How small businesses use Teespring to create more than merch

Americans are known for their entrepreneurial spirit and ‘go-getter’ attitude—after all, that’s how Teespring started in 2011! Since then, Teespring has been empowering people across the globe to create and sell custom products with no upfront costs, risk, or hassle. We’re proud to be a platform that enables people to create their own businesses and brands, raise funds for events and causes, and engage with communities who share their passions.

How Teespring works

This Small Business Saturday, we’d like to share the stories of three family-owned businesses using Teespring right here in the U.S.A. Learn how each family uses custom merchandise as marketing and engagement tools to help grow their businesses.

Dill Farms

Fort Scott, Kansas

Looking for a drastic change from Seattle, Emily and Marc Vance decided to move halfway across the United States to her grandparents’ farm in Fort Scott, Kansas. Emily turned to Teespring to create and sell Dill Farms-branded merchandise — an effective marketing tactic that has helped them engage with the local community while advertising the farm’s services. The Vance’s have since moved but in keeping with tradition, Dill Farms continues to be family owned and locally operated (as it has been for 150 years, with 25 years being under the Dill family). Apart from local farming activities, the family frequently hosts craft workshops, parties, and photoshoots. All proceeds from the merchandise sales go straight into farm repairs and help keep Dill Farms thriving.

D&B Performance and Automotive Repair

Burrillville, Rhode Island

D&B Performance and Automotive Repair, owned by Dawn and Bob Tufano, has been family owned and operated since 2000. After customers began to inquire about their employees’ unique uniforms, daughter Rachel Tufano began using Teespring’s made-to-order service, Teespring Direct, before eventually turning to a print-on-demand model and opened a Teespring storefront for the business.

“The customers were actually a pretty big part of why I chose Teespring as well, because I’d be able to just give people the links to the designs and they could purchase them on their own versus us having to order hundreds in bulk and either give them away for free (which is SO costly) or make little to no profit on them because they were so expensive to buy to begin with (again, SO costly).”

Current profits are put towards funding daily expenses, such as payroll, new uniforms, and garage supplies.

GoodShipp Alpaca Co.

Louisville, Kentucky

Teespring was the perfect solution for GoodShipp Alpaca Co., owned by Jamie and Evan Shipp. After operating a small farm for a few years, the couple decided to turn their hobby of Alpaca shearing into an integral part of their business by turning the alpaca fiber into products to sell to their customers. Being a relatively small farm, the Shipp family use several methods, including selling merchandise on Teespring, as a way to supplement their income and promote their business until they can run the farm full-time. So far, revenue earned has gone toward general farm expenses, but has also helped expand their herd with a new alpaca, Hank!