How Much Do Custom Shirts Cost in Small Batches?
If you have ever compared three quotes for 25 shirts and found three wildly different totals, the reason is usually not the printing — it is everything around the printing. This guide breaks down where the money goes.
1. Setup, spread over few units
Every print job has fixed costs before the first shirt: preparing artwork, setting up the print, aligning colors, making a proof. Those costs are roughly the same whether you order 10 shirts or 1,000.
Simple math shows the effect: a $100 setup adds $10 to each shirt in a 10-piece order, $1 in a 100-piece order, and 10 cents in a 1,000-piece order. This is the single biggest reason small batches cost more per shirt, and it hits screen printing hardest, since each color in a design needs its own screen. Methods with minimal setup — sublimation and DTF — keep small-batch prices closer to bulk prices.
2. The garment itself
The blank shirt is a real share of the price. Fabric, weight and construction set the floor: a lightweight promotional tee costs less than a heavier, better-finished sports shirt. At small quantities you also lose the volume discounts printers get on cases of blanks, so the garment line in a small-batch quote is higher than you might expect from retail blank prices.
3. The print method and the design
How a design gets onto the shirt changes both setup and per-unit cost:
- Per-color charges: screen printing prices often rise with each added color, and large or multiple print locations add more. A "cheap" base quote can grow quickly with a six-color design.
- Full-color methods: sublimation and DTF price the design as one image, so photographs, gradients and unlimited colors cost the same as a simple logo — and all-over, seam-to-seam coverage comes with the method rather than as a custom extra.
- Personalization: names and numbers differ per shirt. Digital methods (sublimation, DTF) handle that in the design file; in screen printing each name is extra work.
4. Freight — and, for offshore production, import duties
For small orders, shipping is not a footnote. If shirts are produced overseas and flown in — a common model for all-over sublimation — air freight for a small, light shipment can be a meaningful slice of the per-shirt cost. On top of freight, imported garments carry US import duties, which someone has to pay: either the seller builds them into the price, or the buyer gets a bill.
This is where quotes become hard to compare. A low per-shirt price with shipping and duties "calculated later" is not the same offer as a higher price with everything included.
DDP pricing: one delivered number
DYEWAVE prices DDP — Delivered Duty Paid. The quoted price is the full landed cost to a US address: shirt, printing, air shipping and import duties are all inside it, and there is nothing extra to pay when the box arrives.
Worked example: 25 shirts for a running club at the 10–49 piece price of $18 per shirt is $360 in total — that is the delivered figure, not $360 plus freight plus a duties bill. For 50–200 pieces we quote per order, since freight spreads better at those quantities, but the quote is still one delivered number.
Budgeting gets simpler under DDP: the number you approve is the number you pay. When you are ready, you can pay your DYEWAVE order by card here — just enter the total from your quotation.
Questions to ask any printer before comparing quotes
- Is freight included, and by what method? Ground vs air changes both price and delivery time.
- Are import duties included? Ask the word "DDP" directly if production is overseas.
- Is a proof included? A digital proof before production should be standard, not a paid extra — and nothing should print before you approve it.
- Are there per-color or per-location charges? Get the price for your actual design, not a one-color example.
- What is the setup or artwork fee, and is it in the per-shirt price or added on top?
- What is the real timeline? Production days and shipping days are different numbers; ask for the total to your door. Ours is about 2–3 weeks: 5–10 days of production after proof approval, then about 9 days by air.
Common questions
Why does one printer quote $9 and another $18 for the same 25 shirts?
Usually because the quotes cover different things: one may exclude freight, duties, setup or extra colors. Ask both printers the six questions above and compare delivered totals, not headline prices.
Do per-shirt prices fall at 50 or 100 pieces?
Yes — setup and freight spread over more units, so per-shirt prices step down as quantity rises. At DYEWAVE, 50–200 pieces are quoted per order for exactly this reason.
Is air shipping worth it for small batches?
For event deadlines, usually yes: it is the difference between a 2–3 week total and a much longer sea freight timeline. For a small, light box of shirts the cost is manageable and, under DDP, already inside the quoted price.
What is the cheapest way to get 10 custom shirts?
The lowest delivered totals at 10 pieces generally come from low-setup methods (sublimation or DTF) with one all-in price. Screen printing at 10 pieces carries the heaviest setup penalty.
Want one delivered number for your order?
Get a quote for 10–200 custom sublimated polyester shirts at dyewave.com or [email protected] — proof included before production.