# How much to charge for customer supplied garment?



## say it (Sep 30, 2010)

I know this is a subject that has been talked about, but I'm not finding the answer I'm looking for.

How much do you charge your customer when they supply their own shirt?

I charge my customers: The price of the blank garment at suggested retail price (set by Alpha wholesaler). PLUS a printing charge per shirt. I've shopped around and my prices are fairly low.

When a customer supplies their own garment, do you do an additional per piece charge? Or a flat charge? What is your price?

I will be losing out on the profit of the shirts as I marked them up from my wholesaler.

What is your take on this situation?

Thank you!


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## Pvasquez (Feb 19, 2011)

Not sure on pricing but one thing that you have to consider if your customer wants to play that game always put a disclaimer to allow for a percentage of overage/misprints 2% is common practice. in other words, when you run a job you are not responsible for not making count if you stayed within this margin of error on their supplied goods. You know that setup is very costly and when you supply the garments you guarantee count. But when they supply goods they expect 100% of prints and shirts to be perfect, Well sorry customer it don't work that way. Final thing to consider when you do this type of work is never put yourself in a position that if you screwed up the job, will it cost you more to replace those goods and re-print the job? Obviously there are many contract shops that print this way but most of them will do a pre-pro on the garment and have the customer approve that before actual production to eliminate that possibility.


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## ShirtShackOmaha (Mar 24, 2011)

We found that Printing on customer provided product is more a pain in the *** then its worth. Just send them down the street and while they are printing them your making more money printing product you sold.....


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## AtkinsonConsult (May 2, 2011)

Ginger:

If you are going to do this type of work, make sure you have some written information that the customer must sign up before the order moves forward. Have some disclaimer language that indicates that customer supplied garments may have production issues, and your company is not responsible. 

Set your handling charge for these shirts to make up for the lost revenue. This is a perfect time to discuss the reasons why ordering shirts from you for the order makes sense...as if there is a problem with the shirts during printing you can order more and produce the job complete without any issues. However, because the shirts are customer supplied, you need to charge a handling fee to inventory them and process the order. This is similar to a corking fee in a restaurant when you bring in your own bottle of wine for a special occasion.

Feel free to contact me privately for more information on how to do this...

Good luck!

Marshall Atkinson
Atkinson Consulting LLC


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## AtkinsonConsult (May 2, 2011)

Ginger:

If you are going to do this type of work, make sure you have some written information that the customer must sign up before the order moves forward. Have some disclaimer language that indicates that customer supplied garments may have production issues, and your company is not responsible. 

Set your handling charge for these shirts to make up for the lost revenue. This is a perfect time to discuss the reasons why ordering shirts from you for the order makes sense...as if there is a problem with the shirts during printing you can order more and produce the job complete without any issues. However, because the shirts are customer supplied, you need to charge a handling fee to inventory them and process the order. This is similar to a corking fee in a restaurant when you bring in your own bottle of wine for a special occasion.

Feel free to contact me privately for more information on how to do this...

Good luck!

Marshall Atkinson
Atkinson Consulting LLC


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## hazeremover (Mar 31, 2011)

If you're not turning a profit with customer supplied garment print jobs, your print/set up fee is too low. Do you have a separate screen charge fee? Any shop worth there salt should be flexible enough to offer to supply the garment or print what the customer supplies. Of course there are parameters based on what the actual substrate is (nylon, wicking tees, 2 ply windbreakers, etc.) but that is determined by what your shop can and can't do.

As for the possibility of scrap in a given run, that has to specified up front. If it's a one-off customer, stress that there are no guarantees when printing on their garment. Never had an issue with a customer regarding outcome. Some may instead end up having you provide the garment or they turn around and walk out the door. It's also ok to say no.


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## tommywilson1296 (Dec 26, 2015)

Printing a customer provided garment is not that much profit , but you can always print for them first time , and then tell them you offer the garments yourself as well ,and next time will be taking a higher margin if you bring your own garments


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## sben763 (May 17, 2009)

tommywilson1296 said:


> Printing a customer provided garment is not that much profit , but you can always print for them first time , and then tell them you offer the garments yourself as well ,and next time will be taking a higher margin if you bring your own garments


Don't ever print for a customer at a lower price then your willing to take.

This is a old thread but since it was revived. When a customer supplies a garment I charge the profit loss on the garments plus the printing charges. this usually will make it more costly for the client. You should never do jobs for less. the client will just go to the next shop if your raising prices on the next job.


