Custom Screen Printing for Vegas Crews and Contractors.

Screen printing is the most cost-effective decoration method for high-volume orders — t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, and any garment where the design is going on flat fabric in 1-6 ink colors. Bighorn Threads runs automatic screen-printing presses from our Las Vegas production shop, printing for construction crews, sports teams, schools, trade shows, fundraising events, and brand merchandise programs. Minimum order is 24 pieces per design — under that we switch you to DTF transfers, which carry no minimum and Above 24 pieces, screen printing is almost always the cheaper option per shirt, and the durability is unmatched: a properly cured plastisol print survives extensive industrial wash cycles without cracking, fading, or peeling.

The right ink type depends on the garment and the look you want. Plastisol — the standard workhorse — is a thick, opaque ink that sits on top of the fabric. It produces vivid colors, blocks underlying fabric color, and survives every wash cycle. Water-based inks soak into the fabric instead of sitting on top, producing a softer hand and a more vintage look — preferred for fashion-forward apparel and softer-feel brand merch but less durable on heavy work shirts. Discharge inks (a specialty water-based variant) actually remove dye from dark cotton and replace it with the print color, leaving zero hand. We carry all three and we'll recommend by use case, not by what's easiest to set up.

Setup is where most catalog screen printers add cost. Every color in your design requires a separate screen burned at the shop. We keep setup fees transparent and quote them up front — no surprise screen charges added at invoice. For multi-color designs we batch the screens efficiently, and for repeat orders we save the screens so reorders skip the setup time entirely.

For Las Vegas construction trades, the most-printed item is the heavyweight cotton work tee — Carhartt K87, Bayside 5100, Hanes Beefy-T — in heavyweight 6.75 oz cotton with a left-chest or full-front print. Hi-vis tees and safety apparel can be screen-printed but the print area is restricted by ANSI 107 retroreflective tape coverage rules; we follow the published decoration guides on every hi-vis order so the certification stays intact. FR-rated garments cannot be screen-printed with standard plastisol — the ink melts in arc events. For FR, we use FR-safe inks on the rare order that requires print decoration, but embroidery with Nomex thread is the standard FR decoration spec.

Rush orders are available most weeks when blank inventory cooperates — we keep high-volume garments (Carhartt K87, Bayside 5100, Gildan G500, Port & Company PC54) in stock locally so rush orders for trade shows, ribbon cuttings, and last-minute new-hire onboardings are realistic. Local delivery available inside the Las Vegas Valley on qualifying orders.

New to the method? Read what is screen printing — primer. On ink choice: plastisol vs water-based ink for workwear and DTF vs screen printing. On other methods: sublimation printing — when it fits and the broader screen printing shop Las Vegas guide. On order size: minimum order quantities.