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Frequently Asked Questions
Why Custom Apparel?
If you are new to custom apparel, it is pretty cool! You can easily place any design you wish onto the apparel of your choice, providing countless uses for individuals, communities, and companies including:
- Unique and personalized gifts
- Family reunions and birthday parties
- Baby showers and bachelor/bachelorette parties
- Charities, churches, and fundraising events
- Festivals, conferences, and concerts
- Awareness campaigns and political candidacies
- Business promotions and team building.
Why not get started putting your ideas to work today?!
How Does Custom Apparel Work?
Don’t worry, configuring your creating apparel is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Step 1 – Choose a product
Browse our large catalog.
Select the product is that is perfect for you.
Step 2 – Apply a design
Upload your logo or design.
OR Select from our collection of artwork.
Step 3 – Finish the process
Choose quantities and colors and then fill your cart.
Relax while we deliver your inspiration to your door!
How Do I Create A Great Design?
The most important thing about custom apparel is making sure that you have the perfect design. This challenge has two primary aspects to it – graphical appeal and technical considerations. Let’s explore each of these.
Graphical Appeal
Graphical appeal is pretty simple. Does your design look the way you want it to? Does it capture your initial inspiration? If you have the perfect design, then great! If not, we can help in several ways:
1) Many of our customers find a design they like from one of the readymade templates that we offer. If this appeals to you, explore our templates to see what we offer out of the box.
2) Maybe you have a firm design idea that you like but it needs work. A common example is when you have a photo which contains the design you want but you don’t have a good way to create your specific design from the photo. We offer additional Design Assistance in these instances for $35/hour with a one-hour minimum. In most cases, customers pay less than $50 for their finished design and have it completed within 3 business days. Get started now by completing our Design-Image Help Form.
3) Sometimes, however, you have a bunch of design ideas swirling in your head but nothing which is firm and no real starting point. In this case, you probably need to consult a graphic artist. If you don’t already have a graphic artist we would recommend you check out Venus 9 Design. They provide high quality and affordable graphic design services.
Technical Considerations
Technical considerations are, well, they’re technical. The information below while certainly not comprehensive does cover the most common challenges people encounter. If this isn’t getting you where you need to go, then please call us or reach out through our Design-Image Help Form.
As a starting point, technical challenges usually come down to two related things: 1) image quality and size and 2) configuring an image. But before we bore you with a bunch of technical jargon, let’s start with a basic idea. If you can upload your image files with our design tools and place those images onto your apparel choices in a way that looks good to you, then continue on with your shopping journey. Rest assured, we review all of the images uploaded as part of your order and we often implement small corrections to improve the quality of the final product. In exceptional circumstances, your images could require significant work and if that’s the case we will reach out to you.
Now, a few details about image files. The first important detail is size. Really large files can be make life difficult as working them is often slow and labor intensive for you AND our tools limit the maximum size of an individual image you upload to 25MB. Next, our tools accept most common image file types like svg, ai, eps, pdf, gif, jpg, png, and tiff. If you have options, then it is best to provide svg, ai, or eps file types. If you can’t provide one of these preferred file types, that is absolutely okay. Upload whatever file type you have and you will end up in the exact same place – with great looking custom apparel that you’ll love!
But, you may ask, “what if I can’t get my images placed on my apparel in a way that looks good to me?”. If this happens then please reach out to us. Below are the four most common challenges people encounter and we can address all of them:
- “When I make my design bigger, the resolution is poor or the image is blurry.”
- “I want to change some of the colors within my design but I don’t have the ability to do it.”
- “My image has a white background. I want the background to be transparent.”
- “I can’t place my designs in the desired locations.”
Legal Reminder
Keep in mind that by uploading Artwork, you represent that you have full legal rights to use the images you provide.
How Do I Choose The Right Size?
Once you have selected your apparel and placed your design, you will then choose the quantities and sizes you want. Where available, we have included brand specific sizing charts provided by manufacturers to aid in your size selection.
What Should I Know About Materials?
While there are dozens and dozens of different materials used in products we offer, there are three broad categories which are most useful to understand:
- 100% cotton items are going to be sturdier, less prone to wrinkling, more colorfast, and better for sensitive skin
- Tri-blends (50% cotton, 25% polyester, 25% rayon) are going to be lighter, quicker drying, more stretchy and form fitting, and less susceptible to shrinking
- CVC or 50/50 blends (cotton/polyester) are the Goldilocks of the group, falling somewhere between 100% cotton and tri-blends.
Each product has it own page which contains details including the material composition of the item.
Does Lightning Tees Embroider?
Absolutely! If you are looking for embroidery you have come to the right place. We do a lot of embroidery! In our experience, online tools haven’t evolved sufficiently to ensure a consistently high quality experience for our embroidery customers so we add some good old-fashioned human interaction to ensure that things go right. Please reach out to us to get things moving.
When Will I Receive My Order?
Please review our Shipping Policy to see details about available shipping methods, typical production windows, and options for expedited processing.
What Are My Payment Options?
LightningTees.com currently accepts debit or credit card payments for the following card types: American Express, Master Card, Visa, and Discover.
We are also able to accept direct ACH payments. Please contact us to coordinate payment if this is your preferred method.
How Do I Contact Lightning Tees?
We always want to hear from you so please don’t hesitate to reach out! Our normal business hours are M-F, 9-5 ET and our response time is less than 1 business day. We observe standard U.S. holidays.
Lightning Tees, LLC
315 Broad St.
Milford, PA 18337
Phone: 1.833.867.8337
Email: contact@lightningtees.com