Cotton Bureau was founded as a platform for the best individual designers and illustrators to sell their work on t-shirts, but looking back, we always found ourselves teaming up with communities and personalities a little (or a lot) out of our league. From our early work with the charity Still Kickin’, through our monster post-election campaigns with Rogue NASA and Pod Save America, to our ongoing partnerships today with MKBHD and Adam Savage, we’ve hit our fair share of home runs.

But if we’re being honest, our offerings for partners like that have always been a little, shall we say…limited. Big communities need more than just t-shirt campaigns. They want to sell hats and enamel pins and coffee mugs. They want products for sale all the time, not just two weeks at a time. They need help conceiving and designing products. They want an online home for their products that looks and feels like them. Until recently, we couldn’t really help…but now we can. Introducing Cotton Bureau Plus, a white-glove merch partner for the internet’s biggest creative communities.

“Cotton Bureau has made the co-creation of a totally custom store as frictionless and enjoyable as I could possibly imagine. Their responsiveness, creativity, and willingness to work back and forth to do things right is awesome!” — Marques Brownlee, MKBHD

What is Cotton Bureau Plus?

Cotton Bureau Plus is a take-care-of-everything merch agency for demanding creators, podcasters, charities, YouTubers, gamers, and more. We do everything an in-house team would do: strategy, consulting, design, production, e-commerce, warehousing, fulfillment, customer service, you name it. We know what works and what doesn’t because we’ve been making merch for creative communities (and ourselves) since 2010. This ain’t our first rodeo.

Branded E-Commerce

You want a storefront that looks like you, but you don’t wanna build it yourself. We got you. You’ll get your very own branded home on the Cotton Bureau platform, masterfully designed to work across all devices. Give your customers a slick, clean shopping experience that lets your products shine.

Dedicated Service

Email, text, phone, Slack…we stay in touch however you’re most comfortable. And as a Cotton Bureau Plus partner, you have a line straight to CB’s founders. Depending on the availability of quality tacos in your town, we may even visit.

Customer Service & Fulfillment

Packing, shipping, and customer service is the worst part of handling merch yourself, and we make it all go away. We answer every email, print every t-shirt, and store, pack, and ship everything right here in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA.

Revenue Sharing

If you’re in this for the money, we assure you there’s real money to be made. Our most successful partners over the last two years have earned $250,000–500,000 annually.

Flexibility

We work at your pace and on your schedule. Wanna take your time and perfectly craft your first merch drop? Let’s do it. Need to get a store up by next week? We can do that too.

“I’ve been producing Savage Industries shirts with Cotton Bureau since April 2018, and it’s been a pleasure. They offer a great product and an easy partnership; there is no downside to working with them. Plus I love the shirts themselves — their finish and fit. I wear Cotton Bureau shirts all the time, and not just my own designs, either.” — Adam Savage, Mythbuster and Editor-in-Chief of Tested.com

What can I do with Cotton Bureau Plus?

If it has to do with merch, we can do it. Need a permanent storefront to sell products? A special one-time merch drop? A VIP package for an event? A rewards program for your fans? We can do—and have done—it all.

Who are some Cotton Bureau Plus partners?

YouTube’s most beloved tech reviewer, MKBHD. Your favorite Mythbuster, Adam Savage. The biggest show in gaming, The Game Awards. And more popular podcasts than we can shake a microphone at (Criminal, The West Wing Weekly, Accidental Tech Podcast, Lore, Cortex, The Solid Verbal, and many more).

What kinds of products can I produce?

Cotton Bureau is known for the highest quality t-shirts in the biz, but CB Plus allows you to sell anything you want. We’ve made hats, coffee mugs, enamel pins, posters, stickers, challenge coins, polos, and much more for our CB Plus partners. We’ve even sold and shipped custom-branded Apple AirPods. Wanna team up on something weird? Let’s do it.

What does Cotton Bureau Plus cost?

