There are, of course, some very well-established t-shirt websites out there that sell fun and funny designs. But lately, I’ve been getting targeted Facebook solicitations for t-shirts from companies I’ve never heard of, usually having to do with movies or music or sports teams that I’m a fan of.
The problem is that I’d actually like to own some of these t-shirts, but I have no idea about the reputability of any of these companies. I know that setting up a virtual t-shirt print shop is a relatively easy business model, so it’s not shocking to me that there are a lot of them out there. But I imagine that means there are scam sites out there who are collecting “orders” and making off with people’s money, too.
So, really a couple of specific questions, though the floor is open to general discussion:
How do you filter out what sites you consider to be legitimate?
What t-shirt sites would you consider trustworthy?
I see these ads popping up on FB all the time, as well. As they nearly always are advertising shirts for licensed properties (sports teams, music groups, movies, etc.), I’m 99% certain that they’re making the shirts without license, and I’m pretty skeptical that they’re particularly reputable places.
Sites / companies that sell fun t-shirts that I have found to be reputable include:
I hadn’t heard of Ript. I’ll have to check that one out.
Of course, it turned out that the t-shirt I was interested in is actually available through Amazon for half of what the suspect website wanted for it. So my immediate issue is resolved, at least.
Ript is similar to TeeFury – their business model is centered around the idea of “limited time only” designs (usually only available for a day or two), with a focus on nerdy / fan-culture designs.
I sort of have the opposite problem. I have an old, old Gibson T-shirt with a great logo that they don’t make anymore (a globe with different guitar models encircling it and the tagline “American Made, World Played”). The shirt is practically a rag now…I’d love to get a one-off copy made but the online T-shirt places won’t do it because of licensing restrictions.
About a year ago I tried to order a “You Can Pee Next to Me” shirt, from a Facebook ad featuring George Takei wearing the shirt. The first red flag was when I never got an email confirmation of the order. The second red flag was when I never got a shirt. The cost was nominal – around $20 – and I couldn’t remember the name of the company or find the ad again (and the credit card statement info was cryptic), so I never followed up. For a little while I was worried about someone snagging my CC info and charging up a storm, but so far so good. I do sometimes wonder where the $20 went. I’ve seen other things that interested me, but I will never order from a FB link again.
That’s one of the ruses that I see on some of these FB ads – they Photoshop art of their (probably non-existent) t-shirt onto a picture of a celebrity, trying to convince you that there’s some endorsement there. I used to see Johnny Depp used in a lot of the ads; now I see Nathan Fillion a lot.