Let’s help lay some basic groundwork for @snapster …
Which shirt sites receive or have received most of your business?
Do you love, like, tolerate, or dislike the blanks they use? Explain.
Is country of origin an important factor in your apparel purchasing habits? Are you willing to pay more for USA-made shirt blanks?
I do not buy from Threadless (they fucked over the artists with 0.25 commissions, currently uses Anvil blanks, price),Design by Humans (went POD/no more oversized screen prints, same high price, went to Anvil blanks), TeeFury (finite taste in mashups, Alstyle’s blanks got cheaper in quality), RipT (mashups), TheYetee (mashups), Qwertee (Gildan blanks), Shirt Punch (Gildan blanks, mashups), KYSO (blanks + other reasons) … and others.
Pretty good: Next Level Apparel 3600. Likes: Very very very soft, remains soft after many washes, and also doesn’t shrink 3" after a trip through the dryer. Dislikes: Not USA made; I’ve noticed some minor variances between ones made in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Mexico. Neutral: Feels thinner than AA, even though both are 4.3oz fabric weight spec. The knit is stretchier, so prints tend to distress easier.
Mixed: Canvas 3001/3001u. On par for softness and durability … usually. They’re sourced from multiple countries, and not all of them are equal. I distrusted them after getting some from Threadless that ultimately resulted in this. The 3001u is USA made, but limited in color selection.
Tultex 0202, Alstyle 5301/5301N … meh. Soft, but not super duper soft. Shrinks, but not the worst.
Awful: Gildan 64000, Anvil 980, Live and Tell 6901. Just say no to skimpy tapered sleeves.
I have no qualms paying a few bucks more to support fellow American workers.
Looks like “mixed” still applies when it comes to the 3001; collars shouldn’t discolor on its second wash.
Time will tell how the ones from catshirtswoot hold up, though. They’re still a step up from the Anvil/Gildan blanks.
What about sites which we WOULD buy from (just haven’t)?
@PlacidPenguin
I generally pay less attention to the blank, than the message. Most of them I’ll rarely wear anyway. Bought one with this on it, not this brand
actually off Etsy. Meh blank, get so many comments on the shirt it’s worth it.
Oh, and I pretty much only buy coffee shirts or very geeky shirts anymore. I have no more drawer space or closet space
Almost all of my shirts have come from Woot.
I prefer heavy weight cotton that drapes well. The lighter weight AA shirts always draped poorly and often had weird puckering and weren’t symmetrical. (I realize this is a bad description – a picture would probably make more sense) They also tend to get holes easily. I also prefer a roomier cut.
It would be nice if they could be American made but it is not a deal breaker. I would pay a couple of dollars more for a good quality American made shirt.
@cf1 Yeah, a pic would be helpful.
I miss GoodJoe.
@Mavyn My DTG copies of @BootsBoots’ “Breakfast Quest” and @Fishbiscuit’s “Be Yourself” are still regularly worn.
My screen printed copy of @Fishbiscuit’s “Peek-A-Boo” has been retired for a while now, though. That was when they were using Cygnus blanks.
I regret only getting one copy of Spiritgreen’s “Songs About Rainbows”, though my copy is still in pretty good shape.
I have a slew…most are in boxes since I know I can’t replace them. But they’re nice shirts, and I felt good about buying something as frivolous as another tee.
@barney
it’s purple day on teefury
one of many examples
http://www.teefury.com/black-cat-magic
@Cerridwyn You’re just trying to get me into a whole lotta trouble.
@Cerridwyn Not even purple can make me buy from TeeFury these days.
@narfcake meh
/image meh
@Barney I’m trying
I only ever bought from shirt.woot, so I didn’t follow the shirt site craze elsewhere. Don’t know a lot about blanks but I’m not skinny or tapered anywhere, and like heavier roomy shirts more than lighter thinner ones even if they’re not as soft. Some older Woot shirts still fit or come close, while all my Meh shirts are not for public wear at this point, and as far as i know they are all AA (all my woot shirt purchases were years ago).
I decided I’d look at my most comfortable three t-shirts to wear currently. Two are privately stamped without blank identifiers (Ring of Fire and The Mountain) and one is MIA probably somewhere in the wash right now but I think it’s a Beefy T or Gildan, as it was printed for a local event. Of those, the one from The Mountain is a good 4 or more inches longer even though the size is not marked T. It’s also the thinnest/lightest of the three and I believe is my only catshirt (Cataclysm?)
Another vote here for American Apparel. Teefury has had some neat designs, but every time I get one I’m just sad at the super crappy tee quality.
@jpc The issue is that AA isn’t going to exist anymore in its current state.
