Cotton Bureau is known for one thing: incredibly soft and long-lasting t-shirts. Sure, if you look hard enough you can find other products on the site, like fancy pens, adult onesies, BBQ passports, silly socks — plus mugs, prints, stickers, magnets, and more. But all of those other products have something in common besides not being t-shirts: they require a significant upfront financial investment, which is kind of a bummer at best and, for many people, quite impossible.
From day one, the entire purpose of Cotton Bureau has been to help you make and sell things without needing to sweat the production details or park a dump truck of inventory in front of your house.
For t-shirts (and sweatshirts and tank tops and shirts for kids of all ages), you can submit a design today, have it live today, and then have it live every day after today as well without needing to worry about re-ordering stock or hitting a campaign minimum. Turns out that works really well for a lot of people, so… we’re going to do that, but for more stuff, starting with [redacted].
To get on the more stuff train and help us test this new and highly secret on demand [shhhh], just email us. We’re looking for a number of smart and talented people to lend a hand. Exact timeline for everything is tbd, hopefully sooner rather than later.
Not quite one month ago (June 12), we quietly celebrated a frankly astonishing nine years of Cotton Bureau. We’ve seen presidents come and go. We’ve worked from one office, then a new office, then from home, and now sometimes from home and sometimes from yet another office. We designed, developed, manufactured, sold, shipped, and, ultimately, shuttered Blank, our ill-starred bespoke t-shirt brand. We’ve had some big wins and some painful losses, but time marches on, and we’re still here, like the ship of Theseus, constantly changing, always staying the same.
TLDR: we have stopped production of new Blank t-shirts. Unprinted Blank teeshave been reduced to $16 (normally $32) until they’re all gone. Cotton Bureau graphic tees will still be available on Blank as long as we have stock. There’s a lot more to the story, so don’t stop reading now.
We talked about making our own t-shirts for years. For years. Ever since we sold our first t-shirt on United Pixelworkers back in 2010 — long before Cotton Bureau was even a twinkle in our eye — and recoiled in horror at how teeny-tiny American Apparel’s women’s tees were, we knew we had to find a better solution, and that maybe, just maybe, someday, somehow, we could be the ones to do it. It just seemed impossible at the time, like we were planning a manned trip to Saturn. Develop an entire t-shirt line…at scale…from scratch…by ourselves? It still seems impossible.
But starting in the summer of 2016, we went for it. We went for it. Thanks to a lot of help (and a big check) from our family at Indie.vc, we started on [ahem] Our Incredible Journey™. We hired the fierce Michelle Sharp, who ended up running the whole damn brand from the beginning almost single-handedly. We met a pattern maker we adore (hi Melanie). We met a lovely family who runs a cut-and-sew factory right here in Pennsylvania (hi Mereille). We met (and committed to) to a much larger fabric mill and factory in South Central Los Angeles (hi Moe). We met a wacky garment industry lifer named Ned (Ned eventually ghosted us, so we’re not gonna say hi to Ned). We made samples…and more samples…and more samples. We held a fit session in New York City. We signed hundreds of you up to be shirt testers. We were a Kickstarter “Project We Love”(and flew out to LA with half the CB team to film the video on-location at our factory with our heroes at Sandwich). Hell, we even had to start over from scratch once. And when we finally, finally started offering Cotton Bureau graphic tees on Blank — led by an incredible roster of strong women designers — 20% of men and 40% (!) of women chose Blank (and still do), despite the fact that they were way more expensive than our standard tees. By many measures, Blank has been a success. We did it! We made our own t-shirts! In the United States! And everyone loves them!! But…there’s always a but.
This is going to sound stone-cold obvious, but manufacturing your own tees is expensive. Very expensive. Like, breathtakingly, heart-stoppingly expensive. To date, we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Blank. When you’re a tiny (mostly) bootstrapped business in Pittsburgh, PA, that kind of investment can be a propeller…or it can be an anchor. For us, it’s unfortunately been the latter. Blank is a product we’re tremendously proud of — seriously, it’s a great t-shirt — but it’s just not a business we can afford to be in anymore.
