Real Thread

Real Thread built its name on water-based screen printing that leaves a soft hand-feel instead of the slightly plastic texture that direct-to-garment prints can develop over time, and its shirts are generally rated among the better options for feel and print durability in independent comparisons. It's also a certified B Corporation, printing with environmentally friendly inks as a core part of its brand rather than a marketing add-on. The company was founded by Dru Dalton, who started out buying bulk shirts for campus organizations in college.

Where Real Thread differs from most listings in this category is that it isn't strictly zero-inventory print-on-demand: its standard fulfillment service asks for a minimum of 20 shirts per design, stored and shipped from its own warehouse rather than printed one at a time as orders come in. It does support pre-sale campaigns, where you collect orders first and print once a design clears the minimum, which works well for a drop-style launch. It's a better fit for a brand doing small-batch runs of a design they're confident will sell than for someone testing dozens of one-off ideas.