12 Best Shopify T-Shirt Stores You Should Imitate For Success

T-shirts are universal. Who doesn’t love a good t-shirt? We wear them all day long, wear them to bed, wear them down to threads (after which we wear them while washing all the fresh ones).

Some t-shirts fit so perfectly and are so joyously soft that they take up a place of honor in our closets for constant use. Other t-shirts showcase your personality, boasting some unique print or clever sentiment.

The human adoration for great t-shirts has been matched by the entrepreneurial growth of t-shirt stores. As often happens, supply creeps up to meet demand.

Aspiring merchants may see an opportunity here, and they wouldn’t be wrong. If you want to get into the t-shirt selling game, there’s undoubtedly a t-shirt niche market that needs a great t-shirt store.

You can find a great print-on-demand site to help you scale t-shirt operations easily too.

To help inspire you to create a really excellent t-shirt store, we’ve assembled a list of the best Shopify t-shirt stores doing a bang-up job.

We’ll dig into 12 of the best Shopify t-shirt store examples approaching the form in slightly different ways to best serve their particular audiences.

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Finding your perfect t-shirt niche market

As I mentioned before, t-shirts are for everyone. But, not everyone is into the same thing.

So, the overall t-shirt market is fragmented into several niche markets, each creating something different and specific to their t-shirt tribe.

Some shoppers prefer that their shirts exclusively talk about their dogs, while others would rather shirts adorned with internet memes. Whatever you are into, there’s probably a t-shirt brand ready to sell you something.

While one store can stock shirts that span multiple niche markets, it’s preferable to stick to a few related niches and do them well. Going too broad can dilute your brand identity and make your store easy to forget.

Throughout this post, we’ll identify the target niches each brand is going after, showing the estimated search volume for those niche markets, courtesy of Keywords Everywhere.

Why Shopify is a great platform for t-shirt businesses

Shopify makes it super simple to build a store quickly.

Onboarding is a breeze, with guidance in the admin for finding a great Shopify theme, the best apps to simplify marketing and operations, and all the little things it takes to make your store fully functional.

Instead of relying on developers to make their stores work like they want, they can do it themselves in fairly short order. Plus, Shopify makes it easy to scale operations as the brand grows.

You’ll see the apps that each brand uses to simplify their store operations. Many of those apps will show up on multiple stores.

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12 top Shopify t-shirt stores for instant inspiration

Now let’s take a look at some of the best online t-shirt stores we’ve seen on Shopify.

We’re proud to say that many of these use Shogun Page Builder to create incredible shopping experiences. These are in no particular order, but I’ve numbered them to help keep it clear where you’re at in the list.

For each t-shirt brand, I’ve not only included their niche markets with search volumes but also the Shopify apps they use to make their site work more efficiently for them.

Without further ado, let’s get into it.

1. BeCause Tees – The best eco-friendly Shopify t-shirt store

Based in Northern California and family-owned, BeCause sells shirts and hoodies adorned with prints inspired by their local wildlife.

10% of every purchase goes to the planet-saving cause of your choice, plus they’ll plant 10 trees.

Whether you are into bees, manatees, or the many varieties of trees, there’s a shirt for you. Sorry, had to do it.

Niche market: 

• Nature t-shirts (1,600 searches per month)
• Sustainable t-shirts (1,900 searches per month)

What they do best:

• A well-designed store that’s easy to navigate
• High-quality materials and a good selection of colors and sizes
• Overwhelmingly positive product reviews
• Quick shipping (within 2 business days)
• 10-10 pledge: 10% to a cause, 10 trees planted

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Judge.me for customer reviews

2. Furriends Clothing – The best pet-centric Shopify t-shirt store

Started in Queensland, Australia, Furriends Clothing consists of a group of pet lovers who work at the same animal supply store. They wanted fun pet-centric shirts to wear at work, and it soon became its own business.

As you might expect, their shirts are great for dog lovers, but they extend well beyond the canine.

They have shirts that celebrate all types of animals, from the usual cats and dogs to the less common horses, cows, and chickens.

Niche market:

• Animal t-shirts (5,400 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Good selection of designs and animals
• Lots of customization options from the product page (print position, design options, print size, color, size)
• Shipped worldwide without plastic in compostable mailers
• They donate to animal charities

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Judge.me for customer reviews

3. Helper Tees – The best Shopify t-shirt store for positive affirmations

Centered around health literacy and building a community that cares, Helper Tees sells t-shirts, sweatshirts, face masks, and more with unique designs that act as “whimsical everyday reminders.”

Their site is rich with visuals while being minimalistic and easy to navigate. The product pages have scrollable image galleries from their Prestige Shopify theme, and the blog is built with Shogun Page Builder.

Artists submit designs for inclusion in the product line and receive upfront and ongoing compensation for their art as they sell. On top of that, 35% of each sale goes directly to mental and physical health charities.

