Custom designed from scratch gear for Houghton businesses, schools, teams, churches, and crews. Proofs in 24 hours, delivered in 5 to 7 days.
In-house designers turn napkin sketches and old low-res logos into print-ready vector art. Free with every order, proof in 24 hours. For Houghton, that comes with published pack pricing and door delivery in 5 to 7 business days.
Census numbers put Houghton at a community of 136 on 0.3 square miles of Iowa, all of it covered by the same tracked shipping. Nearby crews are already in the coverage circle, with Salem, IA (5 mi), St. Paul, IA (5 mi), Hillsboro, IA (6 mi) sharing the identical pack rates and timelines. For the military community, Rock Island Arsenal sits about 71 miles away, well inside our normal unit-order routes.
The whole process runs remote: rough idea in, free designer-built proof back, written approval, and finished gear delivered to Houghton.
A typical week of custom design orders from this corner of Iowa mixes Houghton crews with neighbors like Salem, 5 miles over, all running through the same designer, the same proof cycle, and the same tracked delivery.
A tight little product line, designed to move at the table. If a design will not print well at the size you want, you hear that before money changes hands.
A phone photo of a faded shirt becomes clean, print-ready vector art. One point of contact owns your order from first proof to delivery confirmation.
Insignia drawn correctly, with trademark rules respected and flagged. Deadlines get treated like formation times, not suggestions.
Start with words alone: the design team turns a description into finished art. Mixed sizes and colors in one run are standard here, not a special request.
The year on the shirt sets the type style, and the team knows the difference. One point of contact owns your order from first proof to delivery confirmation.
One design system across shirts, banners, and signs so everything matches. Nobody chases an order here. Your contact tells you where it stands before you have to ask.
The shop runs on habits borrowed from the people we serve: accountability by name, honest reporting, and deadlines that do not slide. Houghton customers feel the difference on the first order.
That standard cuts both ways. If your art needs work or your timeline is impossible, we tell you up front and offer the fix, because a bad shirt with our print on it costs us more than the order.
Ninety seconds in the Design Lab gets you a complete number: garment, print, sizes, upcharges, and shipping, all before any contact form.
Garment choice makes or breaks the order. These are the blanks Houghton customers pick most, all designable online on real product photos.
Max weight, boxy drop, oversized print field: the streetwear formula. What you approve in writing is what ships. That rule has no exceptions.
New designs debut on the Classic: 80-plus colors guarantee the right backdrop for the art. Deadlines get treated like formation times, not suggestions.
Put the design on washed heavyweight cotton and it stops being a shirt and starts being merch. Nobody chases an order here. Your contact tells you where it stands before you have to ask.
Half the orders we take begin as a phone photo of a sketch, an old shirt, or a sentence describing the idea. A designer turns that into print-ready vector art at no charge, sends the proof inside 24 hours, and revises it until you sign off in writing. Nothing is produced before that signature, which is why what shows up matches what you expected.
Prefer hands-on? Build the design yourself in the Design Lab on real product photos, with the running price on screen while you work.
Here is what Houghton customers actually pay, starting from our light cotton tee. Every price includes a standard front print, and the number only moves down as the pack gets bigger.
| Order size | Pack total | Cost per piece | Freight | Back side |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pack of 10 | $180 | $18 ea | $18 | $4 ea |
| Pack of 15 | $250 | $16.67 ea | $18 | $4 ea |
| Pack of 20 | $320 | $16 ea | $20.99 | $4 ea |
| Pack of 25 | $375 | $15 ea | $20.99 | $3 ea |
| Pack of 50 | $700 | $14 ea | $22.99 | $2 ea |
| Pack of 100 | $1200 | $12 ea | FREE | $2 ea |
Three add-ons exist and all are flat per piece: the back print at the table rate ($3 from 25 pieces, $2 from 50), the oversized front at $3 or $2 depending on quantity, and extended sizes at $6 or $4. Nothing else gets added. The Design Lab applies every rule automatically, and the written quote confirms the total before anything is charged.
Kick it off however suits you: describe the concept in the quote form or drop your art straight into the Design Lab. Polish is not required at this stage.
The proof arrives inside a day, drawn at print size on your chosen garment and color. Change anything, as often as needed, at no cost.
You approve in writing before production starts. No surprises at the box opening, because you already saw the shirt.
From approval, count 5 to 7 business days to your door. If the event is sooner, ask about rush and get a straight yes or no.
The specs live in our archive permanently: same art, same colors, same result, on demand.
Production plus shipping to Houghton addresses runs 5 to 7 business days standard, tracked the whole way. Shipping is free at 100 pieces and flat rated below that, exactly as shown in the pricing table above.
The roster is the packing list: every size counted into the box, tracking issued at pickup, and any shortage or transit damage made right at our cost without argument.
Simple math: 2XL and up cost $6 more per piece on small orders and $4 more per piece from 25 pieces. No other size fees exist, and the Design Lab totals it live.
Due to custom orders, all work is finalized and no returns are accepted. Double check sizing and artwork before submitting your order. Every order gets a free proof first, and nothing prints until you approve it in writing.
Yes, 10 pieces. That is the smallest run we print, packs for your Houghton crew keep dropping the per piece price from there, and free shipping starts at 100.
File quality is our problem, not yours: vectors are ideal, 300 DPI PNGs work, and weak files get redrawn at no charge.
We do, at the same pace as domestic orders. Deployed and overseas service members at APO and FPO addresses are covered alongside all 50 states.
That is the point of the Design Lab: the complete number, packs, back prints, size upcharges, shipping, updates live while you design, before any contact form.
More answers on the full FAQ page.
The Houghton coverage page shows the full picture, custom design statewide zooms out, and the service page covers the method itself. Other services in Houghton: Screen Printing, Embroidery, DTG and DTF Printing, Sublimation, Banners and Signs.
A designer proofs your art free within 24 hours, and production waits for your written approval. Every pack price is already published.