average lifespan of a t-shirt company

every year a billion more brands pop up and just as many vanish.

Who is in it for the long haul and whose brand will be doomed before the next metro station album?

So how long has your stuff been around?

Fullbleed is going on 4.5 years now, yikes!

1. 

   JoshInvincible said about 1 month ago

   Invincible has been going for 2 years now.

2. 

   Matthew88 said about 1 month ago

   I think it all partly depends on how badly the person in charge wants it to succeed. And the ones that go in to it for the right reasons last longer.

   The ones who do it to get close to bands or just to look cool don’t last long

3. 

   captiveclothing said about 1 month ago

   Things are slow for us right now, were working out the kinks though.

   Started summer '07.

4. 

   JoshInvincible said about 1 month ago

   ill be here knocking on the door until we produce something that will take off. Always have to pregame and try to figure out what is next!

5. 

   JeffK said about 1 month ago

   sales are pretty slow.. but i’m gonna keep trying i haven’t had my stuff around for long at all

   started spring 08

6. 

   Killer Napkins said about 1 month ago

   i want to start one.. i think when i do itll probably last like 3 months.

7. 

   gabroll said about 1 month ago

   Over 6 years. It’s awesome. Mal, if you’re reading this, stop spying on me. :P

8. 

   Chapter12 said about 1 month ago

   3 months of successss... Chapter 12

9. 

   dobi said about 1 month ago

   gabroll said: Over 6 years. It’s awesome. Mal, if you’re reading this, stop spying on me. :P

   Goddamn!

10. 

    Matt Rupp said about 1 month ago

    It will be a year for me in November--
    things are steadily growing and my work has only gotten better.

    Im going through the whole process of registering my company name and logo and becoming an LLC.

    From there Ill be getting my small business account to go the next step!

11. 

    awakendesigncompany said about 1 month ago

    my line has been around since september '07.
    i have a TON of new things planned for it that will release within the next 2 months. and a few long term goals as well.

    and also i think the reason some lines dont stay around is b/c people do it to be "cool" or follow a fad.
    people with real goals in this business usually stick around from what i’ve seen

12. 

    William. said about 1 month ago

    First print was 2/08. I’m in it to win it with any luck, as long as American Express keeps my account active :)

13. 

    ChadDoesDesign said about 1 month ago

    loyal label started and folded in a span of 2 months. I was busy and and wasn’t able to give the attention it needed... That and somebody stole all of the merch!

14. 

    fiftyeights said about 1 month ago

    i had the idea of one for 10 minutes.

15. 

    MykeCatastrophic said about 1 month ago

    Catastrophic was started by Brandon (Scapula) back in '05 but ended until I bought it off of him on September 17th, 2007.

    We just celebrated our one year anniversary!

16. 

    ChadDoesDesign said about 1 month ago

    forloveofOCTOBER said: still no one has really answered the question it turned into a "post how long your clothing company has been going thread" real quick

    dobi said: So how long has your stuff been around?

17. 

    nate gonz said about 1 month ago

    ChadDoesDesign said:

    dobi said: So how long has your stuff been around?

18. 

    {miles to go} said about 1 month ago

    going on two years and hitting trade shows which has helped a lot. Luckily I don’t know who metro station is so I will keep going. Doing belts for over 5 years

19. 

    ibzombieliquorice said about 1 month ago

    About to launch at the end of the month im hoping to quit my day job after a year! Its too much fun!

20. 

    Perudoesitbetter said about 1 month ago

    a whole...four months!

    we have plenty of time to vanish into obscurity. haha.

21. 

    quakerninja said about 1 month ago

    I’m Just about bust already...I have one last trick to try.

    I just sent off a letter to the George Fox University Bookstore. I hope they will buy my George Fox Shirts.
    It’s a hard move to make. I turn into a shy little nancy boy... Talking to clients online is one thing, but a real store, scares the shirt out of me. I have to do something to save Quakerninja. It’s not easy.
    I’m not out. but I have to face that I fell on my face for the first run. No blame really. Just not a product anyone cares for... live trace on gilden, let that be a warning kids.

22. 

    "Crazy" Mike said about 1 month ago

    I’ve had the name and website for 2 years and had Cafe Press merchandise available on the side. Then in 2008, I quit my job at the electronic store and had more time to actually flesh out the site. After that I ditched the Cafe Press because that was shit and the profits were bad(girl spent $200 on the shirts I had available and I didn’t even see anything from that because commissions are so low). So in the summer of 2008, I stumbled upon this site talked to some people, and in August of 2008 I had our first shirt in stock . . . now I just continue working to expand and grow from there, that is until it is proven that what I’m doing is a massive failure . . .

23. 

    scapyyy said about 1 month ago

    started scapula in the summer of 2005, so 3 years!

24. 

    geoff said about 1 month ago

    just over two years.

25. 

    seibei said about 1 month ago

    over three years, though it wasn’t super serious for the better part of the first year.

26. 

    khay said about 1 month ago

    Rolling for 1 year now!

27. 

    FunForAllKids said about 1 month ago

    I’ve had mine for two years now I’m not expecting to make a living off it or anything though I just have it to release shirts if I feel like it and if not I don’t. I don’t like the idea of the whole "myspace" clothing companies and googled images.

28. 

    quixotic said about 1 month ago

    It’s been about 2.5 years since I’ve been known as Quixotic. About 4 years total if you count Heartonsleeve.

