Here's the deal...Gima has said that 50 shirts with that kind of detail will either not be profitable for them or cost effective for us as we'd be looking at around $12-15 per shirt (depending on shirt brand), plus their $75 set-up fee. So that gives us a cost of $675 for 50 shirts, without figuring the cost of shipping.
Jim at Custom Shirts Online said to cut back on the colors would take the logo and make it a one dimensional thing, nothing like what we have. To do 50 shirts on the standard machine would run us about $450 plus his set up fee, so we're over $500 for the 50 shirts.
Jim's other option was to buy 500 logos on the big machine, all the colors as we designed it and no set-up fee, for $500 ($1 per logo). Custom Shirts Online will keep these logos in stock to be used whenever we order more shirts, until we use up the stock. By having these in stock, he can guarantee 2-3 day turnaround on future orders. The cost of the shirts would be $5 each. Therefore the shirt with the printed logo is a total of $6. To order 50 shirts and 500 logos will run us $750.
So, give me some ideas guys. Do we want to persue some of those options, or do we have some other places to call? I've tried about 5-6 places with responses similar to Gima or none at all. If we want to do the $750 processing, then I raise the next question: How does everyone feel about paying for 2-3 years up front to cover the cost of the shirts, and we'll offer two shirts to those who sign up for the longer term?

-AJ