I Tried Print on Demand Embroidery for Two Years—Here's What Nobody Tells You

 My brother-in-law kept bugging me about this "side hustle" he heard about on some podcast. Print on demand embroidery, he said. Just upload designs, sit back, and watch the money roll in. Yeah, right.

But I was broke, working a dead-end job at a local insurance office, and frankly desperate enough to try anything. Two years later, I'm not rich, but I'm making enough to quit that soul-crushing job and work for myself. Here's the real story, warts and all.

What This Whole Thing Actually Is

Okay, so imagine you want to start a t-shirt company but you're broke and your apartment's too small for inventory. That's basically what print on demand solves. You make designs, upload them to websites like Printful or Printify, and when someone buys your stuff, they make it and ship it. You never touch the product.

Sounds too good to be true? Sometimes it is. But sometimes it works.

The embroidery part means instead of printing your design with ink, they stitch it with thread. Makes things look way more professional and expensive, which means people will actually pay decent money for it. A printed t-shirt might sell for $20, but an embroidered polo can easily go for $40.

I started with five hoodie designs about fantasy football. Figured every guy in America plays fantasy, right? Wrong. Well, not wrong, but way more complicated than that.

The Setup Was Messier Than Expected

Creating accounts took maybe an hour. Learning what the hell I was doing took three months.

First shock: not every design works for embroidery. That cool geometric pattern I spent six hours making in Photoshop? Looked like garbage when stitched. All those fine lines just became a muddy mess of thread.

Embroidery machines are basically robots following very specific instructions. Your design has to get "digitized"—converted into a map telling the machine where to put every single stitch. Most platforms do this automatically, but their software isn't great at it.

I wasted probably $200 on sample orders that looked nothing like what I expected. One design had text that was supposed to say "Champion" but came out looking like "Chumpkin" because the automatic digitizing couldn't handle the font.

Pro tip I learned the hard way: stick to simple, bold designs with thick lines and basic fonts. Save the artistic flourishes for canvas paintings.

Platform Wars (And Why They All Kinda Suck)

Printful has the best website and customer service, but they're expensive. Like, really expensive. A basic embroidered hoodie costs you $22 before you even add your markup. Try selling a $45 hoodie to someone who can get one at Target for $15.

Printify is cheaper but their quality is all over the map. I've gotten samples that looked perfect and others that looked like someone's drunk uncle did the embroidery during halftime.

CustomCat has cool products nobody else offers—like embroidered patches and weird niche stuff—but good luck if something goes wrong. Their customer service is basically nonexistent.

Gooten sits in the middle. Not the best at anything, not the worst either. Sometimes that's exactly what you need.

Here's the thing nobody mentions: you'll probably end up using multiple platforms because they each have different products and capabilities. Which means managing multiple accounts, multiple dashboards, multiple everything. Fun times.

My Product Selection Disasters

Started with 47 different products. Hoodies, t-shirts, tank tops, long sleeves, polos, hats, bags, even embroidered socks (don't ask). Sold exactly three items in my first month, none of them what I expected.

Turns out offering everything is the same as offering nothing. People get overwhelmed and leave. Now I stick to maybe five products max, and only add new ones if customers specifically ask for them.

Polos work great if you can find the right audience. Problem is, most people buying clothes online want to feel the fabric first. Polo shirts especially—there's a huge difference between a $15 polo and a $30 polo, but you can't tell from photos.

Hoodies are my bread and butter now. People expect to pay $35-50 for a decent hoodie, the embroidery looks great on them, and they're not super seasonal like I thought. Apparently people wear hoodies in July with the AC cranked up. Who knew?

Hats almost killed me. They look simple but embroidering on curved surfaces is a nightmare. Your perfectly centered design becomes lopsided because the curve throws everything off. Learned that lesson after ordering 20 samples that all looked wonky.

Design Stuff That'll Save You Money

Forget everything you know about regular graphic design. Embroidery has completely different rules that nobody explains until you've already screwed up.

Thin lines disappear or get fat and chunky. Text smaller than your pinky nail becomes unreadable thread soup. More than six colors starts looking like a rainbow exploded. Gradients are impossible—embroidery works in solid colors only.

I used to think more detail meant better design. For embroidery, it's the opposite. My best-selling design is literally just bold text saying "WEEKEND WARRIOR" with a simple arrow. Took me ten minutes to make and outsells everything else.

Color combinations matter more than I expected. Not just how they look together, but how they actually stitch. Dark thread on light fabric pops. Light thread on dark fabric looks cool. But medium colors together? Everything just blends into mush.

Started designing in embroidery software instead of Photoshop. It's clunky and weird, but you can see exactly how your design will stitch before ordering samples. Saves a ton of money on testing.

Pricing Strategy (Or How I Almost Went Broke)

My first bright idea was cost plus markup. Hoodie costs me $22, I'll sell it for $35. Seemed reasonable until I realized I was competing with Amazon and Walmart.

You cannot win on price. Period. Those companies buy millions of units direct from factories. You're buying one-offs from a print shop. Different game entirely.

Had to completely flip my thinking. Instead of "how cheap can I make this," I started asking "what would someone pay good money for?"

Turns out, people will pay $45 for a hoodie that perfectly represents something they care about. Dog breed enthusiasts, specific hobby groups, inside jokes from their friend group—that stuff has value beyond just being clothing.