29. 

    electricthreads said about 1 month ago

    Almost a year now and things are still going pretty slow for the online aspect of sales but selling at school is going pretty good :P

30. 

    Go Ape Shirts said about 1 month ago

    2.5 years!

31. 

    johnnyminardi said about 1 month ago

    Snakes & Suits is coming up on the 1 year mark and doing better than ever. Hopefully the term long haul will apply.

32. 

    levi! said about 1 month ago

    im getting to 6 months

    not long at all but im in it for life

33. 

    quakerninja said about 1 month ago

    For the longer companies, were there some close calls, fails, us up starts could learn from.
    Not the normal stuff, I want to hear personal stories. If you like of course.

34. 

    "Crazy" Mike said about 1 month ago

    quakerninja said: For the longer companies, were there some close calls, fails, us up starts could learn from. Not the normal stuff, I want to hear personal stories. If you like of course.

    Yes that would be good to hear . . .

35. 

    Go Ape Shirts said about 1 month ago

    don’t mean to sound like a dick. never really had trouble. last month was one of the worst times i’ve had, but it’s picked back up

36. 

    i came from nothing said about 1 month ago

    2 years now

37. 

    Hands On Clothing said about 1 month ago

    Hands on was set up in August this year, things are great at the moment and it feels like we are growing all the time. Let’s see what happens in the next year with it!

38. 

    Jon Kruse said about 1 month ago

    I decided that I was going to start a clothing company in February. I didn’t have anything for sale until summer. In August things really started to pick up and thought this could actually turn into something.

39. 

    gengen said about 1 month ago

    oath - 3 yrs. have never been ultra serious about it, its been a fun hobby, and mustache and friends - 1 year ish.

40. 

    redemptionclothing said about 1 month ago

    since nov of last year

41. 

    garo said about 1 month ago

    I started Oktobahouse in 2000, though I don’t print my own tees anymore, I still use the name for my website, and still make tee designs for online competitions. I’d like to think I’ll be designing tees for life - if I can find a market for mine, then who knows.

42. 

    quixotic said about 1 month ago

    quakerninja said: For the longer companies, were there some close calls, fails, us up starts could learn from. Not the normal stuff, I want to hear personal stories. If you like of course.

    Things for me, lately, have been very slow. The only reason I’m still going is because I still have a bunch of shirts printed up.

    I started doing this while in high school and asked my grandparents to front the cost of the first run I did. I was selling shirts out of the trunk of my car during lunch and after school. I was mailing out online orders during lunch too. I think during that first couple months things were probably close to my best.

    After high school things naturally slowed down because I had lost the personal sales. I taught myself how to screen print one color designs by hand with a Speedball kit and decided it would be cheaper to print the shirts as they were ordered. I just kept a decent supply of shirts (2 or 3 in each size) in stock. This ended up being pretty fun. It really didn’t cost much because I don’t think I ever really had to buy more ink since it lasted so long and the shirts I was using at the time weren’t AA so they only cost about $2 or $3 each.

    I decided I wanted to move up a little bit and start doing multi-colored prints and ended up buying a printing press. I didn’t do a whole lot of research and ended up buying a terrible 4 color press on ebay that didn’t hold the tiniest bit of registration. $300(ish) down the drain. Luckily only one of my new designs used multiple colors and was easily downgraded to one.

    At this point (around two years ago) I had stock sitting around waiting to packed up. This made filling orders out much easier since I just had to go and grab the shirt and put it in the envelope. However, to this day, I still have some of these shirts waiting to be bought. I’ve had a few small shops contact me, asking to sell a design or two in their stores. One of which was a repeat buyer but I haven’t heard back in about a year.

    Over all, things right now aren’t really moving. I made about $100 last month, which was an improvement over that month before that.

    All this could probably be different if I had the money to get the word out and print up some new designs. I’ve never paid for advertising since I’ve started doing this (except for maybe a $20 banner on some forum a long time ago).

    I don’t know if this helps but it’s pretty much my road down this t-shirt game.

43. 

    darianhrtwl said about 1 month ago

    3 months and still no progress. Getting people to want to buy is really tricky.

44. 

    Enclothe said about 1 month ago

    Going on six years now. It’s been a long slow build but we’re doing really well. I’ve only really been super focused on it for about two years, that’s about when I decided that I would rather print shirts than be an animator.

45. 

    darenisdopeee said about 1 month ago

    1.3 years now.
    Sales are good

46. 

    quakerninja said about 1 month ago

    Thanks for shareing quixotic.

47. 

    illdthedj said about 1 month ago

    <<< future into-obscurity vanishing brand in the works! lol

48. 

    "Crazy" Mike said about 1 month ago

    Darian-Hartwell said: 3 months and still no progress. Getting people to want to buy is really tricky.

    Same here I got to the point were people will flat out say they love my stuff . . . but no one buys anything still . . .

49. 

    caligulas said about 1 month ago

    5 years, 8000 blunts, 60000 beers.

50. 

    OhioLeslie said about 1 month ago

    gabroll said: Mal, if you’re reading this, stop spying on me. :P

    best emptees comment ever.

51. 

    Terror said about 1 month ago

    caligulas said: 5 years, 8000 blunts, 60000 beers.

    thats gotta be a world record or something.

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