A Chicago live-printing budget is built from five lines: crew, press time, garments, setup and teardown, and travel. At 1,732 miles from Fullerton, travel is the one line that does not scale with guest count. That makes larger Chicago events materially more efficient per shirt than small ones.
What your quote includes
| Included | What it means |
|---|---|
| Crew | Trained printers who work floors the size of McCormick Place and know how to keep a Chicago queue moving. |
| Equipment | Presses, flash dryers, ink, and tables — freighted in and built on site. Everything except the Chicago room itself. |
| Garments | Blanks in a full XS–4XL curve, sized to the Chicago headcount so nobody in the queue gets turned away. |
| Setup & teardown | Load-in, station setup, and breakdown around your run-of-show. |
| Every print | The custom printing itself — no per-shirt surprise at the end. |
What moves the number
- Travel — Chicagoland events handled end to end — travel and drayage folded into one clear number.
Every Chicago quote is itemized — you see the crew, the presses, the blanks, and the travel separately, so you can move any one of them. If a number needs to come down, garments and run hours are the two levers that move it most; a shorter window at McCormick Place or a simpler blank changes the total far more than trimming the guest list. Send your date and headcount and we'll price the Chicago room you actually have.