Trust Printshop Tour: Keeping a Clean Screen Print Shop

When you visit Trust Printshop in Ft. Worth, TX, you immediately see an organized and neat space. But there's also a strong visual sensibility, too. Owner Matt Lucas has dialed in every last detail to create an incredible screen printing shop.
Learn more about Trust Printshop's super organized shop: www.printavo.com/blog/trust-p...
“I don’t want to just do things. It's an opportunity to do something nice, to encourage someone to do whatever they do nicely, to inspire someone in whatever they’re doing. It’s an opportunity to put in the work. We can cheat things all day, but you know it in your heart when you’re taking the shortcut. That just degrades my self-worth and what I stand for.”
5000K lights, a window in every room, an intentional flow to the entire layout. They use every last inch of their 14,000 sq. ft. shop.
Matt got into screen printing because of his band. Shirts were a wild idea, "but something I knew I could do," Matt said. He started with a manual press and cured his ink with a flash unit that swiveled over the print platens. Eventually, the press was literally burned out of use by the swiveling flash unit.
Visit Trust Printshop on the web (their website is incredible): trustprintshop.com/
The Trust team pulls one sample from every print job they do. This ensures they always have a robust stock of sample jobs on stock to show customers. It's also a great way to have quarterly donation drives. Spoilage isn't an issue in their shop. Instead, Matt sees it differently: he has to fight the major suppliers to make sure they can keep up with his standards!
"Our spoilage formula has factory damage built in," Matt said. T-shirts from big manufacturers often have much higher spoilage rates than the print shops they serve.
Some tips for keeping your shop clean:
1. Use spray web for fleece, and only if necessary.
2. Only use roll-on adhesive when possible.
3. Keep your machines intentionally clean.
4. Schedule time for cleaning.
5. Do a "15 minute reset" at the end of each day (that's when everyone replenishes things, fixes things, and generally puts the shop back into perfect working order).
Matt does have some regrets about building Trust - or at least letting his construction contractors blow past deadlines with their work. The shop took more than 8 months longer than planned to fully build and complete (it was an old electrical company building) - just because the contractors didn't do very good work. “Now that I’ve gone through it before, I would do it differently," Matt said. He advised any print shop to get clear contracts that stipulate deadlines and penalties for exceeding them.
Matt's clear vision and passion for his business shows throughout this tour. “There’s a place for me here and I feel that. There’s work to be done. That’s what drives me," he said. That's why everything is meticulously organized, detailed, and meant for functionality. It's there to inspire the staff and serve as a testament to a job well done.
Next, Trust Printshop plans an addition: embroidery. They're going to keep the embroidery heads totally separate from the screen printing area (since dust damages the embroidery machines). “So many of our customers ask for embroidery," Matt said. It seems like a logical extension for a skillful shop that's fine-tuned their operation.
A huge thanks to Matt and the Trust Printshop team for letting us stop by!
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[@thedanieldehart]

Matt is truly one of the pioneers in our industry. He does most things completely different than everyone else. We call him the Savant of the Screen Printing Industry. He's got a quiet way about him but he's just so focused on excellence and integrity that it's inspiring for sure. -The TShirt Guys

[@printavo]

Spot on. You absolutely nailed it.

[@thedanieldehart]

@@printavo he helped us out a lot when we changed over to roller frames. And he's always open to us visiting his shop and helping us walk through things.

[@JustinMichaelRenaud]

This guy knows how to run a shop 🔥

[@printavo]

Truly!

[@lxstangs]

That phone taking pictures left and right 😂

[@weneedmerch]

This video is great. Our shop just upgraded to 2 Automatics, and we are still trying to figure out the best way to run it with 5 employees to break even. It's been a rough year of us, any other links to anything that has a blueprint to organizing a workflow would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[@misterFunktastical]

They didn't really engage the owner with effective conversation skills, he even felt slighted a few times per his body language..... that man has knowledge and they interrupted him SEVERAL times to prove THEIR own points (separately), better interviewers PLEASE!!

[@printavo]

Thanks for the feedback, Jay.