Before you quit your day job and spend all of your life's savings to start your own label, first ask yourself one thing, "Am I Ready To Start A T-shirt Brand?"

There are some guidelines you need to know and follow before you can answer that honestly. For starters, if your idea is to start a T-Shirt Label that is nothing but you own logo (especially a generic logo) then the answer is going to be a big fat "NO". Other than yourself, your parents, and perhaps your friends who else is really going to buy them? Is it impossible to be successful doing this... no but it is very unlikely. It would need to be something that really stands out from everything else on the market that looks good and has a relatable or powerful message behind it. Like the Life Is Good label does.

If you only have less than 20 designs in your portfolio, I would hold off on opening a shop. There is no point spending a lot of money for a real life brick and mortar business or an online T-shirt Shop if you only have a few designs to show. People like to browse and enjoy looking at graphic tees. Otherwise the shop would seem empty and incomplete.

Know your market. Who are you selling to? What Gender? What Age? Is it Pop Culture? Is it for the Wealthy or Working class? Do they like the idea? Do you know how to market to those people? If not do that research first. If you don't have a list of places that you can afford to advertise on that fits your targeted demographic then don't waste your time or money on starting a clothing line. This stuff is not easy. The competition is fierce, even for a Niche market. BE ORIGINAL.

Am I Ready To Start A T-shirt Brand?

Now depending on your answer and you must answer truthfully you will find out if your T-shirt Brand idea is good enough. If you feel that you are indeed ready to give it a go. You will need to get a LLC status ($900 dollars) to protect you if someone hurts themselves with your product (yes, even in the T-Shirt business), register your business name and logo and Trademarks ($1000+++), register your website domain name, Social Media names, alternate email addresses from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. Also be sure check out the information on EACH of these pages as well as many of the blog posts on this site.

I hope this advice helps you decide whether or not you are ready to start a T-Shirt Brand.

Why choose Shopify for an online T-Shirt Shop? Because they have been around since 2006 and they know the game better than anyone else. Lots of small and large businesses use Shopify as their platform especially in the clothing business. I've seen many T-shirt brands come and go and the more successful of the lot were Shopify users. They are the ideal choice for start-ups and established brands that are self reliant and or that use Drop Shipping services (Neato has a damn good one). I'm impressed enough to be a proud affiliate of Shopify's services. This disclosure is in accordance with the FTC's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Is Shopify for an Online T-Shirt Shop Convenient?

Shopify is very quick to set up. You can start a trial for free to see if it is right for you. In as little as a minute you can set up the layout. Once you add your inventory and images you are ready to go on the fly. Granted you will need to optimize the shop with proper SEO and do some networking but Hell they make that easy too. They have integrated their platform with Pinterest so you can have your pin and boards work for you. Not to mention Call To Action buttons for the Facebook side of marketing. Twitter is a breeze too. They thought of it all. And for the reports... They are in-depth. Sales, Traffic, and so on.

There is a pricing plan to fit your budget, regardless of your business size.

• Basic ($29/month + 2.9% and 30p per transaction): unlimited products, 24/7 support, no transaction fees, fraud analysis tools and Shopify POS
• Professional ($79/month + 2.6% and 30p per transaction): the same features as the Basic plan, plus gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery
• Unlimited ($299month + 2.4% and 30p per transaction): the same features as the Professional plan, plus advanced report builder and real-time carrier shipping

Best Ways to Promote and Run Shopify For An Online T-Shirt Shop?

Promoting, marketing, and running any type of online shop is tedious. Shopify makes it a lot easier. They want you to be successful because that means that they are successful. Along with the Pinterest and Facebook integration mentioned above you can easily sign up for Affiliate Marketing companies to pick up a lot of that slack. Refersion is a very popular one that has proven successful for many Shopify users. Since many Shopify members do everything themselves, they can afford to do this because they are not going through some middle man. Especially if they do the printing in-house. After all, the POD Services and Screen-Printers take the biggest cut of the T-shirt Sales.

Shopify works for people that want to be a middle man as well by starting their own brand or even Limited Edition Tee site that uses a drop-shipper. But be careful with the latter, I've even seen some shops that do this business model go under because they could not keep up with the volume of sales. Which is no issue if you know how to handle the business like a professional and ANTICIPATE high volumes, Severe Weather, and other delays. Isn't that messed up? Too many sales and have to shut down as a result from getting too far behind in printing queues? It happens, so plan ahead, delegate to a trustworthy 3rd party printer or something.

Examples of Successful Shopify T-shirt Shops.

1. TeeFury
2. Arm The Animals
3. Factory 43
4. Ript Apparel
5. Snappy Kid
6. Tee Turtle

So Why Choose Shopify For An Online T-shirt Shop?

Because of the of all the options that are available to you from Shopify that's why to choose them. If you don't like any of the 100 default templates you can always code something yourself or hire an outside firm to help you set up as many features as your heart desires. If you want API go for it. There is nothing stopping you from integrating everything that you want into your ideal T-shirt shop. Lollapalooza uses Shopify and so does Third Eye Blind and that's two of the best damn endorsements there is.

