To price t-shirts, cost a shirt from the blank, the print, the press or print time and the setup for the order, add the bag and a share of the equipment and rent, and price for the margin you want after card fees. Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). In the example below, an order of 12 DTF-printed shirts uses $3.50 blanks and $1.75 transfers, and 51 minutes of artwork, pressing and folding, so each shirt costs $7.37. At a 50% margin after 3% fees, that's $15.67, rounded up to $16. A team paying $14 a shirt leaves $6.21. The bigger the order, the more the setup is spread, and above about two dozen, screen printing gets cheaper than DTF. Below is a shirt's cost, the price, how quantity changes it, one-off shirts, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a shirt: the blank, the print or transfer, the press time, the bag and overhead.
- Count the order's setup: artwork, gang sheet layout or screens, and cleanup.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a dollar.
- Quote by quantity: setup spread over 12 shirts costs more each than over 48.
- DTF costs about the same per shirt at any quantity; screen printing gets cheaper as orders grow.
- One-off custom shirts carry all the artwork time; price them separately.
- TaroStack keeps blanks counted by size and color, and costs every order. More below.
What a shirt costs
Canal District Print Co., a made-up print shop in Worcester, Massachusetts, I use in these examples, prints shirts with direct-to-film transfers:
| An order of 12 | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Blank tees | 12 at $3.50 | $42.00 |
| DTF transfers from a gang sheet | 12 at $1.75 | $21.00 |
| Materials, the order | $63.00 |
| A shirt | Cost |
|---|---|
| Blank and transfer | $5.25 |
| Artwork and gang sheet setup, pressing and folding, 51 minutes for 12 at $20 an hour | $1.42 |
| Bag and label | $0.30 |
| Overhead: the press, the printer's share, power and rent | $0.40 |
| Full cost | $7.37 |
The price
| Shirt | |
|---|---|
| Full cost | $7.37 |
| Price at a 50% margin after 3% card fees | $15.67 |
| Rounded up to a dollar | $16.00 |
| Left after the cost and fees | $8.15 |
| At a $14 team price | $6.21 left |
A heavier blank, a second print location or a hoodie changes the cost line by line; price each from its own numbers. How a whole DTF business adds up is in DTF printing business plan.
How quantity changes the price
The setup is the part that doesn't depend on how many shirts are printed. DTF needs about 15 minutes of artwork and layout an order; screen printing needs a screen for each color, about $25 in screen, emulsion, film and time. At the same 50% margin:
| Shirts in the order | DTF, full color | Screen print, 1 color | Screen print, 2 colors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | $7.37 cost, $16 | $6.76 cost, $15 | $9.33 cost, $20 |
| 24 | $7.16 cost, $16 | $5.72 cost, $13 | $7.24 cost, $16 |
| 48 | $7.05 cost, $16 | $5.20 cost, $12 | $6.20 cost, $14 |
| 144 | $6.98 cost, $15 | $4.85 cost, $11 | $5.51 cost, $12 |
DTF's cost barely moves with quantity, so it wins small orders and full-color designs. Screen printing wins one- and two-color designs from about two dozen up. The example's screen print costs are illustrative; how a screen print shop's numbers work is in screen printing business plan.
One-off custom shirts
A single custom shirt carries all the artwork and setup time on its own: about $11.50 in the example, with a small gang sheet and twenty minutes of design and pressing. At $25, it leaves about $13.50. Charge a design fee for anything that takes more than a few minutes to set up, so a customer who orders one shirt pays for the work it took. How to price your time on any handmade product is in how to price handmade items.
Get the calculator
Download the t-shirt pricing calculator. Type the blanks and transfers for an order, the shirts in it, the minutes of setup, pressing and folding, the bag, overhead, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want, a team price and a price to test; it works out the full cost of a shirt, the price for your margin rounded up to a dollar, and what each price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Blanks in six sizes and ten colors, transfers printed by the gang sheet, orders that need 14 medium black and 3 XL white by Friday. The calculator prices an order; it doesn't say whether the blanks are on the shelf, or which sizes to reorder.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps blanks counted by size and color, and costs every order.
Blanks by size and color. Each size and color of blank is its own item with its own stock, so a team order shows whether the 14 medium black are there while you're typing it.
Orders costed. A shirt is a recipe of a blank and a transfer, so printing an order takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and margins are reported by product and by customer.
Reordering blanks. Each blank comes up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast it's used, with the supplier's lead time and minimum.
| The job | Calculator | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| 14 medium black on hand? | Count the shelf | Shown as you take the order |
| What an order cost | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Which sizes to reorder | Guess | Reorder list in days of cover |
| What each team earns | Worked out by hand | Margins by customer |
Stock, recipes, sales orders and reorder lists are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.