Ever wished you could design and print your own custom shirts and other wearable stuff? Well, thanks to this little invention called the “Internet” now you can!
There are several sites which allow you to upload your own artwork and they will create your clothing in any quantity on demand. Among them:
- Good Storm – their prices seem to be reasonable and I like their little tutorial on how to create your own shirts. I have never used this service but look forward to trying it out in the near future.
- Custom Ink – this vendor has a larger range of products to choose from than Good Storm and they have a very interesting Design Lab to use while creating your gear. Again, I haven’t yet tried them out, but will in the not too distant future.
- Cafe Press – This is kind of the grand daddy of the online design your own T-shirt game. I’ve used them several times with very inconsistent results. They have a fairly wide selection of goods, but their prices are quite high and their turn around time can be very, very slow. It has taken them 3-4 weeks to ship a couple of shirts in the past, and at least 25% of the shirts that I’ve received have been defective – crooked or non-centered printing. The only good news is that if you call them and complain they will probably send you a corrected version… it’ll just be weeks later.
If you know of any others or have experience with any of these, please do share with the rest of us!
Quite agree with previous commentator try local first particularly if you want a small print run..
John,
Believe it or not.. Custom ink does not print the shirts you order from them. They send it to your local printer! I know, we print for them in a tri state area out west. the cost saving of just finding a local screen printer are amazing! Cafepress/Zazzle and the like do not screen print. they use a Direct digital or transfer method.
Our online design studio will produce a full color digital direct t-shirt starting at $12.00 with only a three day turn around. upload you own photo and add text/arch it color it……. http://www.tshirtillustrator.com/
Truly every city has small screen printers that can get you your shirts with the best quality and price. It is just most have a minimum of 12-24 shirts do to the cost of set-ups. it is pricey to do just one.
If you want just one or two shirts you can always get transfer paper at the local hobby shop or office product store and do it yourself Quick and cheap! Most of the internet sites are about as cost effective as driving a Hummer with premium gas.
Check out some of your local Embroidery Type stores…one of the chains has direct to garment printers, basically an inkjet printer that prints on t-shirts. Works well.
Here’s another one: http://artlifecollective.com/
They seem to be different that some of the others because they let you get your designs printed on dark shirts, too. Also nice that they only use American Apparel (i.e., sweatship free shirts). You can either one-off your own designs, or post them to the site for others to buy (each sale nets the designer $5). I’ve been happy with their service and quality, even with with a phto-real image.