Big news! While we started Cotton Bureau over a decade ago with a simple pre-order campaign model for screenprinted tees, each year we’ve been able to grow our offerings, gradually increasing not only the ways to sell (adding stock and on demand) but the also types of products available, which now includes hats, drinkware, totes, phone cases, and, as of last month, stickers.

We’re thrilled to announce today the most recent expansion: we’re bringing our ultra-premium on demand embroidery program to t-shirts and sweatshirts, effective immediately.

Though our on demand hat program has been met with universal acclaim, there’s one small problem: not everyone wears hats. As far as we know, however, pretty much everyone wears a shirt, most of the time.

Graphic tees have been popular at least since the ’90s. Nobody knows if they were popular before then because the internet did not exist. Embroidered tees though present an entirely new fashion frontier, a frontier that we humbly invite you to explore with us.

From day one (today), most core apparel products are included in our new on demand catalog, from all-time favorites like the premium lightweight Next Level 6010 tri-blend tee and outrageously soft Bella + Canvas 3901 raglan crewneck sweatshirt to popular newcomers like the 100% cotton vintage Comfort Colors 1717 tee and the premium midweight Bella + Canvas 3739 zip hoodie. Chances are if you have bought (or sold) a shirt on Cotton Bureau, it’s now eligible for some fancy stitching.

Here’s the full list of available styles for 2025:

• Comfort Colors 1717 — 100% cotton, premium heavyweight tee
• Next Level 3600 — 100% cotton, premium lightweight tee
• Next Level 3900 — 100% cotton, premium lightweight women’s junior fit tee
• Next Level 6010 — tri-blend premium lightweight tee
• Next Level 6710 — tri-blend, premium lightweight women’s junior fit tee
• Bella + Canvas 6400 — 100% cotton, premium lightweight women’s regular fit tee
• Gildan 18000 — basic midweight 100% cotton hoodie
• Bella + Canvas 3901 — premium midweight crewneck sweatshirt
• Bella + Canvas 3719 — premium midweight hoodie
• Bella + Canvas 3739 — premium midweight zip hoodie
• Bella + Canvas 3501 — premium lightweight 100% cotton longsleeve tee
• Bella + Canvas 3501CVC — premium lightweight poly-cotton longsleeve tee
• Independent IND4000 — premium heavyweight hoodie

We hope (and expect) that list to grow over time. Let us know if we missed your go-to tee.

FAQs for On Demand Apparel Embroidery

Where can I position my artwork?

The pocket. We may eventually expand to more locations, but for now, your only choice is the left chest pocket. Sorry.

How big can I make it?

Maximum size is 3.75" ⅹ 3.75". That’s pretty big. You can set a custom size anywhere from there down to 1" ⅹ 1". Anything smaller than that and it’s pretty hard to embroider. Speaking of…

What else should I know about apparel embroidery?

The same embroidery limitations apply to clothing as apply to hats.

In general, the smallest details that can be rendered are about 0.04" (1mm). The smallest gaps that can be maintained are 0.01" (0.25mm). The max size on a hat is 5.5" x 2.25". Here’s a good way to think about it: for a medium size design of 1.5", you have canvas that is roughly 75 x 75 pixels. It’s possible to get creative with running stitches and contrasting stitch directions to show subtle detail, but the best hats are going to avoid squishing too much detail into too small a space. When in doubt, err in favor of smaller and simpler.

Unlike the hats we offer, shirts range from extremely thin and light fabric to heavy-duty fleece. Please be advised that the larger and heavier your artwork, the more prone to puckering and pulling on lighter weight fabrics. Less is better, usually.

I have a Cotton Bureau account. Can I offer on demand embroidery?

Maybe. Embroidery is limited (for now) to accounts with a strong sales history because of the complexity and hard costs associated. That said, if you think you’re hot stuff, just email us. We’ve been known to make an exception from time to time.

As with hats, we’re extremely excited to see what new and existing designs you’ve got up your sleeve, so to speak, and we can’t wait to share them with everyone else as well. The next Cotton Bureau t-shirt Tuesday just got a whole lot more interesting. 👕

While we’re not in the habit of pre-announcing new products and features, once we’re getting close, we do occasionally drop a hint or two. When you see the timeline for on demand stickers, you’ll understand why it’s best to ship first, talk later.

The first public mention of on demand stickers was in our 2023 in review email way back in January of 2024. At the time, we felt confident enough that stickers were happening to tease them. Well. Fast forward to the 2024 year in review email six months ago, and, as they say, even the best laid plans often go awry. Believe it or not, as recently as April we were still confident stickers would ship sooner rather than later. Our best guess at the time was just prior to our big birthday celebration in June. Mmhmm.

