How much does it cost to print 50 custom t-shirts?

What you are actually paying for

A 50-piece order has two lines on it. The print is a per-shirt charge set by how many ink colors the design uses and how many locations get printed. The blank is the shirt itself, quoted live from the supplier catalogs we buy from, which is why a heavyweight cotton tee and a retail-fit ring-spun tee produce very different totals for the same artwork.

There is no third line for setup. Burning one screen per ink color costs us the same whether the run is 50 shirts or 1,200, and that cost is spread across the run inside the per-shirt print price rather than added underneath it. Spreading it over 50 shirts instead of 36 is a large part of why the per-shirt number drops as the count climbs.

Why 50 sits in a better tier than 36

Screen printing front-loads its work. Registering the press, mixing ink and pulling the first good print takes the same effort whether the run is 36 shirts or 1,200, and once the press is moving each additional shirt takes seconds. Because that work is spread across the run inside the per-piece price, the per-shirt price drops as quantity climbs: a 1-color front goes from $7.73 at 36 pieces to $5.43 at 50 and $3.77 at 100.

Two rules decide what happens with more than one design. The 36-piece screen printing minimum is per design, while the quantity tier is set by the total pieces on the order. So two different designs of 50 shirts each both clear the minimum, and each one prices at the tier for the 100-piece order total. Split 50 shirts evenly across two different designs, though, and neither design reaches 36, so neither can be screen printed; that order goes to DTG, which has no minimum. The same artwork on two garments, such as one logo on 30 tees and 20 hoodies, counts together toward the minimum.

What moves the number most

• Ink colors. Each color is its own screen and its own pass through the press, so a 2-color front costs more per shirt than a 1-color front at every quantity.
• Print locations. Front, back, sleeve and inside tag are each priced separately. A front-only print is the cheapest version of any design.
• Garment choice. On a 50-piece run the blank moves the total more than any other single decision you make.
• Dark garments. A white underbase goes down first so the colors read correctly, which adds to the print side of the quote.
• Extended sizes. 2XL and up carry a size upcharge on the blank, so a size run heavy in extended sizes prices higher than a straight small-through-XL run.

Screen print or DTG at 50 pieces

At 50 pieces screen printing is usually the cheaper route for a simple 1- or 2-color design, and it produces the most durable print. DTG earns its place when the artwork is full color or photographic, when you want a very soft hand on a cotton tee, or when you need a handful of shirts rather than a run. DTG has no minimum and no setup fee, so it is also the honest answer for anyone who came here wanting 50 shirts and left wanting 8.