Darkside Shop

From the short end of the stick to rocking the short Fall Ball season in style, good luck Team Burgundy. 🙌🏼

Our favourite new hats, in your favourite colours!

A country music legend with a heart as iconic as her voice—Dolly deserves to be worn proudly! 💖🤠

A little reminder about what “shopping local” really means…

Shopping local doesn’t necessarily mean getting something custom-made for way less.

Small businesses have expenses too — materials, equipment, supplies, software, maintenance, packaging, utilities, payment fees and, most importantly, the time and hands-on work that goes into creating something specifically for you.

Sometimes you may see a lower price online, and absolutely — shop where it makes sense for you. We all have budgets, and we completely understand wanting to make your dollar stretch.

But before assuming something online is cheaper, make sure you’ve factored in shipping, customization charges, setup/design fees, minimum quantities and other add-ons that may not appear until checkout.

There’s also something else that can be harder to put a price on: personal service.

With many online shops, you’re expected to have your artwork ready to go, upload it and place your order. When you work with a small local business, there’s often much more collaboration involved — talking through ideas, making adjustments, answering questions and working together to make sure the finished product is something you’re genuinely happy with.

At Darkside, we’ve always tried to keep that process simple. We don’t charge design fees, and we don’t believe in nickel-and-diming our customers for every little thing. We do our best to offer fair, straightforward pricing while still providing truly custom work and personal service. We also make every effort to turn things around quickly, which means longer days and nights for last-minute requests. (Remember that many others have planned ahead but still have deadlines, so accommodating the last-minute orders means meeting more deadlines, and not charging a rush fee is another little bonus we offer 😉)

And we genuinely love being able to do that. We make every effort we can to be generous as well because, well, we love our customers and like to SHOW our appreciation, not just say it.

We’d just love people to remember that what we make look quick and easy often involves a whole lot of work behind the scenes.

Designing. Editing. Sizing. Sourcing. Ordering. Preparing. Printing. Pressing. Testing. Fixing. Packaging. Messaging. And sometimes doing it all over again until it’s right.

Behind every finished shirt, hoodie, mug, sign or custom piece is time, equipment, materials and quite a few steps you never have to see — because our job is to make the process feel easy for you.

And just like everyone else, small businesses are navigating rising costs too. Blank garments, transfers, ink, supplies, packaging, equipment and pretty much everything involved in producing custom work costs more today than it did a few years ago.

Lately, we’ve noticed a growing expectation that custom work should cost very little. We completely understand why — everything is expensive right now, and everyone is trying to be careful with their money.

We simply ask that when you choose to shop local, you also recognize the time, skill, materials and real costs behind customized products.

Because supporting local isn’t necessarily about finding the cheapest possible price.

It’s choosing to support the person designing your order, answering your messages, making the adjustment you asked for, sourcing what you need and creating your team shirts, memorial piece, birthday gift, business apparel — or the ridiculous inside-joke shirt that makes everyone laugh. ❤️

And we know we wouldn’t get to keep doing what we do without the people who choose us.

So to everyone who continues to choose Darkside, recommends us, tags us, shares our posts, comes back for another order or tells a friend about us:

We appreciate you to the moon and back. 🌙💙

Truly.

Thank you for supporting small business — and for understanding the work, people and heart behind it.

https://www.darksideshop.ca/collections/blowout-hats

🚨 DARKSIDE SHOP BLOWOUT SALE 🚨

Get your favourite clothing items at blowout prices — with customization available for a little extra.

🗓 Sale Dates: Aug 21–23
⏰ Ends at midnight on Aug 23

What’s included:
• Stocked items only
• Tees, tank tops, crewnecks, hoodies & polos
• Limited quantities, sizes & colours
• Local pickup only
• Sale does not apply to bulk orders

Customization pricing:
• 1st customization: +$5
• 2nd customization: +$8

Link in the comments. Items must be ordered through the website for the sale pricing.

There’s lots in stock, and even more blowout sales are coming with great seasonal picks for fall and Christmas.

Stay tuned and don’t miss the next sales to come!

If you’re an artist we love and we meet you… you get one of these!



Josh Ross
Bailey Zimmerman