Cinquanta Cox-Smith hopped on the print on demand train long before the industry boomed in 2020.

In 2009, Cinquanta created her first t-shirt design after she witnessed Kanye West’s infamous VMA incident with Taylor Swift. She wore her shirt out, and from there, the creator said her tees went viral in her hometown.

“All I knew at that time was transfer paper and an iron,” Cinquanta said. “I didn’t know much about selling, but that was really my introduction to ‘people want this, I can make money, and now I have to figure out how to get it to them.’”

That’s how she discovered print on demand. 

Cinquanta began testing tees from dozens of companies, and in a stroke of genius, she recorded the entire process for YouTube.

“My channel was stagnant, it was at a standstill,” Cinquanta said. “But then all of a sudden, I started getting so many comments, and I was like ‘okay, this is what people want to see.”

Cinquanta’s channel is now littered with raw, honest reviews of POD companies. She also shows her audience how to sign up for accounts and design products through simple tutorials.