CrossinStore review for Apliiq ‑ Print On Demand

Sept. 5, 2019

I've worked with a ton of print on demand/dropshipping apps, this one stands out. This app is the sophistication of Printful, the wide selection of Printify, and the versatility of Skyou all rolled into one. I'll explain: Apliiq has been around for a long time and has proven themselves to be very reliable with great prints. The case is the same with Printful, and both can do sleeve prints. So when I heard they were doing dropshipping, I wondered how watered down it would be compared to their non-dropship customization. And the answer is that they didn't water it down at all. Apliiq has a far greater selection than anything else, even opening my eyes to products I didn't think we possible with dropshipping. Seriously, they can stitch stuff to the inside of the hood? Have embroidery and DTG on the same product? Hell, you can have cut and sew too. Skyou may have lined hoods too, but their fabric is thin and it arrives a month after you order. Oh, as a side note, the thing that really sold me on this was the fact that they remove the manufacturer's tags and stitch on your own. Printful has this on some shirts - for Apliiq, you could do it to anything, including the hoodies. (These are high quality, sewed on labels, not printed either.) So no more Gildan tags on your hoodies. They have a decent amount of products - better than Printful, not as great as Printify. I wish they had more colors for some hoodies, the colors I want are only available on the most expensive one (Independent Heavyweight) which is unfortunate. Yet their prices for blanks are pretty low, I had no idea how they were even profitable with their customization until I discovered something else. With each design you add, it costs an additional $6-$8. For shirts it might be a little less. With embroidery, it's more, and with an inner hood, it's a whopping $16 more. If I design a hoodie, and I want a lined hood, design on the front, and a design on the back, it's going to cost me about $41 and that's with the cheapest hoodie they have (Front is $6, back is $6, and hood is $16). They allow you to be so ambitious with the versatility, yet bottleneck you at the same time because if you really want to get creative, you'll have to pay a hefty price. This is literally the only problem I have with Apliiq. Is it worth it to pay that price? Yes, definitely. But that doesn't mean it isn't too much. Also some high costs for embroidery digitization in my opinion. Now, like every on-demand app, there are some downsides. There is a slight smell when you unbox the clothing. The initial print is thick and great quality, but right out of the box the print can feel a little sticky or rough. Almost all providers have this. The smell and print feeling was immediately solved by a quick laundry run, but it is there initially. The print itself is above average, with decent color accuracy. They obviously do multiple coats. As a small complaint, embroideries are only allowed to be quite small. A minor complaint but understandable. Shipping times are decent. I made a large, 6 item order myself to test and it took about 14 days from order to arrival at my doorstep (I live in Wisconsin, USA). Not sure about international shipping times. Smaller orders might be a day or two earlier but not too significant. Everything is well packaged, and the large order came in a standard box with each garment in a separate plastic bag. In summary, this is the best of the best for print on demand, embroidery on demand, dropshipping, branding, etc. Finally, some serious competition for the print on demand space. I don't even think Apliiq knows how game changing this is.