As of today, all of the t-shirts we're selling are printed in and shipped from East Van!
We launched in November of 2018 using a US-based fulfillment company, which seemed like a good idea at the time but was far from it, for a number of reasons.
With this company we were able to launch with a bunch of different products for free: we didn't have to keep anything in stock and they were able to print orders digitally as they came in. They print millions of products per year, for thousands of companies, and we used them because they were easy.
We wanted to to see if people would be interested in these designs, to see if they would stick. And they did: we received thousands of orders.
We also received hundreds of notes from customers telling us they were disappointed that their shirts were coming from North Carolina, when we should be supporting local business. The 4-week turnaround time from order to delivery didn't make it any better.
It was a stupid mistake, and we're sorry we didn't try harder to find a local vendor right out of the gate. But we're learning as we go with this project, so we went to work trying to find a company locally that could do everything we needed. From printing the shirts to storing them to shipping out orders, we found a great business in True North Screenprinting in East Van. Check out this quick video we made about them:
Thanks to everyone who has ordered from us, especially those of you who expressed your concern over us not printing locally. YOU are awesome.
We look forward to releasing more t-shirts and other products over the coming years, celebrating both British Columbia and Vancouver, and the gems that make our city and province what they are.