PRINTING MERCH

One of the questions we get asked about is how do you manage having a variety of t-shirts + merch without going broke? Our answer to this so far has been (mostly) managing it with PRINTFUL.

Any sign ups to Printful through our links will earn MC a commission and help support the label. Appreciate it!

Printing t-shirts, prints or other merch is a great way to help support your label, music or art, but can be quite an investment to get a full run of screenprinted or sublimated goods. With clothing, it’s difficult to determine which sizes you’ll need on hand, especially if you’re not doing a large amount of volume or have a preorder situation. For the absolute highest quality we recommend hooking up with a local printer if you can manage it, but if you’re just starting out or holding inventory or shipping is difficult for you, Printful is an excellent option. They are a print on demand service (there’s a handful out there) that we’ve been using for 5 years now and feel confident recommending.

We’ve tried a couple other services over time and Printful’s quality and service has really stood out - not without a few quirks, which I’ll get into later. For shirts they mainly print using a process called Direct to Garment (DTG) which enables them to easily print one at a time - this process is also considered a great way to print super detailed or photo realistic based prints. It also can integrate into most platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, Etsy, Shipstation, etc- this means you can have your merch printed and sent out automatically… once you have it all set up and synced, you don’t have to do a thing - someone places an order on your site, Printful gets it, prints it, packs it nicely and ships direct to your customer! They also have a factories in other regions of the world, so shipping cost for overseas orders is reasonable. Everything is relatively easy to set up following their directions, and their customer service has always been super helpful when we get lost or have an issue.

SO - all these positive things being said, there have been a few CONS but for us they’ve been relatively minimal and mild. Over the years we’ve printed about 2500 shirts + other things with them, and we’ve received only a very small amount of complaints about quality. Some examples: a graphic was peeling off of the tee when the customer received it, and another time one was obviously printed crooked. Printful was great + quick about replacing them. They do require the customer taking a picture which is not totally ideal, but these things seem to happen so rarely that it isn’t a serious concern for us.

Another small con with the service is that occasionally shipping times can be a little WONKY. I’d say about 95% of the time, orders are processed and shipped out within 3-4 business days - the remaining 5% are around 5 to (very occasionally) 10 days… However, I’ve found no problems as long as this is communicated clearly to yr customers! IMO a small price to pay for a service that is taking care of the bulk of the work.

Lastly, I don’t believe Printful is as cheap as some other options, but as I stated earlier, the quality very much seems to be better and more consistent which is super important to us. Customer service has also been solid, but not without some minor frustrations along the way.

In conclusion, It’s a great way to manage offering merch with no real investment. If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. You can reach out to us here.

We hope you find this information helpful - Signing up thru any of the links in this article will earn Mystery Circles a small commission - every little bit helps to sustain the label and we truly appreciate your support!