Discuss the various t-shirt fulfillment services in this general fulfillment forum. Newer companies like RedBubble, etc can be discussed in this main forum.
Companies that have been around 2+ years (CafePress.com, Zazzle.com, Spreadshirt.com, PrintMojo.com, PrintFection, etc), may have their own separate subforums below (as demand permits).
I'm trying to find out what t-shirt fulfilment service would suit me the best. Here's my criteria: I'm wanting to sell shirts specifically for theatre people, which means lots of black t-shirts. I know that dark shirts are particularly tricky in terms of quality, and this is going to affect which service I use the most. Because most of the shirts will be black, I also need lots of nice styles of clothing, and I'm not happy with any of the ones at Printfection (not enough blacks to begin with!).
I'm also in Australia, and all of my sales will be for people in Australia. The biggest factor in my sales will be the shipping costs associated, and the prices of the shirts themselves. I'm not really interested in making money out of this, I just want to offer a service for theatre people - so I don't care how much of a mark-up I get out of the sales.
I'm also concerned about my artwork; I've read that Zazzle has a non-exclusive rights agreement, that means that my artwork might never be removed from their system even when I've removed my store. Can anyone tell me more about this?
Lastly, I'm concerned about payment methods and the time it takes to ship.
I've already done some research into my market audience, and they would all prefer it if the merchandise was sold through a company in Australia; but the only POD t-shirt store is Pistol Clothing, and they have no way to create a store.
Can anyone give me some advice about which store to choose?
Josh from Zazzle here... First off, you are right - print-on-demand for black is definitely hard! We were the first to pioneer this back in late 2005 and our engineers have been working hard improving the process with everything from the machines to the inks to the software and controllers. We're not perfect yet (we still call it beta), but with good crisp designs (don't use gradients), we've been getting happier and happier with the consistency and quality - and have some really cool new things to come. We have our "basic dark" t-shirt which uses our initial process and looks pretty good and then we offer dark colors of many other styles including American Apparel which use some newer processes that are even better and we're still working on.
In terms of licensing with Zazzle - it's simple. YOU own the rights to your images. That's it. You can put them into Zazzle, you can ask us to take them down - and we do. (we have some lingering issues where it takes longer for images to be removed from the system that you may have heard of. We're working on that too... so that you'll be able to take them down yourself.)
The one thing to note is that we do all of our production in the USA so shipping to Australia is a little more expensive than we'd like and takes a little longer than we'd like for your customers...
Look forward to your Zazzle feedback if you go ahead with us.
I've already done some research into my market audience, and they would all prefer it if the merchandise was sold through a company in Australia; but the only POD t-shirt store is Pistol Clothing, and they have no way to create a store.
Can anyone give me some advice about which store to choose?
I think there may be another print on demand service in Australia. I can't remember the name off hand though (one of our members here runs it).
If having the company be based out of Australia is a "must have", then there isn't much to choose from. If you go outside of Australia then shipping is most likely going to be an issue.
You might try one of the spreadshirt stores since they have a wide variety of products and can print on demand. They also have european locations which might make it easier for shipping to Australia (I haven't checked the rates).
I also know that there are several people using CafePress in Australia, so that's worth testing out as well.
I doubt there is a "perfect" solution that will meet all of your needs, but if you're flexible a bit, I'm sure there's one that would be a good start.
We have our "basic dark" t-shirt which uses our initial process and looks pretty good and then we offer dark colors of many other styles including American Apparel which use some newer processes that are even better and we're still working on.
In terms of licensing with Zazzle - it's simple. YOU own the rights to your images. That's it. You can put them into Zazzle, you can ask us to take them down - and we do. (we have some lingering issues where it takes longer for images to be removed from the system that you may have heard of. We're working on that too... so that you'll be able to take them down yourself.)
The one thing to note is that we do all of our production in the USA so shipping to Australia is a little more expensive than we'd like and takes a little longer than we'd like for your customers...
Thanks Josh. I recently ordered a t-shirt through Zazzle from a friend's store - two weeks ago, which is about the average shipping time from America, that I haven't received yet - which is a black women's tee. This should give me a better idea about the quality.
Thanks for the info about the licensing; it's so very confusing to a non-legal mind
I think there may be another print on demand service in Australia. I can't remember the name off hand though (one of our members here runs it).
If having the company be based out of Australia is a "must have", then there isn't much to choose from. If you go outside of Australia then shipping is most likely going to be an issue.
Thanks Rodney; if you can think of that service, please let me know. My biggest issue is that most POD services in Australia have a) a large minimum order (like 25 tees), which is no good for theatre groups that have less than 5 members. And b) that they don't allow you to create a store.
While I'd like the company to be within Australia, I think so long as prices are decent, my target market area wouldn't mind it so much.
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You might try one of the spreadshirt stores since they have a wide variety of products and can print on demand. They also have european locations which might make it easier for shipping to Australia (I haven't checked the rates).
I did check out Spreadshirt a while ago (this was maybe a few years ago), but with the exchange rates, it would be cheaper to buy from US stores than European ones. Shipping generally works out to be the same, but the actual merchandise has quite a huge margin in terms of cost.
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I also know that there are several people using CafePress in Australia, so that's worth testing out as well.
I also checked out Cafepress, and I know of a couple of people who have been happy using it, but my main concern with them was the quality of their black t-shirts. I had read up on them when the black tees were only very new (ie. released that month or something), and haven't heard anything particularly stand-out good about them since.
After doing some basic research on my own, I think it's a choice between Zazzle or Cafepress - but I'm still unsure, so if anyone has more experience/comments, please add them to the thread!
I do know of two stores in Australia that allow limited selling of custom t-shirts. Redbubble is one but they are White only t-shirts at the moment. The other is Ink Style which dont actually allow you to create a store but they have their own online store which you can probably have products listed on.
I found the print on demand company I was thinking of, but it looks like they don't to DTG printing, they are using vinyl transfers: Foghorn - Design your own t-shirt
Thanks Rodney and Zhenjie - unfortunately Fogrhorn doesn't let you upload your own designs either, so that leaves them out; and since RedBubble don't do black tees, they're out too.
Which company would suit me? 
