Can I make and sell t-shirts completely anonymously?

February 5, 2024 2:31 PM

I have a pretty great idea for a shirt/other clothing, but it gets into light satire/trademark infringement with a company I have some friends that work for, who may not take it in the spirit intended. Is there a way to make/sell shirts with no trace back to me?

I'm not talking about weapons-grade "the FBI and CIA could never crack this code," but "no casual snooping will show a trail back to me" kind of anonymity. I don't need to maximize revenue, so going through a third-party vendor is okay.

posted by Shepherd to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Companies like teepublic and society6 are print-on-demand services that could pretty much achieve this. Just set it up under a business name/artist pseudonym and publish your stuff. Those buying the shirts don't see any personal info about you, and I believe teepublic still has the option to get paid out through paypal for an added layer of potential anonymity.
posted by Pemberly at 2:55 PM on February 5

Look into Redbubble, which is a sales port for many artists.
posted by Enid Lareg at 3:23 PM on February 5

I think *you're* probably the most likely source of info leakage here - you will need to keep the identity you use to market the t-shirts completely separate from any identities that these people might know about. No liking facebook posts where people are wearing the t-shirt, etc.
posted by mskyle at 3:27 PM on February 5 [5 favorites]

Adding to what mskyle said: Your MeFi profile looks like it is pretty explicitly linked to an identity. Whether that identity is (or is linkable to) your identity, I don't know, of course, but presuming the friends in question know it or could plausibly figure it out, and they happened upon this question for whatever reason, 2+2=4.
posted by Flunkie at 5:08 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]

You will need to give real information to PayPal (because they will be sending you a 1099-K if certain thresholds are met) and besides perjury, there really isn't a way around that.

Also, any legal department at serious company can instantly get you shutdown down with almost zero effort. In fact, they might already be interfacing with the usual suspects in the Print on Demand market since using these services to infringe on trademarks isn't exactly a novel concept.
posted by Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme at 8:57 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]

The big print on demand online tshirt makers have a verryyy thorough trademark infringement catching process. I tried to get a tshirt made online just for me, not even listed for the public, which looked recognizably like a famous logo but significantly different in the same satirical vein you're probably going for, and it got rejected within seconds wherever I uploaded it. I don t think you're going to get very far if it even slightly looks like a famous trademark.

You're probably better off finding some local person to make you a batch of them; vinyl presses and dye sublimation machines are in the reach of the hobbyist now, and they're going to be less worried about a cease and desist letter finding its way to them. My wife got a bunch of shirts made with her art on the by a local person with the equipment in their garage.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:00 AM on February 6