I think CafePress lacks panache and has no coolness factor, you know? If I were you I would try to start up my own thing, if either panache or coolness is important. But that's easy for me to say, right? And that also might just be my perception of CafePress; maybe they are cool and it's just me that doesn't see it that way. What do others think?

If you did it yourself, how would you do it? Iron on? Screening? Where would you get the Ts? What are they made from? I'm really interested in this! What kinds of designs and slogans? I'm betting they're slyly pro-animal, pro-vegan ;)

am i rite?

Where would you get the Ts? What are they made from?

Good questions. Non-sweatshop tees would almost be a must. Maybe also an option for organic cotton? Hmm, I don't know if most ultra-cheap bulk tee sellers provide these...

I'm really interested in this!

Thanks! You'd be great at it yourself! Wanna go in on a shop together? Anyone else interested?

What kinds of designs and slogans? I'm betting they're slyly pro-animal, pro-vegan ;)

Yeah, some would HAVE to be that, heh! But maybe I'd divide those onto one section, and do another section of just art and fun.

If you did it yourself, how would you do it? Iron on? Screening?

I was thinking iron-on, but I have a friend who is a print artist and knows how to screen tees. I'd like to ask her about screening. If it's an easy option, it would be ultra-cool and would add a one-of-a-kind art factor to each shirt.

Did you get my e-mail on this Friday's Foto theme?

Also, by the way, this was last weekend, it's cutting edge and was INCREDIBLE as usual, featured much more raw amongst the regular BRILLIANT vegan food, and the experts are already talking about raw becoming the next big thing (the way veganism vs vegetarianism was the new thing years ago and is now totally the norm amongst most of us. GREAT cool people at this event too!)

I've been through this mill twenty years ago. Here's what I learned from experience:
1) capital counts - more than talent.
2) It takes a long time to build this sort of business without a huge capital burn rate. Even then, you had better be prepared to lose money every month for at least two years.
3) One very good route to building this sort of business is to get exclusive design/marketing agreements with events like festivals (film, food, music, art, whatever.)
4) Specialization or limitation of the range of inventory is helpful when starting up. Dead inventory increases your burn rate and locks up money you are going to need for expenses.
5) You will get business through doing custom orders and designs (they aren't buying your creativity, they are buying your draftsmanship and your capital equipment.)
6) Heat transfer sucks. It is only good for display, not for wearing, since it is destroyed by washing.
7) This is really a vinyl ink screen printing business, not an artistic venture. You can hire the artists and job out the screen separation. You will be the sweat in your sweatshop.
8) Be prepared to work long hours, handle hazardous materials, and occasionally lose significant amounts of money on jobs that go sour (i.e. not all clients are compos mentis.)
9) Making money will become less important than not losing money.
10) Buying shirts to get the price break requires very large initial expenditures. You will need a big hunk of capital to tie up in stock or you will pay near-fatal prices for small quantities.
11) Your margin is small and you will have to get volume to survive.

Look at that article again very carefully: Stanford, since 1992, blah, blah, blah. This guy was born with money and has spent over a decade building a business. He has very large inventory (probably slowly built up over time.) He does not support himself from the business, it is a way of converting the capital he was born with or inherited. He clearly works very hard, but he started out with considerable capital and probably was able to lose money for years to get the business established.

Suggestion: put up a CafePress shop and spend several months promoting it. Then see what the demand is. I suspect that your supply of art far outstrips the demand.

Think of Walter Huston's explanation of the economics of prospecting at the beginning of The Treasure of Sierra Madre. For every guy that strikes it rich, there are hundreds who died broke. It's straight Marxist surplus value theory.

Suggestion: put up a CafePress shop and spend several months promoting it. Then see what the demand is. I suspect that your supply of art far outstrips the demand.

Thanks, warbaby.

I was thinking keep inventory at almost zero and start out VERY small. I just wanted to get art out there, see if people would buy it, and take a chance on occasionally hitting a slogan or design that sells like crazy, at which point I could buy shirts in bulk and invest a little money with a quicker return.

If money started pouring in, I'd think about expanding. Otherwise breaking even or making a few hundred $ a year would be okay for a while.

No grandiose schemes here, I just mentioned unamerican.com to show what the potential is, although your comments on capital and Srini's probable existing starting capital are spot-on.

here's a cool DIY tutorial that you might get something out of.

With CafePress, you will be able to gauge the demand for your art, since the pricing is a level playing field. The trick, as always with the web, is to get traffic. Advertise with Matt?

i made good money during the 00 campaign with these (but CafePress isn't cool anymore at all--it's just easy) I sent press releases everywhere, and to college papers too, and actually got a mention and pic in Texas Monthly. : >

he made $12,000/month in 2005.

The article says his sales were $12k/month--who knows if he was actually profitable. If he was very profitable, my guess is that, at the high-end, his margins were something like 25%. So his income would have been $3k/month, or $36k a year. If that's the high-end, things could look much worse on the low-end. In other words, this would be a tough business to survive on. For all the reasons why: all of what warbaby said.