# The reason you're not selling shirts...



## Rookie Rise (Mar 27, 2009)

I always have people asking me. "Man I'm struggling with my brand, how do you get sales?!!! When I first started Rookie Rise I never thought I'd sell more than a few shirts a month. Matter of fact I started this brand because I never had support growing up, and art was my outlet to happiness. I wanted a brand that could talk to people, motivate and move them. Before I sold a single tshirt I gave out decals and with every decal I sent a social media fan a drawing of my logo and a short inspirational phrase. I did this for a couple weeks when I launched my brand. Then I started to see orders fill in. I'd get emails of these followers thanking me for the free decal. I started to notice that these fans who received decals started to place orders. 

When people ask me how? I say because behind every product you have to have a mission. You need something that can talk to other people. There's nothing better than knowing there's somebody out there that can relate to you. If you can get your logo, name, and mission all aligned in position that has a deep impact on those who see it that's when your sales will come. If your brand is failing to send a message try re-branding a bit. Change is how you grow. If you stay in place doing what you continue to do without positive results then you'll continue to struggle. Generate a consistent style, tweak some things. Put yourself in the buyers shoes when you create your mission. Selling tees is tough. This isn't a food cart business where your customer is buying because they're hungry, you have to get them hungry!


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## numbercruncher (Feb 20, 2009)

Love your creativity and marketing message - hope others develop methods that suit their markets ! Congrats on your success and keep it up!
Michael Jirasek
Anatol 
847-582-1694


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## Kamrul471 (Mar 28, 2017)

Thank you ... 
I really inspired by your post. I like your forbearance thinking. Your advice will help me, I wish. I started a mission of selling t-shirt and I am really benefited with U.


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## Rob905 (Mar 8, 2017)

Rookie Rise said:


> I always have people asking me. "Man I'm struggling with my brand, how do you get sales?!!! When I first started Rookie Rise I never thought I'd sell more than a few shirts a month. Matter of fact I started this brand because I never had support growing up, and art was my outlet to happiness. I wanted a brand that could talk to people, motivate and move them. Before I sold a single tshirt I gave out decals and with every decal I sent a social media fan a drawing of my logo and a short inspirational phrase. I did this for a couple weeks when I launched my brand. Then I started to see orders fill in. I'd get emails of these followers thanking me for the free decal. I started to notice that these fans who received decals started to place orders.
> 
> When people ask me how? I say because behind every product you have to have a mission. You need something that can talk to other people. There's nothing better than knowing there's somebody out there that can relate to you. If you can get your logo, name, and mission all aligned in position that has a deep impact on those who see it that's when your sales will come. If your brand is failing to send a message try re-branding a bit. Change is how you grow. If you stay in place doing what you continue to do without positive results then you'll continue to struggle. Generate a consistent style, tweak some things. Put yourself in the buyers shoes when you create your mission. Selling tees is tough. This isn't a food cart business where your customer is buying because they're hungry, you have to get them hungry!


Your story is awesome. Good for you! However not everyone here is selling a brand. I print shirts for people who need something printed on a shirt. I don't have a brand, I just provide a service. So what about people struggle with business? Any advice for them?


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## Rookie Rise (Mar 27, 2009)

Rob905 said:


> Your story is awesome. Good for you! However not everyone here is selling a brand. I print shirts for people who need something printed on a shirt. I don't have a brand, I just provide a service. So what about people struggle with business? Any advice for them?


Advice for providing a service, yes! As more and more people discover screen printing more shops continue to pop up. 99% of the people that I have encounted in the past when I use to print for people, they had no idea what plastisol, waterbase/discharge inks were. They didn't know the difference between a tubular cotton vs ringspun and they don't care to know. All they cared about was low price. They want the best quality at the lowest cost. You need to structure your advertising/marketing around that model. Yell cheap but yell quality and assurance. Take the time to teach your customers about the product and options, inks etc. When baseball leagues advertise "registration signup now" go talk to the president of the league. Shake some hands. When you see construction crews give the administrator at the desk a call. You need to put in the ground work in the print industry and really build a relationship with your community. When I got quotes for print work I never got in the phone book and searched for a print shop 20-30 miles away. I wanted my printer to be close and convenient. Remember that people are looking for you but how loud are you actually being? Where are you leaving your footprint around town? Again, put yourself on the other side of the counter.


