November 13, 2009
Nothing says “I love you” during the holidays like a personalized t-shirt does! There are a few print on demand companies out there that offer customized tees, such as Zazzle, Cafepress and Spreadshirt,
but today I’m only going to focus on Spreadshirt.
Spreadshirt offers plot printing with Flex and Flock as well as direct to garment printing, all three of which are top quality and are great choices for printing tees, just depending on the feeling you’re going for as well as the design. If I had to choose though, I would have to say my favorite is Flock printing, just for the texture! It’s fuzzy like felt, but won’t pill or peel off. Rest assured, their flex and flock printing (which is basically vinyl heat pressed to the fabric at incredibly high heat with an enormous amount of pressure) is very, 
very durable and will stand up to many washes to come.
I myself actually have a Spreadshirt shop and have of course ordered shirts as samples, and the flex and flock are great! I feel that Flex and Flock designs create a much more finished, professional look for your t-shirts.
As far as designs go, you can either choose from Spreadshirt’s extensive library of t-shirt art, which is comprised of thousands of member-submitted designs and even includes Rhinestone appliques (unfortunately members are unable to create their own Rhinestones designs). Don’t worry! The designs are broken down by category (phew!) and you can search through them to find ones that are tagged under the keywords you’re looking for.
They have a great selection of fonts you can enlarge, rotate and colorize to your heart’s desire. Also, with Spreadshirt, the printable area of the shirt is considerably larger than with other consumer print on demand sites, so you have more room to customize, more room for creativity.
If you’d like to use a completely custom design, any jpeg or png graphic (pixel based art) will do if you’d like to have a shirt printed using the DTG (direct to garment) method, however if you’d like to create your completely custom design using Flex or Flock, you’ll have to upload a vector design that is to Spreadshirt’s specifications.
The reason why Flex and Flock can only be printed from vector art is because the vinyl or flock material is cut into the shapes that are in the design, and vector art still retains all the mathematical information of the curves, lines, etc. etc., that make it possible to cut such clean, neat lines and curves while still maintaining top quality. Plot printing also makes it possible to resize the design on demand without losing any quality the way pixel graphics do when resized. ((Did that make sense?? lol))
To just quickly delve into Spreadshirt’s history, they’re a company that began in Germany servicing EU customers, eventually spreading that customized t-shirt love to the USA.
Here in the states the base of operations is in Pennsylvania, so if you’re on the East Coast, that’s definitely an advantage I think Spreadshirt has over Zazzle and Cafepress: shipping speed. I also feel that Spreadshirt’s shipping rates are better than Zazzle’s. While Spreadshirt offers a flat standard shipping rate depending on your total order (with automatic free shipping above $159.99), Zazzle’s shipping costs are more substantial, and it increases incrementally with each product added to your order, regardless of total. On the flip side, Zazzle offers tons and tons of discounts and free shipping promos, whereas Spreadshirt’s promotions (those that are “worth it” at least) come around less often. Zazzle may not offer flex and flock printing, but they do offer embroidery.
The brands you can get your customized designs printed on include American Apparel, Alternative Apparel, Bella and other top quality blank apparel brands, so you know you’re going to be creating shirts that’ll keep lookin’ fresh wash after wash. Besides tees, you can get your custom bags, scarves, hats and hoodies, as well. There are blank shirts and hoodies for the whole family, and they’re all just waiting for you to add your own special touch to ‘em 
The only negative? Multiple designs, multiple sides, multiple colors (only applies to Flex and Flock) it all adds up! If you get a little click happy with adding designs and colors, you may end up with a shirt that’s way over your initial price point. But then, that holds true with all print on demand providers. Keep it simple (it usually looks better, anyway) and you can’t go wrong, because a tee with your own custom design starts at just $10.90 + shipping.
Also, make sure you order your custom tees and products at least 2 weeks before you actually need them. The reason being is that, although the site states that orders ship out within 48 hours, since everything is printed on demand, the production process can take up to a week, and that has happened to me. And that’s before shipping, which with standard shipping can take up to another week if you’re on the west coast.
And hey, why not open up your own free shop and offer your designs for sale? Or print out a few shirts with your blog logo and URL! Nothing says THIS WEBSITE ROCKS as a walking advertisement.
Until the end of the month (Nov. 30, 2009), Spreadshirt is offering free shipping on orders over $50 with the coupon code FREESHIP1 (US only) or $6.99 off standard shipping for Canadians with CADFREESHIP1.
Let me know if you have any questions about Spreadshirt or how to create a vector design, or anything at all! Please visit my Spreadshirt shop at Super Duper Lumpia if you get a chance!
Hi:
What a great idea…I am going to have to incorporate these into my Holiday gift-giving! It’ll be one of a kind and so personal. Thanks for the tip.
- Swati
(from MBC)
Swati Bharteey´s last blog ..Talk to Your Kids About Working and Why It’s Important (Secret 5: Balancing Work and Single Motherhood