Among the many companies offering custom-made T-shirts online are Custom Ink, Cafe Press, Rush T-Shirts, Shirt Magic and Logo Sportswear. Using the services of such a company entails visiting its website, selecting the style, color, size and quantity of shirts desired, and uploading the image for the shirt. These companies require images in a digital format. Customers need either digital images or the ability to convert an image into a digital format for uploading. The website addresses for these companies uniformly follow the same simple pattern, which is http://www.[companyname].com.
The most basic customization option offered by online companies comprises a single color image printed in square format on the front of a standard T-shirt. Further customization options for T-shirts include multicolor images, complexly shaped images, front and back designs, and sleeve, neck and trim printing. Types of T-shirts available include men's, women's and youth shirts, as well as ringers (those with colors on the neck and trim) and shirts made with organic dyes.
Other items available for customization through online companies include caps, hooded sweatshirts, polo shirts, sleeveless or long-sleeved T-shirts, shorts, athletic wear, mugs, postcards, posters, flyers and more.
Some Web customization shops allow users to sell custom-made T-shirts through their site. Café Press, for instance, provides users the options of setting up an online store. The site sets its own price on each item and allows users to add to the cost of items for profit. Users then create a public storefront with all available items. When someone purchases a shirt, mug, hat or other item, the profits from the purchase go to the account of the seller. All images on items posted for sale must be the copyright of the seller.
Local print stores and other customization shops exist throughout the United States. Many of these shops offer screen-printing services for clothing and standard printing for items such as buttons and stickers. There are two distinct advantages of using local shops. First, these shops often offer design services and work with customers to arrange an image on a shirt. Through this process, customers see a mock-up of what the product will look like upon completion. Second, some of these shops offer hand screen-printing services, while many online shops use large printers. Hand screen-printing creates more faithful image reproductions with less ink bleed and greater integration with shirt material than many large printers do.