Design Pickle and Cotton Bureau: The Easiest Way to Create a T-Shirt Shop

Originally published

Back when I was in college, making t-shirts was all the rage. College kids, like conference goers, love t-shirts. I figured I could get in on the action and make some money. But my only semi-successful t-shirt was one friends and I made for Scranton’s Parade Day. So why did I fail every time I’ve tried to sell t-shirts? There are a few reasons, but the main one is if you don’t have the 5 skills needed to make and sell shirts, it’s too hard. Luckily, those days are over.

The 5 Skills You Need to Sell T-Shirts

So what are the 5 skills you need to sell shirts?

  1. Be a graphic designer
  2. Build at least a simple sales page where you can accept payment and a quantity (and maybe a mailing address)
  3. Know how to economically source the shirts1
  4. Understand the logistics of distributing the shirts
  5. Either pre-sell or order the right amount of t-shirts, in the appropriately varied sizes and cuts.

Now maybe that doesn’t sound hard. But if you wanted eCommerce in 2007, you were looking at an embedded PayPal button, or some complicated WordPress setup (or like..Magento maybe?) It wasn’t as easy as setting up a Shopify or Etsy site.

And economically sourcing the shirts meant finding a bunch of (probably local) vendors and price comparing. You need to check screen printing costs, quantity and quality of shirts, available colors and brands, etc. etc.

Ordering the shirts was probably the hardest part. People either had to trust you with a pre-order, or you had to get at least a few made to show off. In college, we ran a PayPal + cash operation.

And then there was the graphic design. I was our designer, and I am no designer. My last attempt after college was to team up with someone. We’d come up with ideas, she’d design them, and I built and ran the website.

Everyone wants to make t-shirts

But even overcoming those 5 hurdles, you need to remember that the t-shirt market is super saturated. In college we had Busted Tees, Tshirt Hell, and lots of others. So your shirts needed to be clever, affordable, and accessible.

And that part is still true…in fact there’s way more competition. You need to make t-shirts people are willing to wear.

But there are two services available today that make the other 5 hurdles a non-issue.

Design Pickle for the Graphic Design.

Some of you are blessed to be actually good at graphic design. I am not one of those people. So for the rest of us, there’s Design Pickle.

Design Pickle is a monthly service that gives you access to a dedicated graphic designer and unlimited design requests. The $499/mo price tag caused me to hem and haw for 2 years, but I finally picked up a Design Pickle subscription and I’ve been insanely happy with the service.

I’ve extolled its virtues in my newsletter, but as someone who’s already paying for the service, I recently came up with a new reason to keep paying: a renewed vigor in having my own little t-shirt shop.

Design Pickle has a template request for t-shirts, so you use is, describe what you want, and your designer will create a t-shirt design. Here’s a side-by-side of my sketch and what they came up with for my Vaxxed to the Max shirt:

SO GOOD.

I would say if you’re going to use Design Pickle only for t-shirts, you should be pretty confident your ideas will sell. But I use them for everything, from client work to my own podcasting projects.

OK. So you have the graphic design. What about the everything else?

Cotton Bureau to the Rescue

That’s where Cotton Bureau comes in. They are a print-on-demand t-shirt maker based in Pittsburgh, PA2. They’ll let you upload a design, pick from their many variations and colors3, price it, and sell it.

Then they’ll print, package, and ship it. You get to decide your profit margin, and they pay you out via PayPal or bank transfer. It could not be easier.

Plus, once they verify one design, you can upload new designs instantly. I have several for sale:

Setting Up a T-Shirt Shop has Never Been Easier

OK so you have Design Pickle for the designs. You have Cotton Bureau for everything else. What are you waiting for?

If you have any t-shirts for sale (or tips) let me know in the comments!

  1. Economically is key here. The advent of the $30 t-shirt is relatively new, outside concerts. ?
  2. If you remember United Pixelworkers, it’s that same crew! ?
  3. Seriously. Multiple placements, maybe a dozen colors, different cuts, plus onesies, tanks, and sweatshirts. It’s bananas. ?