# Calculating Costs



## shiri23 (Oct 20, 2007)

hi everyone. i am starting a high-end children's clothing line (all t's and onesies) and have many costs to include in my wholesale pricing but not quite sure how to do so accurately. meaning: i hired an artist to create the artwork so i pay him a lot per design and have to find a way to incorporate that into the cost of each shirt. i'm outsourcing a screenprinter so i need to include the cost of screenprinting each shirt which is $ per certain # of colors, and screen charges which add up to a substantial amount of $ (a couple of hundred) per design. to top it off, i have the cost of the shirt and labels to include as well as some overhead. i know how to include the shirt cost, cost of colors per design, and labels into a per piece price. but, i don't know how to breakdown what i'm paying my artist and the $ of screen charges into the cost per piece to in turn mark-up for wholesale pricing. i've done repeated amounts of searches on the forum and not having luck in this specific area. ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

thank you....shiri.


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## KCINNV (Aug 12, 2007)

I don't know if you are planning on using the artwork for more than 1 run of t-shirts, but just say that your first run of t-shirts for that design is 100 and you paid the artist $200 for the design, then add $2 per shirt for the design. Same with the screen charges. Since you are having the designs silk screened, then you have to determine how many shirts you think you will run of that design to determine how much you will allocate of the artwork design fees to each shirt.


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## shiri23 (Oct 20, 2007)

thank you for your response. what you are saying does make total sense. i failed to mention that because i don't have any confirmed sales yet, i am only producing samples until sales are brought in. so, i don't know what quantity to base the calculations on to come up with wholesale pricing...if that makes sense? 

thanks again!


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## pwapparel (Feb 16, 2007)

i would work with an artist that will work on a royalty basis until your sales have stabilized. if you're not willing to print a substantial amount of t-shirts to start out with, why would you be willing to pay an artist a substantial amount of money to start with...

also if you need help with outsourcing your order PM me. Setup charges shouldn't be anywhere near hundreds of dollars per design.


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## shiri23 (Oct 20, 2007)

thanks for your response. though i understand your perspective, many artists require a flat rate for their artwork. his artwork is what is making my line, therefore i feel that he should be compensated fairly.

i don't have the capacity to purchase and/or stock a large number of shirts. that is more costly in the end then to do a couple of samples. if in the case my shirts do not sell, i will only have 3 sets of samples as opposed to 100+ shirts. its just not cost effective for me personally.

i will pm you about the other subject.

thanks again.


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