Los Angeles Custom Apparel Price Index (2026)
What does custom apparel actually cost in Los Angeles? This index publishes real quoted-price statistics from 295 customer quotes at French Press Custom — median and percentile all-in prices per piece for screen printing, embroidery, and DTG, broken out by quantity. The median order came to $665. Every figure below is computed straight from the underlying quote data.
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At a Glance
The Numbers Buyers Ask For First
Pulled directly from the quote data. All-in per piece means the full order total (garments + decoration + setup fees) divided by the number of pieces.
$665
Median order value
across all 295 quotes
$23.17
Screen print · 24-49 pcs
median all-in per piece
$12.43
Screen print · 100-249 pcs
median all-in per piece
Price Tables
All-In Price Per Piece by Method & Quantity
One table per decoration method. All-in per piece = garments + printing + setup ÷ quantity. Quantity bands with fewer than 5 quotes are suppressed and not shown.
Screen Print
157 quotes in this method| Quantity | Sample Size | 25th %ile | Median | 75th %ile | Median Order Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-23 pcstypical run 12 pcs | n = 16 | $22.93 | $34.54 | $62.17 | $305 |
| 24-49 pcstypical run 33 pcs | n = 49 | $16.88 | $23.17 | $30.73 | $692 |
| 50-99 pcstypical run 60 pcs | n = 33 | $14.60 | $19.78 | $24.33 | $1,159 |
| 100-249 pcstypical run 130 pcs | n = 41 | $8.85 | $12.43 | $20.47 | $1,659 |
| 250-499 pcstypical run 400 pcs | n = 10 | $6.42 | $11.07 | $13.54 | $5,259 |
| 500+ pcstypical run 1788 pcs | n = 8 | $5.90 | $12.65 | $14.63 | $7,906 |
Embroidery
55 quotes in this method| Quantity | Sample Size | 25th %ile | Median | 75th %ile | Median Order Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-23 pcstypical run 6 pcs | n = 33 | $27.08 | $34.00 | $48.05 | $226 |
| 24-49 pcstypical run 25 pcs | n = 10 | $18.99 | $27.83 | $31.68 | $851 |
| 50-99 pcstypical run 64 pcs | n = 6 | $18.66 | $21.15 | $34.19 | $1,353 |
DTG
70 quotes in this method| Quantity | Sample Size | 25th %ile | Median | 75th %ile | Median Order Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-23 pcstypical run 4 pcs | n = 58 | $27.80 | $36.09 | $47.01 | $162 |
| 24-49 pcstypical run 30 pcs | n = 7 | $24.56 | $25.25 | $40.02 | $1,010 |
All-in per piece = garments + printing + setup ÷ quantity. The 25th/75th percentile columns show the middle half of real quotes at that volume — a quarter of orders priced below the 25th percentile and a quarter above the 75th. Prices exclude sales tax and shipping.
What the Data Says
Plain-English Takeaways
Patterns that hold across the whole dataset — every number here is computed from the tables above.
Screen printing rewards volume
The median all-in price falls about 52% per piece — from $23.17 at 24-49 pieces down to $11.07 at 250-499 — because the fixed setup and press time spread across far more shirts.
Small DTG runs cost the most per piece
Direct-to-garment runs of 1-23 pieces carry a median of $36.09 each (a typical order of 4 pieces totals just $162), because there are no economies of scale when a handful of garments are printed one at a time.
Embroidery follows the same curve
The median embroidered piece runs $34.00 at 1-23 pieces but $21.15 at 50-99 — about 38% cheaper once the one-time digitizing is amortized across a bigger run.
At mid quantities, screen print and DTG nearly tie
Around 24-49 pieces, screen print ($23.17/pc median) and DTG ($25.25/pc median) land close together. The gap only opens at higher volumes, where screen print's setup cost disappears into the run.
What a "normal" order looks like
Half of all quotes land between $276 and $1,374, with a median order value of $665. If your total sits inside that middle-half range, it is squarely typical for this market.
For Buyers
How to Use This Index
A quick way to sanity-check any quote you receive — from us or from another shop.
Find your method and quantity band
Locate the table for your decoration method (screen print, embroidery, or DTG) and the row matching how many pieces you are ordering.
Compute your own all-in per piece
Take your quoted order total, subtract tax and shipping, then divide by quantity. That is the number to compare against the median column.
Being inside P25-P75 is normal
If your per-piece price falls between the 25th and 75th percentile, your quote is right in line with the middle half of real orders at that volume.
Above P75? Ask what is driving it
A higher price is not automatically wrong — premium blanks, extra print locations, specialty inks, or a rush timeline all push a quote up. Ask your shop to itemize.
Remember that small quantities always cost more per piece — that is structural, not a markup. Setup, art, and press time are fixed costs that only get cheaper when spread across more garments.
Methodology
How This Index Is Built
Written so this reference can be cited accurately.
- Based on 295 real customer quotes collected from January 2025 through July 2026 at French Press Custom, a single custom apparel shop in the Los Angeles area (Santa Fe Springs, CA).
- Includes quotes in the sent, approved, invoiced, and paid states — i.e. genuine priced work, not abandoned drafts.
- Prices are all-in: they include the garments, the decoration, and one-time setup fees. They exclude sales tax and shipping.
- The "all-in per piece" figure is the full order total divided by the number of pieces on the order.
- For each method and quantity band we report the sample size (n) and the 25th percentile, median, and 75th percentile of all-in per-piece price, plus the median order total.
- Any method or quantity band with fewer than 5 quotes is suppressed to protect against noise and to avoid identifying individual orders.
- This reflects one shop’s quotes. It is a data-backed price reference, not a market-wide survey — treat it as a well-grounded benchmark rather than a census of the whole LA market.
- Updated periodically as new quotes accumulate. Last updated July 10, 2026.
See Where Your Order Lands
Run your exact garment, quantity, and decoration through our instant quote calculator and compare the result against the medians above.