MasterWong

Hi everyone, this is my first post and I hope to do a lot more reading, but I tried to read around a bit before posting this question. Can sites like spreadshirt.com and cafepress.com be problematic? My main concern is that people could easily press the printscreen button and/or copy your design and make it themselves, or if they see a catchy slogan they can just take it for themselves and advertise it. Therefore, I am quite hesitant to put any of my thoughts onto these sites.

Would it be better to start off by advertising close to home with flyers and and other marketing methods or put my designs on these small websites. I had considered just making a bunch of shirts that may appeal to a few clothing stores and seeing if they were interested in them. Let me know, thanks for the help everyone.

 

Reply With Quote

Rodney

There will always be a risk of someone taking your t-shirt design and printing it off themselves.

Quote: My main concern is that people could easily press the printscreen button and/or copy your design and make it themselves, or if they see a catchy slogan they can just take it for themselves and advertise it. Therefore, I am quite hesitant to put any of my thoughts onto these sites.

Whether you put it on cafepress, spreadshirt, your own site, no site, or market it locally, someone can take your idea.

Anytime you take your idea and put it out in the public, it has the risk of being copied or misused.

It doesn't happen that often. You just have to take the normal precautions of protecting your intellectual property (research trademarks and copyrights).

This is not to scare you, but to just offer some reality that every single t-shirt you see for sale online is "out there" facing the same risks.

The rewards of selling lots of t-shirts far outweigh the small risks for some shady person taking an idea. Even if they take your idea, there's no guarantee they can sell it better than you can.

Don't make decisions based on a fear of what might happen, make them based on what you want to happen and do your best to make it happen.

__________________
Rodney Blackwell - We're selling our 100% Natural Extravaganza T-Shirt For Charity!
PrinterListings.com: a place find, rate, and review custom t-shirt printing businesses

 

Reply With Quote

jboitcet

Quote: Originally Posted by Rodney There will always be a risk of someone taking your t-shirt design and printing it off themselves. Whether you put it on cafepress, spreadshirt, your own site, no site, or market it locally, someone can take your idea. Anytime you take your idea and put it out in the public, it has the risk of being copied or misused. It doesn't happen that often. You just have to take the normal precautions of protecting your intellectual property (research trademarks and copyrights). This is not to scare you, but to just offer some reality that every single t-shirt you see for sale online is "out there" facing the same risks. The rewards of selling lots of t-shirts far outweigh the small risks for some shady person taking an idea. Even if they take your idea, there's no guarantee they can sell it better than you can. Don't make decisions based on a fear of what might happen, make them based on what you want to happen and do your best to make it happen.

Dang-it Rodney.... That's darn philosophical. I'm impressed.

__________________
Don't come outside at 3 o'clock. www.bootsiepop.com

 

Reply With Quote

MasterWong

Quote: Originally Posted by Rodney It doesn't happen that often. You just have to take the normal precautions of protecting your intellectual property (research trademarks and copyrights).

Thanks for the information, trademarks and copyrights were of concern as well, perhaps that will be the next best thing to start reading about.

I'll try not to let it scare me though, and throw some of my designs up once I'm ready to go.

 

Reply With Quote