print on demand merchandise sites

[leggman01]

i'm close to possibly finalizing a deal for a logo with a d2 school that doesn't want to invest much in a logo, so i agreed to cut my up-front price in half in exchange for the exclusive rights to sell branded merchandise online for a period of one year - i'm still working out the kinks and the language of the contract (with the help of a friend who is a lawyer), but before i go whole hog into this idea i want to explore online print-on-demand stores - i'm familiar with spreadshirt, but i'd like to see what else is out there and if there are sites that offer a broader base of merchandise and/or higher profit margin - i have no desire to carry an inventory of items, even though i know the profits would be larger...i simply don't have a couple of thousand dollars to invest up front - i think i could potentially make more than enough, even with a print-on-demand store, to recoup the loss of revenue on the front end, but of course, i want to maximize revenue and quality - if anyone knows of other options and can give me some pros/cons of the service(s), it would be much appreciated - thanks

mods...i didn't know if this was the appropriate forum...if not, feel free to move it

[MJWalker45]

I use CafePress for my stuff. The site is free so I just order tees, mugs or whatever for pretty much just the set up fee.

[Discrim]

I'd recommend Printfection, and there's another place I know of, I just forgot its name.

[Lee.]

Threadless.

[BallWonk]

For this purpose, you don't want to use Zazzle, which has a less friendly user agreement from a licensing point of view. Very difficult to remove anything once you've put it up, and the end user has more options for customizing merch -- which means you as a seller have less control. Also less control over markup fees.

A CafePress premium store is probably your best bet to start with; easiest user interface, widest variety of merch. Their printing has much improved in the last two years, and it's about as good as you'll find without using screen printing, but it's still pretty poor when compared to quality screen printing.

Printfection has a better selection of clothing options than CafePress, but is a bit less easy to use. Printing is on a par with CafePress -- good for what it is, not so good compared to screen printing. I think CafePress does a better job of printing on dark fabric -- brighter colors -- but this is accomplished in part by offering far fewer non-white shirt options.

You might want to do some research into screen-printing fulfillment services. I believe there are some custom printing houses that can handle fulfillment, taking order processing out of your hands and reducing your up-front and overhead costs. (Well, shifting them from up-front to a cut of the per-order profits.)

And as with any venture in a new field, the most important thing for you to do now would be to start calling athletic merchandising professionals at other small schools or minor-league teams and asking them to talk with you for 15 minutes about your challenge. Heck, you need to talk with the equivalent person for your client school, or at least the manager of the school bookstore, to get some idea of typical demand on campus for athletic logo merch.

My own ruthless business instinct for you would be to avoid becoming a merchandise producer if you actually want to be a designer, not a merchandise producer, and instead of asking for the whole merchandise pie, make your negotiating goal winning a cut of future merchandise sales with your new logo. Say a certain percentage in the first year, cut by one-quarter in the second year, and half the first-year percentage starting in the third year in perpetuity so long as your logo, or future logos derived from it, is in use. You'd want to talk to others in the industry to get a sense of what percentage cut would be appropriate. That way you get ongoing income to balance the lower up-front earnings, but you don't have to try to master a specialized business you don't actually want to be in.

[leggman01]

thanks for all of the advice - i've gone to the printfection site and ordered a "$2" t-shirt (that actually turned out to be $8.99 because I put a logo on the pocket and the back and then paid s&h, but it's worth it to see the quality first-hand) - i'll check out threadless, as well

ballwonk - as always, really well thought out and articulate post - while i don't want to be a merchandiser, i'm confident that i'll actually make more money with this particular school if they go for this option vs. paying my fee up front, even with the low profit margin of print-on-demand...plus i really want to seal this deal with this school...i think having a collegiate branding effort under my belt could potentially open some doors, but who knows - i've researched some screen printing/fulfillment options (print mojo and a local company chief among them) and i simply don't have the capital at the moment to invest much of anything up front...i haven't ruled out switching over to this type of service 3-6 months into the venture if i've earned enough capital to stock an online store, though

i do have a bit of experience in this sort of thing - i work at methodist university, and in february of last year when we debuted our new skye dillon designed logos, i established our online spreadshirt store because the athletic department and book store didn't want the hassle of stocking an online store - i knew there would be a tremendous market for merchandise with the new logos, so i worked with our sports information director to establish the spreadshirt shop - for mu, the spreadshirt shop is as much about establishing brand identity as it is profit, so spreadshirt was a good partner...it allowed us to push the product to the marketplace quickly, with no investment - in just over a year the profits from the store have allowed the university to recoup almost the entire investment made in the logos, but more importantly, i have a pretty good idea of which items are most popular, which items sell the best at different times of the year and what price points are feasible - i feel like i'm well prepared to enter into this type of venture for this client - this isn't something i would do for any/every client, though...but i know what mu's online store has made, and i feel confident that a school that is more than twice the size of mu, with a more storied athletic tradition and a much larger alumni base (coupled with a slightly higher profit margin) will allow me to do this...i could be wrong, though or, worse yet, they could reject the idea altogether and choose to use the horrible logo that they've had done in-house - i'm afraid that asking for a cut of the merchandise profits might scare them away, and i don't want to get too greedy...just make enough to supplement my full time income and buy a 60" full hd plasma