# Looking For Fulfillment Comany for 'second string' lineup of shirts, branding and intl questions



## thornnspear (Jul 21, 2009)

I have a setup already with a heat press for doing my own shirts for my brand. 

Due to life/other projects things have been neglected, so as I start to pick things up again I am tightening up a few loose ends. I realize that many of my shirts are too far from the brand's core.

Before getting my heat press, I used Cafe Press, Printfection, Spreadshirt and Zazzle. I am thinking of having a "b-list" or "second string" line of shirts on one of these services. 

*Pros: *


A place to have "Beta" shirts, test the market for new concepts and designs
A place to put shirts that are a bit more remote from the brand core, but relevant to the target market
An option for international purchasers (notably I recall Zazzle being able to fulfill from the EU or the USA to cut down on shipping costs to Europe)
Marketplace exposure on another site
*Cons: *



Very few if any options to brand the shirts themselves (on my main line shirts the logo is stamped on the left sleeve)
Might dilute the brand more? I do plan *NOT *to have the main site link to the fulfillment company, but to refer fulfillment customers/visitors to see the main collection also.
Another side project, of sorts. Trying to avoid those.

I'm kind of looking at what Disney has done with cafe Press, I recall hearing of them testing shirt designs before Cars came out, and that was when they discovered Mater was going to be the most popular character for merch. But I'm a lot smaller than Disney.

Vague background details - my shirts are for a niche in the Christian market, with some crossover in other genres. Thus I might have a Christian design that does not fit the niche I am targeting, and this sort of shirt would go on a branded sub-list on the second string site. My thinking is this casts a wider net on a more populated network to find people that fit the niche my main line would appeal to.


*Here are my questions* (numbered so you can refer to them in responses):

1) *What branding options do you know of that can be employed with the fulfillment houses?* For instance, I could put the logo on the opposite side of the shirt, but that adds cost. I could work the company logo on the design, but that can compromise the design in some cases. Looking for other ideas or options that have come up since I stopped using the services.

2) *What services, besides Zazzle, are able to fulfill orders on more than one continent (or country)? *With postal rates what they are, variants on a main design may be cheaper for someone overseas.

3) *Is anyone else doing this?* I'm looking for experienced insights into whether this is a good/bad idea.

Thanks!


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