Our Story

In the fall of 2006, a group of friends found themselves in need of custom-printed t-shirts. As the recent founders of their high school's tennis club, they planned to hold a tennis tournament in the spring to celebrate a full year of lightning-fast serves and quick lunges. Preparations for the tournament were underway when Raymond Lei, the tennis club's president, had an idea: why not design t-shirts to express school spirit while promoting the tournament? His requirements seemed simple: the t-shirts should be affordable, yet attractive. Unfortunately, Raymond soon discovered that his requirements weren't so simple. When Raymond sat down to design and order the club's t-shirts, he was hugely disappointed. Every store that printed custom t-shirts demanded prices that exceeded the club's budget.

Raymond couldn't believe that a simple three-color print (pictured to the right) could be so expensive. After some investigating, he discovered that custom t-shirt printing stores, even those that bought their t-shirts wholesale, operated with mark-ups in the range of 50-60%! Raymond realized that it was unlikely that his school's tennis club could ever wear their own designs. In fact, it seemed unlikely that any small club would be able to afford quality custom t-shirts.

But Raymond thought that if no one wanted to offer a fair price, perhaps he could offer one. As the day of the tournament approached, he founded his own custom t-shirt printing company and named it ooShirts. Raymond's plans were modest: with the help of a few friends, he would primarily assist clubs and other organizations at his high school. However, as ooShirts's attention to detail and honest pricing began to attract customers beyond his high school, Raymond realized that his modest idea had grown into a business that could offer a genuinely valuable service to groups and individuals beyond his local community.

On March 17th, 2007, ooShirts launched its first website. We kept it simple and designed the site around a quote generator and a preview feature. No ads, no frills—just clean, efficient custom t-shirt printing. We rejected the idea of paid advertising, and instead, relied on word-of-mouth as we spent our time and energy on building a company with low prices, fast shipping times, and above all, dedication to our customers.

Since we launched our website, we've made steady improvements to ooShirts and stuck to our values (see Our Philosophy). As a result, we have a high customer return rate (see Recent Reviews) and one of the highest growth rates among custom-print stores. And as long as we're around, we'll continue to stand firmly by the values that have built ooShirts into the business it is today.

Our Principles

We have one guiding principle: we value good business. What does "good" mean to us? Simply put, we think a business should provide a valuable service. A good business should benefit the customer: you.

1. We get it right the first time.

» We take your deadlines very seriously.
We know you might have a play to publicize or fundraisers to promote. Our very first customers were busy high school clubs—we fully understand that receiving custom-printed orders on time is nonnegotiable. In fact, we offer a full refund if your order arrives past its expected delivery date (see Our Guarantee for more details).
» Attention to detail.
Once you've sent us your design, our graphic artists ensure your design appears at its very best. We'll keep a careful eye out for potential printing errors and strive to improve the print quality of your shirts. Our aim does not merely include matching your design. Rather, we aim to provide prints that exceed our online preview.
» Quality printing.
We're detail-oriented and committed to giving you exactly what you designed. If you discover that your shirts have been poorly printed, we'll offer a full refund (see Our Guarantee for more details). But throughout our four years, we've made sure this problem doesn't happen very often. Very rarely has a customer has never returned an order due to a design that faded or fell apart after a few washes.

2. We value open and frequent communication.

» No unnecessary mark-ups.
We offer the lowest prices available. To ensure our affordability, we conduct regular surveys of stores both on and offline (see Why Our Prices Are So Low). We're dedicated to spending our time and financial resources on what matters most: attractive t-shirts at attractive prices. Fast, streamlined shipping.
» A simple, yet powerful design experience.
We provide the tools necessary to customize your shirt. With our online design lab, you're able to add fonts, insert clipart, upload your own image, and if you're not completely satisfied, you're even able to completely redesign your shirt. We make continual improvements to our design lab to create the perfect design experience.
» Transparency.
We want you to know what we're doing. If you call us at any time, we'll have information about your order ready for you. If we spot a misaligned letter or other potential printing errors that require adjustments to your design, we'll send you a design proof before printing. And if you have a question about how your design will look when printed, we'll give you honest, constructive feedback. We've been in the business for a while—we know t-shirts.

3. We keep it simple.