Alternatives to Cafe Press and Zazzle?

January 20, 2006 10:48 AM

I'm looking to make some t-shirts, on an on-demand basis. Are there any alternatives to Cafe Press and Zazzle, preferably one that's not weird about owning people's designs, and copyright issues? I'd like to have unlimited designs available, decent prices, and decent quality t-shirts. I'm not interested in getting anything in bulk. Thanks!
posted by apetpsychic to media & arts (6 answers total)

I've had good experiences with spreadshirt in the past. Not the cheapest, but prices are okay, shipping has been fast, and they've never given me any crap about even the weirdest of things that I've made through their site.
posted by Oops at 10:57 AM on January 20, 2006

Fix for Oops' oopsed link
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:03 AM on January 20, 2006

Regarding quality: I have a friend who is in the T-shirt business. As I understand it from talking to him, the on-demand places use either dye sublimation or heat transfers rather than the screen printing you usually have on t-shirts. Screen printing is better quality but has set-up costs so it's less well-suited to on-demand. My friend has an on-demand type service called printmojo.com that uses screen printing, but because of the set-up costs, you commit to a minimum number of shirts (I think it's 24?).
posted by winston at 11:23 AM on January 20, 2006

When Warren Ellis was looking into making Edison Hate Future shirts he had a poll to determine which would be the 6 most popular in order to decide which to sell. Mid-survey, someone came along and said he had a way to make all of them in a one-off basis, and that's what they ended up doing. I have one and it's a proper silkscreen, not a heat transfer. They seem to come from this place, which apparently is better at printing t-shirts than creating inturwub pages. Based on the quality of the shirt I got I'd recommend them.
posted by phearlez at 11:51 AM on January 20, 2006

I've used Acme Prints in the past. Similar to winston's rec' its not on-demand printing, but the screen charge is only $15 and the minimum is a dozen shirts (starting at ~$4.75/shirt). / BTW I special ordered a particular shirt style, so it took longer than I expected, but I think that was a problem unique to me.
posted by fourstar at 11:53 AM on January 20, 2006

I can recommend with authority www.standardpennant.com. I used to print for them and their lead printer is a wiz. They do a lot of smaller jobs and as long as you don't want it in January or June-August, you can usually get very, very quick turnaround.
posted by mrmojoflying at 1:26 PM on January 20, 2006