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## AE7HF (Nov 29, 2015)

It's REALLY embarrassing when you mess up a customer supplied garment too. I put a logo on upside down the other day and a 5xl shirt (don't ask) didn't transfer correct at all. I don't know what was on it.. the material just did not like the transfer paper. Proper heat and pressure was applied, but it just didn't work well. 
Then you look bad in front of your customer. Is it worth the trouble? nope
I like to sell my supplied garments. More markup, better quality control. Plus better customer service in the long run.


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## ericsson2416 (Aug 29, 2007)

We tell customers up front that we don't guarantee the ink/transfers will adher-last on their provided garments because we don't know how they have been treated. Then we charge them our regular shop price with just $3 off if they provide a tshirt. Usually they figure out really quick it's cheaper to get the garments from us.


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

I only screen print on customers own garment for 'trade' customers (unless there is a very valid reason to do otherwise). I set a minimum quantity of 50 pieces, and stipulate that I only print on 'proper' garments, designed for the imprint industry. Anything less than 50 and there isn't enough meat on the bone for me. I insist on a 2% over run ( with a minimum of at least one extra per size).
I only mark-up garments 20%, so non trade customers are unlikely to be able to supply them any cheaper.

With the heat press I will sometimes decorate customer supplied garments in low quantities, if it is something I can't supply or is very specialised.

I will only print on new garments. In the past I have had a customer supply a worn garment, covered in cat hairs with antiperspirant stains on the armpits.


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## AE7HF (Nov 29, 2015)

You should charge less for the arm pit stains. It's a used item already. Gives it a nice scent in the shop when you activate it with heat. So there's an up side


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

PatWibble said:


> I will only print on new garments. In the past I have had a customer supply a worn garment, covered in cat hairs with antiperspirant stains on the armpits.


I do a lot for an embroiderer and she took in a job that the customer supplied the shirts for. These were shirts he bought at the mall and were somewhat expensive. Since they had tags still on them they hadn't been worn but wow, he must've spilled a bottle of cologne in the bag. Stunk up my shop almost to the point of making me hurl coming out of the dryer.


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## alwilson (Jan 26, 2013)

say it said:


> I know this is a subject that has been talked about, but I'm not finding the answer I'm looking for.
> 
> How much do you charge your customer when they supply their own shirt?
> 
> ...


I price it where I make the same amount wether they supply it or if I supply the shirt. Say you would charge $6.00 per shirt if you supplied it and the blank shirt cost $2.00 then I would charge them $4.00.


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## Kenneth59 (Sep 28, 2013)

we rarely print on customer supplied shirts unless the shirts are from reputable wholesale type place, meaning we wont print on wal mart shirts when the customer goes and buys 48 of them thinking they will save a buck. BUT if we do print on their supplied shirts, its specified in writing theres no warranty. Far as price we might lower our per shirt price by 50 cents maybe ). But then again we rarely let the customer supply shirts, just too many variables that can go wrong.


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## TLK (Jan 15, 2013)

We add a percentage as a handling charge to every item, they still have to be sorted and packed after printing. We also ask for 2% overage to be supplied to allow for mis-prints or faulty garments. If we're not familiar with the brand we sometimes ask for a sample to check if it's suitable to screen print. 

If you're asked to print onto bespoke garments, be careful. One of our customers brings in bespoke tops that are worth the equivalent to $17 each! Expensive mistakes. He pays us well and brings regular work so we're happy.


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## WGiant (Oct 15, 2015)

tpitman said:


> I do a lot for an embroiderer and she took in a job that the customer supplied the shirts for. These were shirts he bought at the mall and were somewhat expensive. Since they had tags still on them they hadn't been worn but wow, he must've spilled a bottle of cologne in the bag. Stunk up my shop almost to the point of making me hurl coming out of the dryer.


Had dog piss here. When the heat press warmed it up all nice it was like a plug in air-freshner for the shop. It sucked.

Customer supplied garments are almost always a worse deal for us than supplying our own. We have them sign a waver and they save $1 off the cost of printing with our shirts. We can do DtG and Vinyl transfers though. This seems like over charging, but I never feel like we're coming out on the winning end.


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## mmonk (Oct 23, 2011)

In my market, most if not all, printers do not mark up blanks. So if I were to do a customer supplied garment...only after inspection of said garments, I would charge same as if I were supplying same or equal garment then subtract garment cost...