That depends on what you want to do. Get in touch and let’s talk about it. Suffice to say, CB Plus is an agency-level service for serious content creators. That don’t come cheap.

I think I have a big audience. How do I know if it’s big enough?

We’re looking for partners who don’t just have followers or listeners or subscribers; we’re looking for partners with true fans (and a lot of ‘em). Fandom is what drives serious merch sales, and serious merch sales are what you need to be a part of Cotton Bureau Plus. If you think you can sell at least 500 items per month, let’s talk.

I have a ton of fans, but I’m a terrible designer. Can you help me?

Of course. Just because you have a big audience doesn’t mean you have in-house design talent. We can design you something ourselves, or play matchmaker with one of our zillion talented friends (as you may have noticed, we’ve worked with damn near every graphic designer and illustrator on the planet).

“Working with Cotton Bureau is a pleasure. They’re always responsive and helpful, and have a great eye for good design. In fact, our podcast’s de facto logo was an unsolicited offering from the design team at Cotton Bureau; one that we immediately fell in love with. We stick with Cotton Bureau year over year because they’re the best we’ve found, by far.” — Marco Arment, co-host of Accidental Tech Podcast

Who we’re looking for

You’re a creative online community (a podcast, YouTuber, Twitch streamer, writer, cause/charity, app/game developer, influencer, etc.) with a large and loyal audience. Maybe you’ve never done merch before, you’re currently doing merch yourself and want to hand it off, or you’ve had a bad experience in the past and want to give it another shot. You have the utmost respect for your fans, followers, subscribers, or customers, and aren’t looking to simply cash in. You have a commitment to product quality, are itching to roll up your sleeves and get involved in the creation process, and can’t wait to spread the word when everything’s ready. You’re looking for a collaborative partner, not just “the t-shirt guys.”

We’re looking for a handful of new partners in 2019, and since CB is a small team, our time is limited. If this sounds like you, get in touch soon.

Hello Cotton Bureau friends,

The holidays are HERE! And as always, we’re celebrating the only way we know how — by giving YOU all the gifts! Remember our High-Five giveaway for our 5th birthday back in June? Well, imagine that, only BIGGER. From right now through December 10, we’ll be giving away all kinds of Apple goodies, from AirPods to iPad Pros to MacBook Airs…and maybe even a brand new iMac Pro. That’s three whole weeks for you to shop for shirts and win prizes. And just like we did for our birthday, giveaways are unlocked based on the total amount of stuff we sell over the next three weeks…and the more you buy, the more chances you have to win. Here’s the deal: each tee, sweatshirt, or hat purchased between now and December 10 using our secret code ALLTHETEES counts as one entry. For each winning entry selected, we’ll be giving away a matching prize to the designer of the shirt you bought. Here’s how it works:

• Today through Monday, December 10 at 11:59PM ET, we’re counting up all the tees, sweatshirts, and hats we sell on Cotton Bureau. Available right now: hundreds of the CB pre-order campaign tees you know and love, but don’t forget our huge new collection of CB On-Demand tees—800 designs and counting—which are available year-round and printed just for you whenever you buy one.
• Once we hit 250 items sold, we’ll add the first prize to the pool: an iTunes gift card! But here’s the kicker, we’ll also give a gift card to the designer of the shirt that customer purchased. So if you’re a family member, friend, or fan of a CB designer, this is the time to show them (and maybe yourself!) some love. When we hit 500 items, we’ll add a pair of AirPods to the prize pool. At 1,000, a pair of 4K AppleTVs. At 2,000, a pair of HomePods, and so on. We’ll add a new prize to the pool for every 1,000 products we sell, all the way to 15,000, where we’ll give away A PAIR OF IMAC PROS. 😳
• Each hat, t-shirt, or sweatshirt you order counts as one entry. As long as you get your order in by December 10, you will be eligible to win any of the prizes. We will select (and notify) the winners beginning the week of January 7.
• Again, to be eligible, you must check out using the code ALLTHETEES. Don’t come crying to us if you forgot to use it.