My breakthrough design was for people who restore old cars. Super niche, but those guys are passionate and have disposable income. Sold 200 hoodies in six weeks at $42 each. Not because the hoodies were better, but because the design meant something to that specific group.

The Money Talk (Real Numbers)

Year one: Made $847 total. Spent about $1,200 on samples, advertising, and platform fees. So yeah, lost money.

Year two: Made $8,400. Spent maybe $2,800 on everything. Profit of $5,600, which works out to less than minimum wage for the hours I put in, but hey, progress.

This year I'm on track for about $15,000 in sales. Finally feels like a real side business instead of an expensive hobby.

Platform fees eat you alive if you don't plan for them. Printful takes about 20% when you factor in their base costs. Payment processing is another 3%. Advertising can easily be 30% of sales if you're not careful.

That $42 hoodie I mentioned? Costs me $22 for the product, $3 in platform fees, $1.50 for payment processing. If I spent $8 on advertising to get that sale, I netted maybe $7.50. Sell 100 of them and it's decent money. Sell 10 and you're buying ramen for dinner.

What Actually Makes Sales Happen

Product photos are everything. Those computer-generated mockups from platforms look fake because they are fake. Real photos on real people convert like crazy compared to digital mockups.

Started hiring my neighbor's kid to model stuff for $20 per session. Sales went up 40% just from having real photos. People buy from brands that look legit, not from obvious dropshippers.

Reviews matter more than anything else. First five reviews basically determine whether your product lives or dies. I gave away probably 50 free items to friends and family just to get those initial reviews. Worth every penny.

Social media is a weird beast. Instagram posts get maybe 20 likes, but Instagram stories somehow drive actual sales. TikTok is hit or miss—either your video gets 10 views or 10,000, no in-between.

Email marketing works if you can figure out how to get people's emails in the first place. Hard to do when you're selling through other platforms that don't share customer data.

Seasonal timing is crucial and nobody warns you about this. Christmas designs need to launch in October, not December. Back-to-school stuff should be ready by July. I missed Valentine's Day, Easter, and graduation my first year because I was always three months behind.

Mistakes That Cost Me Real Money

Tried to appeal to everyone. Made generic designs like "Dog Mom" and "Coffee Lover." Competed with thousands of identical products. Now I go super specific—"Goldendoodle Dad" or "Cold Brew Addict." Way fewer competitors, more passionate buyers.

Spent $800 on Facebook ads before understanding how to target properly. Just threw money at "people who like dogs" and wondered why nobody bought anything. Targeting is an art form that takes months to learn.

Ordered way too many samples early on. Every design variation, every product option, every color combination. My apartment looked like a failed clothing store. Now I test one version of everything and only expand if it sells.

Ignored mobile optimization. Most people shop on phones now, but my designs looked great on desktop and terrible on mobile. Lost probably six months of sales before I figured this out.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can you actually make doing this? Depends on your definition of "make." Most people earn nothing the first year while learning. If you stick with it and actually treat it like a business, maybe $500-2000 per month after a year or two. The people claiming they make $10,000 per month are either lying or working 60+ hours per week.

Do you need to be good at design? Helps, but isn't required. I'm terrible at art but decent at understanding what people want. You can hire designers cheap on Fiverr, but you need to know enough to give good direction. Learning basic design principles is worth the time investment.

What products should beginners start with? Hoodies and polos work well because people expect to pay more for them. Avoid t-shirts unless you have a really strong niche—too much competition at low price points. Skip hats and accessories until you understand embroidery limitations.

How long until you see results? Define "results." Your first sale might happen in two weeks or six months, depending on your marketing and niche selection. Consistent, meaningful income took me about 18 months. Most people quit after three months when they don't see instant success.

What's the biggest mistake new people make? Thinking this is passive income. It's not. It's a real business that requires marketing, customer service, product development, and constant learning. The "upload designs and get rich" thing is fantasy.

How do you deal with bad reviews or returns? Print-on-demand platforms handle most returns, which is great. But you still need to manage customer relationships and sometimes eat costs to keep your reputation clean. Budget about 5% of revenue for dealing with problems.

Should you use your own website or sell on marketplaces? Both. Marketplaces like Etsy give you instant traffic but take bigger cuts and limit your customer relationship. Your own website gives you control but requires driving all your own traffic. Start with marketplaces, add your own site later.

How important is it to avoid copyright issues? Super important. Using copyrighted stuff can get your accounts banned and potentially sued. Stick to original designs or properly licensed artwork. When in doubt, don't risk it. There are plenty of original ideas that won't get you in legal trouble.

The Honest Truth About This Business

Two years in, I can tell you this isn't the easy money scheme some people make it out to be. It's a real business with real challenges, real competition, and a real learning curve.

The people making good money didn't get lucky with one viral design. They treat this like a business—they research their market, test systematically, invest in good designs and marketing, and stick with it through slow periods.

Your success has way more to do with understanding your customers than creating perfect designs. I spend more time in Facebook groups and Reddit forums studying what people care about than I do actually designing. That market research is what separates successful sellers from the ones who quit after a few months.

The technical stuff—platform management, embroidery basics, order fulfillment—that you can learn pretty quickly. The business stuff—marketing, pricing, customer psychology—takes years to really get good at.

If you're expecting passive income that requires zero ongoing work, find something else. If you want to build a legitimate business that gives you control over your income and schedule, print on demand embroidery can definitely work. Just don't expect miracles, and be prepared to actually work for your success.