# Price Increases To Put Printers Under Pressure



## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

In January, 2010 we started writing very bearishly on the stability of prices in the wholesale custom t-shirt market. On Friday March 18, 2011 Gildan announced immediate price increases of 8% - 12.5% on core products to their major distributors. We anticipate that other major mills will follow suit with printers and consumers feeling the heat by weeks end. In my article dated March 16, 2010 I specifically stated that Gildan would lead the way on price increases due to market dominance. We see Gildan’s overwhelming market share as an impediment to competition in the market place. We believe that this dominance will be challenged in the next 12 months as certain competitors revamp current strategies. We predicted on September 23, 2010 that the industry would experience three more price increases by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
Since January 1, 2010 Gildan has been the leader on price increases. We predicted this current increase almost to the day. All of Gildan’s competitors will follow suit in the short term and new benchmarks for t-shirt pricing will be in effect by month’s end. While the broader economy is struggling to inch toward recovery, the custom print t-shirt market looks vulnerable. Many consumers of custom t-shirts may begin to evaluate their purchases as non-essential to their business operations. This thought should be worrisome to all printers. That thought disturbs us. Many of the larger internet t-shirt retailers may have already priced themselves toward the higher limits of consumer tolerance and could feel the pinch this time around. Look for further internet search result drill downs by consumers searching for bargains. We believe cheap custom t-shirts may not be that cheap any more for a long, long time.

Blue Heron Industries, Inc. is a leading wholesaler of custom t-shirts, direct-to-garment printing on black t-shirts and embroidery.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Zorrel went down last week.....


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## MX1CAN (Jul 24, 2009)

Just got an e-mail from Marty over at SanMar telling us the same thing.

I wonder how many price increases we'll have before this year is over?


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## ROYAL SAVAGE (Feb 18, 2009)

MX1CAN said:


> Just got an e-mail from Marty over at SanMar telling us the same thing.
> 
> I wonder how many price increases we'll have before this year is over?


I think we may be done for a while. We have terrific sources - if we here it we will write about it. The biggest problem all of us face right now is that you can't quote into the future. I have a $20K reorder on the line right now because the initial order was placed before the January increase and we now have this one which increase the cost of the retail good by $2.50 per unit. 

Watch for some of the smaller tee shirt makers to get hammered.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we raised our prices 40% in January 2011. no problem here. everyone is still paying it. our quotes are only good for 7 days instead of 30 now. we also reserve the right to change the price at any time until a payment is made on the order.


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## Troll (Dec 22, 2010)

This is getting old... it's terrible that such a horrible shirt is setting the bar for pricing in this industry. There are other shirt options that we as printers should try to push in an effort to fight back (somewhat) against all these increases. Gildan is getting close to catching Beefy-T pricing. I've been telling customers this is the price NOW if you place the order - tomorrow may be different.


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## clubfred (Mar 10, 2008)

this is no better than the govt playing with gas prices all this will do a major increase now they make more money serious bottom line in 5 or 6 months they lower it only by 10% and we think wow what a good saving but not all of us are stupid we are still being screwed!!!!!


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## foot print (Jun 2, 2010)

Yup ...these price increases suck..especially when you get a return customer ordering the same thing as last year and the price you quote them this year is much higher than last year.


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## iprintnstyle (Aug 28, 2011)

It is basic supply and demand. Dont buy there product let see if they can still increase the price if they have tons of stock in there inventory thats how you fight back. Spread the word


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