The bottom line is that the more we sell, the more you win. So put your promo pants on because we’re all working together people!

We know what you’re thinking — 15,000 orders in three weeks sounds like a lot. You’re right, it is. So we enlisted some of our biggest designers to do the heavy lifting and super-charged the amount of shirts for sale. That doesn’t take the pressure off you though. Hitting iMac Pro level is gonna take a lot of sharing, bribing, and guilt-tripping. We suggest you start now, because our biggest giveaway ever is already underway. Head over to cottonbureau.com to look around.

Oh right, the fine(ish) print…

No purchase necessary. To enter without ordering send your favorite holiday postcard to 110 Torrens St. Suite 101 Pittsburgh, PA 15206. One contest credit per item purchased/postcard (five postcard maximum). Postcards must be postmarked by Friday, December 14 to qualify. Customer winners are selected at random. In the event of a postcard winner, a designer will be chosen at random to win the corresponding prize. In the event a customer winner purchased multiple designs, we’ll settle it the good old fashion way — with a coin flip tiebreaker. We maintain the right to substitute any prize with a gift card of equal or greater value — this is most likely to occur when international shipping is required. Contest ends on Friday, December 14 at 11:59PM ET. Winners will be notified starting the week of January 7.

Cotton Bureau is officially five years old! Hard to believe, right? They grow up so fast. Truth be told, we’ve never been big on birthdays though, so this year we’re making it a birthWEEK! C’mon we’re 5, not dead. Of course we’re gonna go big, and going big means AirPods, Apple TVs (4K), Apple Watches, iPad Pros, and a brand-new 5K iMac (or 2)! But that’s not all…

Starting today, (almost) every CB design is available on Blank! You can now get your favorite design on your favorite tee by selecting our size-inclusive, premium quality tee on the product page. And don’t be surprised if we look a little different now that we’re older—we made a few changes to accommodate all the new options. You’ll probably notice when you come on in for our 5 days of giveaways!

Today starts our big bash and our birthday wish is to hand out as many presents as possible, but we need your help to do it. How much cool gear you win this week is completely up to you. Here’s how it works:

• Today through Friday, June 29, we’re counting up all stock (minus mystery tees), kids tees, and pre-order items we sell on Cotton Bureau.
• Once we hit 50 items sold, we’ll add the first prize to the pool: AirPods! But here’s the kicker, we’ll also give a pair to the designer of the shirt that customer purchased. So if you’re a family member, friend, or fan of a CB designer, this is the time to show them (and maybe yourself!) some love.
• When we hit 250 items, we’ll add a pair of 4K Apple TVs. At 500, a pair of Apple Watches. At 1,000, a pair of HomePods. At 2,500, a pair of iPad Pros. If we get all the way to 5,000 shirts sold this week, it’s a pair of 5K iMacs. And if we get all the way to 10,000 items sold WE’LL GIVE AWAY A PAIR OF iMAC PROS!
• Each hat, t-shirt, or sweatshirt you order counts as one entry. As long as you get your order in by Friday, you will be eligible to win *any* of the prizes. We will select (and notify) the winners beginning the week of July 2.

The bottom line is that the more we sell, the more you win. So put your promo pants on because we’re all working together people!

We know what you’re thinking — 10,000 orders in 5 days sounds like a lot. You’re right, it is. So we enlisted some of our biggest designers to do the heavy lifting and tripled the amount of live shirts. That doesn’t take the pressure off you though. Hitting iMac Pro level is gonna take a lot of sharing, bribing, and guilt-tripping. We suggest you start now, because our biggest giveaway ever is already underway. Head over to cottonbureau.comto give us a high five, and don’t forget to follow@cottonbureau on Twitter andInstagramfor updates on our best birthday bash yet!

