# What would the average final cost for making a shirt be?



## thetrillest

For some of you guys what is the final average cost of making a shirt including garment (blank shirt, tag, hang tag, supplies, screen print etc) once the shirt is all done and ready to go, what would be an average final cost. This can obviously vary since the quality of the shirt, print price range may vary but speaking in broad terms what would be a reasonable final cost of getting the shirt done without spending too much and being able to not have to hike the price of the shirt too much to make a profit.


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## kimura-mma

Depending on volume, a one color print on a basic blank with all the extras could be in the $3-5 range. A 3 color all over print on the front and back of a premium blank with all the extras could be in the $12-15 range. So depending on your specs, you could be anywhere in the middle.

You need to know your target market. Figure out a retail price range and establish a per piece budget. If you need to sacrifice to stay in that budget, then do so. Don't outspend your budget. You will easily run yourself out of your own price range.


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## PositiveDave

Overheads can be a very significant portion of the cost, electricity/gas/rent/advertising/packaging/post/wages/hosting fees/phones/broadband...etc. You need to divide these up to give an overhead for each shirt and they will vary with each printer.


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## thetrillest

kimura-mma said:


> Depending on volume, a one color print on a basic blank with all the extras could be in the $3-5 range. A 3 color all over print on the front and back of a premium blank with all the extras could be in the $12-15 range. So depending on your specs, you could be anywhere in the middle.
> 
> You need to know your target market. Figure out a retail price range and establish a per piece budget. If you need to sacrifice to stay in that budget, then do so. Don't outspend your budget. You will easily run yourself out of your own price range.


So in your opinion would like $20 be too much?
The way I was thinking of my final cost was:
-blank shirt
-Printing
-Tags & packaging
-Shipping

I mean how much money it actually cost me to put the shirt together to the final product, would I be missing anything? Since I don't have too much experience & don't know much about prices and stuff I just wanted to know kind of what was a mark (like $20) to know after hitting that, that its costing a little too much to make the shirt and perhaps try to lower the costs


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## PositiveDave

...and I forgot PROFIT!
only you know your cost base, get a calculator and work it out. If it comes to more than you think you can sell for, don't do it.


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## clclothing

Here are some things to keep in mind.

The cost of producing a shirt can vary wildly (as referenced above) depending on the design and the printing methods required to get it onto the shirt. But buyers (especially wholesale buyers) do not want to deal with 'this shirt costs more because it is 11 colors'. You need a strategy and a little planning to develop a line that keeps your costs within some margin that allows you to have relatively consistent pricing. You can have outliers, but don't be all over the place.

In general, your production cost should be 1/4 the retail price. So a $20 shirt should be produced for $5. That will allow you to wholesale at $10 and give the retailer their customary 100% markup to play with.

You have the basic factors. Cost of blank, printing, labeling, packaging, incoming shipping. Other factors might be labor (if you are printing or finishing the shirts in house), tariffs (if you are importing any portion), licensing costs (if your design requires them), spoilage, returns, and inventory costs including taxes and depreciation.

Figure up the cost of each of your designs and keep it within a reasonable margin of one another ($1). 

Take the average of those. Can you run your business for that? Labor (other than to produce the shirt), rents, insurance, bookkeeping, payroll, taxes, licenses, subscriptions, PROFIT.

Take that number times 4. Can you sell the shirts for that?

If the answer to those is yes at a reasonable volume, then you are good to go. If not, back to the spreadsheet.

Another way is to determine the market price for what you are wanting to sell, divide by 4 and see if you can produce the shirts for that.

Yes, there are other considerations... like what if you never plan to wholesale and want to sell directly only. But those are the basics for someone who plans to build a line with a future to it.


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## kimura-mma

thetrillest said:


> So in your opinion would like $20 be too much?


$20 is way to high of a production cost to make a t-shirt.

How are you coming up with that number? Is that a price you have been quoted? How much do you intend to sell them for?

Ray's post is pretty much on target.

My advice would be to go to the mall and see what prices other shirts are selling for. The days of the $80 t-shirt are over. To compete in the current market, you should aim to be in the $15-25 retail range, which means your costs should be between $7.50-12.50 if you intend to sell direct to the consumer. Obviously, if you can keep your costs even lower, then it allows you to have higher profit margins. If you intend to sell to retailers, you will need to lower costs into the $4-5 range.


