TL;DR: Lonely Kids Club is an independent Australian clothing brand based in Sydney. Since our 2011 launch, printing tees after they're ordered has let us keep niche designs and artist collaborations in the range without committing to a big printed run. It reduces the need to guess demand for each finished design. The blank garment is made separately; the printing, packing and dispatch happen here.
I started LKC because I wanted clothing to feel personal. Fifteen years later, that still means a shirt about something you actually love, even when that thing is bread, a very particular bird or a joke your friends are tired of hearing. Printing one shirt at a time makes room for those ideas.
People ask why we still do it this way. The answer is partly practical, partly creative, and the two are hard to separate.
What is print-to-order clothing?
Print-to-order means we print a garment after a customer orders it. The blank already exists, as does the artwork file. We add the chosen design to the chosen garment instead of having a finished pile of every design, colour and size ready to sell.
For our graphic tees, that printing happens in our Sydney studio using direct to garment (DTG) equipment. Our small team then finishes, packs and dispatches the order. You can see the steps in how our graphic tees are printed. Other products can use a different process, such as embroidery on caps.
Printed in Sydney and manufactured in Sydney are different things
We use AS Colour blank garments. Those blanks are manufactured overseas before they reach us. AS Colour's production FAQ says its core T-shirting is made in Bangladesh and more detailed styles in China; check a garment's label or the supplier's factory information for its origin.
Our local work is the printing, finishing, packing and dispatch. When we say “printed in Sydney”, that is the stage we mean. It should not be read as a claim that the fabric was grown here or the whole shirt was cut and sewn here. Our ethics page explains our supplier choices and studio practices.
What printing after an order changes about waste
If a design isn't ordered, we do not need to print a batch of it and hope it sells. We can keep blank garments ready and use them for different designs as orders come in. That takes some of the guessing out of colours, artwork and sizes.
It matters in an industry with a large waste problem: the United Nations Environment Programme reports 92 million tonnes of textile waste globally each year. That figure covers the wider textile problem; it is not a measure of LKC's savings.
Printing to order does not make clothing waste-free. Blank garments still need manufacturing, and printing uses ink and energy. Mistakes, returns and packaging still need attention. The specific benefit here is that we can avoid printing a speculative run of each design. It is one part of our approach to slow fashion.
Why support an independent Australian clothing brand?
At LKC, you're buying from a small Sydney business whose team handles the printing and the order. That supports the work we do locally, while the blanks and some of the artwork come through an international supply chain. Supporting an Australian business and buying a wholly Australian-manufactured garment are different buying decisions.
Independence also gives us room to choose the designs. We can work with an artist on something specific, keep it available for the people who love it, and print more when someone orders. It doesn't need to become the next huge trend to deserve a place.
If you want to know who runs the brand and how that shapes the range, our independent Australian clothing brand page is a good place to start. If local manufacture is your priority, look for the origin of the actual garment as well as the location of its decoration.
A smaller run leaves room for stranger ideas
A shirt that says “How Good Is Bread” is quite a specific proposition. I drew the lettering for our Bread Tee because loving bread is enough of a reason for a design. Printing to order lets us offer that idea across the fits and sizes on the product page without printing a pile of each combination upfront.
The same flexibility helps with artist collaborations. Kayla Reay's Clive the Cyclist Tee is a coloured-pencil magpie in cycling gear. Bridget Farmer's Be With The Birds Tote puts her bird artwork on something useful. They are different artists with different styles, and both get room in the range.
It's also useful for mental health clothing and funny T-shirts. A message can matter to a particular person without needing to work for everybody. We can keep offering it without a big printed batch waiting to sell.
The trade-off is time before dispatch
Printing after you order adds work before the parcel can leave. Allow up to seven business days before dispatch for standard orders; custom products are generally closer to two weeks. For Australian delivery, standard postage then generally takes 2–7 business days after production, or 1–3 business days for express.
Express shipping changes the postage service, not the production queue. We also send an order together once all its items are ready, so a custom item can affect the timing of the whole parcel. Check the current shipping estimates and contact us before ordering if you have a fixed deadline.
Choosing a tee you'll actually keep wearing
The useful question is whether you'll wear the design and like the fit. Start with a reference that means something to you, then compare a shirt you already enjoy wearing with our sizing and fit guide. The product page lists the available colours and fits; those can vary by design.
We launched the website in March 2011 with gender-neutral clothing at the centre of the brand. That is still how we approach the range. Our story explains the beginning, but the everyday version is simple: someone chooses a design, we print their tee, and it goes out from our Sydney studio.
For the work itself, browse our graphic tees, funny tees and artist collaborations. Pick the shirt you can already picture yourself wearing.
