How Long Custom Shirts Take
Up to 10 business days to print, then free economy shipping or faster shipping at checkout. Your cart shows the arrival dates before you pay.
Custom shirts take up to 10 business days to print, then travel with the carrier: typically 4 to 8 business days with free economy shipping, or 2 to 5 with faster shipping. Your cart adds the two up into arrival dates for your own order, before you pay. There is no rush printing and no guaranteed delivery date, so if the shirts are for a game, a field day, a staff event, a church retreat or a reunion, read this before you order, not after. Part of Custom Apparel Guides & How-Tos.
How long do custom shirts take?
Typically up to 18 business days from payment to the door by free economy shipping, or up to 15 the faster way: two waits, printing then transit, added together. Both count business days, Monday to Friday, skipping the holidays the carriers keep.
| How it ships | Printing | In transit | The cart's later date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free economy shipping | Up to 10 | 4 to 8 | Up to 18 business days away |
| Faster shipping, or free where the order already goes that way | Up to 10 | 2 to 5 | Up to 15 business days away |
Printing is the longer clock, and nothing shortens it. Ten business days is two calendar weeks before a single parcel moves. It is the figure our print partners state, a ceiling rather than a promise: many orders finish well inside it, and a busy stretch uses all of it. The transit times are the carrier's typical ones for the 48 contiguous states, and an order travels at the pace of its slowest item. The shipping policy sets out both clocks.
Where do I see my delivery dates?
In your cart, under the checkout button, before you pay. Once the order is in the cart, a line there says how many parcels it ships as and the two dates it should arrive between. When faster shipping is offered, a second line gives its price and the date it brings the order by.
The dates are worked out for what is in the cart:
- Up to 10 business days of printing, then the typical transit time of the slowest item, by the way the order will ship.
- Counted in business days from today in Pacific time, not counting today.
- Skipping weekends and the 11 federal holidays the carriers keep: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- For an address in the 48 contiguous states.
Change the order and the dates follow it. When checkout offers a choice of shipping, each option shows its own estimate. A quote PDF from your cart carries the estimate for free shipping, for a purchase order.
Which shipping does my order get?
Free shipping, on every US order with no minimum: by economy when everything in the parcel can go that way, and by the faster service when something cannot. Where it goes economy, checkout also offers Faster shipping: the same parcel sent the faster way, for a price.
| Your order | Free shipping | Faster shipping at checkout |
|---|---|---|
| Most orders | Economy, typically 4 to 8 business days in transit | Offered, typically 2 to 5, for a price |
| A names list, with its own name or number on each piece | The faster service, typically 2 to 5 | Nothing to upgrade |
| Large garment orders that go to our bulk print partner | The faster service, typically 2 to 5 | Nothing to upgrade |
| A parcel with a Steel Tumbler or a Dotted Notebook in it | The faster service, typically 2 to 5 | Nothing to upgrade |
| Paid by invoice | The free shipping the cart showed when you asked for the invoice | Not offered |
What faster shipping costs. The most the faster service can cost us over the free one for what is in your order, plus the card processing fee on that amount, rounded up to the next price ending in .99. Your cart shows the price and the earlier date before you pay, and checkout lists it beside free shipping with both estimates. The shipping policy has the details.
What it saves. Faster shipping shortens the transit, not the printing: it takes 2 business days off the early date and 3 off the late one.
Where it is for. Faster shipping is for the 48 contiguous states, and its name at checkout says so. If you choose it for an order going to Alaska, Hawaii, a US territory or a military address, the order ships the free way, because the free service can already be the faster one there, and we refund what faster shipping added without you asking, and email you to say so.
If economy is not available on the day, a parcel sold with free economy shipping goes the faster way instead, at no charge, so it arrives within the dates you were shown or sooner.
Several addresses. Each address is its own parcel with its own tracking, and the cart dates the order by its slowest parcel. Faster shipping sends every parcel the faster way, for one price, except a parcel outside the 48 contiguous states, which ships the free way and gets its part back. Splitting an order can change how each parcel ships, so check the dates again after you split. Each further address adds a shipping charge, shown in your cart before you pay. See shipping one order to several addresses.
How do I order for a date?
Start the design now, collect the sizes, read your cart's dates and leave a buffer before you pay. Six steps, from the idea to the checkout:
Design it now
Designing with Remi is free and needs no card, so start as soon as you have the idea.
Collect the sizes
Type or paste them yourself, or collect them by link: each person adds their own size, and the name or number to print if the shirt carries one.
Read your cart's dates
Put the order in your cart and read the two dates under the checkout button.
