How We Built a T-Shirt Brand from Scratch (And the Lessons Learned)
- Stanley Konieczko
- Dec 14, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 15, 2024
Starting a Graphic T-Shirt business is easy, right?
Just find your passion, start making products, and the money rolls in. At least, that’s what all those social media influencers want you to believe. Here’s the truth: they’re full of shit. Building something real—something worth doing—takes blood, sweat, and more than a few tears. We know because we’ve lived it, one graphic t-shirt at a time.
The Spark That Started It All
StAshArt Studios began over a couple of Trulys, lots of laughs, and two people who found out they were a lot alike in so many ways—but with one shared dream. My wife, an insanely talented artist who can do everything from sculpting and painting to illustrative design, sketched a zombie apple one day called Zombie Crisp. Maybe it was the fact that I was a child of the 80’s and always loved the Garbage Pale Kids, but... I was hooked.
I decided to take it a step further and 3D sculpt her illustrated design and brought it to life with 3D printing. The result? A piece of art we instantly fell in love with. And that was the moment we decided to go all-in on building something of our own. We always wanted to start our own clothing business and the idea of StAshArt Studios was created.
A Million Mistakes and a Few Wins
Let’s fast-forward two years. If you think starting a custom t-shirt business is all creativity and fun, let us stop you right there. Here’s a quick rundown of what it actually took to get here:
• Endless hours learning how to build, run and maintain a website.
• Startup costs that made us want to cry.
• Learning to print shirts from scratch with no prior experience.
• Finding the right distributors
• Expensive, complicated equipment malfunctioning that needed to be taken apart, fixed, and put back together. Only to break again.
• Failed prints, bad designs, and an epic fuck ton of swearing.
• Spending more time reading forums and watching tutorials than we care to admit.
• A couple of adult sized meltdowns.
• The constant grind of marketing, tweaking, and fixing things we didn’t even know needed fixing, because sometimes a good plan might not be the right plan.
…. And the hundreds of hours spent creating custom designs....
And here’s the kicker: we’ve made every mistake along the way, and we’re still making mistakes. But no matter how frustrating things got, we stuck to two golden rules: if we weren’t having fun, we wouldn’t do it and never spend more than we could afford. There were days where we weren't having fun so we stopped, looked at each other, and just said, "That's enough of this dumbfuckery for today!". Then we'd follow that up by doing something cathartic, like watching Doctor Who or picking up a hammer and building something.
Despite the chaos, we got there. Today, we’re running multiple direct-to-garment printers, almost a dozen 3D printers, and several heat presses. We have our own e-commerce site and shirts on Amazon under our own label, StAshArt Studios. Oh, and we’re officially trademarked and an LLC. Not bad for a couple of creative dreamers who had no idea what they were doing.
What No One Tells You About Starting a Business
Here’s the part no one wants to say out loud: nothing about starting a profitable clothing business is easy or glamorous. Sure, you’ll see influencers talking about making thousands of dollars a month with minimal effort, but here’s the reality:
• Start up costs are heavy. Consider being in a financial state that you can afford the equipment, time, and mistakes without having to take out loans. Small things add up quick, pay attention to the little things.
• Direct-to-garment printers are highly sensitive machines that break if you look at them wrong.
• Ink and printing supplies are outrageously overpriced. Not all of them are created equal. Time and a lot of research pays off in the end.
• Amazon and Etsy fees will eat your soul (and your profits). Learning Amazon is a whole blog post by itself. Find the right niche - Amazon and Etsy are highly competitive.
• And don’t even get us started on dealing with third-party DTF transfer companies. For the long term its best to print your own.
• Print on demand companies give poor quality, cheap clothing, and high prices. Can they work? Yes, but at a high cost and no control over what your customer receives. Try working with other local print shops in your area that can facilitate other goods for your needs.
But you know what? Despite the headaches, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Why We Do It
At the end of the day, it’s not about the money (though paying the bills wouldnt suck). For us, it’s about creating something that matters. Every design we print, from Zombie Crisp to Of Death and Kittens, is a piece of us—our humor, our creativity, and our abject refusal to give up.
StAshArt Studios is more than a brand. It’s proof that with enough stubbornness (and caffeine), you can turn chaos into something beautiful.
What to Expect from Our Blog
This is our first blog post, but it won’t be our last. We’ll be sharing everything we’ve learned along the way:
• Tips and tutorials on running a creative business, from building a WIX storefront, website maintenance to marketing.
• Design tips and tricks for Procreate and Nomad Sculpt, Things we've learned along the way.
• In-depth guides on using the FreeJet 330TX Plus DTG printer and discussions on other DTG Printers
• Our experiences selling on Amazon and navigating the world of e-commerce.
• Behind-the-scenes at art shows, festivals, and DTG expos…. And any experience we feel like sharing!
Stay tuned for more chaos, creativity, and (of course) sarcasm. Oh, and love. Love of creativity and love for each other. Because without that, what's the point?
Welcome to the StAshArt Studios journey.
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