Starting a T-shirt Brand
Alright, you’ve made it, you’re ready to start your clothing brand. Before you do, there are a lot of factors to consider. Do I want to print or embroider? What garments am I using? What designs should I start with? How many should I order to start? Don’t worry, our expert team of sales reps have been helping people answer these questions for years and we’re here for you too.
Popular Items for Starting your Brand
Picking your garments is an important part of starting your brand. The key is to pick something affordable that’s also decent quality. See below for a list of our most popular shirt and hoodie styles for clothing brands. If you’re thinking of re-branding with custom neck labels, go for the Alstyle brand with tearaway labels. Alstyle is quite popular for lots of Skate brands and Band tees and has lots of good quality, affordable options. Check out the Jerzees or ATC hoodie brands for a popular low budget, good quality hoodie. The longer body lengths and metal grommets give these hoodies an in style look that is popular for lots of brands.
American Apparel Heavyweight T-Shirt #1301
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- $8.38 ea
- 8 colours
- Small – 4XL
ATC Everyday Fleece Hoodie #ATCF2500
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- $25.79 ea
- 16 colours
- Small – 4XL
ATC Everyday Fleece Full Zip Hoodie #ATCF2600
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- $29.03 ea
- 8 colours
- Small – 4XL
Gildan Heavy Cotton T-shirt #5000
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- $6.16 ea
- 26 colours
- Small – 4XL
ATC ES Active Vintage Hoodie #F2045
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- $35.52 ea
- 1 colours
- X-Small – 4XL
What type of Decoration should I go for?
When it comes to creating your brand, one of the first steps is deciding the look you’re going for. Typically there are two major routes to go, Screen Printing or Embroidery.
Screen Printing
If you’re going to the Screen Printing route, try to choose a design with a maximum of 3 colours. The more colours in your design, the higher the unit cost, so restricting your design to 3 colours or less will help you out in the beginning if you aren’t planning on ordering a large run.
Embroidery
If your style is more leaning towards Embroidery, there are a couple options you might be looking at. If you’re going for embroidered hoodies and t-shirts, we suggest keeping the design small and simple because with embroidery, the larger the design, the higher the unit cost. If you’re doing hats, try only going with a single placement because the more placements you have, the higher the cost. For example, a hat with front embroidery is cheaper than a hat with a front and side embroidery.
With both Screen Printing and Embroidery, the more you order with the same design, the cheaper the unit cost. However, when you’re first testing the waters we find it’s better to go with smaller runs so you don’t run the risk of getting stuck with a bunch of extra product.
Designs & Order Quantities
When you’re starting out a t-shirt brand, we always recommend keeping it simple. “Less is More” is a great saying to keep in mind. Start out with a maximum of two designs and try to do smaller runs at one of our price breaks to hit a decent cost. Our price breaks start at 24 units and continue every dozen, so 24 and 48 pieces are the sweet spots for smaller orders. That way you can test out the designs you’ve chosen and see which ones will sell better. If you need help creating your designs we have a team of experts who are ready to help assist you in developing a logo that will look good and print/embroider well. Our skilled sales team can also help you choose the best size runs for your order to help make the process that much easier. For more advice feel free to Contact Us and any one of our sales reps will be happy to help.