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## WGiant (Oct 15, 2015)

mmonk said:


> In my market, most if not all, printers do not mark up blanks. So if I were to do a customer supplied garment...only after inspection of said garments, I would charge same as if I were supplying same or equal garment then subtract garment cost...


Hey Monk,

The link in your signature is broken. Do you have a price list for screen printing? Just interested for my own knowledge.


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## mmonk (Oct 23, 2011)

yeah sorry. need to remove it as our website currently doesn't exist. If you have an email I can send you "our" prices. I think they are low...but are in line with my area...as most are small shop types like me.


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## mrgobby (Mar 23, 2015)

I suppose if your not VAT registered (UK) then being supplied garments can actually help you by keeping your turnover below the UK VAT registration threshold but you'd only want to use brands you knew about and that were new items. I've had customers supply direct, had some FOTL once and I messed one up, totally my fault but the hassle and cost of getting a replacement was the lesson learned for ensuring an overage. I'm low volume printed vinyl so would outsource screen print, accepting overage as a given.

Mark


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## williekid (Apr 22, 2009)

I do it all day long. Theres good money in it for the very same reason of nobody wanting to do it. When your pricing is low and affordable for whatever reason such as low overhead working from home etc and customers want to provide the shirt you have to understand that these are people who want to find their way through in getting the cheapest of the cheapest pricing. People typically feel and think it will be cheaper for them, or they already purchased the tees, never been through a process of having shirts made and are dumbfounded towards the process or maybe a printer backed out on them.
Before taking on the order i would definately have service agreements in place signed with customer's signature. Some customers want to provide low quality shirts from discount stores or dollar stores. Theres room for the order to go wrong just passing tees through dryer. Ive had tees change color and never go back to original color or have holes and want to blame you.
You must be confident and a good printer whether it be on shirt or 500. Cover your *** or you'll regret it if it goes wrong and if it goes good then it went good. As far as pricing goes, i take off $1 if they provide tees. The reat remains the same, materials cost and profit. Only very risky thing is, remember if you ruin a shirt and dont have a replacement, better hope a spot gun can and will remove or have a replacement. If shirts are very expensive and you do not know what you are doing, be smart and pass on the job. If it goes wrong you will hate yourself and come out of pocket and by all means it will be a bad experience for you. I hope this was helpful to you and many others. In my opinion screen printing is fun and very profitable, so dont make it any harder than it has to be. Keep a simple process easy and say no sometimes. 

Happy printing: )


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## veetwincowboy (Mar 14, 2015)

Another problem is reputation though, i have seen cheap shirts that shrink drastically and unevenly, and of course shirts that fall apart. When your end user wears that garment and someone asks about it, your shop name will probably come up. Even though you would never supply that type of garment, the damage is done and your name and reputation will ultimately suffer because somebody wanted to save a buck. I know that chances are they will bring you a Hanes or Gildan, but i have seen the other extreme in shops i've worked at. just saying...


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## mmonk (Oct 23, 2011)

veetwincowboy said:


> Another problem is reputation though, i have seen cheap shirts that shrink drastically and unevenly, and of course shirts that fall apart. When your end user wears that garment and someone asks about it, your shop name will probably come up. Even though you would never supply that type of garment, the damage is done and your name and reputation will ultimately suffer because somebody wanted to save a buck. I know that chances are they will bring you a Hanes or Gildan, but i have seen the other extreme in shops i've worked at. just saying...


Agreed...especially I am structuring myself to "get out of my garage" and being the cheapest aint gonna do it...


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## veetwincowboy (Mar 14, 2015)

That is true, that's a reputation that you don't want. The owner of a shop i worked for in Phoenix for many years became a close friend of mine, i watched him struggle with customers when he had to raise his wholesale prices after many years of no price increases. His shop rent, inks, garments and just about everything else went up and his big accounts literally freaked out over his new pricing. He told me last year that he wishes that he could charge as much as i do per shirt.... Didn't mean to go off topic... But don't get catagorized as the cheap guy.....


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## David09 (Oct 2, 2015)

i always charge depends on the job . flat rate is not that good for business.


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## danlilsade (Aug 9, 2010)

I would add 1% to the seconds allowance if Flash Cures are required. In addition that 2-3% seconds allowance is per location printed, so three location prints equals 6-9% seconds allowance. 

Don't forget that different shirt brands (all red shirts but by different manufacturers) should also be considered in that seconds allowance. Dye stuffs vary although the shirt visually are the same color.


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## ARHendlessstitch (Dec 5, 2015)

thanks for this thread, guys...It was very helpful for this young guy starting out


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