Peter Joyce and Dave Smith talk to Images about how strategic investment in pre-press and other technology is helping TOTShirts to continue growing and improving
Peter Joyce, founder of TOTShirts, likes to tell the story of how he came to set up the company after seeing a man on a beach in Magaluf with such an “appalling” T-shirt that he thought, “I could do better than that”. Forty years later, he and his team are still just as committed to his mission to always do better: “We are always looking to improve,” he says. “We always aim for perfection.”
Key to achieving this aim is the company’s equally strong commitment to investment in the latest technology – both hardware and software.
After moving into 7,000 sqm (75,000 sqft) premises in Edmonton in north London six years ago, TOTShirts has been focusing on further improvements in its screen printing operations – stencil making, in particular.
With a 120-strong workforce, the company offers every kind of garment decoration process from embroidery to direct-to-garment (DTG) and transfer printing, but screen printing has been core since the start. There are eight MHM Synchroprint automatic presses, ranging in size from four to 14 colours, and three manual carousels – a 14-colour M&R Chameleon and two Rototex presses of six and eight colours – plus four high-speed automatic Aspe RapidTag presses for smaller images.
Efficient workflow
They are part of a finely tuned workflow that has been established by Dave Smith, director of operations, who joined the business – originally “Totally Original T-shirts” – 38 years ago. Through various moves around north London, he had long dreamed of having a space where everything from production to despatch was in the right place. “For the first time, I was able to plan and lay out production for the workflow,” Dave says. “When your building is over 100 metres long, you realise how much people are walking up and down each day so you have to be really efficient where you place your staff. It was obvious that we needed to keep the print shop very close to the front of the building as this is where most of the amenities are. We had to start with the screen room and then the print shop and other processes, so it feeds down to the final shutter at the end of the building. When we got this space, we thought ‘we’ll never fill this up’ – but we did.”
Essential to achieving this efficiency is the screen department, with its line-up of automatic machines for coating, developing, washing and reclaiming screens, alongside a darkroom for imaging and exposure.
Screen making on the high-resolution Saati LTS 6080
Eco-Tex automatic screen cleaning and reclaiming system
Laser focused
Taking pride of place in the darkroom is the company’s new Saati LTS 6080 high-resolution, horizontal glass-down, direct laser imaging and exposure unit, supplied by L&M Imaging Systems. The new Saati kit replaces TOTShirts’ previous imaging machines, which had a maximum resolution of 600dpi. Thanks to the LTS 6080’s array of 96 120mW (405nm) lasers, Dave and his team are now imaging screens at 1,270dpi, with the Saati able to offer an even higher maximum resolution of 2,540dpi if required.
“As it uses lasers for imaging onto the stencil, it has greater accuracy and gives you more control of dot gain,” Dave says. “With this, there is no deviation… We take particular pride in ensuring we make the best stencils we possibly can to give the print shop the best chance of producing the best print.”
The Saati LTS 6080 has a maximum image area of 60cm x 80cm and maximum frame size of 85cm x 110cm. It requires no consumables, no vacuum and no film positives, and it can process all types of Mac and PC design files. Dave points out that it can also be calibrated for HDS (stochastic) screens, which benefit from a high density of dots for greater clarity and detail, and allow for rosette pixelation – a high-frequency moiré pattern that he is currently experimenting with.
He also particularly likes how the Saati’s pneumatic clamping system allows for easier, more consistent registration, adding that it provides the team with greater control for perfect, consistent prints.
“When you are trying to register colours on top of a base white, a lot of people would put undercut to enable them a little bit of play to get the registration right – you’d make your base white a little bit smaller than your top colour. But I now don’t have to make it as small as I did, with a little bit of tolerance to achieve sharp images, as I have more control of the screens.”
Alongside a drying cabinet, the dark room is also home to a Zentner Auto Coating machine, bought new last year through MHM Direct GB to replace another that went to Andy Smith and his team at Calder Screen Print as thanks for technical help. The Zentner provides accurate and consistent coating, capable of coating both sides at the same time. “It uses a very fast emulsion which ensures that there’s no chance of ultraviolet light coming into contact with the image,” Dave adds.
Cleaning up
Outside the dark room, there is an Eco-Tex automatic screen cleaning and reclaiming system which was installed four months ago. Dave says it means that the operator can go off to concentrate on other tasks, but the biggest selling points were not around manpower. “Because the chemicals and water are recycled, it uses less and there’s a lot less wastage. Each chamber in the machine is sealed so it keeps that chemical in that chamber, minimising carry-over contamination.”
The screen room also boasts an automatic Lotus Holland Evo Developer. “It recycles the water and reduces water waste,” Dave explains. “Each screen is getting the same development time and water pressure for consistency every time.”
