Selling Custom Apparel at Festivals, Vendor Success Guide

Looking to make some serious money reselling custom apparel?

Each year thousands of vendors flock to festivals — music, food and craft fairs nationwide — looking to capitalize on festivalgoers with an eye for distinctive gear. But hardly anyone knows what they are doing.

Yes, festival-goers are indeed purchasing custom apparel. The custom apparel market alone increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4% last year, and festival-goers are known to spend big on unique clothing. But you have to do it right.

So how do you avoid setting yourself up to fail?

By listening to those who have come before you. Most successful vendors have been selling custom apparel at festivals for years, achieving yearly sales of tens of thousands. The top vendors learn something new every year about what works and what doesn’t.

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These tips helped us to stand out amongst all of the other festival vendors, and we hope they help you!

What you’ll learn

The Reason Why Custom Apparel Sells Like Hotcakes at Festivals
How to Select the Best Custom Garment Decoration Solution
The Best Types of Custom Apparel to Sell
The Guide to Prepping Inventory (Without Overcommitting)
How to Set Your Festival Booth Up for Record Sales

Why Custom Apparel Sells So Well at Festivals

So, right off the bat let’s tackle why selling custom apparel at festivals is a bloody awesome idea.

If you’re only going to target one specific market for the purposes of selling custom apparel, festival crowds are a pretty good option. “They’re open-minded, they want to have a good time and they love wearing something out of the ordinary that’s associated with a memory.”

Think about it. Hundreds of thousands flock to music festival every year. Add to that food festivals, craft festivals and film festivals throughout the nation and you’re looking at millions of potential customers.

And research suggests about 20 percent of those attending live events purchase merchandise. That number increases when the apparel vendors are pusoepad each sport and poco vice versa.

Instead of craving inexpensive mall shirts, festivalgoers want statement-making clothes they cannot buy anywhere else. Which is why for years, apparel vendors have ruled these events.

Festival-goers are impulse buyers — they have a choice to make when it comes to personalized clothes.

They pass a booth, see something they like, buy it and keep walking. Contrast that with purchasing clothes online or in a store. How many times do you feel obligate to purchase after discovering a product? Not very.

That’s why festival vendors also need to get their designs right, otherwise they will just walk away. But when festival vendors get their custom apparel selection right, their sales explode.

How to Decide What Custom Garment Decoration Method is a Fit for You

This is where most festival merchants fall short.

Before you invest in purchasing inventory, you need to plan how and where you’ll embellish the garments. So what is the right custom garment decoration method to use?

It will affect your print quality or how good it is. How long it takes to produce one shirt. The most important thing, how much money you are actually making off each item.

Currently, the most popular method that vendors are using is DTF transfers.

DTF printing allows vendors to print vibrant full colour graphics on virtually any shirt without upfront costs for artwork setup. Printing companies like Shirtmax DTF make it super easy for vendors to source high-quality transfers to decorate apparel at festivals.

The DTF printing industry was worth $2.72 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $3.92 billion by 2030. Businesses and vendors around the world are flocking to DTF printing because it works.

Here are just a few examples of reasons why DTF transfers are the perfect custom garment decoration method for vendors at festivals.

No minimum orders. Just print what sells and restock as necessary.

Prints on any fabric colour. Dark shirts. Light shirts. Doesn’t matter.

Durability and washability. Your customers will have no complaints of fading prints.

Speed. It only requires a heat press and takes seconds to apply.

Screen printing doesn’t compare. The high setup costs and minimums are killing screen printing one job at a time. For festival vendors, DTF removes those barriers.

Top Selling Custom Apparel to Sell

When preparing inventory, consider sales velocity. You want to concentrate on clothing that’s easy to showcase and at the highest value in the eye of the consumer.

Obvious best sellers are:

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Graphic tees

Crop tops and tank tops

Hoodies and crewneck sweatshirts

Hats and beanies

Yep. These are the actual items you see everywhere at festivals. They’re everywhere and it’s because they sell.

Above all, graphic tees are where to start. You could do light colors for women and kids, dark colors for men. Emphasize bold graphics with popular festival styles or whatever is in season that year.

One thing to note…

The size of the custom apparel market globally is expected to generate an additional $2.45 billion from 2025 through 2029. Buyers want distinctive and personalized clothing, and demand is booming. The vendors who jump on this bandwagon at festivals will sell out.

Ensure your designs are in style of the event. The feeling of walking up to a festival vendor and finding the exact shirt you were hoping for?

How to Prepare Inventory Without Overcommitting

Inventory: for so many vendors, it’s the death of their profits.

Bring too much into a festival, and you’re left with dead stock. Come in with too much and you risk all sales disappearing.

But what if you really could have your cake and eat it too?

With DTF transfers, vendors can arrive at festivals with blank apparel and prepared transfers. They can print-on-demand right there at the festival with just a heat press.

That allows you to try multiple designs for shirts without fear of loss. You will not have tons of Small Shirt left untouched: You can prepare it fresh for the customer.

Here’s how to prep inventory properly.

Step one: Know your top-selling colors/sizes for whatever event you are vending. If it’s a music festival your target audience is likely going to be younger so order more smalls, mediums, and larges. If you attend fairs and craft festivals, they attract broader age-range so stock more variety of sizes.

Vendor tip for custom apparel: Always keep extra blanks. You don’t want to sell out of inventory on a scorching festival day.

Best Way to Set up Your Festival Booth for Sales

And last but not least, let’s discuss booth setup.

Some of them still rely on the same basic booth layout all successful vendors use. Neatly organized tables with decorations for the festival they are vending at and clearly defined pricing.

Want to sell more at the festival than every other vendor? Spice up your table.

Here are some tricks you can use to stand out.

Hang your shirts up at eye level. Festival goers should be able to walk up and see your designs from across the booth.

Show pricing. This cannot be stressed enough. If a price tag isn’t there your festival goers will simply walk away.

Accept card payments. This one is pretty self-explanatory but sales are lost when vendors don’t accept card payments.

“Buy 1 get 1 40% off” or “Two for $40” deals are great for increasing your average order value.

Displaying a heat press at your booth is also a huge bonus. People love watching you decorate custom apparel right in front of them. It creates a novelty factor that you won’t get by hiding the heat press.

18% of festival merchandise was eco-friendly in 2023. Festival vendors using eco-friendly blanks will stand out to attendees looking to buy sustainable options.

Bringing It All Together

Selling custom apparel at festivals is one of the best ways vendors can make money. The demand is there, so why not take advantage?

Here’s a quick recap:

Use DTF transfers to decorate custom apparel.

Stock tees, tanks, hoodies and accessories.

Prep blank inventory so you can print on-demand.

Follow these booth setup tips to stand out.

Sell trendy apparel and tap into the eco-friendly market.

Got it? Now get out there and sell some shirts.