how to lower your per-shirt cost.

Everyone asks us how much shirts cost. Almost nobody asks the better question: how do I make them cost less? Here are the seven levers that actually move the number, straight from the people who build the quotes. (For the full anatomy of a quote, see how pricing works.)

1. order together, not in waves.

Quantity is the single biggest lever in screen printing. Setup costs the same for 12 shirts as for 400, so every extra piece spreads it thinner. Price breaks land at 12, 24, 48, and 144 pieces. Three separate orders of 20 will always cost more than one order of 60, so if the marketing shirts, the event shirts, and the new-hire shirts share a design, order them in one run. (One honest exception: digital printing (DTF) is placed by hand, piece by piece, so its price stays flat at any quantity, which is why big orders usually move to the press.)

2. cut an ink color.

In screen printing, every color is its own screen, its own setup, and its own pass on the press. A three-color design reduced to one smart color doesn't just save money; it usually looks bolder, too. Great one-color design is the oldest budget hack in the industry.

3. skip the second location.

Front, back, and sleeve are each a separate trip through the press. One strong front print often communicates more than front-and-back, at a meaningfully lower price. If you need the second location, keep it to one color.

4. let the blank do the saving.

The garment usually drives cost more than the printing does. There's often a blank one shelf over that saves real money without looking like it did, and because we quote from live garment pricing, we'll tell you when a substitute makes sense. Just ask "is there a cheaper blank that still looks good?" We love that question.

5. send clean art (or keep it simple).

Print-ready vector art costs nothing extra, and the first 30 minutes of art time are free with a production order, which covers most cleanup. From-scratch design runs $100 per hour, so a simple concept described clearly beats a complicated one described vaguely.

6. ride the standard timeline.

Standard turnaround is 8 to 10 business days after art approval. Rush is genuinely available when you need it, but planning two weeks ahead keeps the price standard. Deadlines are the most expensive surprise in apparel.

7. reorder instead of reinventing.

Once your art is on file (embroidery digitizing is a one-time $35, forever), reorders skip the setup conversation entirely. Same goes for keeping a design consistent year to year: the second run is always the easy one.

Not sure which levers apply to your order? That's literally our job. Pick a method, play with the price machine, or just ask. Quotes are free and usually back within 24 hours.