Gildan bought them out and handed layoff notices to nearly 3,500 employees. 
I’m a fan of the crusher blank Life Is Good uses. Limited colors, but the sizes, especially for woman, are solid and they have long sleeves. Minimal shrink, but they stain superbly.
Next Level Apparel blanks are lovely, kitten soft with minimal shrink, but the women’s sizing is on part with AA.
Eddie Bauer Favorite line is also cozy, decent sizing, good colors, and available in tall sizes in both men’s and women’s lines.
What I hate about most shirt sites: No tank tops. All my t-shirts look sloppy because the arms and neck are cut out. Real, actual tank tops would be so much nicer. (I have a thing with t-shirt sleeves and necklines. I hate them so hard.)
Oh, and make those tank tops available in bigass sizes for bigass people like me.
I know people around here don’t like t-fury, but it is rare a non coffee non geek shirt catches my eyes
http://www.teefury.com/dark-moon
well, it’s kinda geeky
might buy it
Most of my T’s have come from shirt.woot because of the great combination of price and originality. I don’t care too much about shirt brand since I buy them all XL because I like my T’s baggy and loose and I don’t tend to wear any one shirt over and over so they all last a long time.
I have bought as many meh shirts as my wife will allow because I am a fan and it describes my lifestyle.
Most of the rest have come from Tanga, which seems to now be LOL Shirts, but I haven’t used the new site.
Mostly I don’t buy from other sites because I don’t need a $20+ T-shirt
I like t-shirt sites that include sizes that end in ‘T’.
the one’s that offer free shipping or if I buy multiple shirts, only charge shipping once.
tolerant. Parents raised me right.
I don’t make enough money to put my money where my mouth is however, I think I’d understand paying a couple dollars more for a shirt made in the US of A.
@elimanningface
/image size 4T shirt
I stopped buying from shirt.woot anymore because at some point the trend seemed to be to max out the size of the design on shirts, and I really don’t like shirts with enormous designs on them. I acknowledge it’s a matter of taste, but hey since someone’s asking…
@tabacco yeah–it’s bad. I know other designers and I have tried reducing the dimensions on our print files to remedy this, but it hasn’t worked.
@tabacco Some designs should take up the entire shirt, front/back/whatever. Some should be centered on the front. Some should be on the back. Some should be upper left/right chest (right would be cool cause, well, everyone does left).
Size of design should depend on design.
Forget where, saw a pretty common themed shirt saying. instead of big words in the middle on black or white, it was stylized on the upper left chest on heather blue and it looked so much better
I appreciate Threadless’s approach to scoring designs. I’m sure there are improvements to be made, but it seems to promote browsing and voting, since you can see the whole design and vote immediately. In contrast, Woot’s setup is a much more messy affair, where you have to click each one individually - and most of the time it’s very hard to know if a design is worth opening from a 128x128 pixel thumbnail.
Shipping usually kills most shirt sites for me.
You find a decent design at a reasonable price and then they want to add $5-$7 on for shipping.
I don’t for one minute believe it really costs them that much to ship and usually it pisses me off so much I refuse to buy from them, even if I would have if shipping were free and the tee cost $5-$7 more.
@OnionSoup The last time I shipped 2 tshirts from SoCal to NY, it was $7.15.
I know what you’re saying; I feel the same at times too. Still, what really matters is the bottom line price.
@OnionSoup $5 is pretty reasonable for USPS shipping. I can’t speak to how much it would be via SmartPost or similar hybrid shipping methods, since it depends on shipping volume, I believe.
1a. I currently have more shirts from meh than from anyone else, period. And they’re pretty good, but kinda small.
1b. I fairly recently ordered this shirt from this lady on etsy, and I love it because I contacted her before ordering and she went out and got me a 3XLT. It’s the best-fitting t-shirt I have.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/452352940/change-starts-with-us-justice-and
1c. My experience with just about every other site–especially Woot–is that the shirts are undersized and/or tissue paper thin. Fuck that shit. That’s why I’ve turned to etsy. I’m hoping that Mediocritee will be another exception.
2a. Meh. Okay, but need to be more consistently bigger. Good weight otherwise and no worse than I’ve found elsewhere.
2b. Yes, because I got a 3XLT and it’s heavy weight, so I think it’ll last a while.
2c. Hell fucking no.
How much would you pay for the perfect T-shirt?
Blanks run $34.50, is there any way that a t-shirt could be worth that much?
@KDemo It’s worth whatever the audience is willing to pay for it.
To call it “perfect” is stretching it IMHO, as everybody’s body is different. And by the looks of it, the taper of the sleeves means it’s probably not so perfect for me.