So you're stuck in traffic, your mind just idling along waiting for the
weekend, when out of the blue comes a slogan that makes you say: "If I could just put that on a t-shirt and sell it ..."
It's probably happened to you. And thanks to the Internet age, there's an online outfit devoted to just such e-commerce endeavors. It's called CafePress.com, and the deal is that you just submit your slogan, logo, artwork, design or what-have-you to them, and then you can sell up to 30 different products carrying that message or art - everything from coffee mugs to tank tops, aprons to tote bags, and of course, mousepads.
As CafePress claims on its site, they manage "every aspect of doing business online, including online storefront development and management, product manufacturing and sourcing, fulfillment and customer service."
And it's not just for loony tunes trying to get rich, or non-profits trying to raise funds for the church's summer youth outing. There's a corporate side too, where outfits like Salon.com, United Media (Dilbert products), Esquire Magazine and Clear Channel Interactive sell products.
The company's corporate solutions program provides established brands with outsourced technology and services necessary to develop merchandising programs, both for their own inventory and for drop-ship operations.
The privately held, San Leandro, Calif.-based company was founded in August 1999 and investors include PacRim Venture Partners, New Millennium Partners, Staenberg Private Capital and a number of individuals.
For individuals, the deal is that you set your own price for your items and you get to keep any profits on top of the standard CafePress price for the item. It's essentially risk-free. Once your store is set up, CafePress.com handles all item production and fulfillment and sends you a check once a month.
This, of course, is one of those "only on the Internet" phenomena that I love, and apparently, so do thousands of others. The company said it just opened its 300,000th store.
What's selling well these days? "Save Martha
Stewart" mugs and Scott Adams' Dilbert t-shirts, among other things.
"The last time I heard, 'I could make a million dollars if I could print that on a t-shirt' -- I decided to do something about it," said Maheesh Jain, vice president and co-founder of CafePress.com.
"At CafePress.com we leverage on-demand, custom product manufacturing to create a powerful sales platform for sellers of unique products," Jain said. "... ultimately, we are allowing people to turn their passions into products and profits."
The company plans to launch CafeShops.com soon as a centralized site to spotlight the products designed by CafePress.com members.
Some of the shops are already listed, including one for the ASPCA and my personal favorite, the Librarian
Avenger's store, where they sell shirts with the advice to "Look It Up" and they clearly state that "all proceeds go to the 'Get Erica a Master's Degree' fund."
"We haven't had a customer come up with a million-dollar t-shirt design as of yet, but we've had quite a few make it into the six figures," Jain told me.
He said that one of the biggest success stories so far is The Fighting Whites Intramural basketball team from the University of Northern Colorado, which has made over $100,000 profit from selling merchandise.
If it sounds racist, that apparently wasn't the intent.
"Our objective as students was to make a straightforward statement using humor; to promote cultural awareness through satire," they say on the Web site.
"The team became popular in the media due to their name - which was a play off the sports team names that incorporate Native American themes, like the Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, etc.," Jain said. "The team is made up of a dozen or so college kids that wanted to make a statement about their beliefs regarding Native American stereotypes, and the public responded. They are using their profits to establish a scholarship fund for Native American students."
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