Live printing
in Chicago,
on site
Chicago shows run on logistics: dock windows, drayage, freight elevators. We plan around all of it. We stage live printing (DTF, hat bars, embroidery, screen presses) inside your booth or ballroom, and walk-by traffic becomes a queue.
Run of show · 01–04
Four steps from booking
to fresh prints
Tell us about it
Send the show or venue, the date and a headcount. You get an itemized quote, travel included, within 24 hours.
We dial in the art
We prep your art for each method and send proofs. Art locks about a week before the event.
We roll in & set up
Gear ships freight from La Habra and the crew lands a day early to build the station before doors.
We print it live
Guests pick a design and a size and walk off wearing it, about two minutes later.
Live stations
Ways we print
live in Chicago
Five stations ride the same freight shipment. Live screen printing in Chicago carries the volume on a McCormick Place show day, while DTF, the hat bar and embroidery handle names, caps and the VIP room.
Live Screen Printing
Hand-pulled prints for one bold design at show-floor volume.
ExploreLive DTF Printing
Full-color art and guest names pressed on while they wait.
ExploreLive Hat Bar
Caps and patches guests choose. Packs easily for the flight home.
ExploreLive Embroidery
Stitched logos and monograms for the VIP side of the room.
ExplorePromo & Hard Goods
Totes and drinkware printed live, carried around the hall all day.
ExploreShow-floor schematic
A 10×10 booth,
fully spec'd
This is the rig, drawn to the same spec we hand a floor manager. One station lives inside a 10×10 booth on two 120V circuits; bigger headcounts just stack stations.
Occasions
Chicago events we
print live for
Why live
Merch is forgettable.
Watching it get made isn't.
A tote from a fishbowl gets left in a hotel room. A shirt you watched come off the press gets worn to dinner that night. That's the whole case for live printing, and it's why people wait in line for it.
For Chicago the station has to earn its freight, so we build it to pull a crowd: a press people can hear from the next aisle, a heat press for full-color names, and a hat bar for the out-of-town crowd flying home.
Need screen printed staff shirts shipped ahead as well as a press on the floor? We handle both for Chicago events.
Plan your Chicago activationBy the numbers
The rig, spec'd
Field log · sample builds
Chicago-ready builds
Four ways a station gets spec'd for a Chicago-scale event, and roughly what each turns out. The gallery has the photos.
Across Chicago
We print where
Chicago gathers
Loading dock or lakefront lawn, Loop tower or West Loop loft: if there's power and a path for the cases, the rig sets up. We work all of Chicagoland.
- McCormick Place
- Navy Pier — Festival Hall
- theMART
- United Center
- Morgan Manufacturing
- Salesforce Tower / Wolf Point
Questions
Good to know
Most Chicago productions run $5K–$15K all-in, driven by headcount, print hours, and garments. You get one itemized number (crew, equipment, blanks, setup, teardown, every print) within 24 hours.
Figure 60 shirts an hour per press; the standard two-press rig clears 100+ when the aisle surges. Each guest's wait, blank to worn: about two minutes. Here's how we size live printing for a Chicago crowd, from McCormick Place aisles to United Center pregames.
A 10×10 footprint per station and two 120V circuits for the flash dryers. Presses, ink, blanks, tables, and crew all arrive in our cases.
Six to ten weeks for Chicago. The gear ships freight from La Habra and load-in slots book up, so earlier is easier. Short-notice dates are still worth asking about.
No. Live t-shirt printing is the core of most Chicago builds, but live DTF, a hat bar, embroidery, and hard goods like totes travel too. The usual build: a core tee plus one upgrade station.
Yes. Chicagoland is quoted door to dock, with travel and drayage inside one number. We're based in La Habra, CA, 1,732 miles away, so the full rig ships freight and the crew lands a day early.
Yes, and most of it happens at McCormick Place. Send the show name, booth dimensions, and your power and drayage orders, and we'll spec a live printing booth that fits the footprint and plays by the floor's rules.
Everything the show requires: crew, presses, garments, setup, teardown, and each print handed over live. It all lands as one itemized quote.
Every scale of Chicago room, from McCormick Place, Wintrust Arena, the United Center, Soldier Field, and Navy Pier down to hotel ballrooms and loft venues. The crew works The Loop, River North, West Loop, and Fulton Market, printing apparel, hats, and merch live at conventions, corporate events, festivals, and brand activations. Summer dates on a lakefront lawn or at a neighborhood street fest get live printing for Chicago festivals with a generator and wind plan. Loop tower town halls and River North kickoffs get live printing for Chicago corporate events on the building's own power.
Chicago, show by show
Built around the McCormick Place calendar
Chicago's event year bends around McCormick Place. The big trade shows fill the halls from spring through fall, and the booth with a press running is the one with a line in the aisle.
Exhibitor rules there are strict about who handles freight and what gets plugged in, so we get the station cleared through show services before anything ships.
Summer is a different city. Grant Park fills for Lollapalooza around the turn of August, Northerly Island books outdoor concerts, and brands want to be near the crowds instead of inside a hall. The Marathon takes over in October, and West Loop venues are wall-to-wall holiday parties by December.
The wind off the lake is real. Outdoor setups get weighted tents, and we keep blanks and transfer film covered until they go on the press.
We've run stations for Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Rivian and Xbox.
How we run booths: trade show and corporate printing, live DTF printing, and live screen printing.
Start your Chicago quote
Tell us about
your Chicago event
Name the show, the footprint, and the dates. We'll spec the station to your floor plan, power and drayage included, and return an itemized quote inside 24 hours.
- Door-to-dock pricing for Chicagoland: travel and drayage live inside the single number