Would you buy axolotl t-shirts? Advice needed!

Hi everyone! I disappeared for a while because work and art have been calling my name! My lotls are all still doing well(I'll be updating my post in the gallery section to show how everyone is doing later) and I've been doing great too! I was recently offered an opportunity to start my own t-shirt printing company and it has me really excited!

One of the projects I'm considering is a line of axolotl awareness t-shirts. I'd like to put a portion of the money made from the t-shirts toward some sort of axolotl conservation program but I need to acquire more information on programs and iron out the fine details on that.

I just wanted to get some thoughts, advice, and maybe some ideas from some of the biggest axolotl fans I know on this venture! Let me know what you think of the designs, what you would be willing to pay for it(I'm thinking somewhere to the tune of $30 each depending on the detail of the design), tips on programs, legalities of offering to donate money per sale(don't want to start something and get in trouble for overlooking any rules!), and anything else that you think might be helpful!

I would also be interested in hearing from fellow artists who would be interested in contributing designs to the project. You would receive a percentage of each shirt sold if your art is selected, but those are details that can be discussed elsewhere.

Anyway, here are some images/sketches that I'm considering using for the shirts:

I'd buy one. I want TO BE an axolotl. Okay,maybe I'm over doing it. lol but sure I'd for sure buy a shirt but one aimed for women like a tank top. A pink tank top that has a leucistic! I don't really like those manly looking t-shirts that go up to the neck and choke your arm pits.

TBH there are laready 100s on the market - etsy, cafepress, zazzle, ebay all do them. And I have 3 home-made 'print you own and iron it on' axie t-shirts.

So unless you can come up with something really original/different/interesting I don't think ther is much mileage in it. There are loads of 'cute cartoon axie on a t-shirt' designs out there already.

I don't mean to disocurage you, and if you want to make some for yourself or friends go ahead, but commercially it will be a very small market you're aiming at and profits would be slim. $30 = £18, I wouldn't pay that for a t-shirt, I pay £5-8 for a plain t-shirt and £10 for a pack of transfer paper that does 20 or more t-shirts.

auntiejude said:

TBH there are laready 100s on the market - etsy, cafepress, zazzle, ebay all do them. And I have 3 home-made 'print you own and iron it on' axie t-shirts.

So unless you can come up with something really original/different/interesting I don't think ther is much mileage in it. There are loads of 'cute cartoon axie on a t-shirt' designs out there already.

I don't mean to disocurage you, and if you want to make some for yourself or friends go ahead, but commercially it will be a very small market you're aiming at and profits would be slim. $30 = £18, I wouldn't pay that for a t-shirt, I pay £5-8 for a plain t-shirt and £10 for a pack of transfer paper that does 20 or more t-shirts.

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No worries, it's not discouraging. I realize that it's easy for the thrifty/artsy person to buy a plain t-shirt and art it up themselves(that's most certainly the route that I would take). But there is a wide market of people that don't have that talent who are willing to spend extra for something that they can't produce on their own.

I think I should also point out that these aren't going to be only marketed online where they compete with cafepress, zazzle, and the like. We're going to be at the local fairs, festivals, parades, ect as well where we offer not only the cute art, but personalized text that can be added on site.

One of the other different kind of things that we'll be offering are shirts with just the lineart of the axolotls(and other various linearts too) that you can color/fabric paint yourself for an even more unique/customizable design.