been possible to entirely step away from these chemicals until very recently. With new innovations, we’re officially able to get designs onto screens without the use of chemicals. Ryonet’s Eco Screens (see photo below) work by providing a metal base and mesh panels which are woven into a plastic locking strip. This locking strip replaces glues, ensuring that the mechanism used to hold the mesh on the frame won’t break down over time. Overall, the mesh used for these screens has more longevity.
Today we’re focusing on the recent innovations that have allowed us to burn designs onto screens in a more sustainable manner.
86’ing Aerosol Spray Adhesives
Aerosol sprays contain chemicals that are carcinogenic and toxic to our bodies as well as our environment. To limit our usage of these harmful products, we’ve stepped away from spray adhesives commonly used to secure garments onto the platen. In place of these, our printers apply dual-tack platen tape to the platens, which is a platen tape that’s sticky on both sides to hold the shirt in place without having to apply spray adhesives. The adhesive of this dual-tack tape can be reactivated by wiping it down with a wet sponge – only water is necessary, no soap!
Overall this platen tape is a game changer as it not only allows us to ditch the spray adhesives, but it has also limited the amount of platen tape we dispose of as the fuzz from garments can be scrubbed away with a damp sponge, allowing us to reuse this tape for much longer.
Earth Day Every Day!
While sustainability and environmentalism should permeate our day-to-day practices, on Earth Day many organizations, companies, and even individuals make great strides to reduce their impact on our ecosystems.
At Threadbare, we prefer to say “Earth Day Everyday” whenever April 22nd rolls around. That being said, we still like to do something extra special on Earth Day!
This year, while rocking some Allmade tees, we picked up litter from the streets and alleyways that surround our shop. This excursion was not only a positive move (when is picking up litter not a nice thing to do?) but it also serves as a way for us to encourage the business owners in our local community of Downtown Eugene to task themselves and their employees with being more sustainably-minded.
Our clean-up excursion was inspired by Allmade’s Earth Day Pledge for themselves, and other businesses who signed up, to clean up 10 garbage bags of trash.
Organic Garments & Apparel
Every business today should make an effort to implement sustainable practices. In the world we are living in, there is a corporate responsibility as well as a consumer demand for goods produced in a way that creates a lighter impact. While no one can deny that our industry is guilty of having a harmful effect on the environment (the fashion industry is, after all, the second-highest polluting industry in the world behind oil) our shop has been working at finding solutions to sustainable T-shirt printing for the last 10 years.
We choose to seek out apparel brands that are making strides towards reducing water consumption and paying livable wages. We start by educating ourselves and our customers on what we know of apparel brands and being transparent with customers about the garments they are buying.
We try to only show our customers brands that are transparent about manufacturing, environmental standards, and labor practices. We explain the benefit of paying a little more for garments manufactured with less water, or with better working conditions. Our showroom is organized with sustainability in mind since lots of buyers want T-shirts made from organic cotton or recycled materials. While not all clients want an eco-friendly shirt, we introduce those products, along with sustainable T-shirt printing, as an option.
We’ve also organized all of this information into a PDF with visuals. This helps educate our clients on each supplier’s practices, how they make their products, and the materials they source.
Links to environmentally conscious and ethical wholesale brands:
Implementing A T-Shirt Recycling Program
In this industry, there’s no such thing as perfect. Everyone makes mistakes! That being said, our misprints don’t get the same treatment as many other shops.
Instead of sending our misprinted garments into the landfill, we reuse every single misprinted tee until there are absolutely no other ways to put it to use. From re-utilizing these misprints for test-prints, donating the misprinted garments to artists/schools for their own projects, cutting these garments up and using them as cleaning rags, or even taking them home and making rugs! Ultimately, we ensure that nothing goes into a trash can unless it’s entirely un-repurposable. This not only minimizes our waste, but it also saves us money on cleaning rags and test-print sheets.
A T-shirt rug made by yours truly using TBPH misprints and other scrap fabrics
One issue printers/embroiderers may encounter with this method is that some customers would prefer that their logos don’t end up being used in ways that contradict their company values. This is entirely understandable! For this reason, we make sure that we cover these logos with black ink (or cut them out of the fabric) before sending the missprint to other groups/artists for repurposing.
Cool, Artsy Projects for Misprints and Scrap Fabric:
Make a Rug out of Fabric Scraps
Sustainable Shipping: Methods & Supplies
One area we’ve dedicated time to make more sustainable is our shipping department. Given the amount of plastics that are commonly used in this department, this is necessary to address for most, if not all, industries.
