CafePress Any Good?

[TheJadedDog]

I have seen that a bunch of members have put stuff up on cafepress and I was just wondering how the product quality is; not the printing quality, but the actually shirts ect...

 

[olllllo]

It varies. Some of it depends upon having good image contrast in your source.
The black tshirt spec can be especially tricky if you don't have the skills,

If an image is obviously messed up via their fault or yours, they will let you keep the product and send you a new one.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Agreed 100% olllllo, the black t-shirt with my design is particularly poor. I need to revamp the image for dark t-shirts. The white ones look pretty sharp, though, and the coasters rock! The shirts are decent quality - nothing special, but not terribly cheap.

 

[aekdbbop]

I got a mug from there.. (revision 1)

it turned out pretty well..

also got a sticker.. which was very nice...

 

[TheJadedDog]

What's the main issue with the black t-shirts? Basically I just want my logo (which is my avatar) and maybe some funny verbiage if I can come up with something.

 

[olllllo]

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/learn/blackshirts/
You need to know how to make the background transparent and avoid halos around your image. If you already know how to do this then you should be OK.

If not then follow thier tutorials if you can.

IMO most people have difficulty with these types of graphic programs anyways.
This is not the easiest thing for a noob to do.

 

[howlinowl]

I had a cafepress store I used to put family crests on coffee mugs a few years back. The ones my parents got, the image washed away after a few washings.....(mind you, my dad used the cups everyday and they were washed in a dishwasher, YMMV depending on how often and how you wash them. Gave my brother a set, not sure if they did the same thing. I got the beer stein with it on, but since I don't drink out of it, just use it as a display in the china cabinet, it obviously is still in brand new shape.

Allan

 

[aekdbbop]

I had a cafepress store I used to put family crests on coffee mugs a few years back. The ones my parents got, the image washed away after a few washings.....(mind you, my dad used the cups everyday and they were washed in a dishwasher, YMMV depending on how often and how you wash them. Gave my brother a set, not sure if they did the same thing. I got the beer stein with it on, but since I don't drink out of it, just use it as a display in the china cabinet, it obviously is still in brand new shape.

Allan

you never closed your parentheses.... are you still talking rhetorically? maybe you should close that...

 

[Dude]

I haven't that that great of luck, to be honest. I've ordered quite a few shirts recently, and I've had problems with logos being upside down, colors not lining up together (shadowing), etc. The cool part is that cafepress has a pretty good satisfaction policy, so all it took was a quick phone call and they would reship the defective items--however I had to wait additional time for my order.

Better than nothing though. Now if they could only do pint glasses.....

 

[Yuri_Rage]

My black t-shirts had pretty sub-par logos on them. They looked like a bad spraypaint job - blotchy and uneven (on two different shirts from different orders). The white shirts and other items all look pretty good, though.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Here's a pic of the black t-shirt. After reading all of the CafePress info about designing images for dark shirts, I don't think the problem is with my logo image. I think the process they use is just not well suited for printing light colored logos on dark colored fabric.

This, on the other hand, is awesome:

 

[Dude]

Yuri, that is exactly why I took all of my dark shirt designs off of the website. I don't want anyone buying that crap.

I made a couple onesies for my sister's kids...I doubt they ever wear them but I thought they were cool as hell.

 

[FerociouslyTed]

Speaking of Cafe Press shirts, check out this site (some pretty good shirts and other stuff, if you're not a square that is):

http://www.cafepress.com/chucklenut


(I like the cancer shirts the best.)


edit: grammars are hard

 

[mrk305]

I got a jersey shirt from them. White shirt with black sleeves and the logo looks real good. I like it!

 

[EdWort]

Personally, I'm not impressed with Cafepress and the quality of their merchandise. They have great customer service though. www.zazzle.com has much better products and their ability to custom design products is unequaled.

I'm moving my swag over there. Check out my newest shirt. It turned out great. Here's the front & back.

 

[Yooper]

Edwort, that looks great Do they have a "store" like cafepress? I didn't realize that.

I really need to go "shopping", and buy some of you guys' swag. It's awesome stuff. Someday I'll have a logo, and have my own swag!

 

[RoaringBrewer]

I've been happy with the stuff I've purchased from them (my store should be linked in my sig), including the dark t-shirts. I can post a pic of the brown one I just got a couple weeks ago, it looks great.

FWIW, I had my images designed by a pro (forum member billpa) in Illustrator and he knew exactly what to do to make it work on cafepress (image size, transparency of background, etc).

On my own, I probably would have never been able to create good-looking product...

 

[EdWort]

Edwort, that looks great Do they have a "store" like cafepress? I didn't realize that.

I really need to go "shopping", and buy some of you guys' swag. It's awesome stuff. Someday I'll have a logo, and have my own swag!

I've used them before, but back then they did not have a store front. Now they do. I bought my BCB shirt from Cafe Press, but the logo could only go so large. Zazzle gives you almost the whole shirt to work with plus they do front & back.

 

[Jester369]

Zazzle has problems with dark shirts, too - I had one made for me and one for Red. Hers came out perfectly, mine like crap. Same logo file used for both. They obviously can do it, just not sure how consistent they are.

 

[EdWort]

Zazzle has problems with dark shirts, too - I had one made for me and one for Red. Hers came out perfectly, mine like crap. Same logo file used for both. They obviously can do it, just not sure how consistent they are.

yeah, the whole dark shirt thing is a problem unless they silkscreen it with a white layer underneath. Zazzle will let you limit it to light colored items.

 

[scottfro]

i wish they'd carry more organic cotton tees, other than white...

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I like what I'm hearing about Zazzle so far. The first few shirts I bought from CafePress seemed like decent quality cotton, but the last two that I got are very flimsy. If these are the standard weight shirts that they're using now, I'd hate to see the "value" shirt. Increased design flexibility is a huge plus. My swag may have just found a new home!

 

[EdWort]

Move your Beer Spectrum shirt over there. It will turn out much better.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Move your Beer Spectrum shirt over there. It will turn out much better.

I'll likely do just that later today. I'll bump the t-shirt/poster thread when it's moved.

 

[Brewtopia]

I just ordered my NCBC logo black shirt from Zazzle and it came out fantastic. I too moved all my stuff to Zazzle. I've been going crazy over there making stuff.