What Is the Minimum Order for Custom Shirts?
Short answer: it depends on the printing method. At French Press Custom, screen printing and embroidery each have a 24 piece minimum, DTF transfers start at 12 pieces, heat transfer vinyl starts at 6, and DTG printing has no minimum at all. If your run is under 24 pieces, we do not turn you away, we simply route it to DTG, which has no minimum and no setup fee.
Here is the quick reference:
- Screen printing: 24 pieces
- Embroidery: 24 pieces
- DTG (direct-to-garment): no minimum, even a single shirt works
- DTF transfers: 12 pieces
- Sublimation: 12 pieces
- Heat transfer vinyl: 6 pieces
Those numbers come straight from our live pricing, the same engine that powers our instant quote tool and our published company facts. Below is the why behind each one, plus where to see current entry pricing for every method.
Why Is There a 24 Piece Minimum for Screen Printing?
Because setup is real, physical work. Every color in your design needs its own screen, and each screen has to be coated with emulsion, burned with your artwork, registered on press, and reclaimed afterward. On the smallest runs we bill that prep as a one-time setup fee per screen (the current figure is listed in our screen printing cost guide); above the minimum it is simply built into the per-piece price. On a 100 piece run, that prep disappears into the total. On a 10 piece run, it would dominate the price, and you would end up paying a premium for a method whose whole advantage is volume efficiency. That is why we set our screen print minimum at 24 pieces in August 2026. At 24 and up, screen printing delivers the thick, durable ink that holds up wash after wash, at a per shirt price that actually makes sense. Our companion post, Screen Printing Minimum Orders: What You Need to Know, goes deeper on the setup math.
What If I Only Need 10 Shirts?
Then DTG is your move, and it is a genuinely great one. Direct-to-garment printing works like a high resolution inkjet for fabric: no screens, no setup fee, no minimum. Small runs are priced in a 1 to 11 piece band, with the per-piece print price stepping down at 12, 31, 51, 101, and 251 pieces; the live numbers are in our DTG cost guide. The price covers full color, so a photo-real design with eight colors costs the same as a simple one color logo. When a screen print request comes in under 24 pieces, our quote tool automatically offers the DTG option, so small orders never hit a dead end. Ten shirts for the family reunion? Totally doable. Price it on DTG.
What Are the Minimums for DTF, Sublimation, and Heat Transfer Vinyl?
DTF (direct-to-film) transfers start at 12 pieces, with per-transfer pricing that steps down at 50, 100, and 250 pieces plus a small setup per print location; see the DTF cost guide for current figures. Sublimation also starts at 12 pieces and is quoted per project. Keep in mind sublimation only bonds with polyester and poly blend garments, so plan your fabric choice accordingly. Heat transfer vinyl carries the lowest minimum of the three at just 6 pieces and is priced per color per location, which makes it a favorite for names and numbers on team jerseys. Price a DTF order or a heat transfer order in the quote tool.
Is There a Minimum for Embroidery?
Yes. Embroidery has a 24 piece minimum per design, the same as screen printing. The reason is similar: every new design has to be digitized into a stitch file our machines can read, and each run needs hooping, thread changes, and test sews before the first sellable piece. Digitizing is a one-time fee, and base pricing includes up to 5,000 stitches, enough for most left chest logos. From there, per piece pricing steps down across quantity tiers (24, 48, 100, 200, 400, 1,000 and beyond), so a 100 piece polo order lands at a much lower per unit price than a 24 piece order. Current per-piece and digitizing figures are in our embroidery cost guide. The best part: digitizing is one and done. Every reorder of the same design skips the fee entirely. Need fewer than 24 embroidered pieces? Call us at (562) 407-3800 and we will talk through options, including DTG for printed logos.
How Do I Get the Best Price Per Shirt?
Ride the quantity tiers. Screen print pricing steps down at 48, 100, 200, 450, and 1,000 pieces. DTG drops at 12, 31, 51, 101, and 251. DTF drops at 50, 100, and 250 transfers. Embroidery drops at 48, 100, 200, 400, and 1,000. If your count sits just below a breakpoint, adding a few shirts can lower your total cost, not just your per shirt cost, so it is always worth checking the next tier before you finalize. The fastest way to see real numbers for your exact job is our instant quote tool: pick a garment, method, quantity, and print locations, and it prices everything on the spot. Start your free quote and see where your order lands, or browse typical all-in ranges in our LA custom apparel price index. We have been printing for SoCal schools, teams, bands, and brands from Santa Fe Springs since 2010, and we will help you find the smartest way to run it.
