Because the shirt is not made until you order it. There is no shelf with your size on it. The order triggers production, and production takes time that a warehouse would have spent in advance.
The two stages, and how long each takes
| Stage | Time | What is happening |
|---|---|---|
| Printing and packing | 3 to 4 business days | Artwork queued, shirt pulled, printed, cured, checked, packed |
| In transit | 7 to 9 business days | Carrier moves the parcel to your address |
| Total | 10 to 13 business days |
Business days are Monday to Friday and exclude US public holidays. A Friday evening order does not start printing until Monday.
What happens during the printing days
The order joins a production queue. The blank in your size and colour is pulled, the artwork is printed, and the ink is heat-cured so it bonds to the fibres rather than sitting on top of them. Curing is not optional and not instant — it is the step that decides whether the print survives washing.
The shirt is then checked and packed. If it fails the check it goes back to the start of the queue, which is occasionally why an order sits a day longer than expected.
Why we do not quote three-day delivery
We could quote the fastest possible path and be right sometimes. The range above is the honest one across a normal week, including the days when the queue is busy.
Holiday periods stretch both stages. Late November and December are the slowest weeks of the year for every US carrier, so order earlier than the estimate suggests if the shirt is a gift with a date attached.
What you can control
- Check the delivery address before you pay. A wrong address is the single most common cause of a long delay.
- Order early for a dated occasion. Count backwards 13 business days, then add a buffer.
- Watch for the tracking email. It arrives when the parcel leaves the print shop, not when you order.
The trade you are making
Printing to order means no unsold stock, no size guessing, and no landfill at the end of the season. The cost of that is the wait.
Full delivery detail is on the Shipping page. If the wait turns out not to be worth it, you have 30 days and we pay the return postage — see Returns & Refunds.