It’s 2023, and if you said that you’re an entrepreneur working in the custom print t-shirt designing and manufacturing sector, many would laugh. After all, why, in the era of digital and technological revolution, would you work and invest in making t-shirts? Why, despite the growing popularity of AI, big data, and other technological innovations, would you opt for a market that’s long been worn out?
People will come to you and say that making custom t-shirts won’t bring you a lot of money or that this business isn’t sustainable enough. They’ll say that it’s hard to succeed in this market, especially if you’re here for the long run.
However, that’s not the case. Custom t-shirt businesses are doing well even in this day and age. All you need is the right guidance to get you started and settled into this market, and the rest will take care of itself. In case you’re not sure how you can run a custom print t-shirt business in 2023 and beyond and make it successful, keep reading.
Focus on the Quality of Your T-Shirt
Start by focusing on the quality of your t-shirts. This, of course, means that you must ensure high-quality fabric and prints.
In case you’re making lightweight or summer tees, consider opting for a fabric with a GSM of 160 or under. For heavyweight or winter t-shirts, you can consider a GSM of over 200. All-season tees can be made using fabric with a GSM between 160 and 200.
Make sure the T-shirts don’t shrink after washing. Mention the washing conditions on the labels of your tees if you think that certain types of washes will ruin the fabric or print quality.
Speaking of print, bring in a heat press machine that will ensure the highest quality prints on your tees. A drawer heat press or a digital swing-away heat press machine will be your best bet here. You can also consider combo machines that offer better control over the prints you’re setting.
Keep Up with the Trends
Custom print tees will always be in trend as long as the prints or designs are in trend. For that, you need to keep up with the latest design trends across the world, especially if you’re selling to an international market.
In this case, you and your business must keep a close eye on the latest developments surrounding pop culture.
For instance, the Netflix series Wednesday has been receiving a lot of praise recently. The show has been making headlines since its release, and with a new season in the works, you can rest assured that its cultural impact is here to stay. What you can do is have your designers prepare designs that focus on various elements of this show and other popular ones like it. The designs can focus on the characters, scenes, or even quotes or dialog from the show.
You can also do the same with popular musicians. Maybe Taylor Swift is in the conversation right now, so you decide to take a few of her recent song releases and center your designs around them.
Whatever you do, if you’re working with intellectual properties (IPs) like these, make sure you are legally authorized to reproduce and distribute these IPs. Otherwise, you might get in trouble for copyright violation.
Get Influencers to Market Your Products
Influencers dominate the social media sphere in almost all aspects. That’s why they are always trending and are on everyone’s feeds.
If you can get influencers to promote your custom t-shirts, you’ll surely get a lot of attention. This approach to social media marketing has worked wonders for many popular clothing brands. Therefore, it’s safe to say that this approach can work out for you as well.
Ensure Competitive Pricing
Avoid overcharging for your custom t-shirts. If the designs are also custom requested by your customers, you can charge them a bit extra. However, for the rest, keep decent pricing that will give you a competitive edge over your competitors.
With time, you can, of course, increase the pricing. You can also highlight what sets your tees apart from those of your competitors in terms of quality and features so that potential buyers can at least know what they’re paying for and that they’re not being overcharged.
The custom print t-shirt market is very competitive, which is why it’s all the more difficult to succeed here. However, as long as you stick to the suggestions discussed above and take your business decisions accordingly, this business can be a lucrative opportunity for you to succeed and make money even in 2023.