An example of the waste produced in shipping is one-use plastic mailers and plastic packaging (e..g bubble wrap). These materials are frequently sent off to the landfill even though they could have been reused. Instead of contributing to this, we’ve been saving each and every one of the paper/plastic mailers we receive as well as the plastic bags used to package garments from some of our wholesale distributors for the last couple years. So far, these efforts have not only limited the amount of waste we produce, but it’s also saved us money along the way as we don’t have to purchase as many mailers or packaging materials.
When we must purchase mailers and other shipping supplies, we always ensure we’re buying products that are recyclable and/or made with recycled materials.
Here’s a master list of our methods and materials for sustainable shipping:
Reuse all mailers, boxes, etc. sent to us (unless they’re unusable due to large holes or other issues) – To accomplish this, it’s important that all employees are opening packages carefully as to maintain the quality of these materials. This ensures we, and our customers, have the option to reuse them!
Refilling Jumbo Markers (and other pens) – The jumbo markers we use to label the boxes holding customers’ orders are refillable, so we’ve been purchasing the ink refills instead of new markers. This can also be applied to other pens within your office/shop.
Re-using the plastic packaging that’s sent to us – Some companies individually wrap things in plastic before putting them into a box. While it frustrates us to see large companies using plastic willy-nilly, it makes things a little better if we reuse these bags for our own shipping/packaging purposes. So far, these little plastic bags have come in handy for mask orders as well as other small items like patches, stickers, etc.
Recycled-Content Mailers – Sourcing products that are made with mostly (or entirely) recycled/repurposed materials is a step in the right direction. A brand we enjoy using is EcoEnclose – they’re the leader in sustainable packaging, offering many different eco-friendly packaging options (products with 100% recycled content, products that are recyclable/compostable/biodegradable, Plastic-free products, etc.) Their products don’t break the bank, either!
EcoEnclose sends you these awesome (and free) cards to include in your shipments
Compostable Mailers – Ideal for those who know their customer base is likely to compost the mailers! Otherwise, these mailers won’t reduce your ecological impact considering new materials (plants and veggies) are required to make them and, if they’re thrown away rather than composted, they’ll ultimately lead to relatively equal amounts of wasted materials/energy. If you’re interested, a compostable mailer we know of is NoIssue’s. Their mailers are made from a combination of a bio-based polymer (PBAT) which is compostable, and PLA which is made up of plant materials such as regular wheat straw and field corn. This company’s use of PLA makes up barely 0.05% of the annual global corn crop, making it a significantly low-impact resource!
Environmentally Conscious, Ethical Brands for Office Supplies
For many businesses, big or small, many of the run-of-the-mill office supplies are purchased without a second thought. Most of the time, price is a contributing factor. This pattern not only contributes to much of the plastic waste filling our landfills, but also to massive corporations that have been at the forefront of large-scale environmental destruction for the last 50+ years and increase this damage day by day.
At Threadbare, we think one of the best ways to make an impact is to purchase as much of our products and supplies from environmentally-conscious, ethical brands. While this initially takes time and can cost a little more money, this investment is something that each and every business should already be making in order to reduce our ecological impact.
To save you some time and headaches, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite brands/products that not only align with our personal mission of ethical sustainability, but also provide quality products at manageable prices.
Office Depot’s GreenerOffice™ – This is the most budget-friendly option. We mainly use Office Depot for our printer paper needs since they offer many recycled-content and chlorine-free options. For those who are trying to purchase strictly from sustainable and ethical companies/manufacturers, some investigative work may be necessary as large companies like Office Depot don’t often confirm that the products they market as eco-friendly are, in fact, sustainably and ethically produced.
BlueLand – This is a great company making eco-friendly cleaning products that don’t break the bank! Additionally, BlueLand is Cradle to Cradle Certified®. This certification is a globally-recognized measure of safer, more sustainable products that have positive impacts on people and the planet.
Marley’s Monsters – An awesome, local business in Eugene, Oregon that makes eco-friendly alternatives to paper towels, napkins, straws, utensils, and even household cleaning supplies! While the pricing isn’t as low as some of the online-based eco-friendly brands within this list, this is because all of the fabric and wood items sold by Marley’s Monsters are homemade (and high quality, as well!)
Who Gives A Crap – This company is one of our personal favorites. As a subscriber, you can get 100% recycled content TP (as well as a 100% bamboo option) that is ethically sourced and relatively budget-friendly at ~$1 per roll. They also offer “Forest-Friendly” tissue paper and paper-towels made with bamboo and sugarcane.
Alternatively, if DIY suits you better, there are tons of ingredients that can be used to make your own eco-friendly cleaning products, and you may already have some of these laying around! Here’s a blog post from EarthEasy that lists all of the natural ingredients that can be used to make safer cleaning products. It also lists plenty of different recipes for nearly every single cleaning task one could possibly imagine.