Leave a buffer
Plan around the later date and leave a buffer after it, a week if you can.
Choose the speed
If the later date is too close, see whether checkout offers faster shipping, or email us before you order.
Check out once sizes are in
The dates count from the day you pay, so every day spent waiting on the last size comes off your slack.
How do I count back from an event?
Count business days, not calendar days, and start from the later date in your cart. Ten business days from a Thursday is not the Sunday ten days later: it is the Thursday two weeks later, unless a carrier holiday falls in between. Holidays are exactly when people order event shirts.
| Your event is | Business days away | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Five weeks out or more | 25 or more | Comfortable, with a week or more of slack either way. |
| Four weeks out | 20 | It fits, but free economy shipping leaves only 2 days of slack, short of the week we suggest; faster shipping leaves 5. |
| Three weeks out | 15 | Tight. The faster service's later date lands on the day itself, and economy's can land after it. Ask us first. |
| Two weeks out | 10 | Only if printing finishes early. Tell us the date before you order. |
| One week out | 5 | Plan for the order to arrive after it. |
Subtract one for each carrier holiday in between.
What can make an order arrive late?
A slow carrier, a printing rush, an address outside the 48 contiguous states, or paying by invoice. The dates in your cart are typical, not worst case, and these four can push an order past them:
- Carriers can run past their typical times. The cart counts the typical transit for the way your order ships: up to 8 business days by economy, and up to 5 where it ships the faster way.
- A large order or a holiday rush can run past the printing window.
- The address is outside the 48 contiguous states. Allow 7 to 12 extra business days in transit to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the other territories; military APO, FPO and DPO addresses can take 15 to 30 business days. The shipping policy has the details.
- An order paid by invoice. A person sends the invoice after you ask for it, and a bank transfer takes a few business days to clear. Printing starts only once it is paid.
So plan around the later date and leave a buffer after it. If even the later date lands after your event, the cart has told you before you spent anything.
Where should the order ship?
Somewhere a person will be when it arrives. Schools close for breaks and offices close on weekends, and a box left at a locked building sits there. A school or an office that needs the order in several places can send parts of it to up to ten addresses.
Check the address before you pay. If you spot a mistake before printing starts, email service@aipromodesign.com and we will fix it; once printing starts, the address is locked in.
When is the busiest time to order?
The weeks before a seasonal date. Everyone orders holiday shirts in December and first-day shirts in late August, and holiday periods run longer. Ordering a month early costs nothing extra.
What if the date is genuinely tight?
Email service@aipromodesign.com with the date before you order, and we will say honestly whether it is realistic. We would rather lose the sale than have you pay for shirts that miss the thing they were made for. If we commit to a date in writing and miss it because of us, that is on us; a carrier delay after we shipped on time is not something either of us can fix afterwards. Custom prints are not returnable for a change of mind, so a shirt that arrives late is a shirt you own.
Common questions
Do you offer rush printing?
No. Every order takes up to 10 business days to print, and nothing shortens that. Faster shipping, where checkout offers it, shortens only the time in transit.
Why don't I see faster shipping at checkout?
Because your order already ships the faster way for free: a names list, large garment orders that go to our bulk print partner, and any parcel with a Steel Tumbler or a Dotted Notebook in it. An invoice has no shipping choice either: it ships the free shipping your cart showed when you asked for it.
Is faster shipping for Alaska and Hawaii too?
No. It is for the 48 contiguous states, and its name at checkout says so. If you choose it for an order going to Alaska, Hawaii, a US territory or a military address, the order ships the free way, which can already be the faster one there, and we refund what faster shipping added without you asking, and email you to say so.
What if economy shipping isn't available?
Then the parcel goes the faster way at no charge. A parcel sold with free economy shipping that cannot have it on the day ships by the faster service instead, so it arrives within the dates you were shown or sooner.
Do you guarantee a delivery date?
No. The dates in your cart are estimates from typical printing and transit times. If a date matters, ask us in writing before you order: if we commit to a date in writing and miss it because of us, that is on us.
When does the clock start?
On the day you pay. The cart counts business days from today in Pacific time, not counting today. An order paid by invoice goes to print once the payment is in, and a bank transfer takes a few business days to clear.
How long to Alaska, Hawaii or an APO address?
Longer than the cart shows, because its dates assume the 48 contiguous states. Allow 7 to 12 extra business days in transit to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the other territories. Military APO, FPO and DPO addresses can take 15 to 30 business days, and tracking usually stops updating at the military hub while the parcel keeps moving.