Apparel is coming: a complete range from 1 November

From 1 November, creativehub artists will be able to sell a complete apparel range, printed to order at our new production site in Plano, Texas: hoodies, sweatshirts, crop tops and every type of t-shirt, printed front and back, as well as tote bags, embroidered caps and printed caps. Here is what is coming, and how we think it should be sold.

The range

We print on AS Colour blanks: high quality, organic, and consistent from one run to the next. Everything is made to theprintspace quality, which means the same care over colour, finish and packing that goes into a fine art print. Hoodies, sweatshirts and crop tops. T-shirts in every cut, printed front and back. Tote bags. Caps, embroidered or printed.

Why Texas

We launched t-shirt printing a year ago and learned two things quickly. We needed keener pricing and a much bigger range, and a production site of our own in the United States gives us both. It also gives us one parcel. When someone orders a print of yours and some apparel, we pack them together, in packaging consistent with your branding, with a letter from you inside if you want one. The buyer gets one delivery that feels like it came from you, because it did.

Sell it in drops, not in a gift shop

The other thing we learned is that apparel should be sold in time-limited drops, the same as fine art prints, and treated like limited edition pieces rather than merchandise. Scarcity drives sales, and the lack of it makes sales drop. A hoodie that exists for ten days, in a run that will not be repeated, is part of your work. A hoodie that is always available is a gift shop. There is a reason people used to queue around the block for Supreme.

Apparel is also where a new generation of collectors starts. Younger audiences are more interested in art than any before them at the same stage of life, and they are not yet buying prints: not the income, often not a permanent home to hang one in. A t-shirt or a cap is how they take part now, and in time they move up to prints and originals. That is the diffusion model, and apparel is its base.

What happens next

The Plano unit is operational on 1 November. We will publish the full range, pricing and the ordering flow as we get close to launch, and the artists we work with through the agency will hear from their artist manager first. If you are not on the list yet, get a sales estimate and you will hear as soon as it opens, along with a short series of emails on growing your art sales.