Niche market:

• Positive t-shirts (1,000 searches per month)
• Mental health t-shirts (2,400 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Simple yet great-looking store that’s easy to navigate
• A variety of prints by a community of artists who are recognized and compensated
• A portion of sales go to health non-profits
• Their blog focuses on important health and wellness topics targeting their audience

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Omnisend for email marketing
• Loox for customer reviews
• Printful for print on demand services

4. Homefield – The best Shopify t-shirt store for collegiate apparel

Homefield has chosen a niche that touches a huge US audience: college students and alumni. They print unique vintage-inspired designs for more than 120 schools across the country.

To find your school, you can navigate from the top menu and browse alphabetically or choose from the all schools page. You are bound to find a shirt design that your fellow college fans don’t have.

With the Shopify Impulse theme, the product page is simple and functional, with related product suggestions, recently viewed products, and customer reviews.

Niche market:

• College t-shirts (25,000 searches per month)
• Collegiate apparel (6,600 searches per month)

What they do best:

• High-quality athletic fit t-shirts with unique designs
• Huge selection of apparel with collections for every school
• Easy to navigate to school of choice
• Subscription program that sends a new school shirt each week at a discount

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Stamped for customer reviews
• Smile.io for loyalty program
• Back in Stock for stock notifications

5. Self-Care Is For Everyone – The best Shopify t-shirt store for self-care and mental health

Founded in 2018—on World Kindness Day no less—Self-Care Is For Everyone was started and exists to spread self-care reminders.

And they put their money where their mouth is—10% of their net profits go to mental health and suicide prevention organizations.

On top of that, they are all about the independent artists that create their unique designs. Full credit goes to the artists, and they’ve been paid over half a million dollars for their work since the founding.

Their online store is appropriately colorful, bathing shoppers with a glow of purple as they peruse self-care apparel. This extends to their Instagram feed, which is full of their gorgeous designs.

Niche market:

• Mental health t-shirts (2,400 searches per month)
• Self-care t-shirts (320 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Fun and wacky designs that bring joy and support mental health
• A vibrantly designed store built with Shogun Page Builder
• The homepage is shoppable with product variants and add-to-cart buttons
• Image-rich customer reviews (lots of five-star reviews, BTW)
• Their social media is on fire, with one million Instagram followers

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Loox for customer reviews

6. Shirtbox – The best funny Shopify t-shirt store in the UK

Shopify’s limit on product variants can vex some merchants who want to feature all possible combinations of colors and sizes on their product page.

Shirtbox gets around this by using an app by HulkApps, which allows for as many variations as they like.

On top of having lots of options for each product, they also have a massive selection of products. They not only sell t-shirts and hoodies but also mugs, aprons, prints, and more.

Niche market:

• Funny t-shirts (90,500 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Clever prints to appeal to many senses of humor
• Tons of colors and sizes to fit most people
• Huge selection of designs with over 1,700 t-shirts alone
• A helpful size guide landing page to get the right fit the first time

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Judge.me for customer reviews
• HulkApps Infinite Product Options for product variants

7. Underground Printing – The best Shopify t-shirt store for custom prints

Underground Printing started in 2001 (under the name A-1 Screen Printing)  in a dorm room screen printing custom t-shirts for fellow college students. Over the years, they added retail locations and expanded their printing capabilities.

To start a t-shirt design, you simply pick the type of shirt you want, choose from a ton of colors, and click ‘Start Designing.’ From there, you can either find a template to modify or start from scratch.

Once you’ve designed your shirt, you could have your shipment in a matter of days.

Niche market:

• Custom printed t-shirts (40,500 searches per month)
• Design your own shirt (33,100 searches per month)

What they do best:

• A large variety of t-shirt brands and materials to start customizing
• You can quickly design a shirt or get a quote in seconds
• Quick quote gives exact pricing, shipping estimates, print options, and more
• Also print on hats, jerseys, pants, drinkware, etc
• Offer certain products with no minimum quantity

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Privy for conversion optimization
• Judge.me for customer reviews

8. Manatee – The best Shopify t-shirt store for e-sports jerseys

Playing video games competitively has become big business, and Belgium-based Manatee started in 2016 to serve that growing market.

Manatee provides not only the jerseys for esports teams but actually creates the designs based on the team’s instructions and inspirations.

Teams that use Manatee can send players to their team store to find the right jerseys for their upcoming events. Beyond jerseys, they also sell mousepads, hoodies, jackets, and sleeves.

Niche market:

• Esports jersey (14,800 searches per month)
• Custom jerseys (40,500 searches per month)

What they do best:

• A central focus on custom esports jerseys
• The store is meant to serve esports teams with bulk designs and orders
• 24/7 customer service

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing

9. RSVLTS – The best Shopify t-shirt store for custom button-ups

RSVLTS (pronounced rose-uh-velts after President Teddy) is a brand that is all about mixing casual button-ups with pop culture patterns. It’s like Funko Pop for business casual shirts.

They partner with some of the biggest brands out there (think Disney, Budweiser, and Spongebob) to create t-shirts and button-ups to serve every niche of pop culture.

Finding what you need is super easy by shopping by product type (tees, short sleeve shirts, shorts, headwear, etc), collaboration (Star Wars, The Office, Rick and Morty, The Princess Bride, etc), or collection (Spring/Summer, Americana, Little Patterns, etc).

