Nothing to Hide: AI, Amazon & the Future of Custom Apparel

Matt Tenbush on October 1, 2026

NOTHING TO HIDE

AI, Amazon & the Future of Custom Apparel

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about some of the things that don’t always get talked about in our industry.

We shared a few uncomfortable truths about custom apparel.

We pulled back the curtain on proofs—and why we probably obsess over them more than you realized.

So, for the last installment of our Nothing to Hide series, we thought we’d look ahead a little.

Because things are changing.

You see it. We see it too.

And there are plenty of opinions about where all of this is headed.

So naturally, we thought we’d talk about it.

Why stop being honest now?

Future of Custom Apparel

WE’VE ALL GOTTEN USED TO “EASY”

Amazon has changed a lot more than the way we buy paper towels.

Think about how we shop today.

We search. We find. We click. And before we know it, there’s a box waiting on the porch.

We’ve gotten used to things being easy and fast.

And those expectations have made their way into our industry too.

Customers want better products, more choices, smaller quantities and faster turnaround times.

And we understand why.

Sometimes you don’t need 500 shirts.

You need 27.

And you need them next Friday. (Sound familiar?)

For companies like ours, that means continuing to find ways to become more efficient. It means improving technology, automating some of the repetitive stuff and bringing more capabilities in-house where we can better control the workflow, turnaround time and quality.

But here’s one of those Nothing to Hide truths:

Smaller and faster doesn’t always mean cheaper.

Whether we’re producing 24 shirts or 240, there are still a lot of the same steps happening behind the scenes—artwork, proofs, ordering, receiving, setup, production, quality control, packing and communication.

Our job is to keep finding ways to make those steps easier and more efficient without losing the quality and service you expect from us.

And that brings us to another little topic you may have heard something about lately…

AI.

We know.

There are a lot of opinions about this one.

We’re not here to tell you how to feel about AI.

We’re still figuring out what it means for our industry too.

What we can tell you is that we’re already seeing places where it can be helpful—and places where a human still needs to step in and say:

“Ummm… that’s not quite right.”

We had a perfect example this week.

Our art department has been working on a shirt for a marching band festival. The overall design looked great, but there was one small problem.

Some of the musicians weren’t holding their instruments correctly.

So there we were, studying reference photos and discussing the proper finger position for a trumpet player.

Just another normal Tuesday in the art department.

But it was also a good reminder of something we’ve always believed.

Future of Custom Apparel

GOOD DESIGN IS IN THE DETAILS.

There’s more to design than making something look cool.

There’s balance and spacing.

Positive and negative space.

Typography and color.

Where your eye goes first and where it goes next.

And yes, apparently, knowing where someone’s fingers belong on a trumpet.

Those details come from training, experience and simply spending a lot of years making things.

AI can certainly help with parts of that process.

Our artists can use new tools to help with things like image upscaling, redrawing artwork, vectorizing, color separations, exploring concepts and storyboarding.

Some tasks that used to take hours can now happen much faster.

And that’s exciting.

Because when technology can take care of some of the repetitive work, our artists can spend more time on the things that matter:

The idea. The details. Your story.

SOME THINGS DON’T NEED TO CHANGE.

We’ve been doing this for more than 50 years, and the technology inside our shop has changed quite a bit since 1975.

We’re pretty sure the original ASP crew would have a few questions if they walked into the building today.

But some of our favorite parts of this business haven’t changed much at all.

It’s Teresa greeting you when you walk through the front door.

It’s sitting down with a sales rep—many of whom have been here for 20+ years—and talking about whether that shirt should be black, charcoal or that very specific shade of dark grey you saw somewhere once.

It’s our art department chasing down the little details, asking the extra questions and making those last few adjustments because sometimes the difference between a good design and a great one is something pretty small.

And it’s our production team figuring out how to make things happen when there are too few shirts, not enough time and a deadline that isn’t moving.

Technology can help us do a lot of those things better.

Automation can make us more efficient.

AI can give our team some pretty incredible new tools.

And we’re going to keep learning how to use all of them.

But we don’t think any of those things replace the part of this business we’ve always enjoyed the most.

Working with people.

Learning about your event.

Helping you pick the right shirt.

Fixing something before it becomes a problem.

Getting excited about a great design.

And occasionally doing everything humanly possible to get 300 shirts printed by Friday.

SO, WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE?

We don’t know exactly.

And anyone who tells you they do is probably trying to sell you something.

What we do know is that our industry will keep changing.

Orders may get smaller.

Turnaround times may get faster.

Technology will get better.

AI will probably surprise all of us a few more times.

And we’ll keep adapting right along with it.

Because after 50 years, we’ve learned that you don’t stay in business by doing everything exactly the way you’ve always done it.

You learn.

You change.

You get better.

But hopefully, you also know which things are worth holding onto.

For us, that’s the people, the craftsmanship and the relationships that got us here in the first place.

50 years in the ink—and still making impressions.

Austin Screen Printing & Austin Embroidery
The Austin Original.