Next time you’re in the mall or the grocery store, take note of all the printed t-shirts on the people around you, advertising local businesses. Printed sportswear is a huge market, and sign shops have the ideal opportunity to sell—and make—these products.

John Shoffner, Studio36 Graphics, Medford, OR, started offering short-run t-shirts a few years ago. It’s grown to a significant portion of his business. Thanks to vinyl cutters, they are easy to produce, too.

John cuts the graphics from Thermoflex Plus film [www.specialtymaterials.com] that he gets from American Graphic Specialties [www.americangraphicspecialties.com] then uses an inexpensive heat to bond them to the shirts. This approach is very practical for the quantities the typical sign customer needs. Clients love them—for their staff, to give to their customers, or just for their own use.

“Often they never even thought of having shirts or caps made for their business, “says John. “They really appreciate me suggesting it. I’m surprised how many I sell, and how often they reorder them. It’s grown to a big part of my business.

“Doing one, two or even three color graphics with the heat press is easy, and the graphics last longer than the shirts. For long runs or multicolor graphics, I subcontract with a screen print shop. That works great, too.”

John does a lot of shirts and jackets for fire departments. He started by making up some sample shirts and dropping by a few departments. He told them, “Let me know if you like them and give me a call if you’d like to order some.” His first order was for 400 shirts. Even smaller departments continue to reorder regularly.

This is a market sign shops can get into with minimal investment, and without necessarily marketing beyond their existing customers. Shirts and caps make a great add-on sale for many everyday sign customers. And everyone knows it’s a lot easier to sell additional products to an existing customer than it is to find a new one.