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## MadeDesigns (Feb 19, 2013)

You know what I can't stand? When people just throw stupid crap on a shirt like a few words and try to sell it. I have seen so many designs that were not thought of well and they usually do very poorly. A wise customer would have a well thought out design and a decent price to sell it for.

Just because someone throws vinyl on a shirt doesn't make it a clothing line.

Favorite quote : " Oh it costs that much? How am I supposed to sell it for (x Amount)?"


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

MadeDesigns said:


> You know what I can't stand? When people just throw stupid crap on a shirt like a few words and try to sell it. I have seen so many designs that were not thought of well and they usually do very poorly. A wise customer would have a well thought out design and a decent price to sell it for.
> 
> Just because someone throws vinyl on a shirt doesn't make it a clothing line.
> 
> Favorite quote : " Oh it costs that much? How am I supposed to sell it for (x Amount)?"


It really just depends on what it is, and who it's marketing to.

I've got a some designs that are only a few words for 1 of my tshirt brands, and they're my biggest sellers in that brand.

I started that brand in September of last year, and to date I've probably sold over 40,000 of the shirts with just a few words.


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## Screenanator (Feb 14, 2007)

This business has afford me a very comfortable fulfiling life. So much so as of April 1st we'll be retiring after 17 years. We've sold our shop to a couple that will continue our vision and customer service philosophy. It's rewarding to see something you gave birth to continue on for decades more to come and continue to grow in new directions.
Congrats on your success.


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## csavadia (May 25, 2017)

Great to hears everyones success stories as well as some great advise. My daughter has over 100k following on instagram for the artwork she does. She now wants to commercialise this success by selling T's of her artwork. Any advise on where to start and market? She is 16 and from Australia 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


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## PCs Tees Texas (May 27, 2017)

csavadia said:


> Great to hears everyones success stories as well as some great advise. My daughter has over 100k following on instagram for the artwork she does. She now wants to commercialise this success by selling T's of her artwork. Any advise on where to start and market? She is 16 and from Australia
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


There are plenty of print on demand options. Don't invest in inventory. Find a POD company that will fulfill for you . Let her concentrate on her art.


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## Rookie Rise (Mar 27, 2009)

csavadia said:


> Great to hears everyones success stories as well as some great advise. My daughter has over 100k following on instagram for the artwork she does. She now wants to commercialise this success by selling T's of her artwork. Any advise on where to start and market? She is 16 and from Australia
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


100k followers is great if they truly are organic! with 100k followers she should have no problem getting heads turned towards her site/products. If she has a style that her followers are inline with then she should shift her focus on testing out some mockups of designs. See what the responses are from her following. When she's ready to jump, she'll need to lock down a domain. Shopify is one of the best overall CMS systems for ecommerce. People would argue that Woocommerce is the way to go, but I do like that shopify is hosted by their developers and it's not as clunky as most other CMS's. One word... Seamless! I use to run my site on Joomla. 

She may also want to consider Etsy and Pinterests to build an audience and customer base. There are lots of directions to go with it.


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## csavadia (May 25, 2017)

Rookie Rise said:


> 100k followers is great if they truly are organic! with 100k followers she should have no problem getting heads turned towards her site/products. If she has a style that her followers are inline with then she should shift her focus on testing out some mockups of designs. See what the responses are from her following. When she's ready to jump, she'll need to lock down a domain. Shopify is one of the best overall CMS systems for ecommerce. People would argue that Woocommerce is the way to go, but I do like that shopify is hosted by their developers and it's not as clunky as most other CMS's. One word... Seamless! I use to run my site on Joomla.
> 
> She may also want to consider Etsy and Pinterests to build an audience and customer base. There are lots of directions to go with it.


Thank you for the advise. All her followers organic however the age group is between 15-23 and a majority from South America whilst we reside in Australia.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


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## decipherdev (Aug 13, 2017)

Words of wisdom, i like it! Most average joes simply do not understand the work that goes into these things.


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## mzyella37 (Aug 27, 2017)

agreed. i'm in the same boat and looking for some advice regarding your same question.


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## sidwilkins (Sep 19, 2017)

In order to market a shirt, the first you need is the proper design of that same product. A good design is a must while trying to sell a shirt. Marketing comes after that. Let me put all this into a hierarchy: 
1. Good Fabric
2. Better Design
3. Marketing


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