What Are The Best Niches, Designs, And Keywords For POD T-Shirts This Summer? (Men’s Edition)
Summer is here. Skies are an azure blue. You can bathe in the sunshine and breathe in the fresh air. It’s a season loved by many and there’s no better way to show off your awesome fashion sense than with a brand new men’s t-shirt.
This summer, some trends are making their way through on Merch by Amazon and we’ll explore the different niches and designs. We’ll also offer advice on how to optimize your listings.
Let’s get started.
What are the best niches for men’s t-shirts this summer?
We head over to Merch Informer’s Niche Hunter module to figure out what is trending lately and which men’s t-shirts are popular right now.
Here’s what we found.
Funny men’s summer shirts
Men’s shirts don’t always have to be serious. Two of the best examples of this design philosophy are the “Funny Florida Vacation Gift Funny Snow Bird Beach T-Shirt” and the “Funny Coconut Summer Coconuts Bra Funny Halloween Costume T-Shirt”.
The first men’s summer shirt plays on the location and the season. It says “You don’t have to shovel sunshine – Florida” on the front. This t-shirt is available in black mainly. The font size is large and bold, and in block text.
The second one that we came across as trending features a graphic element literally depicting a coconut bra. Although it says “Halloween Costume” in the title, it’s actually a perfect beach t-shirt indicating a sense of humor by those wearing it.
What’s interesting is that the first t-shirt is just plain text, while the second features design only.
Male cooks’ t-shirts
Another interesting niche that’s trending is the one aimed at male cooks and chefs. For example, the t-shirt titled “Funny cook T-Shirt” says the following in text-only on the front: “Cook. Hero. Myth. Legend”.
Men’s running t-shirts
Summer is a great time for men to engage in physical activity. There are shorter half-marathons and then there are full marathons. Whichever one a guy picks, the following t-shirt would be ideal for them: “Running Funny Definition Funny 5k Marathon Runner Gift T-Shirt”.
The words on the front of this t-shirt state “Running. Noun. Pretty much the greatest thing in the world. Exclusively reserved for the highly intelligent and impossibly good-looking”.
While this one also has a humorous touch, it’s also a text-only t-shirt that capitalizes on the fact that running is a huge activity in the summer.
Drinking, vacationing, politics and activism
The next four niches include disparate themes such as drinking and marijuana, vacationing on the beach, politics and activism. As a rule of thumb, designs are simplistic, and so is the background. White or black monocolors dominate the scene, as do blocky, sans serif fonts, emphasizing masculinity. Humor is intertwined with political activism, ranging from animal protection to patriotism.
What are the best designs for these t-shirts?
Speaking of design, a few elements must be emphasized.
The first one is that the prevalent majority of these t-shirts are black. A black background is a highly popular choice for men and since the color goes with absolutely any graphic element on top, it makes sense that it dominates over others.
Secondly, there’s a relatively even distribution between text-only, design-only, or a mixture of text and design t-shirts. Text-only t-shirts use either large, white block letters on the front to convey the message or they use different colors. The important thing is text size and the block/square font. If you’re thinking of creating a text-only shirt for men, be sure to use a large enough font that, when centered, will be visible from afar and create a unique impression.
As for design-only shirts, there are a bit fewer options. Designs range based on the particular niche. However, what’s important is that the design and the title of the t-shirt on Merch by Amazon are accurately aligned.
Then there is the mixture of text and design. These are also quite popular and do well in terms of sales. One thing that they have in common (apart from the black background, of course) is that the design is fully centered right in the middle, there are no pixilation’s, colors are bold, and they are also contrasting with the black background to create a more vivid overall image.
How best to optimize such t-shirts
If you want to get into the men’s summer t-shirts niche, then we suggest that you first ask yourself a couple of questions before getting started. This will help you figure out a more long-term and successful sales strategy.
What is your main message? Funny (humorous, lighthearted) or serious (activist)?
Will you create a text-only t-shirt, a design-only one, or a mixture of both?
How will you utilize keywords in your title to make your listing more discoverable for summer t-shirt searches?
How will you price your products? Will you go above or at the average prices and if you do, will you play around with the price or stick to one price throughout hoping for a breakthrough?
As for the description of your shirt, what do you plan to say that will catch your audience’s attention? How will you specify that your shirt is only for men? What descriptive characteristics will you mention? What occasion is the shirt best suited for? Remember that going with a generic description is not only boring but is also detrimental to your customers.
What has worked well historically?
In the run-up to the summer season, a couple of trends have emerged. We used Merch Informer’s Merch Archive to figure out the details.
The fact that the 4th of July is in the summer means that there are quite a few politically-themed t-shirts that have gained popularity. Beyond that, we were able to pinpoint the following historically well-performing themes and niches:
- Animals
- Anime
- Fishing
- Birthdays
- I <heart> hot moms
- Olympics and other sports events
Our tip-list for men’s t-shirts this summer
Men’s summer t-shirts are a broad category on their own. Therefore, adopting a one-size-fits-all approach is probably unwise. However, there are some top tips that you can follow in order to ensure you get in front of the summer-craving male audience.
These are our suggestions:
Optimize your keywords
Merch Informer can help you optimize your keyword usage employing a variety of different modules. These will enable you to see competition scores for concrete keywords, as well as related keywords.
Some examples of keywords you can use include “beach”, “summer”, “funny”, “men’s”, etc.
Optimize your description/bullet points
The description is where your customers come to you for more information about the t-shirt in question. This means you need to give them everything they need to know to make an informed purchase.
One good tip here is to look at your competitor’s products and see what types of reviews they’re getting. Look at both the positive and the negative reviews. On the positive side of things, consider if you can improve the customer experience. On the negative side of things, think about how to avoid future situations like the ones described in your competitors’ comments.
Price adequately
On average, men’s t-shirts are priced in the region of $17.95. This means that you can make a profit off the average price if you choose to stick with it.
However, bear in mind that you can also play around with your pricing strategy to achieve higher royalty payoff. You can up the asking price when the best-sellers rank (BSR) falls to a nice low, and decrease it when the BSR rises.
You are free to maneuver on the price front so don’t be afraid to try out different strategies.
Design beautifully
A well-crafted design will get you very far. This is irrespective of whether you’re offering a text-only shirt or a text-and-design t-shirt.
The most important thing to consider is whether your design is suitable for your target audience. For example, are you targeting young men just entering adulthood, those in their 40s, senior men, or others? Knowing your audience will help you figure out the right t-shirt message for the right audience.
Final words
Men’s summer t-shirts are a wonderful category to get into because there’s so much variety in terms of sub- and micro-niches. Using Merch Informer’s various modules, we were able to establish which men’s t-shirts are trending now, and which were trending historically.
These modules can also help you, too.
Make smart and informed decisions based on data and not on pure whims. Merch Informer’s basic subscription, giving you all the data you need, goes for only $9.99 per month!
