Band shirts are a great way to promote your music. Even better, they're a great way to raise some extra funds for new guitar strings and gas money. The trouble is that those awesome band shirts in your closet, the ones you love and cherish - a lot of work and money went into producing them. Bands with smaller budgets have a harder time getting a reasonable deal. It takes smart planning to make sure you will recoup your investment.

The first step is to make sure your shirt idea is profitable. The second step is to locate a printing company that can crank out quality tees at a price you can afford. We'll walk you through both of those steps in this quick guide.

● Make Sure the Shirts Will Actually Sell

The worst case scenario is that nobody buys your shirts and you're stuck sitting on all those costs. The most expensive shirt is the shirt nobody wants to buy. Spend extra time making sure your band gear is worth the price you'll be charging. If you want free shirts to give away as promos, go for cheap fabrics and a simple one-color text logo. If you actually want to recoup your costs, invest the extra few dollars to buy better shirt styles and fabrics and spend extra time looking for killer artwork.

Artwork sells shirts. It's great if you already have art, but the best results come from digitally produced art saved in a file format that your printing company of choice prefers. Head over to your local college and see if any talented graphic design majors are willing to do some art for your t-shirts – in exchange, the artist will be able to get his or her name out there, and can use the artwork in an academic or professional portfolio. These arrangements are mutually beneficial for both bands and artists.

● Find an Affordable Printing Company

You might think the expensive boutique print shop down the street is the only place to get custom shirts. Not true! The screen printing industry is all about the Internet, where a huge selection and stiff competition helps to keep prices at their lowest. Fast shipping times and large inventories mean that you can put your band name or artwork on any shirt style. Choose shirt bases as they go on sale to get the best deals. ]

Do not limit your choices to music gear retailers – branch out and look at businesses that produce custom t-shirts for family reunions, sports teams, and school functions. Music gear retailers and custom apparel manufacturers both use the same screen printing techniques and produce the same high quality results. Music industry printers charge huge markups, so we prefer all-purpose printing agencies every time.

Band t-shirts are like walking billboards and pay for themselves with free publicity, but that does not mean that you should take a loss on your purchase. You can get great t-shirts and a great price (and maybe even make a little profit) just by following the tips in this guide, and by being a great band that fans want to represent.