Custom Ink Alternative for Breweries: Why Taprooms Are Switching

March 13, 2026 7 min read By Vince Tagaloa

Quick Answer

Custom Ink requires minimums and a one-time group buy, which leaves taprooms guessing on sizes and stuck with leftover inventory.
Bear Grips Pro Shops eliminates minimums entirely. One shirt or one hundred, same flat per-unit price.
Vendors get their own shop link to put in the Instagram bio so merch sells all year, not just during a campaign.
No setup fees, no minimum order, no inventory. Free shipping to the customer on every order.

Table of Contents

Why Custom Ink does not fit brewery merch
How print on demand changes the brewery merch model
What you give up by switching
What a brewery merch shop looks like after the switch
Frequently Asked Questions

Custom Ink works fine for a one-time team t-shirt order, but it is the wrong tool for a brewery that wants to sell merch all year. Minimums force you to guess sizes, group buys end after two weeks, and you end up with unsold inventory in the storage room. Bear Grips Pro Shops is a different model: an always-on shop, no minimums, and you keep the margin on every sale.

Why Custom Ink Does Not Fit Brewery Merch

Custom Ink built its model around the team t-shirt order. A coach collects sizes, runs a group buy for two weeks, and orders 30 shirts. That model breaks down when you try to use it for ongoing brewery merch.

Minimums: most styles require 6 to 12 minimum per design, which means you need a guaranteed buyer for every shirt before you print.
One-shot campaigns: group buys close after a set window. Your IPA fan who walks in three weeks later cannot buy the shirt.
You hold inventory: if you order 30 shirts and sell 20, you eat the cost on the other 10 sitting in your storage room.
No always-on shop: there is no link you can put in your Instagram bio that sells your merch 24/7.

Breweries need a model built for retail, not a one-time team order.

How Print on Demand Changes the Brewery Merch Model

Print on demand prints each shirt only after a customer pays, which removes every problem above.

Pain point	Custom Ink	Bear Grips Pro Shops
Minimum order	6 to 12 per design	1
Upfront cost	$200 to $800 deposit common	$0
Always-on shop	No, group buy closes	Yes, 24/7 link
Inventory you hold	Whatever did not sell	Zero
Setup fees	Setup and screen fees common	None
Shipping to customer	Customer pays at checkout	Free
You set retail price	Yes	Yes

For a side-by-side on platform pricing and features, see our Bear Grips vs Custom Ink comparison.

Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.

What You Give Up by Switching

Honest trade-off: bulk screen printing on a 100-shirt order through Custom Ink will be cheaper per unit than print on demand. If you have a guaranteed buyer for every shirt and you can wait for the campaign to close, screen print wins on cost.

For everything else, print on demand wins. Limited releases, anniversary shirts, collaboration drops, retail taproom merch, and online sales to out-of-state fans all benefit from the no-minimum model. Most breweries that switch end up using bulk screen print for one or two flagship pieces and print on demand for everything else.

What a Brewery Merch Shop Looks Like After the Switch

Setup takes under an hour. Upload your logo, pick 5 to 15 products from the catalog, set retail prices, and your shop goes live with a custom URL like shops.beargrips.com/yourbrewery.

From there:

Drop the shop link in your Instagram bio and on the back of your beer menu
QR code on a taproom display so customers can scan and buy a shirt while still drinking the beer
Print a card and slip it into every brewery tour gift bag
Email the link with your next beer release announcement

Every order ships directly to the customer in about a week. You see the order, you see the margin, you never touch a shirt.

Drop the Minimums and Start Selling

Set up your free brewery shop in minutes. No setup fee, no minimum order, no inventory. Sell from one tee to one thousand.

Start Free

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there really no minimum order on Bear Grips Pro Shops?

Correct. The minimum is one. Customers can order a single shirt or a single hoodie and we print and ship it. There is no group buy and no campaign window.

How does the pricing compare to Custom Ink for small orders?

For orders of 1 to 20 units, Bear Grips Pro Shops is typically cheaper per unit than Custom Ink because there are no setup fees and no screen charges. For 50-plus unit orders of the same design, traditional screen print is cheaper per unit.

Can I still do a one-time bulk order for staff uniforms?

Yes. Place the order through your own shop just like a customer would. There is no minimum either way, and you can also use your shop for ongoing retail merch.

Do I lose access to my designs if I leave Custom Ink?

Your logo files belong to you. Upload them to Bear Grips Pro Shops and we apply them to any product in the catalog. There is no lock-in either way.

Vince TagaloaProfessional Hospitality Operator

Vince has run restaurants and bars across Hawaii and the West Coast for 20 years. He writes about hospitality staff uniforms, taproom merch programs, and how independent food and drink concepts use apparel to compete with chains.