Print on demand vs bulk production: the honest comparison

What does print on demand do well?

No stock, no minimum, no money up front. You upload a design, a printer puts it on a blank garment when someone orders, and ships it. For a first test of a design, for an audience you do not know yet, or for a side project, that is exactly right. We say so to artists who ask us, and we mean it.

Where does print on demand stop?

The garment is a blank from a catalogue: the same fit, fabric and label as everyone else's. The print is applied one at a time, so colour, placement and durability vary from piece to piece and nobody checks the piece before it ships. Margin per piece is thin, because you pay retail for each print and each shipment. Shipping is per order from wherever the printer is, so a fan in another country pays for it and waits for it. And when a drop or a tour peaks, hundreds of orders in an hour, one-at-a-time production is the bottleneck.

What does bulk production change?

The garment becomes yours: fabric, fit, weight, colour, labels, trims and packaging are developed for you, sampled, approved and produced in a run. Every piece is checked before it goes into stock. The unit cost drops with the run, and the run is held in a warehouse from which orders leave within days, worldwide. The price of that is commitment: a minimum per style per colour, a lead time of sampling plus production plus transport, and stock that has to sell.

At GEKKO Agency, merchandise for artists is quoted per project. A garment in your own fabric and colour starts at 250 pieces per style per colour, because we produce your fabrics and colours to order. Smaller numbers are possible with locally printed or embroidered blanks, or occasionally with leftover fabric from an earlier production, agreed per project. We tell you which route fits before you commit; the MOQ guide explains the number.

Print on demand or bulk merch: which one is right for you?

If you sell a handful of pieces a month and have not tested the design, print on demand. If a drop sells out, if there is a tour with venues to stock, if the store should be open all year, or if the merchandise has to feel like the artist and not like a printed blank, produce. Many artists start with the first and move to the second when the audience is there.

Where does GEKKO Agency fit?

We start where a partner makes sense: design, development and production with fixed production partners under our own quality control, the official store, our own warehouse in Rotterdam, shipping to 36+ countries and the people who answer your fans. One company, since 2013. If you are still at the print on demand stage, we would rather tell you that today and talk again when the numbers change.