I had always wanted to create some memorabilia for my website. The only service I knew to be trustworthy enough was Cafepress, the online destination for t-shirts, mugs, caps, and other stuff including bumper stickers, and mouse pads. While I did like their collection, being a standard foreign company, their pricing was the crux of the matter for me not to use them. Well, paying around 16 to 20$ is ok for a t-shirt, but it was the shipping of an equal amount that really disturbed me.
This was when I decided to find some Indian companies who were capable enough to provide me the same services online. My favourites for t-shirts online were Rediff and a few other companies which I had tried out years back without much satisfaction. After some googling around I did get many results for these kinds of services in the present day. But I also chanced upon an article that mentioned atleast four such companies and what their offerings were. You can read that article here.
The companies mentioned in the article included DilSeBol, Myntra, WebVastra, Gnome and Pringoo.
Atleast three of these sites were in beta, which means “God only knows how our website will work for you!”, and a few of these sites were unintuitive for me. Either the menus were scattered an ununderstandable, or image uploading formats were unsupported or the interface for t-shirt design itself was not so easy. So after checking out all these sites, I finally decided on Pringoo to order my t-shirt. I must mention here that I am a member of ZoomIn.com, another website where I can upload my photos or designs and get a tee shirt done up. They charge only Rs.350 as compared to Pringoo and also provide me with multiple payment options. But still the appeal of Pringoo.com and the fact that ZoomIn’s tee shirt quality as shown on their image, made me feel like using their site for this purchase.
I did up a basic design with text, on a white background, using photo editing tools. One thing people must remember is that all new image compositions are done in 72dpi (dots per inch) which IS NOT sufficient to print on paper or on a tee shirt. The minimum value for this quantity must be atleast 300dpi, and if possible 600dpi for a good print on bigger dimensions. So the next time you want to create a new design, use 600dpi as the resolution for that image. The rest will turn out fine.
The placement enabled me to choose the tee shirt size, and position of the image more or less centered on the tee shirt, along with the type and colour of the tee shirt. One thing that I did not like was the size chart provided by Pringoo, which indicated sizes in inches. When converted to centimetres it did not give a proper indication of the chest size as we know it while we shop on our own. For eg., for large size, it came to 49 centimeters, whereas in India large means 42 cms and extra large means 44-46 cms. This nowhere correalates to what Pringoo advertises. They must understand that people who are making their purchase for the first time are the customers who they can retain forever, if they show the size in a more convenient way. Size is the most important parameter which will either make or break a purchase and going wrong in this means waste of money, like for me.
Well as for the order itself, they send it by registered post, though it reached me via DTDC strangely! And they dont charge me shipping fee for the same. Well done Pringoo. Good to know you are not earning on silly things. The package came to me in about two or three days and contained the teeshirt, a proper printed version of the online bill with bar code and all, and a letter from pringoo explaining the product features. Also they gave a free sticker promoting their website.
They also claim their’s is the first company who deliver tee shirts that are of international quality, and prints on which we can use the iron box without ruining the print, and tee shirts that retain print colour without bleeding the dye. They also as a disclaimer claim that upto 10% shrinkage must be allowed for after wash. As usual they also gave me their customer service email id, for any feedback. But I chose to blog them instead! They prophesize eco-solvent digital printing – a technology they claim is 24 times more expensive than any other available in India today.
So finally to end this blog post, let me show you the actual product in flesh and blood. Decide for yourself if you like it !
CLICK ON THESE FOR BIGGER IMAGES!
So what are you waiting for? Head to Pringoo.com and make your own style statement! 🙂
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