So it is with a heavy heart but an incredible amount of pride that we are announcing that we have stopped production of Blank t-shirts.Unprinted Blank tees have been reduced to $16 (normal price $32) until they’re all gone. Cotton Bureau graphic tees will still be available on Blank as long as we have stock (which should be a while).
[Exhales] You probably have some questions.
What? No. Really?? C’mon.
Yeah. WE KNOW…we know. We feel like we just got started! We tried, friends. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
OK so does that mean Blank goes away immediately?
Not at all! Unless someone swoops in and buys Blank from us (nudgenudge see the next question) it’s gonna take us a long time to go through our remaining stock. That said, if you love Blank, buy as many of them as you can now, whether it’s 1 or 10 or 100. No seriously, buy them cuz we need to sell them.
I’m a Purely Hypothetical and Reasonably Wealthy Person Who For The Purposes Of This Fake Question Also Wants To Start Their Own T-Shirt Business, can I buy the brand from you?
We’d love to see Blank live on, so if you’re interested in picking up where we left off, we’ll happily pass the torch to the right partner…for the right price. We have women’s and men’s patterns from XS–5X, ~10,000 shirts in stock, ~13,000 yards of milled-in-the-USA fabric (100% ringspun cotton in black and white and an outrageously soft 50/25/25 tri-blend in five colors), a sweet logo, an internet website, custom packaging, lots of professional product photography, and a factory standing by ready to produce more. If you or someone you know has ever considered getting into the t-shirt business, this is one hell of an opportunity. “Turnkey,” as they say. Email us@cottonbureau.com and let’s talk about it.
Can I buy Blank tees in bulk?
Absolutely. We will sell you as many as you wanna buy. Get in touch (us@cottonbureau.com) and let’s make a deal.
We still need women’s shirts that fit people of all sizes. Will you find a replacement for your graphic tees?
We’re gonna try like hell. Nothing’s ever going to be as size-inclusive as Blank, but we’ll look around (we already have our eye on a few options). If you have a favorite women’s fit tee — something from Bella+Canvas, Next Level, Alternative Apparel, or a similar wholesale t-shirt brand (not like, the Gap) — let us know on Twitter.
You know how they say “shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”? Well look, that’s a silly saying. But we really shot for the moon on this one. We really went for it in a way that we never had before. We’re incredibly proud of what we accomplished with Blank. We hope you are too. Alright, enough with the sad stuff. Wait, nope, not just yet…
One more thing…a message from Blank’s fearless leader Michelle Sharp
“A little over two years ago, if you had told me that I’d soon be in the business of developing and manufacturing apparel (and launching a whole brand to go with it) from scratch, given my experience in the garment industry (surprise, it’s NONE), I’d have shuddered in disbelief. But there I was, with the rest of the tiny Cotton Bureau team, making it up as we went along, just like we’ve always done, and just trying to make this whole thing work so our customers — mostly our lady customers like me — could finally have a t-shirt they loved and that actually FIT them. And we did it! (Look, just because Blank is going away doesn’t mean we didn’t do it.) But we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to you, our customers and designers, who from the beginning gave us your time and care and feedback in a way that isn’t very common in business. You were brutally honest with us about our early prototypes, and we needed that. To those who backed us on Kickstarter, to those who bought a t-shirt, to those who tested our first tee samples, to those who stuck with us after fit and fabric changes, to our Blank Ambassadors, to the conferences who printed their tees on Blank because they care about size inclusivity, and to anyone who sung our praises on social media and tried their damnedest to spread the word about Blank because our voice wasn’t loud enough…thank you.” xoxo Michelle
We’ll see you around, friends. Now please please please go buy as many Blank tees as your budget will allow. ❤️🙏👕
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.
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.
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:
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 101Pittsburgh, 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.
