Starting your own t-shirt business is exciting, but there are a few basic pieces of information you should know before you jump into it for the first time. Perhaps the most important question you need to answer is how to price your t-shirts. In this blog we are going to go over pricing your garments! We will add up the cost of the clothing, vinyl, and most importantly, your labor. We even included a useful pricing chart at the bottom.
Clothing:
There are thousands of options for clothing blanks on our website. We will go over three different t-shirt options for this blog. We will use the size Large for all options, pricing may vary with larger sizes.
BELLA+CANVAS ® Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee
The price of this shirt is $4.84. If you order 10 shirts, it drops to $4.60. If you order 20 or more, it lowers to $4.48.
Port & Company® - Core Blend Tee
The price of this shirt is $4.26. If you order 10, it lowers to $4.05. If you order 20 or more, it drops to $3.94.
COMFORT COLORS ® Heavyweight Ring Spun Tee
This shirt is $6.72. If you order 10, the price drops to $6.38. If you order 20 or more, it lowers to $6.22.
Vinyl:
For these shirts we used 1, 2, and 3 colors of Siser Easyweed to compare the cost of multicolored designs vs one color designs. We are going to be using 12” Siser Easyweed for this example.
Our one color design is black Siser Easyweed, and measures 5.8” wide by 8” high.
Our two color design is made of Sun Yellow and Pale Blue Siser Easyweed. Sunshine measures 8" wide by 1.75" high, and Spread Not Shade measures 4.5" by 5.4" high.
The three color design is made of Hibiscus, Lemon, and Tropical Sea Siser Easyweed. All these colors are 8" wide by 1.05" high.
You know how you buy more shirts and the price actually goes down per shirt? The same thing goes with HTV. If you buy a 5 yard roll of Siser Easyweed the price per yard is $6.60, BUT if you buy a 10 yard roll of Siser Easyweed, the price per yard is $6.30. That is why you should plan on buying in bulk. It doesn’t have to be 100 shirts and a 50 yard roll of vinyl, but enough so you are getting a discount.
Labor/Expenses:
Perhaps the most important addition to your total selling price is your labor. A lot of business owners forget to take into consideration the time it took for them to create their product. We generally say you should add $8 for the first two presses, then $2 for each additional press you have to do per shirt. Along with that, you need to factor in operation costs such as rent, utilities, etc. Labor costs will change from person to person, it is important that you figure out what works best for YOU. Make sure you don't undervalue yourself!
Once you have added together the cost of your shirt, HTV, and labor, you will have your total cost. Once you know your cost, there is a handy formula to figure out how much you should charge per shirt! Typically, t-shirt businesses set their profit margins at 50%, so you would put 50 in place of “profit” in this equation.
Retail Price = [(cost to produce) ÷ (100-profit %)] x 100
Now let’s dive into the actual MATH part of pricing your shirts! If you need to figure out how much HTV you need for your shirts, we have this HTV calculator to help you out!
| Cost of "Yes You Can" shirt | 10 pc | 20 pc | 50 pc |
| Siser Easyweed (10 yard roll ordered) | 12.60 | 18.90 | 44.10 |
| Port & Company Core Blend Tee | 40.50 | 78.80 | 197.00 |
| Labor ($8 for the first two presses, $2 for each additional) | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 |
| Total Cost per shirt | 13.31 | 12.89 | 12.82 |
| Suggested retail price (using above equation) | 26.62 | 25.78 | 25.64 |
| Cost of "Spread Sunshine Not Shade" shirt | 10 pc | 20 pc | 50 pc |
| Siser Easyweed (10 yard rolls ordered) | 12.60 | 18.90 | 44.10 |
| Bella + Canvas Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee | 46.00 | 89.60 | 224.00 |
| Labor ($8 for the first two presses, $2 for each additional) | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.00 |
| Total Cost per shirt | 13.86 | 13.43 | 13.36 |
| Suggested retail price (using above equation) | 27.72 | 26.86 | 26.72 |
| Cost of "Good Vibes Only" shirt | 10 pc | 20 pc | 50 pc |
| Siser Easyweed (10 yard rolls ordered) | 18.90 | 18.90 | 37.80 |
| COMFORT COLORS Heavyweight Ring Spun Tee |
63.80
|
124.40 | 311.00 |
| Labor ($8 for the first two presses, $2 for each additional) | 10.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 |
| Total Cost per shirt | 18.27 | 17.17 | 16.98 |
| Suggested retail price (using above equation) | 36.54 | 34.34 | 33.96 |
When it comes down to pricing your t-shirts, you will need to figure out your own labor costs. Once you calculate that, the rest is simple! Some people will also set their profit margins higher or lower, it is all personal preference. If you have more questions about starting your own t-shirt business, check out our video with Joe from Siser: