How To Make Merch for TikTok (and Sell It) in 2025

In 2020, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since 1977. The reason? A viral TikTok of creator Nathan Apodaca lip-syncing the song while skateboarding and drinking from a jug of cranberry juice. 

Anything can go viral at any moment, and TikTok virality can sometimes feel like a mystery. That’s why it’s important to stay on top of TikTok trends and experiment with content formats to see what sticks. But when you strike gold, what do you do next? 

Nathan Apodaca was able to monetize his virality by landing an acting gig, but there are more tried and true methods for monetizing your TikTok persona once you’ve amassed an engaged following. One great way to make money on TikTok is to sell your own line of branded merchandise. 

Selling merch is a great way to transform your personal brand on TikTok into a thriving business. And it’s easier than you think to get started. Ahead, learn how to make merch for TikTok, find creative ideas for what to sell, and discover how you can sell merchandise to your fans directly from the app.

Why make merch for TikTok?

Creators have multiple options for monetizing their TikTok account, including: 

• Opting into the platform’s Creator Rewards Program
• Collecting tips
• Offering content subscriptions via platforms like Patreon or Substack
• Partnering with brands on sponsored content

Another great way to monetize your TikTok presence is by selling your own branded merchandise. Here are a few benefits to monetizing your brand on TikTok by selling merch:

• Community engagement. Buying merch is a great way for fans to show their support for you. It also provides an opportunity for soliciting user-generated content (UGC) that features fans proudly sporting your products.
• Brand awareness. Selling merch is a great free advertising strategy: When fans sport your merch, they’re exposing everyone around them to your brand. 
• Creative control. Unlike with sponsored content or brand partnerships, you’ll retain full creative control over not only what products you sell, but how you go about pricing and marketing them to your audience.
• Platform ownership. Your ecommerce business has the potential to transcend the TikTok platform, making you less beholden to its (sometimes mysterious) algorithm.

10 branded merch ideas for TikTok creators

1. Branded t-shirts and other apparel
2. Mugs, blankets, and home goods
3. Stickers, pins, tattoos, and patches
4. Art prints
5. Phone cases and tech accessories
6. Pet accessories
7. Branded workout items
8. Food and drink products
9. Tote bags
10. Book products

There are a number of products you can sell as merch to your TikTok fans. These range from common items like t-shirts and mugs to niche products that are a fit for your specific account theme or follower interests. Let’s dive into a few popular merch options.

1. Branded t-shirts and other apparel

Apparel is the bread and butter of creator merch. You can easily display your logo, likeness, catchphrase, or custom designs on everything from hats to socks to sweatshirts by using print-on-demand services (more on that later) or your own handiwork.

TikTok creator Lily Chapman has found success with apparel merch. The fashion and lifestyle influencer now sells t-shirts, jewelry, and accessories on her dedicated ecommerce site, which she built with Shopify.

2. Mugs, blankets, and home goods

If it makes more sense for your brand and audience interests, you can sell housewares and décor products like mugs, pillows, beach towels, blankets, and candles. These are perfect options for TikTok designers, illustrators, and photographers looking to offer affordable versions of their art, as these products can provide a great blank slate for designs.

Creator Ethan Barber is a photographer known for his cinematic TikToks of life in New York City. Fans of Ethan’s nostalgic NYC aesthetic can purchase “souvenirs” like calendars, mugs, and postcards from his Shopify store.

3. Stickers, pins, tattoos, and patches

You can make and sell stickers, sew-on patches, temporary tattoos, and pins as low-cost ways for your fans to show their support for you. Given their low cost, you could also distribute these products for free at merch giveaways online or in-person, or add them to customer’s orders for an unboxing surprise.

Consider other small items that you can make and sell as merch for TikTok. Keychains, enamel pins, earrings, and pencils are all inexpensive items that can be printed on demand, handmade, or hand-customized.

4. Art prints

Art prints are particularly great merch option for artists, illustrators, and designers. Many fans are unable to afford original artwork, but you can still sell art online through reproductions (or prints). 

You can choose to create prints in limited edition batches in order to create scarcity, which can bolster their perceived value and desirability. You can also create prints on demand, which will let you sell them to as many fans as possible.

5. Phone cases and tech accessories

Making your own phone cases is easy when you partner with print-on-demand companies that can do the work for you. Phone cases provide a blank slate to showcase your branding, and fans will carry them everywhere, which can lead to increased brand awareness. 

Consider selling other tech accessories, too, such as watch bands, luggage tags, laptop cases, keyboard covers, iPad skins, and gaming console stickers.

6. Pet accessories

If you manage a petfluencer (the true star), try making and selling pet accessories like leashes and bandanas. Even if you don’t heavily feature pet content on your account, you can still count on your audience purchasing pet products: Almost half of Americans own dogs and nearly a third of Americans own cats. 

Develop merch that’s most relevant to the types of pets you and your audience love the most. Cats, dogs, guinea pigs, birds, lizards—you can dream up all sorts of merch for all sorts of animals. When it comes to pet-themed products, consider offering a combination of merch for pet lovers and accessories for the pets themselves.

7. Branded workout items

If you’re a fitness creator, consider selling branded training equipment. In addition to announcing the launch of your product line, you can also create instructional videos with your new products and incorporate your merch into your standard content.

Take fitness brand Gymshark, for example; the brand is prolific on TikTok, with nearly six million followers. Gymshark uses the platform to post inspirational content that motivates its followers to work out—and, indirectly, buy its products.

