Shirt Monkey

What Shirt Monkey is

Shirt Monkey is a family-run garment printer in Winsford, Cheshire, trading as Eness LTD t/a Shirt Monkey. Its homepage calls it "The DTG Print Specialists", and it offers two things side by side: print-on-demand order fulfillment for people selling apparel online, and bulk or bespoke printing for companies and individuals. Everything is decorated in-house, mainly by direct-to-garment printing on Kornit machines, with embroidery on Melco machines. The homepage promises "Easy signup • No order minimums • Worldwide shipping" for print on demand and "More than 200 products ready for you to customise!"

The About page describes the scale. Shirt Monkey runs 6 Kornit Atlas MAX and 4 Kornit Avalanche HD6 printers, which it says give "an annual capacity of over 1,000,000 garments per year per shift". Its daily capacity has grown from 50-100 units per day "to well in excess of 40,000 units per week", and it ships orders "to 100's of different countires all around the globe." Kornit Digital filmed a case study at the company in 2018, and Shirt Monkey hosted a Kornit UK Live event on October 19th 2023.

How print-on-demand fulfillment works

The Order Fulfillment page is aimed at people launching a brand, a clothing line or a t-shirt business, from new startups to established brands, and at the time of the page it announced "Sign ups for new dropshippers are now open!" The pitch is that you focus on marketing and design while Shirt Monkey handles production, warehousing and stock. The process has four steps:

1. Orders incoming: once your store is integrated, every order is pulled into Shirt Monkey's production system.
2. Order picking: orders are picked from stock, or blanks are ordered in from suppliers when you use garments outside the core stock.
3. Order printing: orders are printed on the Kornit Avalanche HD6 printers to your exact requirements.
4. Order dispatch: finished garments are inspected, folded and bagged, "ready to be shipped anywhere in the world!"

The homepage says orders can go out "white label or branded", and you can use the same design across multiple products. The integrations are Shopify, WooCommerce and Etsy: "We currently integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce and Etsy, though we're working on more." Sellers on other platforms can use the API to build their own integration, or ask the company to add a particular platform. The menu also lists SKU setup, order tracking, refunds and reshipment policies, and an affiliate program.

Supplying your own blanks is generally not possible for fulfillment. The FAQ says the company does not typically allow it because of the on-demand model, with exceptions considered when the garments are not available from its usual suppliers or when the project volume is high enough, and garment handling fees apply in either case.

Products and blank prices

The product range covers t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and vests, with collections for new products, best sellers, eco-friendly items, Stanley/Stella and DTF transfers. The services menu also lists garment finishing, socks and mugs. Size filters run from 2XS to 5XL across men's, women's, unisex and children's cuts.

Product prices are shown on the site, including VAT on the homepage. Examples from the homepage include StanleyStella Crafter Iconic Mid-Light Unisex T-Shirt at £5.35, StanleyStella Rocker Essential Unisex T-Shirt at £4.34, Gildan Softstyle Adult T-Shirt at £3.22, Bella+Canvas Unisex Crew Neck T-Shirt (3001) at £5.96, Gildan Hammer Adult T-Shirt at £4.76, Russell Pure Organic T-Shirt at £7.30, JustHoods Organic Hoodie at £21.77 and StanleyStella Drummer 2.0 hoodie at £22.33. The new-products list runs from AWDis Kids 150 T-Shirt at £2.35 and AWDis Unisex 150 T-Shirt at £2.47 up to StanleyStella Asher Unisex Heavyweight Boxy T-Shirt at £14.27 and the StanleyStella Cruiser 2.0 hoodie at £28.81. A 2022 newsroom post warned of price rises on Stanley Stella garments, citing raw materials, container shipping, inflation and currency pressure, so listed prices do move.

DTG printing and ink

Shirt Monkey's DTG page makes three points for sellers. There are "No Minimum Print Runs Or Setup Costs": a single print is still financially viable, while larger runs get bulk discounts. It does not charge by color, so a design with one color or 100 colors costs the same. And digital printing handles full-color photographs, intricate designs and small text. The homepage adds that its 6-color printers produce strong reds and greens, and that the water-based ink is printed into the fabric so the print "will not crack over time".

On ink, the company says its water-based NeoPigment inks are "absolutely free of heavy metals, formaldehyde and Alkylphenol Ethoxylates (APE)", and describes them as non-hazardous, non-toxic and biodegradable as part of Kornit's waterless printing system.

Bulk printing and embroidery prices

For larger orders there is a bespoke bulk service through the sales team, best suited to relabelling, bespoke requirements, specific print placements and sizes, and garments not in the online designer. The bulk DTG discount has an MOQ starting from 50 units: £3.25 per DTG print position for 50-100 units, £3.00 for 101-250, £2.90 for 250-500 and £2.80 for 501+. The homepage gives a typical bulk turnaround of "circa 5-15 working days", often faster, with rush turnarounds quoted case by case.

Embroidery runs in-house on Melco EMT16x machines at up to 1,500 stitches per minute. Prices by stitch count and quantity are:

• Small, 0-5K stitches: £5.00 for 0-25 units, £3.00 for 26-50, £2.75 for 50+
• Medium, 5-10K stitches: £6.00, £4.00 and £3.25
• Large, 10K+ stitches: £7.00, £5.00 and £4.50

Every embroidery file must be digitized, at £19.99 + VAT per design, and once digitized a design cannot be scaled up or down.

Contact and support

The site lists a sales phone line and email, a help and support section with FAQs, and order tracking for customers with an account. A Google review quoted on the homepage praises the staff and print quality on a tight deadline, while noting the rush job was "pricey".

Who it suits

Shirt Monkey suits sellers on Shopify, WooCommerce or Etsy who want apparel printed by a DTG specialist with published blank prices, no POD minimum and white-label shipping, and developers who prefer the API. The Stanley/Stella and organic ranges help brands that want premium or eco blanks. Businesses that also need a bulk run or embroidered logo wear can use the same printer. The limits are range and timing: the catalog is apparel-led, sellers generally cannot supply their own garments, and the pages give a turnaround only for bulk orders, not for single print-on-demand orders.