The Cotton Factory is a t-shirt company that actually has quite the following, if their Facebook page is any indication. For the most part they’re your standard humor/slogan tee store, but what drew me to them sometime last summer was their surprisingly large stock of unique designs. Over the last year, I’ve placed three orders with them — the one I’ll be focusing on here is the most recent one, obviously, but I’ll also throw in my experience with my first and second orders for clarity. For the most part, this is a repeat of the most recent review I wrote here at the Tee Directory.
First and Second Orders (The Bad)
Disclaimer: I should make it clear that these orders were placed several months apart, but the only (publicly announced) changes made in the interim were the addition of American Apparel tees for guys, and lowered shirt and shipping prices.
Shirts from these orders included “4 Pretty Ponies of the Apocalypse“, “Icarus Wing” (first order), and”This Is The End My Friend” (second order). When I received my first order, I was disappointed to find that there were two problems with the shirts: a) the printing on the Ponies shirt, and b) I ordered the wrong size. Unfortunately I no longer have photos of the shirt, but the print was noticeably misaligned (there were a lot of gaps between the different colors in the print) and it felt smooth, foamy, and kind of heavy. The “This Is The End” shirt came in the same way. The smoothness (and relatively bad misalignments) made it immediately apparent this wasn’t any kind of screenprinting I’m familiar with. I wish Cotton Factory would make it clear what kind of printing they use, as the quality definitely was not up to par — there are companies who do much more complex designs without either of the issues described.
The sizing thing wouldn’t have been an issue — I mean, it was my fault — if it wasn’t for the fact that when I returned the shirts, specifying that I wanted an exchange for “Icarus Wing” on the return form, CF credited my credit card for the whole order. I emailed them asking why they didn’t exchange the shirt, and they told me they lost the return form. Which I very clearly remember putting in the package. They then told me if I still wanted the shirt, I could reorder it — but by then, their sale was over, and honestly I wasn’t too keen on going back and buying at full price, especially with how outrageous their shipping prices were back then.
Third Order (The Good)
Now, just about a week ago, I decided to give CF another chance and reorder “Icarus Wing” during their back-to-school sale. With a 20% off coupon and lower prices and shipping than I had to deal with before, I was convinced.
The Shirt
As you can see in this photo, this is a nice shirt (hence why I wanted an exchange for the size that fit me). The wing is actually not as bright white as it appears in the photo — it’s more of a faded gray — but it doesn’t look any less nice. The print is nice and big too, though the fact that I wear a girls small may factor into that. Hopefully it’s just as large on the guys’ shirts! The blank is American Apparel, so you know it’s good.
Unlike the other shirts I ordered from CF, this design is clearly screenprinted, and done well — the print is lightweight and doesn’t feel overly scratchy or heavy despite its size. If only they would extend this same treatment to their other designs, many of which deserve it.
Here are some close up shots of the print, which show you just how delicate the details are. Beautiful!
Shipping and Service
CF has always been very good with shipping out orders promptly — my order went out the day after I placed it. With Priority Mail, it reached me only a couple of days. The shirt arrived in a plain Priority Mail envelope with nothing packed inside but the tee and a receipt with a 10% coupon printed on it. In today’s tee industry, which has order extras and custom bags/tags becoming a standard, it was disappointing, but it’s definitely not something I’d take points off for.
Customer service, despite the exchange fiasco, was pretty good — I had my emails returned promptly, even though they screwed up on their end. CF also seems to be pretty active in talking to their community on their Facebook page.
Closing Thoughts
If you like a design and aren’t afraid of possibly getting a weirdly-printed shirt, I’d say go for it — at $16 with lower shipping prices than before (at one point they were charging $7 for one shirt, domestic!), it’s not a bad deal. (Plus, you can use CF0110ss for 10% off!)
What was your experience like? Leave your review at the Tee Directory!
