Custom underwear is a hot product. In the last year or two custom underwear dropshippers have been making bank on a few simple ideas.
The so-called “face on boxers” product has taken off well beyond what I thought it ever would. It’s a quirky idea that seems to resonate with gift givers.
The idea started with “face on socks” which in itself was a big success and people put everything from their mom’s face to their dog’s face’s on socks and gave this as funny gifts to their friends and family.
When custom underwear dropshippers started offering underwear the idea rally took off.
Underwear is personal, intimate and make for a very quirky gift.
Dropshipping custom underwear is a great idea and you can easily built an entire store just around that one product type.
Underwear can be related to almost any niche in some way. With a little bit of creativity you can come up with some great designs and see success well beyond just the “face on underwear” idea.
The Top 5 Custom Underwear Dropshippers
There are not that many custom underwear dropshipping suppliers around. Fortunately, one of the biggest print on demand suppliers carry underwear which makes it a reliable product to go after.
There are not nearly as many options with print on demand underwear as with many other print on demand products. This keeps the costs quite high and squeezing decent profits out of underwear can be a challenge.
Let’s briefly look at the 5 top custom underwear dropshippers and what they have to offer.
1. Printful
Printful is one of the most reliable print on demand providers with a history of high quality print and high quality products.
Printful can dropship custom underwear for men and women. Their men’s boxer briefs has a base cost of $26 and is a sublimation “all over print” product that allows you to print edge to edge across the entire product.
For women, Printful has both sports bra’s and all over print shorts. These two products can be combined and sold as sets as sports clothing.
The all over print shorts can also be sold as women’s underwear. This can be treated in much the same way as the men’s boxers.
Sports bra’s is a unique underwear product that can be worn underneath clothing or as an outer garment. There is still a lot of opportunity for sports bras in print on demand.
Printful integrates seamlessly with almost all eCommerce platforms including Shopify and Etsy and their high quality prints and ease of use makes them a solid and reliable option.
The biggest problem with Printful’s underwear is that the $26 base cost leaves almost no room for profit. Selling this type of underwear for $40 plus is not an easy task.
2. Art of Where
The Art of Where has the best print on demand underwear products. They offer both mens and women’s underwear for dropshipping.
They have men’s boxer briefs and for women they have 2 styles: cheeky briefs and boy shorts. What I like most is the fact that these are in a very popular and modern style.
It’s a sublimation product which allows for all-over print and it features an elastic waistband that you can design and print on.
Its a really high quality product and the prices are pretty good. For dropshipping it is $16 for the women’s and $18 for mens.
You will need to sell these for around $25 on Etsy or $30 on Shopify if you want to make any reasonable profits – and that is very doable.
The Art of Where integrates seamlessly with Shopify and with Etsy which makes them a great option as a custom underwear dropshipper.
3. Subliminator
Subliminator has some of the highest quality print on demand sublimation products. The only underwear product they currently have is sports bras, but with a $21 base cost that is something well worth looking into.
Subliminator’s production facility is based in China which is one major downside. They do offer fast shipping though and on average you can get products to customers in the USA in around 10 days.
These are not your typical cheap-ass Chinese products. They have great products with high quality prints.
The way they ship their products will also ensure that your customers do not get parcels splattered with Chinese shipping labels.
For the most part, your shipping labels will look like any other local shipping label.
What I really like about sports bras as a print on demand product is the profit potential. Mot women would happily pay $50 which leaves you with a comfortable 100% margin.
All that is needed is some creative input. This can be a great product in almost any sports niche.
Currently, Subliminator is only available as a Shopify app.
4. Printify
Printify is one of my favorite print on demand providers. They have a massive product catalog, they are easy to work with and their prices are great.
Printify have print on demand underwear for men and women. Their men’s an women’s briefs are sublimation products and at $19 (or $15 with Premium) this is a great option if you want to dropship custom underwear.
The big problem with Printify’s underwear is that the print provider is Artsadd. Artsadd is a Chinese based fulfillment center and they will print and ship from China.
Unlike Subliminatoir, Artsadd is a Chinese company and they have had their fair share of issues in the past. Shipping is and will always be the biggest sticking point.
You can expect around a 14 to 21 days delivery window for these products and that is never great as most customers simply do not want to wait that long.
In saying that, if you can get the base cost down to $15 then there is a lot more breathing space for profits.
I would not recommend ArtsAdd if you plan on selling on Etsy. The slow shipping times from China and even the fact that you are shipping from China can get you in trouble with Etsy shoppers.
5. InterestPrint
InterestPrint is another Chinese print on demand company that have a massive catalogue of products.
Their interface is ugly, the mockups are terrible but their actual products are pretty good.
What I like most about them is the variety of products and the prices. You simply can not find better prices anywhere else but it comes with the usual headaches of dealing with Chinese dropshippers.
Poor communications and slow shipping times will be constant issues to deal with. If you are up for that then they are a viable option for dropshipping custom underwear products.
I would not recommend InterestPrint if you plan on selling on Etsy. The slow shipping times from China and even the fact that you are shipping from China can get you in trouble with Etsy shoppers.
6. PrintTech
PrintTech is a little known print on demand provider that has been flying under the radar for some time. They are truly amazing with super unique products and super high quality prints.