8. Food and drink products

If you’re a food influencer, you can sell prepackaged food and drink products or cooking equipment. TikTok creator Morgan Eckroth, a 2022 United States Barista World Champion, has built a following of more than 6.2 million around her coffee-related video content. To monetize that popularity, Morgan set up a Shopify ecommerce site that offers products like coffeemakers, coffee scales, and tea. She links to her store in her TikTok bio to make it more available where her followers are based.

9. Tote bags

A tote bag is, literally, a blank canvas for you to print your logo, catchphrase, or artwork. Everyone needs a bag, and tote bags are roomy, affordable, and easily customizable types of bags to sell as merch. From the grocery store to the office, people carry tote bags in a wide range of settings. By selling branded tote bags as TikTok merch, that ubiquity will increase the odds of more people seeing your branding.

10. Book products 

The online community “BookTok” is wildly popular on TikTok. Its hashtag #booktok has more than 200 billion views, and BookTok content is so widespread that it’s actually influencing the publishing industry. If it makes sense for your brand, you can tap into BookTok’s popularity by selling book-related merch like branded reading lights, protective dust jackets, or sweatshirts featuring your favorite book characters or quotes. Just make sure the associated book is old enough to be in the public domain so you don’t run into any copyright issues.

How to make merch for TikTok: 3 methods

1. Use a print-on-demand (POD) company
2. Create your own merch by hand
3. Collaborate with existing brands

You don’t need to develop a product from scratch to make great merch. If you aren’t a designer or artist or don’t have a branding strategy in place, instead consider hiring a professional to develop a branding package that includes designs for your merch. You can find and hire design pros through sites like Shopify Experts, Fiverr, Dribbble, and Creative Market.

Once you have an idea of what types of designs you’d like to produce, consider these three ways to make your merch:

1. Use a print-on-demand (POD) company

The easiest way to start making merch is to utilize a print-on-demand service that can print your designs on products like hoodies, water bottles, pillows, stickers, and hats that they’ve manufactured or sourced themselves. Print-on-demand businesses produce your product only after your customer places an order, eliminating the need for you to store and ship inventory yourself.

There are plenty of great cost-effective print-on-demand companies. The Shopify App Store offers several options that integrate directly with your Shopify storefront.

Take a look at how the print-on-demand supplier Printify integrates with Shopify:

1. Install the Printify app and integrate it with your Shopify store.

2. Select the types of products you want to sell. 

3. Upload your designs and customize product mockups.

4. Order product samples of your designs to test the quality and know exactly what customers would be receiving. Make any mockup adjustments, if necessary. 

5. Establish a pricing strategy for your print-on-demand merch.

6. List your products on your online store. You can use your product mockups as images on your ecommerce website or photograph the samples yourself. Make sure to include other product details like pricing, specs, and an on-brand product description.

7. Let Printify handle the rest: When a customer places an order in your merch store, Printify will promptly print the product and then ship them directly to the customer.

2. Create your own merch by hand

Have an artistic side? Consider making your own merch by hand. For example, you could buy white label products and customize them yourself with stencils or embroidery. Or you could take an entirely DIY approach, choosing to sew tote bags or knit scarves, for example. If you have a specialized printing setup, you could create stickers or screen print clothing items yourself, too.

The advantage of making your own merch is that you have complete control over your creative process and product quality. On the other hand, you’ll need to be willing to invest time and resources into securing materials and creating your products.

3. Collaborate with existing brands

Another way to create unique merch for your TikTok followers is to partner with a complementary brand that already makes great products. These partnerships allow both you and the partner company to share in an increased audience size. 

Take, for example, the partnership between fitness company Gymshark and TikTok influencer Leana Deeb. The Leana Deeb x Gymshark collaboration features hijabs and other modest comfortable apparel with graphics designed by Leana herself. 

How to sell merch on TikTok

1. Step 1: Set up your online store
2. Step 2: Add your merchandise and set prices
3. Step 3: Promote your merch

Once you’ve designed your branded products, it’s time to sell your branded merch. Since you’ve built a loyal TikTok following, you already know how important it is to keep your audience engaged. Consistent engagement is also an essential component of selling merch, and you’ll need to actively promote your merch store to fans. 

Here’s how to start selling your merch on TikTok:

Step 1: Set up your online store

You can sell directly on TikTok by setting up a TikTok Shop, which lets your fans buy your products without leaving the app. If you’re a Shopify merchant, you can also integrate your Shopify store with TikTok Shop. That lets you sync inventory and fulfillment across the two platforms. 

You might also decide to direct your audience out of the TikTok app to a dedicated ecommerce platform like Shopify. This option is best if you want increased control over your store’s user experience (UX) and layout, since platforms like Shopify offer more ecommerce customization options than TikTok Shop. 

Wherever you choose to sell your products, make sure to add a link to your bio on all social channels so that your TikTok followers can easily find your custom merch.

Step 2: Add your merchandise and set prices

Add products to your storefront manually or import them from your print-on-demand app. Make sure to capture high quality product photographs. If you’re selling print-on-demand products, you might opt to list images of product mockups rather than ordering products and photographing them yourself. 

You’ll then need to price your products. You can do this by considering the cost of making the goods, any operational overhead that comes with running a shop, and your desired profit margin.

Step 3: Promote your merch

Letting your followers know you’ve added products for sale is an important step in selling merch on TikTok. You can create TikTok videos to announce the launch of your merch store and post follow-up videos for subsequent merch drops. In addition to posting about newly available merch, you might also want to hype the launch of your merch shop before it’s live to get your audience excited for its release.

To maintain audience excitement once your shop is live, try limited-time and limited-quantity drops to create a sense of scarcity and urgency. You might also consider livestreaming an unboxing of your merch if you have physical inventory on hand.

The following TikTokfrom content creator, actor, and musician Emily Kinney provides a great example of how you could promote your merch.