Oh right, the fine(ish) print…

No purchase necessary. To enter without ordering send a birthday postcard to 110 Torrens St. Suite 101Pittsburgh, PA 15206. One contest credit per item purchased/postcard. Postcards must be postmarked by Friday, June 29 to qualify. Customer winners are selected at random. In the event of a postcard winner, a designer will be chosen at random to win the corresponding prize. In the event a customer winner purchased multiple designs, we’ll settle it the good old fashion way — with a coin flip tiebreaker. We maintain the right to substitute any prize with a gift card of equal or greater value — this is most likely to occur when international shipping is required. Contest ends on Friday, June 29 at 8pm ET. Winners will be notified starting the week of July 2.

WE HAVE A BRACKET!

The field is set! CB’s first ever Top Pun Tournament tips today. Four quadrants, 5 rounds, and 32 of the punniest tees our designers could come up with all come down to one winner on April 5th. Buckle up, there’s gonna be a lot of blood, sweat, and cringing over the next two weeks.

Before we announce the regions and schedule, here’s a little rules refresher:

• Entries are paired up bracket style in a 5 round tournament.
• Winners are determined via @cottonbureau twitter poll voting. So share our Twitter Moments for each round and get your friends and family to do the same.
• Orders = 3 votes each FOR ONLY THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND.

Of course we should remind you of what you’re all playing for. Pride. Jk… you’re also playing for a laser engraved Leather Head basketball. Second place will receive a copy of Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano. And don’t forget that you’ll take home cold hard cash for every sale you make after 25—so don’t be afraid use the Top Pun Tourney for some promo mo regardless of your standing.

REGIONS

The road to the finals starts right here. There’s no easy matchups when it comes to the Top Pun Tournament, but escape the first round and you may just make a Cinderella run. So let’s get right to the bracket.

To find your matchup (and see the road ahead if you dare) head over to our Top Pun Tournament homepage.

SCHEDULE

The polls opened today for round 1 of the Rickles and Rivers regions. If your tee is in either of those quadrants, you should already be collecting votes. It’s as easy as sharing today’s Twitter Moment. You have until midnight Sunday night to rack up as many as possible.

https://twitter.com/cottonbureau/status/976918805145321472

Each round will start the same way, so keep an eye on @cottonbureau if you’re lucky enough to survive and advance.

The second half of round 1 starts on Tuesday and ends Thursday night at midnight ET. That’s you, Youngman and Hedberg entries (we don’t need to mention the whole Twitter moment thing again, right?). Remaining rounds will take place over the second week of the tournament:

• Round 2: Friday, March 30 — Monday, April 2
• Round 3: Tuesday, April 3
• Round 4: Wednesday, April 4
• Finals: Thursday, April 5

May the best pun win!

We know…this is the year you’re gonna win your office tournament pool. We totally believe you. But just in case March 2018 ends up like every other March, maybe jump in Cotton Bureau’s inaugural Top Pun Tournament. It’s just like the real thing…you can pull an upset over a big name, make a Cinderella run to the championship, and get paid (see… it really is just like college hoops)! Here’s how it works…

If you follow us on Twitter, you know we can’t resist a good pun, and now it’s your turn. Make it about your favorite animal, place, movie, food, or whatever other goofy subject you can think of. Just make sure you send it in before next Tuesday, March 20, because any submissions after that will not be considered for the bracket.

Entries will be pitted against each other one round at a time in a fight to the finish starting with Round 1 on Thursday, March 22. Winners will be determined via @cottonbureau Twitter polls. Whichever tee has the most votes in its matchup wins. Survive and advance. Oh and we should mention: every order will count as three (3!) votes during the championship round — so don’t be afraid to butter up the genius who picked Lipscomb to go to the Final Four.

After that, we’ll whittle the field down to one final design that will be etched in tournament history. Winner gets a Luther Vandross poster and DVD of Charles Barkley’s best commercials. Okay not really, but what you will win is a very handsome Leather Head basketball, laser-engraved with your name and champion status (a $220 value, and btw, Leather Head’s logo was hand-lettered by our pal and yours, Jon Contino). Runner-up receives the fantastic book Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano (illustrated by another friend of Cotton Bureau, Arturo Torres).