Shopify Pros:

• No Hosting Worries. You only need a domain.
• Great Support - Forums, Guides, Blog Posts, Helpful People.
• Quick Setup - Templates make it easy.
• Reports - Detailed Statistics that truly matter.

Shopify Cons:

• There is the monthly cost of running whatever plan you choose, but what business doesn't have overhead?
• Like all 3rd party software, any add-ons and extensions used on Shopify requires updates. Just like your phone and computers constantly do. Staying on top of this is a necessity.
• Does not have the best blogging features. Shopify is eCommerce centered. The blog feature is more like an after thought. It is still useful but it is rather limited. Some people prefer the opposite and rely on the blog for customer interaction and bringing in traffic.
• Editing the items once they are entered is a bit bothersome. Be sure to add all of the product options for the item the first time... colors, sizes, styles etc.

The Pros outweigh the Cons in my opinion. Those are my reasons for choosing Shopify For An Online T-shirt Shop.

Controversial Tees are popular and piss people off. They get world wide exposure then they are recalled. Some get people arrested and attest to the fact that T-shirts are not protected by any Freedom of Speech laws for whatever reasons or limitations. Here are some of the heavy hitters.

New Mexico Cleaner Than Regular Mexico Tee. This design and or a variation of it was recalled from Urban Outfitters stores a few years ago for being an insult to Mexico and Mexicans. Find one article about it at Today's website.

Young Aspiring Artist Infant Tees from Old Navy. This is a blatant attempt to destroy the feminine aspect of the mind. Parents, Artists, and all kinds of folks got rightly pissed off at these tees. Yes, Art is a bitch of a fields to profit in for most people. But kids should never be discouraged from wanting to be anything positive. As if being an astronaut or even a President is more important. Eff that. It took an artists to scribe a language, another to design the pyramids. Find one article about these tees HNGN's website.

Hang Loose Tee. TJ MAXX were in a heap of doody when this tee made them want to hang themselves. Just watch the clip above to get a vague sense of the controversy surrounding this "surfing" design." For those who prefer to read the article it is at the WKBN website. Apparently it is offensive to numerous groups of people but to list the types of people it would offend would probably be considered a hate crime in its own regard.

Zara's Striped Sheriff Tee. Well, besides the history lesson of its resemblance to the Holocaust garbs, it looks like a old-timey prison uniform with a stolen badge. Both interpretations are disturbing. But the whole Holocaust thing itself is reason enough to burn every surviving thread of these tees. Coincidence or inspiration? You decide. Full article can be found at War History Online's Website.

H&M had a similar issue with the above (missing the title of the design) skull tee. Personally, I see it as more along the lines of the occult "Masculine" and "Feminine" aspects which are separated by color and layer yet still connected via the overall shape. Perhaps it is even a Metal inspired tee but I can see where the Jewish community is coming from on this considering the history of the pairing of the design elements. I bet the company is still getting backlash. Full article on it at BuzzFeed's Website.

Controversial Tees.

As you can see there is no shortage of controversial tees so this will be a semi-regular thing here at TeeFetch, so stay tuned.

Here are the Common T-shirt Brands Tee Blank Color Swatches. Not much has changed in the past few years for msot ofthese brands as far as color names and availability. HANES does have more recent versions but I have had difficulty locating them. These swatches are useful when making mock ups. Use the information on the Design For Black Tees article combined with the swatches here to get an idea of what colors to aim for when designing your graphics. More Swatches may be added later.

Common T-shirt Brands Tee Blank Color Swatches.

Keep an eye out on this page for more tee blank color swatches.

Here are some of the strangest tees that I have seen over the past 25 years or so.

A company called Orange, created a tee that converted sound waves to energy which is used to charge cell phones.

DragonWear is a company that sells industrial tees for the working force. What catches my attention is their Inherently Flame Resistant line of tees. The concept of a fireproof tee is always brilliant. It makes me wonder if designs can be Flame Resistant too. It is on the Strangest Tees because most people don't take the time to consider if their shirts are flame retardant.

All DragonWear FR fabrics are inherently flame resistant, tested in both in-house and independent state-of-the-art laboratories, and pass relevant industry certifications. We use advanced fabric technology; DuPont™ Nomex® inherently flame-resistant fabric and Polartec's® FR layering system fabric. All our products are designed for safety and comfort and offers the ultimate lightweight, breathable, wind-resistant, water-repellent, wicking comfort. The permanent fire-resistant protection won't melt, drip, or support combustion in the air. It cannot be washed out or worn away.

More of the Strangest Tees.

Bullet Proof T-shirts by Miguel Caballer Of Fashion, Offers "T-Shirts That Will Save Your Life". Well they don't look like typical tees but I'll include it for the concept. They are pricey as Hell too. For the price I'd hope they'd work as claimed but I'm not willing to test it out. I added it to the Strangest Tees because of appearance and function.

An oldie is the Hypercolor Tees from the early 90's. Heat changes the color of the tees, be it Hand prints and regular body heat, Hair Dryers, Sunlight. It is a gimmick that pups up from time to time. It will always make a strangest tee list until the day comes that all tees shall change color.