How To Save On Custom Printed T Shirts

custom printed t shirts

What you’re now reading is the first in a series of articles where we’ll be suggesting some easy to learn tips on printing, otherwise known as “getting your money’s worth, avoiding hassle, and getting yourself the best possible custom printed t shirts, hats, caps, polos, jackets, sweatshirts, towels and more.”

That’s quite a bit to chew on, but put simply, we’ll just look at some great ideas for getting the most out of a custom apparel order.

In our first article, let’s take a look at how quantity can figure into the bottom line.

What is the minimum quantity on custom printed t shirts?

While I’ve been asked the question, “what’s the minimum quantity on custom printed t shirts required?”, that’s really not the best question.

You may laugh, “why of course you don’t want to hear that question because you won’t make much money.” Well, I’m not going to lie. That’s true, but it’s also not good from the point of view of a prospective client.

Why is that?

While the minimum may be one dozen, cost-wise it isn’t an effective way to spend a dollar. See, the price for 12 vs. 120 is often dollars less per shirt. For example, at a dozen, a white shirt with one color print might cost over $13 each, at 120 units, it’s about $3.25 each. That means for the price paid for ONE shirt can equal  the price paid for  FOUR. That’s a 75% savings in this example.

The savings can really be mind-blowing.

But it’s understood that sometimes there is no reason to order large quantities if the situation doesn’t call for it. If a print job is placed for a good-sized run of promotional t shirts, it may make a lot of sense, but what if printing for the office and there is only a dozen workers to outfit? Well, in that situation, it will cost more per unit. There isn’t much that can be done in terms of quantity price breaks. (We’ll get into other ways to save in coming posts though.) However, if you CAN order more quantity, you can see how much better pricing can be.

So what quantity do I need to get to in order to get a great price?

The answer to this question really depends on the item, but I would generally suggest six dozen as a decent starting point. At that quantity, average value for a budget.

In the example I just gave, even stretching quantity slightly to 24 shirts rather than 12 would allow saving close to 50%, as the cost for 24 is under $7.00 per unit.

Why? Because the money is in the setup. Once a job is running, our customer is only paying for a bit of ink and the garment, which can be relatively inexpensive. The setup of the job is the main cost. This applies to almost any type of printing, but is especially true in the case of garment printing.

Garment Quantities

When it comes to 50 to 500 to 5000 to 500,000 the answer is always the same. Larger quantities means more money that can be saved. On one hand, you could order a small quantity now and reorder again in a few months. But that scenario could end up costing double than what it would cost to order a larger quantity up front.

While a budget may not allow for this, if it is affordable, certainly in the long run, ordering a larger quantity can save over 75% in many cases. We usually quote larger quantities than clients ask us for as additional options to consider.

As can clearly be seen, the savings written in our quotes, it begins to make sense. It doesn’t matter if ordering custom printed t shirts, jackets, hats, sweatshirts, polos, or other apparel. It’s the same in every case, whether apparel may be screen printed t shirts, sweatshirts or embroidered jackets, polos, hats or caps.

Less Is More

The old saying “less is more” really applies. Less IS more per unit in terms of cost, and “more is less”, because ordering a larger quantity will help save money.

So whenever ordering custom printed t shirts or any type of printing, ask a custom printing company about larger quantity price breaks and compare. You might be surprised at the savings.