The end of one year and the beginning of a new one is a great time to look back on some of the year’s best, so here’s a look at my personal favorite top three for several of the most high-profile daily tee sites. I’m specifically looking at what I consider to be the best and most interesting daily tee sites that also have archives of past daily shirts to look through, so not every site will be mentioned. But it’s still a pretty diverse and interesting group of designs, so without further ado:

TeeFury

 The Time Job by John Sumrow (February 25th, 2013)
The perfect melding of two massive fandoms!

Obey Cthulhu by cepheart (July 11th, 2013)
Simple is good in this wonderfully subtle Cthulhu riff.

She’s Got Science by MeganLara (December 20th, 2013)
This realistic Princess Bubblegum explodes with candy color!
Currently available at RedBubble.

Shirt.Woot

Grim Readers Book Club by WinterArtwork (February 26th, 2013)
Pretty much the best shirt possible for reading Game of Thrones.

Red Pegs by Kevlar51 and Walmazan (April 12th, 2013)
So smart to use propaganda style to make Battleship feel real!

State of Denial by marzinpanapple (May 12th, 2013)
Those cows are such a great touch!

RIPT Apparel

Rambo Brite by oneshoeoff (February 10th, 2013)
The perfect mix of nostalgia and badassery.
Currently available at Redbubble.

The Only Good Bug… by TGS (July 7th, 2013)
Excellent Starship Troopers reference, hitting just the right note of humor and propaganda.

Dex by Olipop (November 10th, 2013)
I gave up on this show long before it ended, but art like this makes me remember it at its best.
Currently available at RedBubble.

Qwertee

Archaeology Time by Fuacka (March 12th, 2013)
Because history is an adventure.

A Silver Lining by Phillymar (March 21st, 2013)
I love the way the art emphasizes how amazing a floating city could be.

Red Panda, Standing By by Obvian (July 23rd)
I’d watch this movie!
Currently available on RedBubble.

Captain KYSO

Sea Riders by Joaolauro (March 21st, 2013)
Beautiful shading and great characters!

Stairway to Heaven by tobefonseca (April 15th, 2013)
This is the kind of art that makes me want to dive in and explore!

Rally Time by baumer5 (June 7th, 2013)
Awesome throwback style, and I love the ping pong paddle texture in back!

For daily updates on the daily shirt sites, follow TeeMagnet.

And for comparison, here are my Top Daily Tees lists for 2012, 2011, and 2010.

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Shirt A Day has updated the potential shirt area of their web pages, now allowing visitors to vote on shirts quickly and easily. Good news for both slogan submitters and people looking to bring back the rat tail.

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By now I think most people are familiar with ShirtADay. They’re one of the websites using the business model of selling one shirt a day (others include Uneetee and Shirt.Woot). ShirtADay is different from the others because they focus primarily on slogans, because the price drops steadily as more decide to buy- and because there are so many different ways to buy a shirt.

Here’s the deal: ShirtADay’s daily design can be put on several types of clothing (including hooded sweatshirts), and not only that, customers can choose the color shirt they’d like it printed on. And if the day’s shirt doesn’t suit you, there are several other shirts available, ranging from the Shirt of the Week to Clearance products to the selections at their affiliate, Rerun Tees.

My shirt, Konami Code, was a Rerun tees offering. The print is pretty great- it has the right amount of ink, heavy enough to not show the black shirt through the white ink but not so heavy that it cracks with wear. It’s also centered well on the shirt, and the shirt itself is of good quality (Hanes Tagless, a nice heavy shirt).

Overall, I’d recommend the quality of ShirtADay. It’s especially recommended to anyone who likes to customize their shirt purchases or who enjoys shirts that make statements. And remember, if you have a great idea for a shirt, contact Shirt-a-Day. You’ll get a percentage of the shirt’s earnings if they use your design.

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If you’ve been on the internet for any amount of time, then you know Woot. They’ve gained fame as the cheapest place to get good technology products, but you have to be pretty quick on the draw- one product goes on sale each night at midnight, and if they sell out, you’re out of luck.

It’s been a very successful business strategy, and Woot has recently adapted it to a new medium- t-shirts. It’s true that others have pursued a similar business plan in this market (Uneetee and Shirt A Day), but Woot brings something to the table that the others have so far lacked: a huge, loyal audience. Last night, the site ran it’s first regularly scheduled shirt, Sore Thumbs, and it sold its full print run of 500 shirts in less than an hour, an amount that other sites take weeks and even months to sell. I expect that the site will only grow from there, especially since shirts are sold for the almost unbelievable price of $10 (and yes, that includes shipping).

Needless to say, an operation of this scope is in need of a constant influx of new shirts. Shirt.Woot is currently looking for experienced designers to purchase shirt designs from. They pay out a flat fee for the first night of sales, and for each shirt sale after that point you’ll receive money per shirt sold. Yes, you heard that right- shirts can be sold even after the initial run of 500 sells out (I’ll provide more information on this later in the week). They are also flexible with designers who would like to sell their shirt design on their own at a later date, which is a huge plus.

Non-professional designers aren’t left out in the cold, either- a Derby will be held each Friday, and each week one designer will have their work printed and sold on the site. I’ll have more information on that as it becomes available.

And, in the interest of full disclosure: Yep, I designed Sore Thumbs. If you have any questions or concerns about working with Shirt.Woot, I’d be happy to address them.

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Everyone wears t-shirts. And these days, it seems like nearly everyone is selling them, too. This is great news for people who can come up with cool t-shirt slogan ideas, because a lot of sites are willing to pony up big cash for them.

1. ThinkGeek. The big daddy of all nerd stores wants your ideas, and they’re willing to pay big for them. If you provide a slogan they use, you’ll get $250 (or a $300 gift certificate for the site).

2. Nerdy Shirts. Like the name says, they’re in the business of selling shirts to nerds. No art skills required, if your slogan (or t-shirt idea) is up to par with their product line, they’ll pay you $50.

3. ShirtADay. A relative newcomer to the t-shirt sales scene, this website features a brand new t-shirt design every day of the week. And that means they need a lot of shirt ideas. If you send them a PhotoShop file of your slogan and they use it, you’ll get a percentage of the day’s sales.

Honorable Mentions:

4. Threadless. Although they’re better known for more illustrative shirts, Threadless is also in the business of printing t-shirt slogans. If you’re slogan is printed, you’ll get $100 and a $100 gift certificate to the site. This is great, but the trouble is that new slogan tees rarely get printed and there is a ton of competition.

5. La Fraise. Sort of a European version of Threadless, La Fraise is also better known for designed t-shirts. It’s unclear what the odds are of getting a slogan printed right now (the site just broke off into three regions, each with its own slogan contest), but at any rate this is only of real interest to Europeans (you need a European address- or a fake one- just to register for the site). The prize for getting a slogan is also unclear, so be careful.

There you go, T-Shirt Slogan writers of tomorrow. When those slogan paychecks start pouring in, how about redirecting some of that my way?

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