How to Order Custom T-Shirts: Choosing Styles, Printing or Embroidery, and Logo Setup

You can order custom T-shirts from Queensboro without a minimum order quantity and without paying a logo setup fee: pick a tee, upload your logo or design, choose printing or embroidery, and check out. This guide is for small-batch orders — team shirts, event staff, or a handful of branded tees — where you want a finished product rather than a bulk wholesale run. Queensboro has been doing embroidery and printing since 1982 and ships from Wilmington NC, Dallas TX, and Reno NV.

Step 1: Pick the T-shirt style and fabric

Start with the product category, not the logo. Queensboro's T-Shirts section covers men's, women's, unisex, and youth cuts, plus sweatshirts if you need a heavier layer. Within tees, the main decision is fabric weight and blend, which affects how well a print or embroidery holds up and how the shirt feels for daily wear.

Use these criteria to narrow the list:

• Cotton vs. blend: 100% cotton takes printing well and feels familiar; blends resist shrinking and wrinkles, which matters for uniforms worn repeatedly.
• Size range: confirm the run includes the sizes your group actually needs (the site lists ranges such as S–3XL on some styles). Ordering one size band and discovering a gap later is a common mistake.
• Budget per shirt: sale and closeout items are listed with a struck-through original price and a discount — for example, the Queensboro Unisex Classic Cotton Tee Printed is shown at $7.95, down from $11.95 (33% off). Sale stock and sizes can be limited, so check availability before you commit a group to a closeout style.
• Brand: Queensboro carries house-brand and name-brand apparel (Gildan, Port & Company, Nike, The North Face, and others), so you can match a look your team already wears.

If you need a polo or a hat instead of a tee, the same ordering logic applies but the decoration area and fabric differ — see the separate guides on custom polos and custom hats.

Step 2: Choose printing or embroidery

This is the decision that most affects the final look, so make it before you upload artwork.

A practical rule: if your logo has more than a few colors or any gradient, print it. If it's a one- or two-color mark going on the chest, embroidery gives a cleaner, more durable result. Queensboro runs both processes in-house, so you can split an order — printed backs, embroidered chests — if the design calls for it.

Step 3: Prepare and upload your logo

Queensboro advertises free logo setup, which means you are not charged to have artwork prepared for production. That does not remove the need for a usable source file. Prepare the following before you start:

1. A vector file (AI, EPS, or PDF) if you have one — it scales cleanly for both printing and embroidery.
2. A high-resolution PNG or JPG (roughly 300 dpi at final print size) if vector isn't available. Low-resolution web images will look soft or pixelated once printed.
3. The exact colors you want, ideally as color values, so thread or ink matching is unambiguous.
4. Placement and size — left chest, full front, sleeve, or back — and roughly how wide the design should be.

Then use the site's Upload Logo entry point and its logo management area, which stores your files for reuse on future orders. If you order repeatedly, keeping the logo on file saves re-uploading and helps keep placement consistent across runs.

Step 4: Understand no-minimum ordering and place the order

No minimums means you can order a single shirt or a small batch at the same per-item process as a large order — useful for a new-hire kit, a prototype before a big event, or a five-person team. It does not mean the per-unit price matches bulk wholesale pricing; small runs simply avoid the "order 24 to start" barrier common elsewhere.

To place the order:

1. Select style, color, and size quantities.
2. Apply your uploaded logo and confirm placement and size.
3. Review the itemized cart — check sizes and quantities line by line, since this is where most ordering errors happen.
4. Complete checkout and note the estimated production and shipping timeline shown for your items.

Before you finalize, confirm the delivery date against your event. Production plus transit time is the number that matters, not production alone.

Step 5: Know the after-sale terms before you buy

Queensboro's No Returns Necessary Guarantee states that if something goes wrong — wrong size ordered, wrong thread color used, a damaged shipment, or you simply don't like the shirts — you contact them and they fix it with a replacement or refund, and you don't need to return the product. For a small team order, that lowers the risk of a first-time purchase considerably.

Two practical caveats: keep your order confirmation and any artwork proof, and report problems promptly with photos and your order number so the resolution is quick. The guarantee covers mistakes and defects; it doesn't replace checking sizes and colors before you submit.

Common pitfalls to avoid

• Skipping the size check. Collect sizes from each person rather than guessing; a mixed-size order is the most frequent source of reorders.
• Uploading a screenshot of a logo. Screenshots and social-media images are usually too low-resolution for print.
• Choosing embroidery for a detailed multi-color logo. It will be simplified and may lose character.
• Assuming sale prices hold. Closeout and sale items can sell out in specific sizes.
• Ordering too close to the event date. Build in buffer for production and shipping.

Quick decision checklist

• Need one or a few shirts? No-minimum ordering works.
• Logo has many colors or fine detail? Print it.
• Simple mark for a chest placement? Embroidery.
• Have a vector file? Upload it; if not, source the highest-resolution version you can.
• Ordering for a dated event? Confirm the shipping estimate before checkout, and keep your order number for the guarantee.