In my last post I talked about RedBubble’s reputation for quality. I ordered a shirt to see if there’s any truth to those claims and yes, they are absolutely true. The quality of the print is excellent. And although RedBubble says that it will take 10 to 15 business days for your shirt to arrive, I received mine in 5. I guess they say that just to cover themselves during the holidays. All in all I’m glad I went with RedBubble and have absolute confidence in them as my supplier.

I chose RedBubble to print, ship, and handle the transactions for all my t-shirts. RedBubble is a print-on-demand company based in Australia with facilities in the US, and uses direct-to-garment printing to manufacture all shirts. So why RedBubble? Out of all the print-on-demand companies that I’ve researched, only a couple are best known for the quality of their prints, one of them being RedBubble. They also have the largest selection of American Apparel shirts, which are the most comfortable shirts out there and the only shirts I would use for my line. On top of that I found RedBubble’s interface to be the simplest for buyers (that’s the nerdy graphic designer in me talking). So going with RedBubble is really a no-brainer.

Then the next question would be: Why use print-on-demand instead of screenprinting? This is more a business decision than anything, as print-on-demand allows me to test the market at a very low cost. Direct-to-garment technology has greatly improved over the last couple years and RedBubble’s quality closely matches that of screenprints, so I’m not worried about putting out an inferior product. Also, because I’m new to t-shirt design, using print-on-demand allows me to hone my skills and develop a style before dropping down thousands of dollars into an industry I am new to. Now if I find that there’s interest in my Chinese t-shirts idea I’ll make the leap to screenprinting.