Bear Grips Pro ShopsCustom Ink Alternative for Startup Accelerators
- Custom Ink minimum order requirements break for small cohorts of 10 to 20 founders
- Custom Ink ships in bulk to one address, you handle per-founder distribution and returns
- Bear Grips Pro Shops ships per-founder direct, founders pick their own size at checkout
- Reusable cohort template means the second cohort takes 10 minutes instead of starting from scratch
Most accelerators that start with Custom Ink hit the same three walls: minimum order quantities that break for small cohorts, bulk-to-one-address shipping that creates a distribution headache, and a re-quote-every-time workflow that turns each new cohort into a new project. Here is how Bear Grips Pro Shops solves each of those for the accelerator merch use case.
Wall 1: Custom Ink Minimums Break for Small Cohorts
Custom Ink minimums vary by product but typically start at 6 to 12 pieces and price up sharply below 24 to 48 pieces. For a pre-seed cohort of 10 founders, the per-piece price on a 10-piece hoodie order is significantly higher than the same order at 50 pieces.
Smaller cohorts also miss out on the volume discount tiers that make Custom Ink cost-competitive. A 12-founder boutique cohort pays a premium per piece, then has to either over-order to hit the next tier or settle for the higher per-piece price.
Bear Grips Pro Shops removes the minimum entirely. A 12-founder cohort pays the same per-piece price as a 120-founder cohort. The per-item math stays consistent across program sizes.
Wall 2: Bulk-to-One-Address Shipping Creates a Distribution Problem
Custom Ink ships the full order to one address. For a remote cohort spread across cities, that means the program team or admin has to receive, repackage, label, and reship every hoodie to every founder address. That is 30 to 60 packages of work for a single cohort.
For an in-person cohort where everyone shows up at orientation, the bulk model works. But many modern accelerators run hybrid or fully remote, and the bulk-to-one-address model becomes a hidden cost line in program-team hours.
Bear Grips Pro Shops ships per-founder direct. Each founder enters their own address at checkout, picks their own size, and receives the package at their home or co-working space. The program does not handle a single envelope.
Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.Wall 3: Custom Ink Restarts Every Cohort from Scratch
Custom Ink runs as a per-order quoting model. Each new cohort means a new order, a new quote, a new design review, and a new production timeline. The program team rebuilds the order from scratch every batch.
For a program running 4 cohorts a year, that is 4 times the project-management overhead just to run the same hoodie design with a different cohort number. Each round takes 2 to 4 hours of program-team time to coordinate.
Bear Grips Pro Shops keeps your products live as templates. You upload your logo and design once. For each new cohort, you duplicate the product, update the cohort number, and republish in under 10 minutes. The template handles the rest.
Custom Ink vs Bear Grips Pro Shops for Accelerators
| Feature | Custom Ink | Bear Grips Pro Shops |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum order | 6 to 24 piece minimums depending on product | No minimum, single piece okay |
| Shipping model | Bulk to one address | Per-founder ship to any US address |
| Per-cohort workflow | New quote and project each cohort | Reuse template, update cohort number, republish |
| Sizing | Pre-order in mixed sizes, distribute manually | Founder picks own size at checkout |
| Monthly cost | None, pay per order | Free tier, then $59/mo or $109/mo VIP |
| Alumni and PC support | Each one is a new order | All on one shop, all on one link |
See our full Bear Grips vs Custom Ink comparison for the line-by-line feature breakdown.
Switch from Custom Ink
No minimum, per-founder ship, reusable cohort template. Set up your shop in 45 minutes.
Start FreeFrequently Asked Questions
Can we move our existing Custom Ink design to Bear Grips Pro Shops?
Yes. Upload your existing logo and design files to a Pro Shops account and the products go live in under an hour. Founders see the same design they would have seen on a Custom Ink order.
What if our cohort still wants the option to bulk-ship to one address?
You can place a single bulk order from the same shop and ship to the program address. The shop supports both per-founder and bulk shipping models from the same product list.
Does Custom Ink work better for very large bulk orders?
For a one-time order of 200+ pieces of a single product, Custom Ink can be cost-competitive due to their volume tiers. For multi-cohort programs with recurring orders and mixed product mix, the Pro Shops model is structurally better.
