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T-shirt success stories

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nypdofficer1

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
I would like to hear screen printing success stories. I'm sure there are tidbits of everyone's experience that I could try to emulate. Anything from humble beginnings to first store front to breaking a six figures sales number. Everyone loves feel good stories.....especially if it's in something I assume we love to do......MAKE T-SHIRTS!

I would particularly love to hear about people who started from their home. But all stories welcome. They are all entertaining, educational and inspirational.
 
S

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#2 ·
I've been in operation for two weeks and have a long way to go but look at Johnny Cupckaes for example. He started making the tees for a joke which his friends all bought than started selling them out of the trunk of his car.

Now he has stores all around the world and 30 people working for him. Not to mention the six figure salary. And to be honest his logo is so simple but attractive, along with the bakery stores and cupcakes with purchase idea.
 
nypdofficer1

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
I guess the old adage is true.....its who you know. One of his friends may have been the ones to propel his popularity. I hope the same happens for you. Thanks for sharing.

Keep the stories coming folks!
 
G

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#4 ·
I consider success a little different. I think success is a relative term. I considered a success for myself on a much smaller scale. I made shirts for two different events. One I sold three dozen shirts in one weekend. Another event I sold five dozen shirts in one weekend. Only three figures. But, it gives me courage to pursue further adventure in screen printing. . I consider each referral a success as well as each sale. In the meantime, I print a dozen or two, five when I get lucky, all from home.

geniussuineg

Think local first. Global will come in time. Press on.
 
nypdofficer1

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Discussion Starter · #5 ·
That's exactly the kind of stories I like to hear. Every sale is a success in my book. However, a bigger success is a returning customer or a referral. It's smaller things like that that can lead to much bigger things. Everyone has to crawl before they walk, and walk before they run and at every stage you are expected to fall and catch a scrape or two but get up and keep going.
 
M

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#6 ·
Shokeapparel said:
I've been in operation for two weeks and have a long way to go but look at Johnny Cupckaes for example. He started making the tees for a joke which his friends all bought than started selling them out of the trunk of his car.

Now he has stores all around the world and 30 people working for him. Not to mention the six figure salary. And to be honest his logo is so simple but attractive, along with the bakery stores and cupcakes with purchase idea.
Click to expand...
Im in the same boat. i just got a cutter & vinyl a couple of weeks ago and Ive been designing, selling and giving away product. Johnny Cupcakes has a awesome story. #payitforward
 
M

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#7 · (Edited)
Here's my story: I bought a wide format IJ printer(HP 8900 series) started with using images from the INT___ET and printing them on 11x17 heat transfer paper and pressed them on tees back in 2005. At the time this was the "in" thing. We sold lots of shirts and then the trend came to an end & the square polymer background is really cheesy. I then found a paper that did not have the polymer background(imageClip), however you cannot run this paper through any ole laser printer(Kinko's hates Me) and its too many steps involved. We tried the YUDU, small screenprinting kits . We tried pretty much every CHEAP method. I needed something fast to bring my dream close to life. I ve researched til I cant anymore. SILHOUETTE CAMEO has been the BEST thing for me so far. Every method of t-shirt printing has pros and cons. What works best for you is the ? I would actually like to be able to have all the "T-shirt Printing Methods" under on e roof. #thisismystory
 
M

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#8 ·
geniussuineg said:
I consider success a little different. I think success is a relative term. I considered a success for myself on a much smaller scale. I made shirts for two different events. One I sold three dozen shirts in one weekend. Another event I sold five dozen shirts in one weekend. Only three figures. But, it gives me courage to pursue further adventure in screen printing. . I consider each referral a success as well as each sale. In the meantime, I print a dozen or two, five when I get lucky, all from home.

geniussuineg

Think local first. Global will come in time. Press on.
Click to expand...
very well put...press on
 
mustangFWL

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#15 ·
Shokeapparel said:
haha, it's all rock and roll to me man. Just one sale a week would be nice to me.

One thing I've found out is Facebook ads are worth there weight in gold. Add that to your ideas, your page views will soar.
Click to expand...
Looking over your website, the first thing I would do to increase sales is redo your site.. get rid of the giant Facebook Box and move your product to the top, add a nice Welcome header, and "brighten/clean" your shop up. I'm going to guess you do not have a retail space, so your website is like your shirt shop, you want people to be interested in what you have to say and whats for sale, With that giant FB post updater most people wont scroll past that to see your product.

But that is just my thing, I have built a few retail web stores, and that was the feed back I got
 
S

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#16 ·
Thanks, yeah I'm going to recode that to the bottom I think.

The thing with being with spread shirt is you have only a few sites to choose from as they host it. But I'm in the middle of making another one with my own domain of shokishi.com.

I'll do that now actually, thanks for your feedback.
 
mustangFWL

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#17 ·
Something you may want to look into would be godaddy and their website tonight/ ecommerce sites, they are quick to put together, rather cheap too, and they have a lot of pre designed templates that you can change pictures and color schemes. Depending on how much you want to spend, you could also look into MagentoGo, thats what I use for my current online store I manage for the company I work for.
It will cost you though, but its really powerful, and an amazing product when you get down into it.
 
S

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#18 ·
Yeah I've looked into all that before. I do my sites another way and have a few awesome themes that I buy for a good price. This tee one at the moment is just a guinea pig.

Was looking at those ecommerce themes this morning, there not bad. Take a look at theme forest if you don't know it.
 
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