Part Time T-Shirt Painting

The T-Shirt is one of the most popular attires today especially for youngsters.

The price of a T-Shirt ranges from a low quality RM5.00 per piece to branded T-Shirts that can cost more then RM100.00 per piece.

A hand-painted T-Shirt is a piece of art and you can never produce the same design again unlike those which are mass-produced.
The market for T-Shirts is huge but the competition is very high as well. I believe it is very important to be in the niche market; for example, T-Shirt painting on certain subjects or characters. Remember an artist who produces artworks on T-shirts about current issues (looks like me and sounds like me ??? ), can actually make headlines in the newspaper and his simple T-Shirt can sell at RM35 per piece.

What is the market potential for Part- Time T-Shirt Painting?

It is very difficult to determine the price of an art piece. The hand -painted T-Shirt can be considered a unique item that has no other similar product in the world. Thus, it should fetch a premium price over the normal T-Shirt.

It is normal for an exclusive T-shirt to be sold at RM50.00 or more per piece. You will be able to command a better price once your product is well accepted and in demand in the market.

How can I start this Part -Time T-Shirt Painting?

Get a set of good quality fabric paint and some plain T-Shirt, that’s all. You can produce your own T-Shirt painting. You have to wear the T-Shirt yourself and ask opinion from friends and relatives, let them know that you are making it yourself and offer to make one for them at the minimum fees just to cover the cost. Words will be passed around among your group of friends.

You may consider flea market as well where you can actually do a live demonstration on how you produce your artwork.

Charity drive is a good way to promote your products as well. Do consider working with any non- profit organizations to raise funds for those in need.

Please be careful on those trademark and copyright items as you might not want to get yourself into legal issues. Always produce your own artwork.

My opinion

If you like art and you enjoy the process of making an art piece more than the monetary return, this is one of the best part- time businesses. Please consider a label for yourself as you might be able to create a brand name for your collection in the future.

Choose good quality T-shirts and fabric paint to compliment your quality artwork. Position yourself to produce a premium product. And most importantly, focus on a niche market. For example if you are good in cars, then paint something about cars, create a character in your painting and be good, by specializing in it.

Since this is a premium and limited item, never compete in terms of pricing, just create your identity and never follow what others do.

You might not even want to put a fixed price on your product, but just selling it according to what you feel like doing, may be that is what we call an artist’s character.