State of the T-shirt Economy: No Bailout Required

As we approach the end of the year, a lot of us are reflecting on 365 days unlike any in recent memory—an unprecedented election, bank bailouts, hundreds of thousands of job cuts, and the worst economic downturn in decades. Being in frequent contact with other business owners, one of the first questions I’m often asked is “How’s the T-shirt Industry nowadays?” My first reaction is always “Well, what do you mean exactly? The normal T-shirt industry or us Print on Demand merchandisers?” What follows next is typically a blank stare.

I go on to explain how the Print on Demand (POD for short) merchandise industry is booming, and how comparing POD to typical t-shirt retailers is like comparing Ford to Toyota. Sure—we both technically sell t-shirts (cars) but we’re nothing alike. One of us needs a bail-out, while the other is rapidly gaining ground winning over new customers.

Sure, times are tough. Nobody can deny the economy is in a recession. Everyone has to work a bit harder for the sale, but things are still good over here on the POD side of the fence. Even in these tough economic times, the POD industry is still growing like a weed. Our little ecosystem has some mighty fertile soil. I believe this can be attributed to the fact Print on Demand merchandise is reasonably priced and has an extremely high perceived value. The one-two t-shirt punch!

First, people still love to buy things. I have no idea why, but people just can’t seem to put their credit cards away (one in seven Americans carries 10 or more of them) and cash still burns holes through the pocketbook—even when the economy is underwater. I know all of the armchair economists out there are calling me out on this right about now. “How can you be in a recession if people are still buying things? Isn’t the definition of a recession basically the fact people have stopped purchasing things? If so, POD must be hurting, right?” Well, not exactly.

People are still buying things, they’re just buying less. Less of what, you ask? Big-ticket luxury items. In these troubled times, it doesn’t make much sense for most of us to buy a new sports car or go on a lavish vacation. We’re cutting back, but we still want to feel good about ourselves and our lives. Quite the predicament, considering shopping is one of the most popular feel-good activities around. If I can’t afford the new sports car, what am I to do? How about buy a personalized t-shirt with my dream car plastered on the front of it in perfect detail. My exact custom color scheme, the wheels I picked out, everything down to the last detail. This is possible with POD, and is a great example of why our industry is booming. People are trading in the actual sports car for a picture of the sports car plastered on a T-shirt.

Putting a representation of your favorite hobby, item, or activity onto clothing is nothing new. Sports car t-shirts have been around since the cars themselves were invented! What’s different about Print on Demand merchandise is the extreme level of customization and personalization baked in for free. It doesn’t cost anything extra to print the purchaser’s exact car configuration, even if there are 500,000 sports car combinations possible! When you combine POD machinery with a layer of computing technology on top, the result is a piece of merchandise with a much higher perceived value to the purchaser with no additional cost to the seller. If anyone in our industry needs a bail-out, it’s going to be the traditional printing companies stuck in their analog ways, printing the same-old sports car t-shirts they’ve always been printing, selling to the same-old wholesale accounts.

The one-two t-shirt punch of a reasonably priced product with a much higher perceived value is the main reason Print on Demand merchandisers are rapidly gaining ground over their traditional counterparts. In these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re providing your customers with heaps of value at a reasonable price point. You can’t afford to be like everyone else. Differentiation is one of the keys to survival. Just because Detroit did it one way for the past 100 years doesn’t mean you should follow in their footsteps. Sweeping changes are happening everywhere we look. Car companies, banks, and yes—even our little world of custom merchandise is being transformed. When we emerge from, and look back on The Great Economic Downturn of 2008 I can assure you a Print on Demand bailout will not be on the record books.

Comments

[Josh Fraser]

Glad to hear things are going well. Nice post.

[Scott]

great article! i agree with the idea that even though we're in a recession, buying "stuff" hasn't stopped, people are just looking for better deals. i've seen printfection's products and they have a very high value to cost ratio and it only makes sense that you are still doing well in today's economic conditions.