Live event printing
Tampa will raise a flag for
Live printing for your Tampa convention center booth, Water Street launch or Ybor courtyard party: DTF, a hat bar, embroidery and screen printing, run by one crew with a wall of blanks. Guests pick a design and walk off wearing it minutes later, bay breeze included.
A city that throws itself a pirate invasion every winter doesn't do subtle, and your merch table shouldn't either. We set up a live printing rig wherever Tampa gathers, from an expo aisle downtown to a rooftop kickoff above the Riverwalk or a festival lawn along the bay, and turn blank tees, caps, and totes into keepsakes while the crowd films it. Full-color DTF transfers, a build-your-own hat bar, on-site embroidery, even a squeegee when the job calls for it: whatever the moment needs, pressed fresh in the Gulf air.
How it works
Booked to pressed
in four easy moves
Send your date & headcount
Tell us the venue and a rough guest count. A line-by-line quote comes back within 24 hours.
Approve the artwork
Art is final about a week out, so screens and film can ship with the freight.
Crew stages the station
The gear arrives from Fullerton and the crew lands the day before to build and test.
Guests press & go
Each guest picks a design and a size, then wears it about two minutes later.
Live stations
Five ways to go
live in Tampa
Live screen printing in Tampa is the volume pick for one design, the Tampa hat bar is the one people wear out into the sun, and the rest of our live event printing stations cover names and stitching.
Live Screen Printing
Real screens and ink for one design on a big crowd, like a convention floor or a Gasparilla party.
ExploreLive DTF Printing
Full-color film transfers, so names and photos go on as easily as a logo.
ExploreLive Hat Bar
Guests build a cap from a wall of hats and patches. Useful gear in Tampa sun.
ExploreLive Embroidery
Stitched logos and monograms for VIP rooms, suites and client gifts.
ExplorePromo & Hard Goods
Totes and tumblers printed on site for show floors and days on the water.
ExploreOccasions
Where a press earns
its keep in Tampa
Why live
A box of shirts is a handout.
A running press is a show.
Hand a Tampa crowd a pre-printed shirt and it goes in a bag. Put a press in the room and people gather to watch, choose their own design and wear it out the door. That's the difference between a giveaway and a line in front of your booth.
For write-ups of specific events, see our past activations.
Book a Tampa press dateAcross Tampa
Set up anywhere
the Bay shows up
Convention halls downtown, food halls like Armature Works, hotel terraces in Hyde Park, festival lawns over in St. Pete. If Tampa Bay can host it, we can print there.
- Tampa Convention Center
- Amalie Arena
- Raymond James Stadium
- Armature Works
- Straz Center
- Seminole Hard Rock Tampa
Questions
Before you ask
Most Tampa events land between $5K and $15K all-in. The guest count, your hours and the garments set the number. The quote lists crew, equipment, garments, travel and every print on separate lines, and it arrives within 24 hours.
One press prints up to about 60 shirts an hour, and each guest waits roughly two minutes. Our standard station runs two presses with two printers, which clears 100+ an hour once the line is going. Here's how to size live printing for a Tampa crowd.
About 10×10 ft for each station and two dedicated 120V/20A circuits. We bring the presses, blanks, tables and crew. At Tampa Convention Center the electrical is ordered through the venue; outdoors, add a tent for the bay wind and the summer storms.
Six to ten weeks. The gear ships from our Fullerton shop as freight and the crew flies in a day early, so freight sets the schedule. Moving a date needs two weeks' notice. If your date is closer, ask anyway.
No. Live t-shirt printing anchors most events, and we also run a hat bar with pressed patches, live embroidery, full-color DTF on hoodies and totes, and printed drinkware. A shirt station plus one of those is the most common setup.
Yes, anywhere around the bay, including St. Pete, Clearwater, Brandon and Wesley Chapel. We're based in Fullerton, CA, so the gear ships as freight and the crew flies in. Travel is its own line on the quote and doesn't change with the guest count.
Yes. Convention and trade show booths are some of the best places for a live press. The station sits inside your booth at Tampa Convention Center, and attendees leave wearing your logo.
Staffed presses, all equipment, the garments, load-in and load-out, and every print during your hours. It all comes on one itemized quote.
Anywhere Tampa hosts a crowd: the convention center district, arena and stadium event spaces, Water Street and Channelside, riverfront halls, hotel ballrooms and private waterfront sites. Kickoffs and conferences in the downtown hotels get live printing for Tampa corporate events sized to the break schedule. Festival dates on the Riverwalk and at Sparkman Wharf get live printing for Tampa festivals with a weather plan. We also cross the bridges for St. Pete, Clearwater, Brandon and Wesley Chapel.
Merch Troop overview
Watch the rig in action before it lands in Tampa.
A short look at the presses, the patch bar and a line in motion. It's the same gear that ships to Tampa for a booth downtown or a party on the water.
Start your Tampa quote
Let's plan
your Tampa event
Gasparilla weekend party, expo booth or a company picnic on the water: send the date, the headcount and a rough idea of the art, and a real number lands in your inbox within a day.
- Load-in planned around your venue, from a convention center dock to a hotel service entrance
- Freight and flights booked for your date, with six to ten weeks as the comfortable window
- One line-item quote covering crew, gear, garments and travel anywhere around the bay