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## thetrillest

kimura-mma said:


> $20 is way to high of a production cost to make a t-shirt.
> 
> How are you coming up with that number? Is that a price you have been quoted? How much do you intend to sell them for?
> 
> Ray's post is pretty much on target.
> 
> My advice would be to go to the mall and see what prices other shirts are selling for. The days of the $80 t-shirt are over. To compete in the current market, you should aim to be in the $15-25 retail range, which means your costs should be between $7.50-12.50 if you intend to sell direct to the consumer. Obviously, if you can keep your costs even lower, then it allows you to have higher profit margins. If you intend to sell to retailers, you will need to lower costs into the $4-5 range.


Well I was thinking to sell around $25-$27 directly to seller now and online. I'm having a hard time lowering costs though. Just for the blank shirt its $4, ive been seeing on the forums that an average price for printing is $7-9 per shirt so that and the shirt is $13 plus hang tags, shipping (around $2), custom sewn tags, printing tag on inside of shirt. That would put me around $17-19. I really don't see how some people get really low production costs. Right now I don't have money to buy equipment so all my screen printing would be done through a third party, but is there still any way to lower costs while having a screen printing company do my printing?


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## kimura-mma

$4 for the blanks are ok, depending on the quality. Do you have a wholesale account with a supplier or distributor? That's one way to lower costs on the blanks. 

$7-9 for printing is obscene. Not sure where you're seeing those numbers but perhaps those are retail printers or print on demand services. Traditional screen printers that sell wholesale should be a fraction of that cost. 

As a startup brand, hold off on some of the bells and whistles that are driving up your costs. Prove that you can sell shirts. Then as things take off, your volume will increase. This will allow you to add the bells and whistles without much increase to your production costs. If your costs do increase, it shouldn't be too hard to increase your retail price since you would already developed a following. 

If your business model allows you to buy shirts for $20 and sell them for $25, then you're good to go. But you should easily be able to drop your costs in half. If you don't want to discuss details in the thread, feel free to PM me.


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## clclothing

That printing cost of $7-9 is likely with the shirt.

Depending on what you are doing, you can get blanks cheaper than that. How many colors and what type of printing are you planning on doing? Even a multi-color pretty complex piece should come in under $10 with a little volume.


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## TheCashClothing

kimura-mma said:


> $4 for the blanks are ok, depending on the quality. Do you have a wholesale account with a supplier or distributor? That's one way to lower costs on the blanks.
> 
> $7-9 for printing is obscene. Not sure where you're seeing those numbers but perhaps those are retail printers or print on demand services. Traditional screen printers that sell wholesale should be a fraction of that cost.
> 
> As a startup brand, hold off on some of the bells and whistles that are driving up your costs. Prove that you can sell shirts. Then as things take off, your volume will increase. This will allow you to add the bells and whistles without much increase to your production costs. If your costs do increase, it shouldn't be too hard to increase your retail price since you would already developed a following.
> 
> If your business model allows you to buy shirts for $20 and sell them for $25, then you're good to go. But you should easily be able to drop your costs in half. If you don't want to discuss details in the thread, feel free to PM me.


Hi,
A lot of your feedback has been very helpful to me. It would be AMAZING if you could answer some questions for me having to do with COST of making a T-shirt. So, I made a design and found blank t-shirts online. In the end, the final cost to make a shirt was about $13. I think this is too much, considering I don't want my product to be too overpriced because I'm a new dealer and don't want to risk only making $2 profit on every shirt I sell. I got these numbers from TransferExpress.com and Alpha T-Shirts. I saw that a $4-5 price range for a shirt is reasonable but I CAN'T find transfers and blanks that would get me in that low price range .
It's very stressful and I really just want to start my business already. Could you direct to me somewhere where I can find those low numbers? 

Thanks a lot
-Matt


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## kimura-mma

TheCashClothing said:


> Could you direct to me somewhere where I can find those low numbers?


For the blank shirts, make sure you have your tax id number so you can open a wholesale account with a supplier. This will give you the best possible pricing. Other than that, it really comes down to volume. If you are only buying a few dozen at a time, there's only so much of a discount you can expect. As your volume goes up, your costs will go down.

All that said, for basic blank t-shirts, you could get pricing in the $1.50-2.50 range. For premium blank t-shirts, you should expect to pay in the $4.00-5.50 range.

Do some Google searching for "wholesale blank apparel." You should find plenty of resources. Contact them, open some accounts and compare pricing to get the best you can get.

