There’s something that happens when you spend a solid year buried in code. You start thinking in functions, components, and database schemas. Your brain rewires itself around logic and syntax. And somewhere in all of that, the creative side — the art side — gets pushed to the back burner.
Well, I’m pulling it back to the front.
The Creative Side of the Business
For the past few weeks, I’ve been spending serious time back in Adobe — Illustrator, Photoshop, the whole suite — working on designs for the custom merch side of TechBinBytes. And honestly? It feels incredible to be back. There’s a completely different kind of satisfaction in pushing pixels and pulling anchor points compared to pushing commits and pulling data.
The trigger was this e-commerce operation we’ve been building out. When you’re running a live shopping business and expanding into multiple sales channels, you start thinking about what sets you apart. For us, that answer keeps coming back to custom products — things you can only get from TechBinBytes.
DTF Over Sublimation — Here’s Why
We own a Geo Knight DK20S heat press. It’s a solid machine, commercial grade, and it’s been sitting in our makerspace barely getting used. We also had a sublimation printer for a while, but I ended up selling it because I just wasn’t happy with the results. Sublimation is limited — it only works well on polyester or poly-coated surfaces, and the color reproduction on dark fabrics is basically nonexistent.
DTF (Direct to Film) transfers are a different story entirely. DTF prints can go on any fabric — cotton, polyester, blends, dark colors, light colors, doesn’t matter. The print quality is sharp, the colors are vibrant, and the feel on the garment is way better than what I was getting with sublimation. We’ve been ordering sample prints from a couple of different DTF suppliers to compare quality, hand feel, wash durability, and color accuracy before we commit to a primary vendor.
That mockup above is one of the t-shirt designs we’re working on. We’re still refining concepts to present to Fanatics as part of our ongoing licensing conversations. The goal is to produce officially licensed fandom apparel that we can sell in our live shows and across all our sales channels. Custom shirts are a natural extension of the laser-cut merch we’ve already been prototyping.
Repurposing Sublimation Supplies for Laser Engraving
Here’s where it gets interesting. Even though we moved away from sublimation printing, we still have a stockpile of sublimation supplies — and it turns out some of them have a second life.
When I was still a member of Personalization Pros — a great community and resource for anyone in the personalization and customization industry — I picked up a bunch of sublimation-coated hardboard panels and other blank substrates. Instead of letting them collect dust, we’ve been running them through the Glowforge Pro. The laser engraving burns through the sublimation coating and into the MDF substrate, giving a clean contrast that honestly looks better than what sublimation would have produced on the same material.
We’re now looking at what else in our sublimation supply stash can be repurposed for laser work — coasters, plaques, ornaments, you name it. No reason to let good material go to waste.
What Else We’re Building
T-shirts are just the beginning. Here’s a quick rundown of the other custom products we’re actively developing:
Card Stands & Display Pieces — We’re exploring ideas for displaying trading cards, graded slabs, and collectibles. Think laser-cut acrylic and wood stands that actually look good on a shelf or in a display case. We’ve already been producing acrylic stands for our Fanatics samples, and we’re expanding that into the trading card space.
Vinyl Stickers — Die-cut vinyl stickers with our own designs and fandom-inspired artwork. Weatherproof, durable, perfect for laptops, water bottles, and cases.
Wood Stickers — Real wood veneer stickers with laser-engraved designs. We’ve been experimenting with these already and the results are unique — there’s nothing quite like a sticker that’s actually made of wood.
Custom Stamps — We’re also working on a couple of custom rubber stamps that we’re putting together to send out to our contact at Fanatics. It’s a small touch, but it ties into the larger conversation we’re having with them about what we can produce and how we approach branding. Every touchpoint matters when you’re building a relationship like this.
Every one of these products ties back into both our live Whatnot shows and our online shop. The more original product we can create, the more reasons people have to tune in and buy from us specifically.
The Pipeline is Coming Together
Between the Glowforge Pro for laser cutting and engraving, the Geo Knight DK20S for heat pressing DTF transfers, Adobe for design work, and the seller software we’re building to manage it all — the production pipeline is really starting to take shape.
We went from a live shopping channel with sourced inventory to a full creative operation that designs, produces, and sells its own merch. That’s a big shift, and it’s happening fast.
If you want to see these products show up in real time, follow us on Whatnot and keep an eye on the shop. More designs, more products, and more behind-the-scenes content coming soon.
— TechBinBytes