How to Prepare Shirts for Shipping
Cutting Shirts: Some people ask us if they should cut their shirts. While this seems like a great idea to cut down on the bulk and weight of shipping, it actually might cost you more in the long run. We need at least 16″ x 16″ of your shirt to work with. If you try and cut this and it isn’t completely square, we cannot use it unless we do some modifying to the piece. These small and un-square cuts cost $8.50 to piece. So the money you think you were saving on shipping charges, might actually be lower than the price you might have to pay for us to correct your cuts.
Layouts: Do you have a particular layout you would like to use? The best way to handle this is to simply take a picture of how you want it laid out. You can either upload the picture in the photo section on the order form (we will not charge $15 for this) or you can print it out and send it along with your shirts. We do have layout sheets, but we are finding the pictures work out much better. We are visual people and there is nothing like a picture to make our job easier.
Don’t have a layout but just want to let us know which side of the shirt to use? This can be done in a few ways. You can put a piece of take on the side you want us to use and mark it or the easiest way to let us know is to just use bundles. Say you have 5 shirts you want us to use fronts and backs of. All you need to do is to separate those out and either put them in a separate bag or bundle them with a rubber band and put one note on the bundle. Do the same for if you want us to just use backs of a few and so on. Normally, we use the largest graphic, but this makes it easier for us to decide which side to use if you’ve already identified it in a group.
Shipping Process: After you’ve decided on your shirts, please put all of them in one large plastic bag before shipping. This ensures the shirts are kept clean and free of hitchhikers during the shipping process. It also insures that if your box is damaged, all the shirts will stay together. Here is an example of a damaged box. Thank goodness, the customer put the shirts in a bag, so all the contents were there. Please do not use multiple bags for this same reason.
Shipping costs depend on the size of the box, the weight, and the distance and area from which it is shipped from. You can’t change the area you live in, but you can use the smallest box possible. Larger boxes cost more to ship regardless of how much they weigh.
Pack the shirts in the box as tight as possible without overstuffing the box. Rolling the shirts, or a tight folding job, makes a huge difference on how small a box you can use.
We’ve had a few boxes come in that were really large with very little shirts. This creates hollow spaces within the box and during the shipping process can get crushed very easily. when boxes like this are crushed, sometimes the tape is dislodged creating an opening. On a few occasions these openings were large enough for the paperwork or even shirts to get out. This is another reason why we like for all the shirts to be bundled together in one plastic bag. Chances are a large bag of shirts will not come out of the box entirely, but if they are individual shirts, or individual bags, this could happen. The boxes that show up in good condition and unharmed are those that were packed nice and tight with a quality shipping tape. The boxes that show up crushed and partially opened are the oversize boxes with a sparse amount of tape. Please do not use styrofoam peanuts! This is just a waste of money and creates a mess when it’s opened.
We ask that you do not ask for a confirmed signature. We do not always work set hours and sometimes we are away during deliveries. We have video surveillance in the area where the packages are delivered and if we happen to step away from the shop, we get alerted immediately if a package is left at our door. If we need to sign for your package, that creates a delay in us receiving it because we then have to physically go to the post office and pick it up.
If you need a signature, please use UPS. They always require a signature and they will redeliver the next day if we are not there.