Is Teespring (Spring) Legit or a Scam?

There are a lot of people who are looking to make money online, but there are so many money-making scams out there. As a result, you may be skeptical of any popular “side hustle” ideas floating around the internet. However, skepticism isn’t bad, as it can save you from wasting time and money and protect you from a claim of what initially appears to be too good to be true, such as no upfront costs needed to begin a business. Teespring, now Spring, is one of these companies that almost seems too good to be true.

Is Spring Legit?

The first question is whether or not Teespring is legit. The company has been around for more than ten years and has even produced several millionaires, according to Forbes, thehustle.co, and mofluid.com.  You must ascertain how Spring makes money to ascertain if the company is legit.

How Spring Works

Spring seems rather ingenious by making it a win-win situation for all. Instead of creating a design, paying a T-shirt company to complete the T-shirts and hoping you can sell all of them to make a profit, Spring has you create a T-shirt and set a goal of how many T-shirts you will sell. The more you think you will sell, the more money you’ll make if you reach the goal. If you don’t meet the stated goal, then Spring doesn’t produce the T-shirts, and no money changes hands.

Because of this business model, Spring avoids charging an upfront fee. They don’t have to produce the shirts if you don’t reach the stated sales goal. However, if you reach the stated sales goal, a profit for you and the company have already been factored in. So, they produce the shirts and are guaranteed a profit.

Is Spring Safe?

There is little initial financial risk to using Spring, so the company is safe. Since you don’t need to give any upfront money when using Spring, you aren’t risking losing your hard-earned cash. The real investment is your time. You don’t earn anything if you create campaigns that don’t reach their sales goals. With that said, there are some unique problems with Spring that you may consider “unsafe.”

Quality Issues With Spring

Many content creators, businesses, and independent users lean on Spring to make shirts. While only having 2.6 stars on Trustpilot, most negative reviews of Spring (Teespring) seem to be website-quality-related or complaints about the time it takes to receive materials. While these issues can be problematic, they don’t exactly implicate Spring as a “scam.” However, you may want to shop around and see if there are other companies that can meet your needs.

In addition to its mediocre Trustpilot score, the Better Business Bureau currently doesn’t accredit Spring. Unfortunately, the BBB reports findings similar to Trustpilot’s in that Spring receives a high volume of customer complaints. The BB notes two primary issues: Customers cannot speak with anyone on customer service, and customer service does not respond to emails or chats.

Qualitative Risks of Using Spring

As mentioned above, a couple of risks are involved with using Spring. They don’t make it a “scam,” but they are definitively noteworthy. The most widely reported risk is blown deadlines. It seems pretty well-covered that Spring struggles to get materials out on time for a significant subset of its customers. So, if you need your materials to arrive on time, you will want to explore other options.

Another risk reported by the BBB is the possibility of being unable to remove your art from the website. If you are a design-based business, your intellectual property is invaluable. Therefore, you may need to think twice about using a company that may not surrender it when you ask. As the BBB states, examining the terms of service before purchasing is vital to ensure your IP is protected.

Monetary Risks of Using Spring

Other notable risks are costs you may incur when creating and trying to sell the T-shirts. If you pay someone to design a logo or other image (you don’t have to; you can do this on your own), you may lose these costs if you don’t ultimately sell the T-shirts you have set as a goal. The same can be true if you spend money promoting the T-shirts. This money is gone, and you don’t get anything for your investment in the advertising if you don’t reach the T-shirt sales goal.

You also have a slight risk with the number of T-shirts you think you can sell. The higher you set your goal, the more you will make for each shirt sold. The problem is that if you don’t reach the goal, you get nothing. For example, if you set a goal of 50 shirts and sell only 49, the shirts will never be produced and you get nothing. However, if you set the goal of 10 T-shirts and sell 49, you would get paid a commission for all the sales since you met the goal. Although, that commission would be less than if you had said you could sell 40 T-shirts. Attempting to accurately estimate how many T-shirts you can sell without overestimating is vital.

Is Teespring (Spring) Legit or a Scam?

Spring is not a scam; it is a legitimate business. Although, this doesn’t mean it is the best business for you. There are some risks, and it has a negative reputation with consumers, so it’s essential to understand how the company works so you know what you’re getting into.  But it’s a legitimate opportunity to make money without paying any upfront costs. If you are creative enough to come up with some T-shirt designs that you could sell to others, you may want to check out Spring as a possible way to make some extra money in your spare time. Just make sure to explore all available options before pulling the trigger.

For how to make a success of selling with this business as well as other side businesses, check out these articles:

How to Mix Investing and Small-Business Ownership
Side Jobs to Grow Your Bank Account

(Image courtesy of Spring).