{"id":15606,"date":"2017-06-02T05:19:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T09:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spreadshop.com\/blog\/?p=15606"},"modified":"2026-01-29T09:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:12:15","slug":"spreadshirt-select-shop-of-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spreadshop.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/02\/spreadshirt-select-shop-of-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Shop of the Month: Amorphia Apparel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this month\u2019s installment of Spreadshirt Select<\/em>, we have the pleasure of interviewing a Spreadshop owner with one of the longest tenures and best sales. Jeremy Kalgreem \u2013 the mastermind behind Amorphia Apparel<\/a> \u2013 has written a true success story during an 11-year long print-on-demand journey. Learn from one of the best, and get a peek behind the curtain in this insider\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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So, Jeremy, where did it all begin? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Back when I was in school, I would learn a new skill every summer. One year I tried my hand at silk screening t-shirts. It turned out I was pretty bad at it, but I liked designing my own shirts and wanted to make more. So I started looking into online printers and stumbled upon Spreadshirt.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What was your journey like from humble beginnings to one of our top-selling shop owners in the US?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At first I just made a batch of shirts for myself, but I clicked the little button to make my designs public. To my surprise, sales started trickling in. I figured that I might be on to something, so I went to the library and picked up some books on CSS & HTML. I taught myself enough over a long weekend to get a bare-bones site up and running.<\/p>\n

It was basically a little hobby for the first two years, making a few hundred dollars a month. I kept adding new designs and new themed line-ups. Then in 2008, one of my lineups \u2013 Teach the Controversy<\/a> \u2013 unexpectedly went viral. Suddenly and overnight, Amorphia Apparel<\/a> went from being a hobby to becoming a real business. Quitting my day job shortly thereafter to do this full time was a great feeling!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What inspires your art?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Most of my new designs satisfy a costumer request. I set up a form on my site that lets people request new designs, and I receive new requests about three times faster than I fulfill them. There are lots of great suggestions in there, so I\u2019m happy to try my best to make as many wishes happen as possible. Otherwise, I\u2019m mostly inspired by whatever makes me chuckle.<\/p>\n

What is your target market and, when you close your eyes, how would you envision your customers?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I guess my tees are a reflection of my tastes, so I imagine my customers to be a lot like me: nerdy slackers.
\nSome of my line-ups \u2013 like Hirsute History<\/a> \u2013 have some fairly obscure stuff on them. I get a sense that a lot of customers like having a shirt that they know the average person won\u2019t understand. If they meet someone who does get the reference, it acts like a shibboleth between like-minded strangers.<\/p>\n

What 3 tips do you have for getting a successful Spreadshop started?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Try to do something different, either in style or substance. A lot of t-shirt sites offer a big blend of stuff, and you\u2019d be well advised to find a way to stand out. I found that having a strong theme helps \u2013 more so than just throwing random stuff together.<\/p>\n

2) Using a platform like Spreadshop means you can really experiment. Since there are virtually no overhead costs related to creating new designs, you are free to throw stuff out there. Try new things, put it all out there and see what sticks. When you stumble onto something that works, do more of it.<\/p>\n

3) Success takes luck and patience. It can take a long time for things to really take off. If you want to be successful be prepared to stick with it and keep working, even if things don\u2019t kick off with a bang.<\/p>\n

Why Spreadshop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like Spreadshop’s printing options<\/a> more than most alternatives. I\u2019ve had some sample t-shirts made from other print-on-demand companies, but I wasn\u2019t happy with the quality. I especially love the flex printing option, something most companies don\u2019t even offer. The profit margins are better with Spreadshop, which is naturally pretty important if you want to make a living doing this. Finally, the tools Spreadshop gives us to customize and embed a shop into an existing site seem to outpace any competitor.<\/p>\n

\"Example<\/p>\n

How do you get people in your Spreadshop and encourage purchases?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Social media does most of the work here. I post my new designs to Twitter, Facebook, my subreddit, and so forth. I also send out a weekly new design newsletter to subscribers and add the design to my Google product feed to make sure it shows up in my Google shopping ads. If it was a request, I make sure to email the person who requested it. And frequently they are excited enough to spread the word on my behalf, which is another advantage of fulfilling requests.<\/p>\n

How do you decide which design categories to promote?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The two big qualities are how well they sell, and how much attention they draw. Sometimes a theme might not sell super well, but it gets people talking. This means it draws more people to my site, and those visitors poke around and mostly decide to buy something from another theme. It\u2019s a good idea to keep front and center, even if it\u2019s not a great seller directly. Others designs have comparatively great conversion rates, but don\u2019t necessarily lead to as many shares and re-tweets. Trying to find a good balance of the two can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

How much time do you spend on the business end of Amorphia?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s the closest thing I have to a full-time job. But I don\u2019t put a full 40 hours into it a week, that\u2019s for sure. Designing new t-shirts is the most fun part, but unfortunately the marketing and maintenance side of things uses more of my time.<\/p>\n

What does the immediate future hold in store for you?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Right now, I\u2019m in the early stages of brainstorming for a newly-themed Spreadshop, which I add annually each fall. I currently have no idea what I\u2019ll end up deciding on, but I\u2019ve got plenty of time before I begin to panic about it. Unrelated to t-shirts it\u2019s Dicebot Megafun<\/em> \u2013 my first board game. It will be published this June by WizKids games, which is super exciting!<\/p>\n

As for my shop within the next three years? I\u2019ve got two goals, which is a) become bigger than Amazon and Facebook combined, and then b) get on Instagram ?<\/p>\n

We thank Jeremy for passing on this very insightful info! Do you have any comments, or do you feel like getting a Spreadshirt Select feature yourself? Let us know in the comments!<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this month\u2019s installment of Spreadshirt Select, we have the pleasure of interviewing a Shop Owners with one of the longest tenures and best sales. Jeremy Kalgreem \u2013 the mastermind behind Amorphia Apparel \u2013 has written a true success story during an 11-year long Spreadshirt journey. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":15615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"21","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"58817","discourse_permalink":"https:\/\/www.spreadshop.com\/forum\/t\/shop-of-the-month-amorphia-apparel\/10554","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"categories":[48665,18615],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nShop of the Month: Amorphia Apparel - The Spreadshop Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this month\u2019s installment of Spreadshirt Select, we are interviewing Jeremy Kalgreem - a shop owner with incredible print on demand sales.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spreadshop.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/02\/spreadshirt-select-shop-of-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shop of the Month: Amorphia Apparel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this month\u2019s installment of Spreadshirt Select, we are interviewing Jeremy Kalgreem - 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