Best of all, they are based in the USA and have become known for their high quality products and fast turnaround times.
They offer only women’s underwear and have two styles: boyshorts and thongs but neither are sublimation products.
They only provide a print space on the front of the underwear.
In general, PrintTech is not cheap, but these two underwear products are priced very well. The boyshorts are $11.95 and the thongs are $9.95 base costs.
This leaves a lot of room for profit and best of all, PrintTech integrates with Shopify and Etsy – AND they offer personalization through their app.
They are well worth looking into even though they don’t have any male underwear. Their app is currently priced at $9.95 per month and it is very clunky and not very user-friendly. They don’t offer any real mockups.
How and Where To Sell Custom Underwear With Print on Demand
The “face on underwear” idea is still a solid one but you will be up against a ton of competition. Unless you can find some sort of unique angle you will struggle to compete with that idea.
One great twist on this idea is to use politicians’ faces on underwear. Be careful with celebrities as they are not public figures and that would be infringement.
If you already have a niche store Shopify or Etsy then I would suggest you look at how you can transfer your best designs on to underwear.
Since underwear is driven by gifts, there is a huge demand for it in almost any niche. In most cases you will need to find some way to make the design relevant to underwear.
If you are starting a store that is only based around custom underwear then you will need some new and fresh ideas if you were to stand a chance.
Most of the print on demand underwear providers I discussed above integrate with Shopify which makes it the obvious choice if you were to set up your own store.
If you go down the Shopify route then you will most likely advertise on Facebook Ads or Google Shopping.
The standard face on underwear has been advertised to death on both these platforms so you have to come in with a new and fresh idea.
The same goes for selling on Etsy – even Amazon and Ebay has been flooded with that idea.
Like all print on demand products you often just need a twist on an idea or a slight tweak or even just a new angle to see great results.
Printing people’s faces on underwear is funny and it will be popular for some time. Its not the idea that matters but how you do it that really determines your success.
What Sells Best With Custom Underwear
Selling custom underwear with print on demand is almost exclusively driven by gift givers. The kind of designs that work really well on underwear are usually quirky, funny and borderline inappropriate designs.
Sometimes it only takes one original idea to take off. I really like this idea of the statue of David on boxer briefs. That design has sold thousand of pairs.
Because underwear is a very intimate item, the kinds of designs that work really well usually have some sort of sexual innuendo or something quirky and even deeply personal.
Very few people will go out and buy themselves a pair of funny underwear. These sorts of quirky products make for great intimate gifts or funny and borderline inappropriate gifts.
Lets look at a few design concepts that you can apply to dropshipping underwear.
1. Face on Boxers
This is by far the most popular underwear design and has taken off well beyond what I ever thought it would.
The idea is that you put someone’s face at a pattern all over the boxers or briefs and give that as a gift. It depends on how you interpret funny, but I’ve seen a lot of variations.
I’ve seen moms giving boxers top their sons as a gift with mom’s face all over the boxers. It can also be a best friend, a lover or even someone you deeply dislike.
The idea is that it is funny to have someone’s face splattered all over your underwear. What makes this particularly good as a print on demand product is the fact that it is personalized.
You will need your customers to upload a photo, you then have to cut out the face and turn it into a pattern on Photoshop. You will then use that pattern with your favourite print on demand supplier to print the product.
This type of design has been hugely successful in many niches. Face on socks, pets on socks, pets on underwear, famous people on underwear etc.
You can have a lot of fun with this and once you have a pattern it is easy to get creative.
2. Niche Specific Designs
People who are fanatical about a specific niche will be interested in almost any product that relates to that niche.
Since underwear is not a very common apparel item in most niches it can make for a great product that has not been beaten to death by 1000 other print on demand sellers.
Many designs that worked incredibly well on t-shirts could get a new lease of life once you put it on underwear.
You can also create a lot of innuendo that relates to a lot of topics that can make underwear funny and cheeky – especially as gifts.
3. Boyfriend/Girlfriend Designs
Because underwear is personal in nature, it tends to make great gifts between boyfriends and girlfriends.
It allows you to be cheeky and personal and it is the kind of gift that almost always gets a good chuckle.
There are a lot of ways to get creative about this. Thin of all sorts of sexual innuendos that is deeply personal and find a way to put that on underwear.
Print on demand underwear is not really a practical piece of apparel at all. It is almost exclusively a gift that will rarely be worn in any seriousness.
I will however caution you about more vulgar designs. If you sell on platforms like Etsy or if you advertise on Facebook or Google then you could get in trouble with vulgar designs.
You can buy boxers and briefs with almost any pattern and colour imaginable from Target. You never want to compete with them.
This is why designing patterns and simply using colour based designs simply won’t work with print on demand underwear.
Unless you can come up with something that can not be bought in a shop, you will struggle to make sales.
By offering personalization like the face on boxers idea, you create a truly unique product that can not be bought in shops.
With personalized products you create a great gifting product and with birthdays, Valentines day and Xmas these are big sellers.
Its a fairly inexpensive product and even if you sell it at $30 you can make a healthy profit as a dropshipper while still providing great value for money.