He says that the investments in the screen area are part of TOTShirts’ ongoing “drive to invest in the best equipment to produce the best prints”. Working with supplier Peak Inks, he pays great attention to the quality and selection of mesh, which helps to minimise the amount of emulsion and plastic tape needed. “There’s so much that people don’t appreciate,” he adds. “In the past, you’d be so busy trying to print that the screens would be almost secondary. The deadlines are so tight that you can’t go and make some more screens and set it up again. It has to be right at that point. We want to take away any risk that someone wouldn’t be happy or appreciative with a shirt. It has to be the best it can be.”
DTG prints on the Aeoon DTG printer’s large platens
TOTShirts’ bespoke shop management software system
The TOTShirts warehouse reflects the scale of the company’s operation
Ink selection
The quality of ink is equally important. TOTShirts uses Wilflex’s Epic Rio range of low-cure plastisol screen ink that is phthalate-free and has Eco Passport by Oeko-Tex accreditation. “As it’s a low-cure ink, you can run your dryers at a lower temperature which saves power, which saves money and is good for the environment. We are asked to do a lot of sportswear and workwear that can be heat-sensitive garments so there are benefits all round. You also don’t have to run flashes so hot on the screens so the platens don’t get so hot and you don’t have to re-apply the glue so often. We also use less ink and it passes more easily through a finer mesh.”
Dave stresses that TOTShirts seeks environmentally-responsible processes and products wherever it can, but he challenges the idea that ink choice is as simple as ‘water-based is good and plastisol is bad’. “Decorating a shirt with a water-based ink is not the most eco-friendly way to do it because there’s more power, more water, more wastage. When you add all that up, you pass the point where it is less eco-friendly than very well refined plastisol inks.”
Digital printing
TOTShirts has a substantial temperature-controlled room dedicated to DTG, with six Brother GTX Pro Bulks, supplied via MHM Direct GB, and a three-platen Aeoon which they reckon is about 16 years old. “We were one of the frontrunners in pioneering DTG,” Dave points out. It can be fitted with two special larger platens capable of printing close to a square metre, allowing for prints right up to the neck and sleeves.
DTG is supported by three Sanco Clean Burn dryers, in addition to the five used to cure screen prints. Adding to the automation, TOTShirts has also added an M&R Amscomatic folding and bagging machine, supplied by Screen Print World.
At time of writing, the company is about to invest in its first DTF machine after previously screen-printing transfers. “DTF sits absolutely between screen print and DTG in terms of cost and viability,” Dave explains. “It is easier to place awkward positions.”
Having the different processes means TOTShirts can offer the best price for runs of any size, but Dave admits he still prefers the finish from screen printing. “I appreciate the extra detail you can get with DTG, but screen printing gives you better control over contrast and colours and a more striking image that stands out from afar. Now we have revised our screen department, the extra resolution we can get with our screens means that the detail between screen print and DTG is closer. We are producing some very nice screen prints now.”
Super detailed wolf print
High-definition Tina Turner print
Embroidery challenge
TOTShirts’ embroidery set-up is equally impressive, boasting 65 heads: four 12-heads, an eight-head, a six-head and three single-heads. They are all Happy machines, mostly via Midwest Machinery (“they’re very good machines”) along with one Tajima single-head. One of the 12-heads was added this year after TOTShirts received an order for 4,000 hooded sweatshirts with a large complicated back print and three embroidery placements. Peter recalls: “We very quickly realised that, due to the large stitch count, the bottleneck would be the embroidery and bought a new 12-head Happy machine to support and run three shift patterns nearly 24/7 to hit the deadline. It was quite a challenge.”
It is not the only time the TOTShirts team has pulled together for out-of-hours work, which is why the company will move to two or even three eight-hour shifts a day in 2026. “If we’re open 24/7, they will come,” Dave says. “We used to run a night shift before we moved here, but Covid put an end to that. We have flexible people who understand and will commit to solving problems. We are very lucky that we have a good core staff who have been with us for many years.”
New showroom
TOTShirts continues to grow and is due to open its first-ever showroom this month. Peter is also in the process of rewriting the bespoke shop management software that he has developed so that it integrates with the company’s latest hardware. The software is used to monitor and control every stage of workflow, and is linked to barcodes and a screen interface that resembles an air traffic control system. “It’s one of the cornerstones of why we are still here,” he notes.
He adds that embracing the latest technology, from the Saati exposure system to devleoping the bespoke shop management software, has been key to TOTShirts’ ability to remain successful as a one-stop shop for all kinds of garment decoration. “Over the years we have invested in and worn out many presses and other machines in the pursuit of excellence. Companies that don’t embrace technology eventually fall by the wayside.”
