From Your Logo to a Shirt in 3 Days: What Happens After You Hit Order
The nervous part of ordering custom shirts online isn't the money. It's that you send a logo into a form and then wait, with no idea whether what comes back will be right.
Here's exactly what happens between hitting order and opening the box, including the two stages where you can still change your mind.
The short answer
You order, we send a mockup in 1–3 business days, and nothing prints until you approve it. After approval it's 2–5 business days to produce and 7–12 to ship. The approval step is a real stop — not a formality — and it's where mistakes get caught for free.
The four stages
1. You order — the same day
Pick the design, the style, and the sizes. Upload your logo and type what you want on the back: company name, phone number, two or three services.
You're charged now, but nothing is printed yet. That matters, because the next stage is where things get fixed.
2. Mockup — 1–3 business days
Your logo and text placed on the actual garment, sent to you as an image. This is where you see the real thing rather than imagining it: how big the name is, where it sits against the artwork, whether the phone number reads.
Nothing prints until you say yes. Ask for changes, as many times as it takes. Changes at this stage cost nothing; changes after it cost a reprint.
3. Production — 2–5 business days
Dye sublimation: the design is printed, then heat-pressed so the ink turns to gas and bonds into the polyester fiber itself. That's why the print can't crack or peel — there's no layer sitting on the surface. It's also why the color survives chemical far better than a screen print on cotton.
4. Shipping — 7–12 business days
Tracking when it leaves.
What to check on the mockup — the ten-second version
Most people glance at it and approve. These are the four things worth actually checking, in order of how expensive they are to get wrong:
- The phone number, read out loud, digit by digit. A wrong digit on twelve shirts isn't a design problem, it's twelve shirts. This is the single most expensive mistake available here and it takes ten seconds to avoid.
- Spelling of the company name. Especially anything with an unusual spelling or an apostrophe.
- Size from thirty feet. Put the mockup on your phone, walk thirty feet away, look at it. If you have to focus, the print is too small — the sizing rule is about an inch of letter height per ten feet.
- Contrast against the artwork. Text sitting on the busiest part of an all-over print is text nobody can read. Sometimes the standard chest position is the worst spot on that particular design, and moving it two inches fixes it.
What makes a logo work — or not
| Works | Causes problems |
|---|---|
| Vector file (SVG, AI, EPS, PDF) | Screenshot from a text message |
| PNG with transparent background | JPG with a white box around it |
| Large — 1000px or more | Small image scaled up (goes fuzzy) |
| Simple shapes, few colors | Fine gradients and hairlines that disappear at print size |
| High contrast against the shirt | Dark logo on a dark design |
If all you have is a photo of a business card, say so when you order. It can usually be redrawn — it just adds a day, and it's better to know at mockup stage than to discover it after.
No logo at all? That's fine and more common than you'd think. A company name set in clean bold type on the back does the job — the name being readable matters far more than having a mark.
Realistic timing
| Business days | |
|---|---|
| Mockup | 1–3 |
| Your approval | however long you take |
| Production | 2–5 |
| Shipping | 7–12 |
| Total | 10–20 |
The italic line is the one that varies most. A mockup that sits unopened over a weekend adds three days nobody planned for — so if you're ordering for a crew, tell whoever approves it that it's coming.
Practical consequence: order in February for the spring season, not the week the phone starts ringing. And for Christmas, mid-November.
Order one first
The most useful thing about no minimum isn't saving money on the first order — it's that you can buy a single shirt and look at it before committing the crew.
One shirt tells you what a screen never will: whether the color is what you thought in daylight, whether the back print reads at thirty feet, how it fits so you order real sizes, and how it feels after a full day. Wear it for a week, then order for everyone. About $35 and ten days, and it removes almost all the risk from the real order.
Common questions
How long does it take to get custom work shirts?
Ten to twenty business days: 1–3 for the mockup, 2–5 for production, 7–12 for shipping. The mockup stage waits on your approval, so it can be faster or slower depending on how quickly you look at it.
Do I see a proof before my shirts are printed?
Yes. A mockup with your logo and text on the actual garment is sent in 1–3 business days, and nothing prints until you approve it. Revisions at that stage are free; changes after it require a reprint.
What file format should I send my logo in?
A vector file (SVG, AI, EPS or PDF) is best, or a large PNG with a transparent background. A screenshot or a small JPG with a white box can usually be redrawn, but it adds a day — send the original if you have it.
What if I don't have a logo?
Your company name set in clean bold type works fine and is common. Readability matters far more than having a mark — a name people can read from thirty feet beats a logo they can't.
Can I order just one shirt to check it?
Yes, there's no minimum. Ordering one, wearing it for a week and then buying for the crew is the sequence we'd recommend — it costs about $35 and removes the guesswork from sizes, colour and fit.
Start a design → — or read how to order for the full details.