T-shirts as a potential niche – really?
Isn’t that the quickest way to earn chickenfeed commissions with affiliate marketing?
Nope.
The t-shirt industry is worth US$3.4 billion per year.
So even if you can get a tiny slice of that, you’ll earn a very healthy income.
And we know what happens when you tap into markets like this:
The trick here is knowing which t-shirt affiliate programs to promote.
Let’s take a look at the gems we found for you.
T-Shirt Affiliate Programs
- Redbubble
- Cuts Clothing
- Spiral Direct
- Spunky Pineapple
- Design By Humans
- Jinx
- Allied Shirts
- Shirtbox
- American Gun Association
- Busted Tees
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Redbubble
Redbubble is pretty much synonymous with cool and quirky tee shirts.
Although they’ve obviously expanded into selling products other than t-shirts, as you can see above.
So what makes Redbubble different is that their tee shirts are designed by independent creators who then upload their designs to the site.
And anyone who finds it can order it.
Redbubble takes a cut and the rest goes to the artists.
But this also means there’s a never-ending variety of tee shirts and designs on offer.
So your audience will keep coming back once there are always new products.
They’re also kinda of the OG here – they’ve done so since 2006, but many imitators have appeared since.
So what does this massively popular brand have to offer affiliate marketers?
Well, the neat thing is that it’s not just about t-shirts – they also print products like phone cases, clothing, masks, stationery, and other items that can be custom printed.
So you’ll find tees and other products to suit most audiences, from boomers to tech geeks.
And you get a 10% commission on products sold through your affiliate links as thanks.
URL: Redbubble affiliate program
Commission: 10%
Cookie duration: 30 days
Cuts Clothing
You can’t really reinvent the t-shirt…. can you?
Well, the team behind Cuts Clothing did just that.
And it was all came from the fact that founder Steven Borelli, couldn’t find the types of t-shirts that he wanted.
So he invented a new range of tee shirts instead.
Cuts Clothing has created a range of t-shirts that are suitable for both office environments and for when you’re off the clock.
Each of their tee shirts is made from their custom Pyca fabric, which is breathable making it ideal for warmer climates, but light enough to be worn under another item of clothing.
This fabric is tri-woven for durability and each product is available in three different cuts and with three different collar options.
And their tee shirts are also available in sizes up to XXL.
Is there money to be made selling t-shirts?
Yup.
Cuts t-shirts average out at about $50 each, and a typical referral results in an average order value of $125.
And you get a 5% cut on all sales, for an affiliate marketing commission of around $6 per sale.
Not bad for selling a few tee shirts.
URL: Cuts Clothing affiliate program
Commission: 5%
EPC: $32.36
Cookie duration: 30 days
Spiral Direct
Sometimes people want tee shirts that come from a range of indie creators.
And other times they just want to hit up a website like Spiral for tee shirts and designs that fit in with their lifestyle.
Spiral has supplied t-shirts to Gothic, humor, tribal, horror, metal, and vintage fans now for over 30 years.
So they have more experience with direct marketing than most other competing websites.
You’ll also find tees with everything from images of your favorite bands to wolves, fairies, dragons, and other fantasy themes.
They even cater to fetish design “content”.
And if you need slightly more wiggle room in your tee then you’ll be happy to see they sell products in sizes up to 4XL.
Spiral is a great example of a really niche t-shirt site, pretty much as far away from mainstream websites as they come.
And it’s this.
What I love about sub-niches is how well your website traffic converts.
Your audience knows what they want.
Commission: Undisclosed
EPC: TBC
Cookie duration: 30 days
Spunky Pineapple
Spunky Pineapple is an example of how to approach a market for a different angle.
Most t-shirt companies mass produce their products using digital printers.
But every single tee produced by this company is hand-screen printed in their Florida store.
Why is that a big deal?
Because this type of printing process means the design on your shirt can never crack or peel because the fabric itself has been dyed.
It’s not just a “surface” application.
So these are artisanal tee shirts – founder Christina McReynolds obviously spotted a gap in the market.
And not only that but they’re printed using 100% water-based eco-friendly inks.
Which will obviously appeal to people looking to be environmentally friendly.
They stock a range of fun and quirky tee product designs and styles for men, women, and kids ranging from standard shirts to tank tops.
First things first, Spunky Pineapple runs its affiliate program through ShareASale — the third-most-popular affiliate network, according to our affiliate marketing statistics — so make sure you have an account there.
Each product referral you generate will then earn you a 10% affiliate commission.
So you’ll earn around $25 in affiliate commissions for sales made through your website.
URL: Spunky Pineapple affiliate program
Commission: 10%
EPC: $108.65
Cookie duration: 60 days
Design By Humans
Design by Humans has been around since 2007, the earlier days of the print-on-demand tee shirt craze.
They’re very similar to Redbubble in the products they offer.
Basically, designers upload their designs to the store and if customers like what they see, Design By Humans prints off a copy and ships it.
So graphic artists from anywhere in the world can access an international audience ready to buy their products.
Your audience can find t-shirt designs here that they won’t find anywhere else.
Which is something that comic book fans, gamers, and movie aficionados love – wearing products before they were cool.
And it goes beyond just tees with Design By Humans – your visitors can also buy phone cases, tank tops, wall art, and lots of other apparel from their different categories.
So how does Design By Humans compare to the other t-shirt affiliate programs in this roundup?
Their commission rates start at 3% but go up to 10%, “depending on the site”.
This is also the joint lowest commission rate of the affiliate programs listed here but that’s balanced out by their 11% conversion rate.
