What Is the Minimum Order for Custom Shirts?
Short answer: it depends on the printing method. At French Press Custom, screen printing has a 24 piece minimum, DTF transfers and sublimation start at 12 pieces, heat transfer vinyl starts at 6, and DTG printing and embroidery have 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
- DTG (direct-to-garment): no minimum, even a single shirt works
- DTF transfers: 12 pieces
- Sublimation: 12 pieces
- Heat transfer vinyl: 6 pieces
- Embroidery: no minimum
Those numbers come straight from our live pricing, the same engine that powers our instant quote tool. Below is the why behind each one, plus what you can expect to pay at the entry point of 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. We price that prep at $25 per screen. On a 100 piece run, that setup disappears into the total. On a 10 piece run, it dominates the price, and you would end up paying a premium for a method whose whole advantage is volume efficiency. That is why we updated our screen print minimum to 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.
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. At 1 to 11 pieces, printing runs $20 per shirt on light garments and $25 on dark, plus the garment itself. That price covers full color, so a photo real design with eight colors costs the same as a simple one color logo. Order 12 or more and the print price steps down to $15 to $20 per piece. 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.
What Are the Minimums for DTF, Sublimation, and Heat Transfer Vinyl?
DTF (direct-to-film) transfers start at 12 pieces. From 12 to 49 pieces, transfers run $4.50 each, and the price falls all the way to $2.20 each at 250 or more, with a $15 setup per print location. Sublimation also starts at 12 pieces, priced at $3.50 per print location from 12 to 49 pieces with a $25 setup per location. 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, priced at $1.50 per color per location at entry quantities, which makes it a favorite for names and numbers on team jerseys.
Is There a Minimum for Embroidery?
No minimum at all. A single custom hat or jacket is a real order here. New designs carry a one time $45 digitizing fee, which converts your artwork into a stitch file our machines can read, and base pricing includes up to 5,000 stitches, enough for most left chest logos. From there, per piece pricing steps down across eleven quantity tiers, so a 48 piece polo order lands at a much lower per unit price than a 2 piece order. The best part: digitizing is one and done. Every reorder of the same design skips the $45 fee entirely.
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. 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. 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.
