If you are looking to have shirts made with us, there is one hard and fast rule from which we do not waiver: we do NOT do DTG. Direct-to-Garment (DTG) printing has been around for some time and although the process has gotten much better and the results have become much better over the years - we simply do not DTG any shirts for clients.
We believe in first impressions along with lasting ones. In our opinion, DTG shirts look AMAZING when you first get them, but they do not hold up to subsequent washes well. I think its important to differentiate your intent when it comes to starting or running a merch store and that is based upon whether you are selling merch or promotional products.
There is a certain disposability to promotional products simply because you don't pay for them and they are literally a physical commercial. Think about it - if you were to get a free pen from a company and that pen stop working after about 15 minutes - how upset are you going to be? It was a free pen after all.
Merch is a completely different game because you are selling a bit of the story. You are in essence inviting people into a community and those people are going to become very unhappy if a pleasant memory fades unceremoniously into a bad one (pun intended).
There are plenty of places that will start you off on a DTG plan so you don't have to carry inventory. In some instances, that may be right for you - but in others it simply doesn't work. ThreadBear wants you to take the risk of inventory because that puts skin (read: your money) in the game and reminds you that you have something else that needs your attention.