Custom Company T-Shirts: The $17.02 Tee, Explained

The tee is the cheapest garment most collections start with and the easiest to get wrong, because the cheap one looks fine in the mockup. After the first wash the collar twists, the fabric goes see-through and the print cracks. By then the team has filed it as a giveaway.

Get the fabric right first, then pick the decoration that suits the design, and then make the logo smaller than the brief asks for.

What 220 GSM combed ring-spun means

Our tee is 100% combed ring-spun cotton at 220 GSM, side-seamed with taped shoulders and a ribbed 1x1 neck, in a modern relaxed fit. A promo tee is carded open-end cotton and lighter, and you can feel every one of those differences.

Combed ring-spun is what the label says on a good retail tee. A 220 GSM tee also embroiders well, because the face is stable enough to hold a stitch without puckering. The apparel fabric guide has the vocabulary for reading other vendors' claims.

Embroidery or DTF on a tee

A tee takes both methods, and the design tells you which one to use.

• Embroidery is for a small mark. That means a left-chest logo up to about 4 in wide, at 5,000 to 12,000 stitches, with up to 12 thread colors and lettering 5 mm or taller. The stitch outlives the garment and makes the everyday tee read as retail.
• DTF print is for a graphic, meaning anything wider than a chest mark, up to about 10 in on the chest and 12 in on the back. It prints gradients and photos with no color-count limit, it's rated for 50-plus washes without cracking, and it's the method for the event tee.

Print the chest, the back or both and the tee is still $17.02, because a method is one fee however many places it goes. One tee can carry both methods, with an embroidered chest mark and a printed back. DTG costs the same as DTF, and vinyl, which suits names and numbers, adds $3.03 where a print adds $3.78. Embroidery vs DTF Printing has the full comparison.

Should the logo be a small mark or a big graphic?

The size of the logo decides whether the tee leaves the office, because the bigger the mark, the fewer places the shirt goes.

• Small mark. Tonal or two-color embroidery on the left chest and nothing else. The wearer is the subject and the brand is a detail. This is the tee that goes to dinner, and the one to put in the onboarding kit.
• Big graphic. A printed front or back that fills the canvas and turns the wearer into the billboard. It's right for a booth, a launch or a volunteer day, where being spotted is the job. Poly9 prints a purple-to-pink gradient across the tee for its 10-person booth team. It isn't the Saturday tee and doesn't need to be.
• The middle path. A small embroidered chest mark plus a back graphic that isn't a logo: a skyline, a product line drawing, a phrase the team says. It does the everyday job and still marks the occasion.

When the brief says make the logo bigger, ask what the tee is for. The brand guidelines for merch guide has a section on winning that argument.

Sizing a whole-company order

The tee runs true. Most people order their normal size and one up gives the boxy look, which leaves three rules for a whole-company order:

1. Collect sizes through the share link. The Design Studio makes one and each person picks against the chart. Estimating from headcount produces a box of mediums nobody claims.
2. Offer the whole run. XS to 4XL is one price, so cutting sizes saves nothing and leaves someone out.
3. Let the packaging sort it. Every tee ships sleeved with the wearer's name, and handing them out means reading labels instead of sorting piles.

Measurements per size, and a message for collecting sizes from a spread-out team, are in the sizing guide.

Most companies need an event tee and an everyday tee.

The mistake is asking one tee to do both jobs.

The everyday tee goes in onboarding kits, waits in the closet for visitors and gets reordered a few at a time as people join. It carries a small embroidered mark in brand colors, in a design that will still be right in three years. Order it once at the highest tier you can reach. After that a reorder uses the design we have on file, and all we need from you is the number.

The event tee is made for a date, a conference or a launch. It's printed with event-specific artwork, often in a color off the brand palette. Order the full headcount at once, which is how an order reaches 150. Event and agency teams run a new graphic each quarter, and the booth apparel guide covers what goes over it at the booth.

Both run on the same calendar. Give yourself 8 to 10 weeks before the day the tees have to arrive. The design stage moves at your pace, and from the day you approve it the order needs three weeks to produce and two more to ship. You can order a paid sample set ahead of the bulk order, which adds about two weeks. A reorder skips the design stage and the sample and goes straight to production.

Pricing at 15, 50 and 150

The tee is $17.02 with one DTF print, which covers design and plastic-free name-sleeved packaging. Add a vinyl name on the back and it's $20.05, because each method adds its own fee. Reach 50 pieces and 12% comes off the whole order, and at 150 it's 22%. The count is the whole mix, so 40 tees and 10 caps is a 50-piece order.

Take 12% off $17.02 and it's $14.98, and 22% off makes it $13.28, rounded to the cent. There's no setup fee and no per-color charge, and XS to 4XL is one price. The 50 and 150 orders ship free, and for 15 tees the shipping is on the quote. A $13.28 tee worn for two years beats a thin promo tee worn once, and it's the one that carries the mark somewhere other than the event. If the tee is one line in a mixed collection, the pricing guide works those examples.

Related reading.

• Why Your Team Doesn't Wear the Merch
• Custom Company Hoodies: Which Cut, What It Costs
• How to Read a Fabric Spec Sheet

Questions we get.

What makes a company t-shirt something people wear?

Fabric first, then restraint. A 220 GSM combed ring-spun tee feels like a retail tee, where a thin carded promo tee feels like a giveaway and gets treated like one. After that, keep the mark small enough that the shirt is about the wearer. A tonal left-chest mark gets worn to dinner, and a giant chest logo gets worn to paint the fence.

Should a company tee be embroidered or printed?

Embroider a small left-chest mark on an everyday tee that should read as retail. Print with DTF for anything bigger than a chest mark, for gradients or photos, and for event tees where the graphic is the point. Print adds $3.78 to the $13.24 tee, embroidery is priced in one business day, and one tee can carry both.

How much do custom company t-shirts cost?

$17.02 a tee with one DTF print, with thresholds that count the whole mixed order. At 50 pieces it's $14.98 a tee and $749 for the order, and at 150 it's $13.28 and $1,992.

How do I size a t-shirt order for a whole company?

Collect sizes through the Design Studio share link instead of estimating, and tell people the tee runs true. Sizes XS to 4XL are one price. Each tee ships sleeved with the wearer's name, so handing out is reading labels.