URL: Design by Humans affiliate program
Commission: 3%
EPC: $24.76
Cookie duration: 30 days
Jinx
Yup, the Star Wars games graphics t-shirts caught my attention too.
Trivia: I built my first PC to play X-wing on.
Jinx is a t-shirt supplier with a difference – each of their products is aimed squarely at the video games and geek clothing market.
There’s no “hug the world” messages here – just the cool stuff you remember from when you were a kid.
Like Star Wars.
But that also includes modern gaming brands and themes like “The Witcher”, “The Division”, “Overwatch”, and “World of Warcraft”.
This from a business started out of a bedroom in 1999 but one that never lost its sense of humor.
And if your visitor doesn’t love their t-shirt, hoodie, or other clothing item then they have 120 days to return it.
Gamer products is a “raving fans” market so there’s a real opportunity here for affiliate marketers.
You won’t have to pre-sell these tees.
Just show your audience their tee shirts and apparel – they’ll become customers without even thinking.
So while the 7% commission you get isn’t huge these products will sell themselves.
Affiliate programs like this are a no-brainer.
Commission: 7%
EPC: TBC
Cookie duration: 30 days
Allied Shirts
Allied Shirts is a print-on-demand t-shirt supplier but is somewhat different from the other affiliate programs listed here.
They’re less about quirky designs and more about bulk printing of tees.
Which is fine because we’ve already featured several affiliate programs for audiences looking for brands and bands.
Allied Shirts has a very straightforward website that allows you to choose the style of tees you want and how many of them you need.
Then you can either upload your own design or use their designer and/or templates to tweak text, logos, graphics, etc.
And then just hit the “Submit” button to order your products with the exact look you wanted.
So they’re ideal for corporate or team tees, or even just once-off tees for events like birthday parties or conferences.
Just an FYI – affiliates will need a Link Connector account to promote the Allied Shirts program.
The 3% commission rate put me off at first, but this affiliate program has a very healthy 7-day EPC of $32.
This is a strong indicator that at least some of their affiliates are making regular sales.
URL: Allied Shirts affiliate program
Commission: 3%
EPC: $24.10
Cookie duration: 30 days
Shirtbox
And now we have an offer for our UK-based affiliates – Shirtbox.
It’s also a pretty cool story of a company started by two college friends with a common interest in t-shirt design.
Which turned into a business with 20 people designing, printing, and shipping their tees to the four corners of the world.
They use lots of social proof on their site – their testimonials all feature actual customers wearing their tees.
And not hired models pretending to have “fun”.
What are their products and designs like?
Irreverent, bright, fun, sarcastic, and pretty much everything you could want for a pop-culture-focused audience.
There’s something for almost everyone.
So, how does this affiliate offer compare to the other programs here?
Well, affiliates get a 15% share of sales of t-shirts and other products, with a cookie length of 30 days to play with.
Something to point out is that they’re also one of the top-performing tee shirt affiliate programs on ShareASale.
Which usually means they’re delivering the goods for affiliates.
URL: Shirtbox affiliate program
Commission: 15%
EPC: $55.62
Cookie duration: 30 days
American Gun Association
You really never know what you’ll find when researching a niche.
And t-shirt affiliate programs was no different in that regard.
Because I found a t-shirt program for the Gun Association of America via ClickBank.
Now, love it or hate it, the citizens of the United States take the 2nd Amendment very seriously.
Yes, this is a contentious subject, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ready buyers for these tees.
This is about as niche as this roundup could get.
But those truly focused audiences tend to be the ones where you also find a lot of money.
This isn’t going to be a program you can build an entire affiliate site around, but that’s down to the value of individual sales more than anything else.
But this is an interesting program if you’re in/going to be in the prepper/survival/outdoor niche.
Just bear in mind you’ll only make around $9 per sale, so you’ll need to generate a lot of orders.
URL: American Gun Association affiliate program
Commission: $9 per sale
Gravity: 9
Cookie duration: 60 days
Busted Tees
Busted Tees has served the pop culture tee shirt market since 2004.
So they actually pre-date the vast majority of other tee producers out there.
And you can see why their tees are so popular when you check out their various “Collections” or categories.
There’s a tee to suit pretty much any pop culture reference you can think of, with ones for both men and women.
From the political to the retro to gaming and sci-fi inspired.
Each one designed by indie artists.
You’ll find literally thousands of different designs with something to suit everyone.
They also offer flat-rate, but not free, shipping everywhere except two countries – Saudi Arabia and Israel.
And here we have the last of the t-shirt affiliate programs in our roundup.
Busted Tees shirts cost around $20 each, but typical orders seem to include 2 or more tee shirts.
But with that said you only get 5% commission on each sale.
So you’ll need to generate a lot of sales to replace your day job income i.e. you’ll need other revenue streams.
URL: Busted Tees affiliate program
Commission: 5%
EPC: $33.79
Cookie duration: 30 days
Over to You
And that brings us neatly to the end of our roundup of t-shirt affiliate programs.
As always, we only focused on programs where you can make money i.e. they have proven sales metrics
By the way, we didn’t feature Crazy Dog T-Shirts because we couldn’t find their affiliate program.
Which is a shame because they appear to be a solid performer in this market.
Sorry, Crazy Dog.
This market still has a lot of potential for somebody who wants to start earning money online.
Just make sure you’ve done your due diligence before building your website.
Otherwise, you could spend years working on one that doesn’t earn you much.
Not sure how that works?
Well, we explain all the basics of niche and keyword research in our free training.
You will learn how to avoid all the mistakes we’ve made in the past with our own sites.
All without having to pay a single cent for that information.
Just tell us what email address to send your invite to, and we’ll get that over to you ASAP.
