CafePress let anyone open a shop without owning a single T-shirt. A user uploaded art, and CafePress printed the shirt, mug or poster only when someone ordered it. Sellers carried no inventory. The site hosted millions of small shops and became known for gifts, slogans and fan merchandise. When it filed to go public in 2012, it was one of the earliest print on demand companies, thirteen years old.

Printing in Kentucky

Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain founded CafePress in 1999. They saw that digital printing could make single items cheaply. Their bet was that people would pay a premium for custom products, and that a marketplace of designers would fill the catalog. Shop owners earned a share of each sale. The company grew through the 2000s and moved much of its production to Kentucky.

Etsy and Zazzle Close In

CafePress priced at $19 a share in March 2012. Its stock fell soon after as competition from sites like Etsy and Zazzle grew. The company sold off several businesses to focus on its core. Many shop owners moved to other print on demand sites. In 2018 Snapfish bought CafePress for about $25 million and kept it selling custom products online.

Cover: Café Singer, Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a café singer.