The Connecticut Shirt Man

We are a local, 2nd generation, family-owned and operated business with over 60 years combined experience in our field.
We do direct-to-garment printing, which is a superior process to digital printing that most of our competitors use.
We offer value-added services, such as one-on-one consultations about logo creation and modification, brand management (outfitting a whole company from top-level management to janitorial staff), and personalized service. Our biggest competitors offer a far cry from good customer service and product knowledge. We are a small business that has made a living by knowing the best products and services available.
The Family started this business in 1975, out of a very small shop in Waterbury. We began with “Connecticut” shirts, which were high-quality garments with multi-colored hand-drawn and hand-printed landscape and town-scene designs. We sold these shirts at craft shows, fairs (Big E was our biggest money-maker), and in various gift shops throughout the state. Our shirts became so well known that we changed the company name from “Ads and Images” to “The Connecticut Shirt Man”, and established a permanent location in Watertown CT, which we operated out of until 2015.
While still keeping a successful following, we reached out to local businesses with custom screen printing. At the time (late 80s-early 90s), there were virtually no other screen printers in the area. This was an UN-tapped market, and we did extremely well. We currently have over 18,000 customers in our database, though some of these relationships are old and non-relevant now do to businesses closing or clients no longer in need.
Our school uniforms program seemed to fall into our laps. We received a call from a school wanting to outfit their students, and that became our landmark customer. Since then, we have acquired contracts with over 25 schools.

We offer scalability: We operate out of a 12,000 square foot facility. We are able to print or embroider any job, no matter the size. We can also do order-fulfillment for a company that uses us, meaning that we can produce the clothing and then ship it anywhere in the country.
Our prices are competitive: Many of our competitors inflate their pricing, then “slash” the price to portray a good deal. Custom Ink, for example, will show a price of 30% higher than ours, and offer a sale price that is still higher than what we offer. There is no magic process for screen printing. It costs the same, and takes the same amount of time no matter where you go!!