Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published February 17, 2022.

Selling custom clothing on Shopify has never been easier. With the explosion in print on demand providers, you no longer need to stock and print the inventory yourself. This allows you to start a business and get sales without any large up-front cost. As you grow, you may look to bring your fulfilment in house to improve margins for example.

In this guide, we will cover some of the best apps for selling custom clothing on Shopify that support both models. Let’s dive in!

Which custom clothing model best describes you?

Depending on what type of business model you either currently have or plan to have will dictate which Shopify apps you will get the most value from. There are 2 main business models for selling custom clothing. These are:

  • Self print
  • 3rd party print on demand

Self print

Self print is where you will print the custom clothing yourself or “in house“. You will more than likely have the blank stock on hand and will print your products either in advance or when the orders are placed and ready to be fulfilled.

The types of apps you will require for your custom clothing Shopify store will require you to present the product range you have on offer and also to provide print ready files, especially if you allow for customization.

3rd party print on demand

If you are not printing the products yourself, you will need a print provider. Nowadays, print on demand providers can handle the entire fulfilment of you Shopify store for you.

You simply need to drive traffic to your store and get sales, they will print, pack and ship your orders for you. Some even handle returns! The types of Shopify apps you need for this model are print on demand app providers who offer this service. They usually include mockup generators, product range and fulfilment locations.

5 best apps for self print custom clothing

Custom Product Builder

This is a comprehensive custom product app that comes with many additional options to help you sell custom products. There are live preview options and flexible customisation options. This is suited to all types of custom products including custom clothing and provides print ready files. There are various pricing plans based on the features you require.

Product Options and Customizer

This customization app allows you to overcome the 100 max variant limit in Shopify. This can be handy when selling custom clothing with many designs, styles, sizes and colours. here are various pricing plans based on the features you require.

Inkybay ‑ Product Customizer

As well as providing visual mockups, you can let your customers customize their items with inkybay. It comes with advance product options & quantity discount feature. The app provides print ready files and pricing is based on volume and features.

Best Product Customizer

Kickflip integrates seamlessly with Shopify, allowing you to sell customizable products online. Build your product customizer yourself with our easy-to-use interface — no coding skills required. Geared more towards custom products that have customisable parts, this could be perfect for custom shoes, hats, bags, hoodies and more.

Zakeke Visual Customizer 3D/AR

Similar to the other product customizer apps, this has a powerful AR/VR option. Customers see and interact with a live 3D model of their products and see it in their real world thanks to the Augmented Reality.

 

7 best apps for print on demand custom clothing

Printful

With one of the widest ranges available and fulfilment on multiple continents, Printful is a great option to launch your print on demand business. Margins can be slim if your products aren’t differentiated enough but this is compensated by the service and offering.

Gelato

This company has seen exponential growth recently as well as receiving great funding. Whilst their move into clothing was relatively recent, the offering is expanding and again they offer global fulfilment options. Costs are relatively fair allowing you some healthy margin on certain product lines.

Printify

Prinitfy is a marketplace bringing multiple providers from all around the world into one easy to use app. The moment you start doing any volume through the app, you should get the premium option to save on fees from Printify. This will bring the cost of the products down.

Gooten

Gooten is a globally distributed company that operates a smart supply chain for brands that are looking to utilize print-on-demand manufacturing to transform the way they do business. They have a global network comprising of 30+ partners which allows them to offer a wide product range.

Teelaunch

TeeLaunch have been around since 2015 and have helped launched 100,000s print on demand stores for Shopify merchants. You will need to set customer expectation as sometimes orders can take a little longer to be fulfilled. Despite the name, they cover a large range of products providing lots of opportunity.

AOP

AOP provide Print-on-Demand Dye-sublimation (All Over Print) & Direct to Garment products and fulfil to your customers with your brand. AOP is extremely start-up friendly and ideal for artists, bloggers, designers, photographers, online communities and anyone else who would like to create and run their own online store without stocking any items.

Prodigi

Whilst Prodigi is geared towards fine art, they provide custom clothing through their network of partners. The easy-to-use Shopify print on demand app enables Artists, Illustrators, Photographers, Bands and Brands to turn designs into premium quality print on demand merchandise.