For printing, I only use screen printers. So I really can't help you with transfer pricing or recommendations.


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## drive2survive

this thread has been posted a long time ago, so i figure you have found what you were looking for by this time. 
to add to this discussion, i am producing illustration tees that require more than 12 colors and my cost per shirt, (good quality) is at the $10 mark. however, it took me a while by for me to find the third party source to produce that. 
as far as the all the bells and whistles, as mentioned above, do not worry about that until you create a following for your brand, and cash will start rolling in.
i am holding off with all those extras util i see that my current designs are selling and will develop some following, as my cost will decrease because of quantity i can than go for the extra's and hopefully stay at the same expense level.


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## BrittP.

kimura-mma said:


> For the blank shirts, make sure you have your tax id number so you can open a wholesale account with a supplier. This will give you the best possible pricing. Other than that, it really comes down to volume. If you are only buying a few dozen at a time, there's only so much of a discount you can expect. As your volume goes up, your costs will go down.
> 
> All that said, for basic blank t-shirts, you could get pricing in the $1.50-2.50 range. For premium blank t-shirts, you should expect to pay in the $4.00-5.50 range.
> 
> Do some Google searching for "wholesale blank apparel." You should find plenty of resources. Contact them, open some accounts and compare pricing to get the best you can get.
> 
> For printing, I only use screen printers. So I really can't help you with transfer pricing or recommendations.


*This has been a very insightful thread. I am starting my t-shirt/apparel business and can relate to the challenges of keeping the production cost low, specifically because I do not have large orders yet to help decrease this expense which is largely based on volume. I am struggling to develop a pricing strategy that will be consistent for my customers (currently pre-orders) and maintain a decent margin. This is because if I have a t-shirt order for only 5 shirts, the cost for printing is much higher than if I had a t-shirt order of 15 shirts. I have called local printing companies to compare their prices and DTG seems to be the most consistent pricing with no minimum for the order, however I've been advised that using digital printing would limit me to using light colored shirts for the best quality (and many of my designs were created to be on darker garments). If I want to go the screen printing route, the price varies based on both the volume and if there are multiple colors, plus there may be setup costs associated. With all these variations in costs, I am not sure how to price my t-shirts to be sold directly to my consumer? I am the designer and I am establishing a wholesale account with an online t-shirt vendor, so my concern currently is just the printing cost. Please help! I don't want to overcharge for my t-shirts, but I also want to maintain good margins. I appreciate any advice!*


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## into the T

BrittP. said:


> *Please help! I don't want to overcharge for my t-shirts, but I also want to maintain good margins. I appreciate any advice!*


it seems like you are using someone else to purchase garments and decorate with your designs???

as a designer/artist you can charge whatever you deem appropriate for your art
there are too many factors involved to say 'x' is too little, but 'y' is too much

who are you?
once you can answer that, then you will price appropriately
(example: there was a b&w photog who would sell basic white tee's with his photos for about 5x the cost of getting a logo screen-printed on the same tee)


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## BrittP.

into the T said:


> it seems like you are using someone else to purchase garments and decorate with your designs???
> 
> as a designer/artist you can charge whatever you deem appropriate for your art
> there are too many factors involved to say 'x' is too little, but 'y' is too much
> 
> who are you?
> once you can answer that, then you will price appropriately
> (example: there was a b&w photog who would sell basic white tee's with his photos for about 5x the cost of getting a logo screen-printed on the same tee)


Thank you so much for your reply! Yes, I create the design and purchase the t-shirts from a t-shirt vendor. Previously, I have used one vendor to purchase t-shirts from and used their printing services for one price for both. However, the quality of the shirt was not what I wanted so I went back to the drawing board and discovered Bella + Canvas, which I love! I am setting up a wholesale account with them (waiting for my reseller certificate to do this). I plan to make most t-shirt purchases from them and now searching for someone to print my artwork on the shirt.

Once I have found who will print my shirts, I will sell direct to consumers. My challenge is the volume requirements that create varying prices. I want to be consistent in my pricing strategy, with exceptions of premium shirts and plus size... but I am not sure how to accomplish this with so many variables impacting the cost for me to get the shirt printed. I hope that made sense.


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## into the T

most printers like to supply their own shirts,
you may be hard-pressed to find someone to use your tee's (you will lose any guarentee on the decoration and will have to re-supply tee's for any misprints yourself)

check Binki's post here

they all have access to b&c tee's
best to get prices with them supplying


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