5 Things Teemill Don’t Tell You
Teemill are a sustainable clothing manufacturing and fulfilment business. I use them to run my passion-project called Nerdity — a t-shirt business catering for geeks and nerds that love retro gaming, cars and tech.
My History with Teemill
I started my journey with Teemill in the spring of 2019 when I just fancied merging my enjoyment of graphic design with my life-long insistence on wearing geeky t-shirts.
So I started looking around at how I could get my designs onto T-Shirts. I quickly realised that I could go down the “mass produced” route and swim in a massive ocean of good, bad and ugly designs in some of the cheaper stores. Those stores (I won’t name them) will print on t-shirts, posters, key chains, mugs, mouse mats, whatever you fancy. They take your design, and simply print on demand on whatever surface your customer chooses.
But usually, these are mass-produced, using low quality inks, sweat-shop t-shirts and the orders take weeks to arrive with your customer. You might make a bit more money, but in reality you are giving a bad quality and bad experience to your customers.
I also considered buying in bulk and getting things printed so that I could fulfil orders myself. Now that is obviously a bad idea given that I had no idea what designs would be popular, what sizes and colours I would need, and I didn’t want to fill my garage with stock (anyway my Wife has already filled it with Gym equipment!)
I wanted something more ethical, something that represented my brand properly and a company that clearly gave a shit about their customers. So I stumbled across Teemill. A company that advertised itself as sustainable, ethical, planet friendly.
So Who Are Teemill?
Teemill are based on the Isle of Wight. They started out life as Rapanui who source materials and stock from India, where it is organically farmed and GOTS certified. Teemill is the brand that takes what Rapanui built and white labels it for others to use. They then take the blank garments and print your designs on them in their factories that use renewable solar power and recycled water.
Teemill in fact take care of everything. They give you the website builder, product designer, they manage customer delivery and returns, and even supply beautiful plastic-free packaging.
You market your company, upload your designs, Teemill do all the work in the middle, and 30 days after you sell something, you get a Paypal payment of your profit.
What Don’t Teemill Tell You?
After about 18 months of using the system, promoting my brand, and talking to other store owners — including running a Facebook Group — I have learned quite a bit, including the frustrating parts of owning a Teemill Store.
1. Rapanui Still Exists
It was explained that Rapanui started out, they built the factories and the technology, and then realised that it was a good idea to be able to offer this stuff to other people who wanted to build their own clothing brand. Whilst I am sure this is true, the fact is Rapanui is promoted A LOT. They get access to clothing lines that Teemill store owners do not get access to, and they appear to be able to offer pricing that is simply not possible on Teemill. So in a certain sense, they are competitive. For instance, some Teemill store owners offer plain t-shirts, with no design. Rapanui are promoting this shirt for £12, if you add one of these shirts to your Teemill store, the minimum price you can advertise it for is £15. The store tools will not let you set it any lower, as presumably there are higher costs in running Teemill than Rapanui.
Personally it doesn’t really matter to me, I am marketing to a very niche audience and it’s about my designs, not about plain garments. However I do know there is a level of frustration amongst other store owners.
2. Profit is …. Meh
You work hard to generate an audience. Perhaps you throw a few quid towards Google or Facebook to promote an Ad. You maybe even provide a freebie or two to some influencers that you think may help get the word out. You finally sell a T-Shirt. £19 plus postage is the recommended price point. You make £2.08 from that sale. A couple of pounds for all that work. To make it worse you may choose to seek the benefits of being a “Pro” store. That let’s you connect a domain, gives you a Blog, a bigger catalogue of products, and costs around £10 per month. So you need to sell 5 T-Shirts per month just to break even.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Think about it, as a Teemill Store Owner your only responsibility is to build your brand and create the designs. You don’t have to think about customer service, or packaging, or printing, or stock management, or any of that stuff. On balance, and given the fact that Teemill are constantly adding new features to the service, I think they are investing in growth and that takes money. Yes we all want more per sale, and hopefully this will come as Teemill grow, but don’t go into this expecting to be rolling in cash like a Rap video.
3. Quality WAS …. Meh
18 months ago, I ordered my first samples for personal use. After 2 months, the print was faded and flaky and I was disappointed. YES I hadn’t followed the carefully worded washing instructions. YES, I had tumble-dried them. BUT I was expecting a nice long-lasting print.
The T-Shirts themselves were ultra-soft and actually really quite nice, but the prints ended up a disappointment.
However, in August / September, Teemill made some upgrades to their factory. They had new inks and a better process, and since then, things have improved remarkably. I still ignore the carefully worded washing instructions, but all my prints have lasted and continue to look good. No flaking, no fading, the same vivid colours and clarity as when new. I’ve had good reports from customers too. So this is good.
I still hear stories of the occasional QC problem, but I know Teemill treat these seriously and resolve problems without fuss.
4. Don’t Expect Teemill To Do All The Work
In talking to a lot of other Teemill Store Owners, there is an expectation that you will get lots of sales within the first few days of launching. Even more there is an expectation that Teemill will promote your store to their 18k Instagram and Facebook Followers.
They do sporadically promote a store. Usually it’s one that is either ethically / conservation based, is a charity, or is based on the Isle of Wight. That’s fair enough, these are aligned with the values of Teemill, and their marketing spend has to stop somewhere.
For some, there is an expectation that you sign up to a free service (or a £10 per month service), and Teemill will put their hand in their pocket and shout about you from the hilltops. Sorry, it’s just not practical, and not reasonable.
I do believe that “a rising tide raises all ships” and that if Teemill managed to get traffic to more of their Store Owner’s sites, then they would also benefit, but it really can’t work for everyone, all of the time.
5. So It’s Not Really Worth All The Effort?
It depends what you set out to do. For me, I didn’t set up Nerdity to make myself loads of money. I set it up as a passion project. I am hugely happy seeing people wearing my designs, from retro gamers my age, to newer gamers in their teens and 20s, through to people who love Land Rovers, synthesizers or Pink Floyd. Seeing people wearing my designs, and getting feedback about how thrilled their Dad/Mum/Grandfather/Son/Daughter was at receiving one of my designs for a special occassion. That’s what drives me.
Others want to build awareness of good causes, or a civil movement. Others want to build a streetwear brand. Other simply want some extra income over and above their job.
So I cannot say whether it’s worth it to everyone. For me, I feel Teemill are a good partner, with a good set of values, and some excellent products.
For More Thoughts About Teemill
Hop over to our independent Facebook Group — Teemill Vendor Community
If you want to sign up to Teemill, click my Affiliate link https://teemill.com/?aff=craig-nerdity
See my Teemill Blog
NEW BLOG 2022 perspective on Teemill
My list of known Teemill stores has now been removed at the request of Teemill. However, I am publishing a series of blog posts featuring a number of stores that are also powered by Teemill.
https://nerdity.co.uk/blog/teemill-stores-list-part-1/
https://nerdity.co.uk/blog/teemill-stores-list-part-2/
https://nerdity.co.uk/blog/teemill-stores-list-part-3/
