About JRG Prints
We make branded merchandise for the groups that actually order it — bar and rec leagues, local bands, event organizers, causes and fundraisers, and the businesses behind them. Most of what we run is twelve to a hundred and fifty pieces, in full color, and there is almost always a deadline on it.
Who We Work With
- Bar and rec leagues — team shirts and hats, and something worth handing out at the end of a season.
- Local bands — merch for the table at a show, plus an online store so fans can order between them.
- Events and causes — shirts, totes and giveaways for a fundraiser, a festival or a benefit night.
- Businesses — staff apparel, client gifts, and swag for conferences and trade shows.
Different projects, same problem underneath: a logo, a headcount, and a deadline that is not moving.
How We Actually Work
We manage production rather than run the presses ourselves. We choose the product, prepare the artwork, hold the timeline and stand behind the result. Where a product is available from more than one source we take the US-based one, which is what keeps standard turnaround at 7–10 business days after you approve your design.
Decoration is embroidery, DTF, sublimation, UV printing and laser engraving. We do not screen print — which is exactly why there is no minimum. Screen printing means burning a screen for every color in your design, so a shop that uses it needs 24 or 100 pieces before the setup is worth doing. We have no screens to burn. A twelve-piece order for a rec team is a normal order here, and a six-color design costs the same as a one-color design.
What You Can Expect
- A same-day reply, most weekdays. If something is going to take longer than that, we say so rather than go quiet.
- A free mockup on the actual product before anything is made. Nothing goes into production until you approve it, and mockup revisions are unlimited.
- Design help included — cleaning up a logo, working out placement and size, or building something from scratch if all you have is a name.
- One point of contact from the first email to the boxes arriving.
- Real pricing up front, including shipping, before you commit to anything.
Where a Screen Printer Will Beat Us
If you need 250 plain shirts with a one-color logo, a screen printer will quote you less and we will tell you so. Their costs fall the more you print and the fewer colors you use. Ours work the other way round.
We are strongest between twelve and fifty pieces, on full-color artwork, on mixed orders where not everyone wants the same thing, and on the products a shirt shop cannot touch — engraved glassware, boards, drinkware and hard goods. Knowing which side of that line your project falls on is part of our job, not yours.
Where We Are
JRG Prints is based on the South Side of Chicago. We work with organizations across Chicagoland and ship nationwide, and we are glad to sort delivery to one address or to split a run across several.
The company is young, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. What is not new is the work: more than a hundred print-on-demand orders have already gone out through the same production network your order would run on. JRG Prints is the version of that built for organizations rather than individual buyers.
The Short Version
Tell us what the merchandise is for, roughly how many people, and when you need it. We come back with specific products, real prices and a mockup — usually the same day.