I believe I've found a great t-shirt niche that has been completely ignored. Is it worth going through the trouble of starting up an online t-shirt business? If so, what is the best way to do this? (making designs arent the problem as I'm an experienced graphic designer...it's just the time I'd have to set aside out of my life to do it). My only option is to use a service that lets you upload images - like Cafepress, 99dogs.com, shirtcity.com, etc. Do those services ever do well? I know that Cafepress charges a huge amount right off the bat, to the point where you can barely add more on to it for your own commission (well, you could, but nobody is going to buy a $25+ shirt...and even still, making $1-2 per shirt doesn't seem to be worth the trouble). I'd love to hear from anyone who already runs a business like this!
I doubt you will find someone who already runs a business like this. Even if someone stumbles across this thread, I doubt they will want to help you - the future competition. Not to worry though, there are a lot of resources out there on how to get started. Perhaps you should check out CambrianHouse.com ? Lots of ideas being brewed up there. Or perhaps you could check out Threadless.com and see what type of business format they are using. If your already a graphic designer, you've got the hard part figured out. I'd say try to not re-invent the wheel and get your stuff out there as easily as possible, then whenever you have your profits coming in, you can do whatever you want at that point. Hope that helps.
At one point i was thinking of getting into the same thing i found this site www .customdropship .com . Its ok prices i guess depending on what currency you are using. Check it out.
If you want to start a shirt company you're better off dealing with a real printer, you can get better prices of $2-5 per shirt instead of the $20-30 per shirt that cafepress,spreadshirt charges. Of course you have to take the risk and invest a few hundred of your own money, but you are more likely to sell a shirt for $10 than $25 and the profits are better. Also if you are serious about it $500 isn't much to start a business.
Thanks for the replies!! this is what I was afraid of, I've heard it a million times. The reason why I need a service like this (maybe not Cafepress, but some other) is because they do the packaging and shipping for you. There's no way I'm willing to take orders and ship individual shirts out, I definitely don't have the time or capacity to do that.
Well given your last statement I doubt you will find any better option than cafepress or their ilk. Besides how is that supposed to work? You order 100 shirts, give them to some company and let them ship? That scenario would get ugly. Any company doing the shipping for you will charge a steep fee per shirt. Pretty much pushing you out of the market. 4 color shirts runs around $7 printed. Using keystone pricing, would mean you charge $14. Adding a shipping company's overhead to it would push the price over $20 before you hit the customer with S&H. And at that price you better have solid gold designs. Until you can make the time or capacity to ship it yourself , I would advise staying out of the shirt business. Other option would be to hire someone to do that part. high school or college kid. Say 2-3 hours a week work. Two days a week you ship merch. At the start would be take the loss or find the time to do it yourself.
You could check out printmojo.com. I don't know all of the details, but they are similar to cafepress and print/stock/process/ship but from what I can gather it looks like you might have to purchase a set number of shirts up front to have printed and warehoused by them... you might want to look more into it. However, your biggest profits would be had by doing as much of it as you could by yourself. Maybe just tell your customers that orders ship out Tuesday and Friday or something, at least until you get the word out. Then just hire someone to do all the leg work/ mailing for you... you mentioned that your shirts would be for a particular untapped niche, but if you think they might appeal to a slightly broader audience you could try submitting them to Threadless or Design By Humans Threadless is currently paying $2000 + $500 gift cert. +$500 every time your shirt is reprinted. DBH is currently paying $500 + $250 gift cert. for shirt of the day, plus bigger prizes for shirt of week and month.
I currently sell t-shirts on a website. I get 25 printed at a time and then once half have sold, I place another order. For my tshirts, I use dollarshirts.com but I'm getting ready to order ladies tank tops from a different vendor. Where in NJ are you located? The other vendor I'm going to try out is located in Lakewood and since I'm in Brick, I can pick the shirts up to avoid shipping charges. I've also thought about expanding into other types of shirts (as of now I only sell one design) and have looked into setting up my own screen printing shop. It doesn't look terribly difficult, but it does take a fair amount of work. Chris
eruct: thanks for that suggestion (printmojo), that sounds pretty decent. I just applied for an account. funkyreuben: how long does it usually take for you to order more? Also, how's the quality? If you send over an EPS or high quality TIF, does the end result look clear with sharp edges/corners, or does the image quality take a hit? I live up by the George Washington Bridge but work not far from you, in Tinton Falls!
Dollarshirts.com provides a 2 week turnaround. The quality of the shirts is very good and I have had no problems with them so far. They do not charge a screen setup fee which many other screen printers do. Basically, I email them my PSD when I place the order and I receive my shirts in about 2 weeks. Depending on the quality of the shirt I order, it usually costs around $5 a shirt for an order of 25. If I remember, I'll take a picture of one of the shirts and send it to you. The place in Lakewood that I'm going to use is tsharry.com. I haven't had anything printed yet, but they had the lowest price I could find for 2 color prints on a ladies spaghetti strap tank top ($8.50 each for 25). Chris
A website is hardly expensive to setup. Print some business card, some letterheads, and send them to prospective buyers. Offer your first 5 customers FREE t-shirts - and get testimonials from them If after that you can procure paying customers, you're in business!
In Portugal some dudes started a t-shirts business, just online, and with the help of a major radio geek, nuno markl, their business is going off the roof. Nuno started using the t-shirts in tv shows and the rest is history
website/promo/publicity is definitely not the problem..finding a service that overcharges, where I will barely be making a commission per unit is Chris: thanks! Take a close up picture of the edges of a design if you could. I've seen some really bad t-shirt print jobs before.