I made the decision to close my online clothing store recently, this has been something i’ve been considering for a while. I’ll go into some reasons why in this article. I’d like to thank everybody who purchased a tshirt over the couple of years that I was trading, especially those friends who took the plunge and brought the first few orders. If you’ve brought an item of clothing before, read to the end as there’s something that might interest you.
I set up the store originally to try and diversify the products I made with my art on. Those that know me are aware that I don’t make a great deal of sales of my artwork. In an ideal world this would be something that doesn’t matter to me and honestly it’s something i’ve mulled over many times, especially on long market stall days. The reality is, if you want to be an artist in the current times, you need to run your art as a business. I would say i’m fairly at ease with this statement, though as previously mentioned in an utopian world i’d create just for the pure joy of it. I do find the business side to be something that is a challenge. Whilst also zapping the precious time that I have to create.
Anywho, tshirts. That’s what I thought when I went into the game. I’d had several people ask or suggest that I put my work on tshirts and in my head it seemed like it would be easier to sell than original paintings (which are not very easy to sell!) Using a Print on demand store to sell my products seemed easier, as you don’t have to buy the stock, however it was actually much harder for me to sell both online and in person.
Sustainability is very important to me and something that I struggle to allign with my art practise. Lots of the materials I use, like acrylic paint, are toxic to the environment and can only be disposed of at the end of their life. Producing clothing is also a highly damaging industry. I chose to use the platform Teemill because their sustainable ethos lined up with mine, for the most part I can’t fault their sustainable credentials, though like every company of a certain size it can be hard to deliver on every environmental goal.
I found that selling clothing online was much less straightforward than I thought it would be. Teemill doesn’t currently have a marketplace or section where you can stumble upon peoples sites. You have to create your own store and site. This has its plus points, as you can decide the look and feel of the site to an extent, but it also means you have to spend lots of time editing and updating it. SEO is something I have very little knowledge on, so my site was not really getting seen. At least on Etsy you get random people stumbling on the site. Can’t say i’m a big fan of Etsy either really, but i’ll try to keep the moaning to a minimum here!
Teemill uses a print on demand model, which means the items are only produced once somebody has brought the item. Whilst this has its plus points, like not having to have large amounts of unsold stock, it actually made it harder for me to sell my clothing in person. I tried selling my clothing at market stalls and because I only had one or two samples, it inevitably ended up being the wrong sized item or people would want to buy the sample, which left me with no stock. I had a QR code with a link to my store, but people didn’t seem to want to buy this way at a market. I’m sure I was overcomplicating the process, but it definitely wasn’t clear to people when I tried to explain it.
Teemill also takes quite a high cut of profits, they’ve now adjusted their model, but it was really minimal money that I actually made from the venture, versus a lot of time put in. I get that this is a business thing rather than a creative thing, but was still frustrating. During the first few sales I made around £10 in total for selling 5 tees at about £20 each. Teemill allows you to charge different prices once you upgrade to a monthly fee, but even then it was very narrow profit margins; a £25 tee could make you £5 or £6. Sustainable clothing does generally carry a premium in price (clearly is shouldn’t) but I didn’t really feel comfortable charging more than £25 for a tshirt, especially as that’s not a price i’d pay myself. I understand that conventional stock also costs money, but at least you can sell that in person to people.
The final nail for my store came with questions over the quality of the product. One of the samples I had, the print had started to very rapidly fade after only half a years washes. Teemill does recommend washing on cold cycles, which is something I only realised too late. I don’t know how many people are aware of this though and I am concerned that this happened to clothing that my customers brought. If you brought an item of clothing that has faded too quick let me know, you can reach me on my email sarethgavageart@yahoo.com. As it is an error on my part i’d be willing to offer you a discount off future art.
Which brings me on to what i’m going to do in the future. I think i’d like to try making tshirt designs again, though perhaps get them printed in small batches and give them to shops to sell. I’ve got lots of designs that are currently not being used, so would be a shame to not use them. I will look in to making a gallery of them and perhaps can see if there’s interest to make any new prints or clothing with them. I’m open to designing clothing for others based on current or new designs. Hit me up if you’ve got an album or merch design, I currently have availability for this and can offer competitive pricing.
Thanks very much if you brought a tshirt or hoodie, it certainly brightened my day when I realised a friend or new customer had purchased some clothing. Teemill has this weird thing where it doesn’t tell you the last name of buyers, so I wasn’t actually sure sometimes if it was somebody I knew or not! No idea why they do this, imagine it’s something to do with GDPR or some nonsense (weird as Etsy doesn’t do it?)...
Anyway I feel i’m getting lost in a rant here. Thanks a bunch for your interest in my store, I don’t think this will be the last you’ll see of me in the clothing sphere, of course saying that I do indeed plan to continue wearing clothes, so certainly wont’ be. If you brought a tee and it’s faded please do let me know, via email or DM or whatever, making clothing that only lasts less than 6 months is the opposite of what I want to do, so i’ll make it worth your while.
If you have any suggestions for how I could use the designs i’ve already made i’d love to hear them. Also if you’ve any experiences selling clothing - good or bad and on or offline. I tend to get lost in my own bitterness sometimes, so it’s always good to share that in the hopes of lessening it. Which I think is a roundabout way of saying other people’s input is welcome :)
Credit to Jordan Jackson for image
