Custom T-shirt shop goes from basement to 41st Street storefront

Dec. 27, 2019

Ethan Corbin and his father, Ryan, have grown their T-shirt printing business from a basement operation to a retail storefront on West 41st Street.

They started as Signature Lettering with a heat press less than two years ago and turned to a franchise with Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More to better serve their growing customer base.

Their new shop at 3505 W. 41st St. specializes in a quick turnaround for orders and features a direct-to-garment printer and two graphic designers who can help customers create custom artwork that can be printed on everything from T-shirts and polos to totes and towels.

“With a lot of places, you go in and you might look at a catalog or on a computer, and you’re picking out what you want. Here, now this is just a splash for what we offer,” Corbin said, pointing to the display racks, “but you can actually come and you can see the products, you can feel them. You can see what different types of techniques look like and what the inks will look like.”

In addition to direct-to-garment printing, which Corbin said offers 16 million colors, Big Frog does screen printing and embroidery.

The shop doesn’t charge a setup fee, and there’s no extra charge for design work. There’s a large selection of T-shirts for $22 to $25, with quantity discounts starting at 10 items, which includes different products and different designs.

There are no minimum orders, and most of the larger projects can be done in a day or two. Small orders can be done on the spot.

“This is so easy. It’s so fast,” Corbin said. “Five shirts can be done in five to 10 minutes, completely bagged up, ready to go in a very, very short time.”

Customers enjoy watching the direct-to-garment printer work, he said.

“They load the shirt on there and hit the big green button. It’s cool though because customers absolutely love seeing that thing work.”

Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

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Custom T-shirt shop goes from basement to 41st Street storefront

Signature Lettering has grown from an independent, home-based venture to a franchise-affiliated business with a retail storefront on 41st Street.

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