Niche market:

• Pop culture t-shirts (1,600 searches per month)
• Patterned button-up shirts (2,900 searches per month)
• Disney t-shirts (74,000 searches per month)
• Marvel t-shirts (49,500 searches per month)

What they do best:

• The store is well-designed, showing visitors multiple product collections from the homepage
• The product descriptions are well-crafted and clever
• Seamless cross-selling with a pop-up of related items easily added to your cart
• Their loyalty program is clear, driving engagement and yielding obvious rewards
• The brand is defined not only by the products but the team behind them

Shopify apps in use:

• Shogun Page Builder for store design
• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Loox for customer reviews
• Printful for print-on-demand services
• Smile.io for loyalty programs
• Back in Stock for stock notifications

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10. Factory 43 – The best Shopify t-shirt store for original illustrations

This Seattle-based screen printing shop from Andrew Saeger and Veronica Velasco creates beautifully illustrated t-shirts, wall art, stickers, puzzles, and more.

Their original art is whimsical and fun with a decidedly Pacific Northwest vibe (Sasquatch, octopi, and rain figure heavily in their prints).

The product page is simple but unexpected, with much of the product information presented along the left side of the page and the images in the center. While they don’t have many product variations, the options available are lovely.

Factory 43 uses a customized version of Shopify’s Blockshop theme, which uses the full width of the store pages for an immersive experience.

Niche market:

• Illustrated t-shirts (1,900 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Impressive use of a minimally customized Shopify theme
• Minimal yet unexpected product page format
• Gorgeous original illustrations and decent selection of prints
• Moving page elements on the homepage enhance the shopping experience

Shopify apps in use:

• Smile.io for loyalty programs
• Printful for print-on-demand services

11. Shirtwascash – The best Shopify t-shirt store for becoming a meme

For those who regularly communicate via the latest memes, Shirtwascash might just be the apparel brand for you. For others, the site alone might be baffling.

With the apt tagline Wearable Memes, they sell a huge variety of apparel—from t-shirts and hoodies to pajamas and swim trunks—with prints of hilarious memes and vaporwave art.

The store itself is a little overwhelming (purposely so), with competing patterns and memes covering every inch of the screen, but it fits perfectly with the products on offer. Regular denizens of the internet will have no problem finding what they need.

They use a customized version of the Turbo theme from Out of the Sandbox, forgoing the usual negative space inherent in the theme for the more appropriate glut of visual stimulus.

Niche market:

• Meme shirts (9,900 searches per month)
• Vaporwave shirts (1,600 searches per month)

What they do best:

• A great selection of apparel types
• So many great (or even confusing) memes
• Original art for a totally unique look wherever you live
• The site is overwhelming but works well for the product line and audience

Shopify apps in use:

• Klaviyo for email marketing
• Stamped for customer reviews

12. TeeFury – The best Shopify t-shirt store for anime and gaming fans

Starting all the way back in 2008, TeeFury’s goal was to create more limited edition graphic tees for people that enjoy funny pop culture shirts as much as they do.

The graphic designers retain all the rights for their work and receive $1 for each shirt sold.

The original designs cover all sorts of popular topics, from video games and anime to TV shows and movies. There are even ingenious mashups, like the Peanuts-Princess Bride scene below.

The product pages are powerful, allowing you to switch between product categories (Apparel, Home, Other, Pets) and types (Tee, Poster, Mug, Towel, etc) without navigating to another page.

They use Shopify’s old standard free theme Debut to build their store.

Niche market:

• Funny t-shirts (90,500 searches per month)
• Anime t-shirts (110,000 searches per month)
• Pop culture t-shirts (1,600 searches per month)

What they do best:

• Drives store engagement with weekly shirt design battles ($18 weeklies, they call them)
• The product page allows for switching product types easily
• Easily navigable site with tons of collections on the top nav menu and throughout the homepage
• Artists have their own collection pages showing their designs

Shopify apps in use:

• Gorgias for live chat
• In Cart Upsell for upselling

Find your t-shirt niche and dive in

T-shirts have only gotten more popular over the years. It’s always there when you just want to slip something on real quick and the customization options can be just about endless.

As you can see from the above store examples, an online t-shirt business can do rather well by just focusing on a particular niche market and doing it well.

Not only that, but many of them use some of the same Shopify apps to make their businesses run more smoothly, and their stores look stunning. If you were keeping track, you might have noticed these apps come up time after time on these stores:

• Klaviyo. A powerful email marketing tool for automating the sequences that nurture and support your customers, keeping them coming back.
• Shogun Page Builder. A drag-and-drop visual page builder that allows merchants to quickly and easily create landing pages and store pages that drive conversions more effectively. That’s us!
• Judge.me/Loox. Two customer review apps that help drive customers to review products and provide images and videos to drive trust in prospective customers.

So, whether you are looking through these examples for ecommerce inspiration or simply need to go shirt shopping, you’ll find a great selection here.

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