Custom Ink is the default name in custom apparel for many car club presidents. The brand recognition is strong, the website is polished, and the company has been in the space for decades. For car clubs of certain sizes and order volumes, Custom Ink still works. For most club apparel programs (the recurring year-round member orders, the small-batch event tees, the design changes between seasons), the no-minimum model is a better economic fit. Here is the honest comparison.
Custom Ink uses tiered volume pricing with minimums that typically start around 12 to 24 pieces per design depending on garment and customization. The per-piece price drops as the order quantity rises. A 12-piece order of cotton tees with a one-color print runs around $15 to $20 per piece. A 100-piece order of the same design runs around $9 to $12 per piece.
The model favors larger single-order volumes. The model does not favor small recurring orders, design changes between seasons, or members ordering individually over time.
Bear Grips Pro Shops runs a fixed per-piece price regardless of order size. A 5-piece order or a 500-piece order pays the same per-piece cost. The model favors recurring orders, design changes, and member-by-member ordering.
The fixed per-piece price sits between Custom Ink's 12-piece minimum tier and the 50-piece tier. For clubs ordering 12 to 30 pieces per design (the most common car club volume), the per-piece cost is comparable. For clubs ordering 5 to 12 pieces, no-minimum wins decisively. For clubs ordering 100+ pieces in a single bulk run, Custom Ink may win on per-piece cost by a few dollars (offset by the lack of inventory risk in the no-minimum model).
Bear Grips Pro Shops: Custom Apparel for Your Team. No Minimums. Free Shipping.Custom Ink standard turnaround is roughly 2 to 3 weeks from order to delivery. Rush options compress to about a week at a premium. The Bear Grips Pro Shops standard turnaround is roughly one week from order to delivery without a rush premium.
For event-driven club apparel (cruise night next month, annual show in 6 weeks), the difference matters. A car club president can order event shirts 10 days before the event and have them in hand the day of the event under the no-minimum model. Same 10-day timeline through Custom Ink would require the rush option.
Custom Ink has real strengths the no-minimum model does not match:
For these cases, Custom Ink is the right call. For everything else (the recurring year-round member apparel, the small batch event tees, the design changes between seasons, the member-by-member ordering model), the no-minimum approach is the better fit.
Moving a car club apparel program from Custom Ink to a no-minimum platform takes about an hour of setup time. The club logo files transfer (the same JPG or PNG works on both platforms). The garment selection is comparable. The shop URL becomes the new central link the club shares with members.
The hard part is not the technical move. The hard part is the mental shift from "we order bulk twice a year" to "members order whenever they want, year-round." Clubs that make the shift typically see member apparel engagement go up, treasury revenue go up, and apparel program friction go down. The clubs that resist the shift usually do so out of habit rather than economics.
Same logo file, no-minimum production, US-printed in about a week. The club shop URL becomes the central link for member ordering year-round.
Start FreeFor most car club order volumes (5 to 30 pieces per order, recurring across the year), Bear Grips Pro Shops typically beats Custom Ink on per-piece cost and on inventory risk. For very large single-order bulk runs (100+ pieces per single design), Custom Ink may have a per-piece advantage.
Standard turnaround for Bear Grips Pro Shops is about a week from order to delivery. Custom Ink standard is 2 to 3 weeks, with rush options compressing to about a week at a premium. For event-driven club apparel, the timing difference matters.
Yes. The same logo file (JPG, PNG, or vector) works on both platforms. The transition takes about an hour of setup time. The shop URL becomes the new central link the club shares with members for year-round ordering.
Bear Grips Pro Shops