Why 12 shirts cost almost as much as 50

The most common reaction we get to a first quote isn’t about the design or the timeline. It’s some version of: “Wait — 15 shirts is almost the same total as 50?” Yes, often it is. And once you understand why, you can usually get a much better price without spending more money. This guide explains what’s actually on a custom apparel invoice, where the quantity breaks sit, and the five levers that move your per-shirt number.

Your invoice has two halves

Every custom apparel quote is built from two different kinds of cost, and they behave in opposite ways.

Per-piece costs scale linearly. The blank garment, the ink or thread that goes on it, the labour of running each unit through the press or the embroidery head, folding and bagging. Order twice as many, pay roughly twice as much. Nothing surprising here.

Per-order costs don’t scale at all. Preparing artwork, burning screens, digitizing a logo into a stitch file, mixing ink to a specific colour, setting up and registering the press, running test prints until the placement is right, then tearing the job down. That work costs the same whether you are printing 12 shirts or 1,200. It is billed once and then divided across your order.

The whole “why is small so expensive” question is really just that second bucket being spread thin. A $60 setup on 12 shirts is $5.00 a shirt. The same $60 on 300 shirts is $0.20 a shirt. Same work, same charge, wildly different impact on your unit price.

What setup actually costs, by method

Setup charges vary by shop and by job complexity, but the structure is consistent across the industry. Ranges below are typical for the North American market; treat them as a planning guide, not a quote.

The price curve, in numbers

Here is an illustrative all-in curve for the most common order we see: a mid-weight cotton tee, one-colour logo, front chest only, printed DTF. All-in means the blank, the print, and the amortized setup — the number you’d actually divide by the shirt count.

These are illustrative planning ranges in CAD, not a price list. Your real number moves with the blank you choose, the number of colours, print locations, and the season.

Read the third column and the shape of this becomes obvious. Between 12 and 50 units your per-shirt price drops by roughly 45%, and most of that drop is setup dilution. Between 250 and 500 it drops maybe 10%, because there’s barely any setup left to dilute — you’re just negotiating garment cost at that point.

Where the breaks actually sit

• 24 units — the point where screen print stops being absurd.
• 50 units — the biggest single jump in value. If you’re quoting 40, ask what 50 costs. It is frequently within a few dollars of total.
• 100 units — where extra ink colours and a second print location become cheap enough to be worth adding.
• 250 units — where the curve flattens. Beyond this, order more only if you’ll actually use them.

Under 30 pieces? Change the method, not the quantity

If your order is genuinely small — a 15-person office, a 20-person startup team, a small league roster — the answer isn’t to inflate the order. It’s to pick a method with no setup.

DTF and DTG carry no screen or digitizing charge, so at 12 pieces they are usually cheaper all-in than screen print even though their per-piece cost is higher. The crossover generally lands somewhere between 25 and 40 pieces for a one- or two-colour design; the more ink colours in your artwork, the higher the crossover pushes, because every colour adds another screen.

Practical version: under ~25 pieces, print DTF or DTG. Over ~50, screen print. In between, ask for both. Embroidery is a slightly different calculation — the digitizing fee is one-time and permanent, so a small first order absorbs it, but every reorder afterwards is clean. If you expect to reorder polos or caps annually, don’t let the first-order digitizing charge scare you off. Our decoration durability comparison covers how these methods differ once the garments are in service.

What “minimum order” really means

Shops quote minimums, but there are actually three different constraints hiding under one word, and they don’t always bind at the same time.

1. The decoration minimum

The smallest run the shop will set up for. Usually 12–24 for screen print, 6–12 for embroidery, and as low as 1 for DTF or DTG. This is a business-sense floor, not a technical one.

2. The blank minimum

Some garments — particularly outerwear, technical fabrics, and closeout styles — are sold by the supplier in case packs or have their own minimums. You may hit a wall on the garment before you hit one on the printing.

3. The size-and-colour minimum

This is the one that catches people. Twelve shirts split across four colourways is four separate three-piece runs, each needing its own press setup. Twelve shirts in one colour is one run. Same shirt count, very different cost. Splitting colourways is the single most expensive small decision in custom apparel.

Five ways to lower your per-shirt price without ordering more

1. Reduce ink colours. On screen print, each colour is a screen and a setup charge. A three-colour logo simplified to one colour can take $50–$80 off a small order and a full dollar per shirt off a mid-size one. Most logos have a clean single-colour version already.
2. Consolidate separate orders into one run. If three departments each want 20 shirts with the same logo, that’s one 60-piece order at one setup — not three 20-piece orders at three setups. Same for a season’s worth of team orders placed together.
3. Order the year at once. Uniform programs that reorder quarterly pay setup four times unless the shop holds the screens. Ordering annually and storing the stock is usually 15–25% cheaper, and it removes lead-time risk.
4. Keep one garment colour. See above. If you must have two, make it two, not five.
5. Reuse your artwork exactly. A digitized embroidery file lasts forever. A screen setup on an identical reorder is often waived or discounted. Changing the year on a design, or nudging the size, restarts that clock — so decide whether the change is worth it.

Before you ask for a quote

Have these six things ready and your quote comes back accurate the first time instead of after three emails:

• Total quantity, plus the next quantity up you’d consider
• Garment type and how many colourways
• Number of print locations (front, back, sleeve)
• Number of ink colours in the artwork
• Vector artwork if you have it — a PDF, AI, EPS or SVG
• Your in-hand date, not your event date

If you’re not sure how to split your quantity across sizes, our size-run guide has the standard curve. And if you haven’t picked a garment yet, the catalog shows what we stock and what we can bring in.