39. Tshirtify

Founders: Richard and Kerry Flanagan
Founded: March 2017 
Website: www.tshirtify.com

Richard Flanagan started his first t-shirt printing business – 8ball – in his twenties.

The company, which has now been operating successfully for 12 years, has printed and sold over three million t-shirts.

Buoyed by this success and recognising that smaller businesses and artists could benefit from a similar tee printing service, Flanagan and wife Kerry – a graphic designer and typographer – decided to shift the focus to launch Tshirtify.

An on-demand t-shirt printing service for social influencers, Tshirtify looks to help individuals and small brands to capitalise on their popularity to scale and influence more people.

The business partners with independent artists and illustrators, musicians and DJs (DJ Darren Styles is a client), sportswear and gym brands, satire sites, and small fashion brands.

While printing merchandise is its core service, Tshirtify goes further to help influencers and brands get off the ground. It offers on-going services such as Facebook marketing, Google data analysis, and website optimisation.

Claiming to be “top notch” at building web stores,  Tshirtify can also manage store builds for Facebook, Shopify, Amazon, Etsy and eBay – “leaving brands and influencers to focus on the things they love the most”.

There are no upfront costs for these services: clients pay a monthly fee of between £29 and £89 depending on the quality of product they want to sell and the additional services they require.

Core to the couple’s values is that business can be a force for good and, through their partnership with Buy 1 Give 1, ensure that there is a positive impact somewhere in the world with every t-shirt sold.

So what’s next? The Flanagans tell us that 2018 is “the year for Tshirtify to grow up”, with plans to help 50 entrepreneurs grow their businesses and to begin exploring how augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and 3D printing can open up new opportunities and enhance the wider garment industry.

Expansion to Europe and Asia is also on the cards as Tshirtify looks to access poorer nations where entrepreneurs with limited resources could really benefit from extra support to grow their businesses.