On Demand Printing

Last year for Pepperfest my buddy Brian at Goodbowls asked if we were making the shirts. We hadn’t gotten an order, but I reached out to Abundance NC (the nonprofit that throws pepperfest).

I got permission to burn a screen and try out a brand new, print-on-demand model.

We did a bunch of tie dye and when the festival came, we set up a pop up shop at The Plant.

Customers picked their size and color, and we printed the shirt right in front of them.

Let it dry for a few minutes, throw it on the heat press and voila!  A fresh pepperfest shirt.

The whole process would take maybe 10 minutes.

I couldn’t help but think this is the slow fashion movement at its finest. In a culture of cheap, ready to wear, fast fashion we were making our customers wait 10 minutes for their new tee.

Yes, the ink must dry. Because the fabric artist in front of you just printed it by hand. Water based inks on hemp fabric at a local sustainable food festival. That’s what we’re about.

Another big perk of this model is it leaves the clothing to the clothing company.

It doesn’t require Abundance NC, the local nonprofit to tie up capital in tee shirt inventory.

They get the branding of each shirt sold - building awareness for pepperfest - and 10% of the tee shirt revenues at no cost to them. 

We have implemented the on-demand printing a few times since last fall.

We printed the shirts at the opening of Rachel’s Native Plants in the spring and continue to pop up for events at The Plant.

Pride Festival in June was also a hit. We had a beautiful rainbow tie dye we were printing and sold out in the first hour.

 We’ve learned to double down on inventory and materials and continue to innovate in the culture of slow fashion.