I took 3 dozen shirts to a bar last night. My plan was to show them off and maybe sell some. The bar owner wanted to see some, and the rest is history. He ordere 200 shirts with his bar name on the front. And "DRUNK CHICKS LOVE MIKE HAWK" on the back. I sold 22 of the others and walked away with a pocket full of cash. AMAZING! The response was crazy. I could have sold more if I had them on hand. Nothing beats showing you finished product in person. I was shocked!
I took 3 dozen shirts to a bar last night. My plan was to show them off and maybe sell some. The bar owner wanted to see some, and the rest is history. He ordere 200 shirts with his bar name on the front. And "DRUNK CHICKS LOVE MIKE HAWK" on the back. I sold 22 of the others and walked away with a pocket full of cash. AMAZING! The response was crazy. I could have sold more if I had them on hand. Nothing beats showing you finished product in person. I was shocked!
Awesome man...congrats. Do you have a pic of the shirts?
I took 3 dozen shirts to a bar last night. My plan was to show them off and maybe sell some. The bar owner wanted to see some, and the rest is history. He ordere 200 shirts with his bar name on the front. And "DRUNK CHICKS LOVE MIKE HAWK" on the back. I sold 22 of the others and walked away with a pocket full of cash. AMAZING! The response was crazy. I could have sold more if I had them on hand. Nothing beats showing you finished product in person. I was shocked!
Congrats!
Did you just show up to the bar with 3 dozen shirts? Did the bar owner know you were coming with them?
I showed up with them in my truck. Introduced myself and asked if it was OK to sell some shirts. He didn't mind, and wasn't interested. Until he noticed his customers buying them. ALWAYS introduce yourself to the owner if they are there.
OK, I posted 4 shirts for sale on Ebay. Just search MIKE HAWK on the main page. You will find them. They are the ones with actual screenprint photos. My biggest seller is not shown. I made the mistake of selling the last copy. WOOPS! Lesson #1 in tshirt sales. Don't sell all your examples. You will need at least one to show.
TRANSFERS? I haven't used a transfer lately. The shirts I sold were screenprinted. The transfers were limited.
I developed the idea 2 years ago. Using the name MIKE HAWK on shirts. It sounds like MY CO-K. I researched the idea and saw nothing on the internet. So I filed for a trademark, for use of the name on shirts.
Then I brainstormed, over 50 ideas. Then I invested in equipment. A heat press, cad cutter, clipart cds, 2 graphics programs and other stuff. I produced and sold probably 200 shirts. Vinyl/heat pressed stuff, from my garage. It was expensive, labor intensive and very stressful. VERY!
Then one day I put an add out. Seeking a graphics designer for work on tshirts. I had over 50 replies. And found a veteran, shirt designer. Willing to work for $30 an hour. He knew a local printer and they helped me produce my first run. Which was nice. Everything was local. Try Craigslist..
My art is very simple at this time. I've started small and I'm trying to keep my stuff one color. Good, royalty free clip-art is hard to find. My BIG sellers are simple one liners. Text only shirts. Offensive, funny, stupid, crude.. But they sell!
After 2 years? I've learned a few tricks. Like...KISS. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.
Just draw an idea out on paper. Pay a graphics guy to convert it, into a useable vector image, then email it to a quality screenprinter. Have some shirts printed and show them to strangers.
It's cheaper than buying a bunch of equipment. Spending countless hours in the garage/basement. And the experts will suggest changes. Not to mention the suggestions from the customers.
Try it sometime. It's fun!
BARS!
They are a great place to sell funny shirts! Let the shirts do the talking.
Just think.... Drunk customers. With cash in hand. They're already in a good mood.
Do the math...I sold 1-color shirts for $20 cash. Until I ran out.
The big seller was....MIKE HAWK ISN'T LAZY....
HE WAS BORN FAT!
I will sell tons of these. I used a penis for a point. My idea may be sophmoric. But I'm laughing all the way to the bank. Enjoying every step.
One thing that we have done that has been good for our t-shirt orders is because we do dyesub on 50/50 blend shirts we can do one offs.. quite easy once the artwork is done.. We have a few bars that we make shirts for.. but they were hesitant to order a bunch at a time.. so we sold them like 2 of each size.. we then make them on request for them.. we sell them to the bar at wholesale at 12 a piece.. They sell them for 15.oo but they dont have to buy 100's at a time.. so we quite often get orders for 2-5 shirts.. and it has let others know we make custom shirts.. as they come backed with one of our business cards..
Thanks for the dye sub suggestion. I have the heat press stock for the quickies. And a 24 hour hotline for the screens. So I will stick with what I know.
My First Big Sale 
Re: My First Big Sale 
chrissy 