So who’s ready to draw up a wordplay for the win? Submit your design today!

We’re about to do something you probably don’t expect: all current stock of Blank shirts is on clearance for $14 (normally $28) with free US shipping from now through February 28 or until it’s all gone, whichever comes first. If you backed Blank on Kickstarter and love your shirts, now’s the time to stock up, because trust us, they won’t be this cheap ever again. If you wanna know why a company semi-notorious for never having big sales is all of a sudden having a big sale, keep reading.

If you’ve been following along with Blank for any length of time, you’re probably wondering why you can’t yet buy a Cotton Bureau graphic tee on a Blank shirt. After all, it’s been five months since the Kickstarter ended, and the first batch of shirts arrived in December. So what’s the hold up, right? Bear with us, because there’s a long-winded answer.

We’re a weird company. Well, weird for a t-shirt company, that is. For the t-shirt companies that design and manufacture blank tees for retail or wholesale, chances are that’s all they do. For the companies making printed tees, chances are that’s all they do. It’s very rare to find a t-shirt company doing both, but you’re looking at one. And as it turns out, shirts that are meant to be blank and shirts that are meant to be printed on have different attributes. One of those attributes is — and we know this is likely to elicit some Seinfeldian giggles — shrinkage.

You’re probably only familiar with one kind of t-shirt shrinkage, the kind that happens when you wash and dry a new tee (particularly a 100% cotton one). You lose some length at the bottom, and maybe a tiny bit around the middle. Most garment manufacturers — good ones anyway, like us — build that shrinkage into their patterns so that a shirt fits correctly after it’s been washed and dried. But there’s another kind of shrinkage…one that you don’t have to worry about, but as we’ve learned, we do.

When you screen print a graphic onto a shirt, the ink needs to cure to become permanently affixed to the fabric. This is achieved with a curing oven, essentially a conveyor belt that sends a shirt through a temperature controlled environment for a specific period of time. It gets pretty hot in there, and certain fabrics — like polyester and rayon in a tri-blend tee — respond by shrinking. This is a problem for us, because unlike our 100% cotton tees, we didn’t build that extra shrinkage into our tri-blend pattern (oops). That means a printed tri-blend Blank tee is going to fit smaller than a blank tri-blend Blank tee. Couple that with a few too-small areas on our first batch of tri-blend fits, and it turns out a printed Blank is a lot smaller than we want it to be, and “too small” is the very problem Blank is tackling in the first place. Not great. But we fixed it.

We made a few changes to our patterns (thanks to those of you who showed up for a quick Blank fit session in NYC a few weeks ago, and everyone else who emailed us with your feedback), but nothing major: an inch here or half-inch there. But more importantly, we made a big change to the fabric itself by pre-shrinking it, both our cotton and tri-blend. That means that the next iteration of Blank—let’s call it Blank 2.0, already in progress at the factory — won’t shrink much in your dryer or our print shop’s curing ovens (and, bonus: they’ll be even softer and more durable). But it also means that we can’t really use Blank 1.0 for printed tees, so we’re getting rid of them (hence the Blank Slate Sale). Again, they’re pretty damn close to perfect…as long as you don’t need to screen print on them.

Thanks for sticking with us. These are the kinds of things you learn when you’re trying to make a t-shirt brand from scratch. There are going to be bumps and hurdles and false starts and growing pains. When we publicly announced Blank last February, we said “we won’t become American Apparel overnight,” and a year later that’s truer than ever. This is hard. If it wasn’t, someone else would’ve already done it. Hell, we haven’t even mentioned the difficulties involved in learning how to manage a brand new and complicated supply chain, costly inventory, and front-loaded cash flow, or working with a factory for the first time, but that’s another blog post. For now, we can’t thank you enough for your patience, and we know it’ll be worth it. Cotton Bureau designs on Blank will be here sooner than you think (in fact, clear your calendars for next month).