With free accounts from Printful for fulfillment and Square for payment processing, you can be selling merchandise featuring your designs in just a few hours. Compare that to my first shenanigan in 1975, creating and selling t-shirts in high school. Seems like it was only yesterday...

Our basketball coach first called us Yahoos when we cut across the gym floor in street shoes. Rather than face his wrath, Wayno and I bolted. We had things to do; there was a house party planned for Sunday night.

The spam hit the fan when the entire starting lineup missed their Monday practice. Coach Harry vowed suspension for players caught associating "with those two Yahoos.”

The label stuck, inspiring a sketch in my geometry notebook. Upon learning about our shenanigan, the local screen printer cut me a deal and used my project to teach me the screen-printing business. The proof from my sketch was approved and three silkscreens created to produce the three color design. He ran off a sample t-shirt, gave me time to book orders, then printed the shirts. 

Soon dozens of Harry’s Yahoos t-shirts were annoying administrators in classrooms, at pep rallies, and at high school basketball games. Cheerleaders created Yahoo cheers, and we were often mentioned and heard during games, carried live on the local AM radio station.

"....as you folks at home can probably hear, Harry's Yahoos are not happy with that call by the referee."

Nobody was having more fun than us. And isn’t fun the best thing to have?

Building a cult of personality and creating something to sell 'em is a time-honored formula. In the '70s, it required up-front cash, artistic talent (or more cash), and time for the pre-production process to unfold. After paying the wholesale cost of the goods, you still sell and distribute. No returns if you guessed wrong on the mix of sizes or the quantity, easy to end up with unsold inventory instead of profit. Sourcing merch was a much riskier business back in the day.

Compare that to what you can do with a free Printful account, in light of their policy changes enacted on May 11th, 2023:

• Lower product prices for most DTG t-shirt and hoodie bestsellers
• Free design and marketing tools are now available to everyone (previously required subscription)
• Shipping rates for t-shirts and hoodies increased - now consistent with the market
• We’ll now have a consistent embroidery service fees policy in all geographies

With these changes, Printful’s premium quality products are more accessible to everyone! 

You don't need to "know a guy" to get a great deal. Printful makes quality products available to everyone at new, lower prices. Sell more competitively online. Enjoy an additional 20% savings on up to three samples every month. The $75 I paid for one sample t-shirt in 1975 gets 6 or 7 from Printful today.

Start without artwork. Begin by uploading your design if you have one, or create one online with the Custom Mockup Maker on your Printful Dashboard. Here's a mockup of a design created in the spirit of my original Harry's Yahoos t-shirt with clip art and text I found on my Printful account. Stylistically different but equally effective in making a statement. Uploading a scan of my original proof, Harry's Yahoos t-shirt are for sale today.

Digital marketing support: Mockups of Printful Products can be created with your designs in just a few clicks. No models to hire. No sets to design. No photos to shoot. Fill your online store and/or promotional channels with images of your merch generated by Printful. E-commerce facilitates customers buying from you when they are ready, rather than you trying to find and sell them. Use mockups in blogs, newsletters, social media, and more to create awareness and grow sales.

No inventory hassles: Print-on-demand fulfillment from Printful replaces investment in inventory and the logistics to ship orders. Customers buy, enter shipping and payment info, and pay you in full for the order. When you transmit orders to Printful, you pay the wholesale cost for the goods and the shipping cost. With your profit already in the bank, item(s) get produced and shipped straight to your customer with your branding on the package.