In the end, here we are. A task that was originally created in February of 2022 and conceived as a possibility long before then can finally be checked off in July of 2025. We’re so pleased to be able to finally, finally, finally deliver on demand stickers. 😅

If you, like us, have been champing at the bit for high quality vinyl on demand stickers, your wait is over. All Cotton Bureau accounts (including Custom accounts), are immediately eligible and can create new on demand stickers right now.

Keep reading if you’re one of those people that likes to ask questions.

On Demand Sticker FAQs

While we’ve had plenty of folks offer stickers over the years, the only way to do that in the past was by purchasing hundreds of stickers upfront and storing them to be sold as a stock product. That’s great if you’re offering something more exotic like holographic or unicorn dust. For your everyday, basic, just-the-facts-ma’am stickers, the new on demand stickers are just the ticket.

First, to be clear, on demand stickers are… on demand. That means they’re printed (and shipped) when you order them, and you can have as many or as few in your store as you want.

The standard sizes are 2" and 3", but you can create custom sizes between 1" and 4" as well. Max of three sizes per sticker.

On demand stickers are kiss-cut only and are printed on a matte white vinyl backing with a 0.15" border. The cut is automatically determined, so if you want full control and a smooth border, we recommend filling any little gaps with an opaque white background, or even augmenting the border to create circles, squares, and other containing shapes.

As with everything else, only one artwork file per product which means alternate colorways need to be additional products.

Could you make a mini sticker sheet? If you’re careful… yes. Any colored area at least 0.25" away from another area will receive its own cutout. (Stickers can’t have holes, fyi. No donuts.)

Recommended sticker retail price is $3, shipping is a flat $1.99. That’s a sticker delivered anywhere in the US for less than $5.

One unfortunate but necessary caveat: on demand stickers can only be shipped independently inside the United States. We’re working on finding an affordable way to have them shipped internationally. (It is possible to order a sticker with a t-shirt or other on demand product for shipment outside the US.)

Sticker-only orders are currently completely untracked and usually take about a week to arrive.

Okay, let us have it. What are you thinking? We’d love to offer more styles and options in the future (transparent stickers anyone?), so if you have questions or suggestions, let us know.

If you like stickers, try adding a few of your existing designs as sticker products or creating something new. We’ll be heavily promoting stickers all through July, so kick back by the pool and fire some products into the sun.

That’s it for now. We (hopefully) will have another big announcement for you in a month, though we’re keeping this one mum.

It’s Throwback Thursday, and we’re tossing it allll the way back to the mid-90s with some freaking good tees.

We’re not going to dwell on the fact that we’re 40 years old now and that, since launching in 2013, Cotton Bureau has been both the foreground and background of an inconceivable 30% of our lives. We’re really not.

Let’s just chill and reminisce about the time when the most difficult thing we had to do in a day was try to beat Goldeneye (🎵) on 007 mode after school. This is a celebration. We’re just happy to be here, and we’re glad you’re here too.

Free Shipping On Everything

Let’s keep it simple. You like us, we like you. Let’s do free shipping on everything today through next Thursday, June 19th. Boomshakalaka!

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to snag a mug, t-shirt, phone case, mug, embroidered hat, or canvas tote, you’d be silly to miss this chance. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Use code HAPPY12 at checkout. (International shipping is half-off, cool?)

Year Two of the Ultra Cheap Birthday Tee

In what we hope will become an annual tradition, we’re heavily discounting a sick, screenprinted Cotton Bureau tee created just for the occasion, this time by one of our good friends and favorite designers, Annica Lydenberg.

For the next week only, limited edition “High Quality, Low Key” apparel is available for sale. Get either vibrant, paint-splattered CMYK or minimalist black foil on your choice of garments including super fresh 100% cotton heavyweight Comfort Colors 1717 tees just the way your remember plus our usual variety of lightweight tri-blend men’s and women’s tees, soft Bella + Canvas fleece, casual tank tops for lounging around the pool. Touchdown!

Tees are available for the low, low, we’re-definitely-losing-money-on-these price of $12 each. Fleece is obtainable for the equally ridiculous price of $25. Get ‘em while they last, because like last year’s Cotton Burro tee to celebrate our 11th birthday and the appliqué sweatshirts and floral tees from our 10th birthday, they won’t be back.

One (?) More Thing

We liked Annica’s work so much, we couldn’t resist dropping a few more styles.

If you’re into simple scripts, we’ve got the shirt (and hats) for you.

The full hat lineup runs the CMYK gamut from cyan script to pretty in pink to PGH edition black and yellow to mega minimal black-on-black.

Okay, that’s it! Thank you again for 12 phenomenal years. Go shop all styles, and feel free to say something nice to us on Bluesky or Instagram. We’re not above fishing for compliments on our special day.