1. The 4 Standard Pillars of Cost

When a client asks, “How much is a shirt?” you cannot answer them yet. You need to know the four ingredients that make up the price.

1. Quantity (How many?) This is the golden rule of printing: The more you buy, the cheaper each shirt becomes. Think of it like baking cookies. It takes a long time to mix the dough, preheat the oven, and clean the kitchen. If you do all that work just to bake one cookie, that is a very expensive cookie! But if you bake 100 cookies, that “setup” work is spread out over all of them. In printing, setting up the machine takes the most time. Once the press is running, it is fast. So, we automatically apply larger bulk discounts as you increase your order quantity (Standard Price Breaks are usually 24, 48, and 72 pieces).
2. Garment Choice (The Blank) This is simply the cost of the unprinted t-shirt. A budget brand (Gildan) might cost around $2, while a high-end, super-soft brand (Bella+Canvas or Next Level) could cost closer to $6 or $8 before we even print on it.
3. Locations (Where are we printing?) Here is a mistake beginners make: They think a shirt with a logo on the Front and Back is just “one shirt”. In the factory, printing on the Front AND Back is double the work. It is essentially two separate jobs. We have to print the front, take the shirt off, reload it, and print the back. Therefore, more locations = higher price.
4. Colors (The Complexity) Digital printing (like your home printer) can print a rainbow instantly. Screen Printing is different. We have to physically separate every color in the design. Think of a screen like a stencil. If a design has 5 colors, we need to make 5 separate physical screens, set up 5 stations on the machine, and load 5 different buckets of ink. More colors = more screens = higher price.

2. Screen Charges & The “White Ink Trap”

Remember those “stencils” we talked about? They cost money to make. We have to coat them in chemicals, burn the image with light, and wash them out. Because of this labor, most print shops charge a Screen Charge (Setup Fee)—usually around $25 per screen.

The White Ink Trap: Here is where new VAs get confused. If a client wants a White Logo on a Black Shirt, you might think: “Easy! That is 1 Color. So, 1 Screen Charge ($25).”

WRONG.

White ink on a dark shirt is like painting a white wall over a black wall. If you only do one coat, it looks gray and dull. We need a primer. In printing, we use two screens for white ink:

1. The Underbase: A layer of white to prime the shirt.
2. The Top Coat: A second layer of white to make it bright.

So, that “simple” white logo is actually 2 Screens. That means the setup fee is $50 ($25 x 2).

VA Rule of Thumb: When calculating screen charges for dark shirts, visually count the number of colors you can see, then add ONE extra screen for the white underbase that you cannot see.

3. Fixed Charges vs. Run Charges

You will hear these two terms often. It is vital you know the difference.

• Fixed Charge (One-Time Fee): This is a fee you pay once, no matter how many shirts you order.
  • Example: Screen Charges. Whether you print 12 shirts or 1,000 shirts, the cost to create the physical screen stencil is the same.
• Run Charge (Per-Item Fee): This is a fee added to the price of every single shirt to cover the labor of printing it.

Example: Sleeve Prints. Clients often think a sleeve print should be free because the logo is small. But a human operator must load the shirt onto a special sleeve pallet, print it, and unload it. Because this adds labor to every single unit, there is a Run Charge (e.g., +$0.35 per shirt).

The Youth vs. Adult Split (The Critical Rule)

This is the number one source of confusion for new clients. Pay close attention!

The Physics: To print a shirt, we slide it onto a wooden board called a Pallet. A standard Adult Pallet is wide. If you try to stretch a tiny toddler shirt (Youth Small) over a wide adult board, it won’t fit.

The Break Point:

• Adults + Youth Large (YL) & Youth XL (YXL): These can usually share one big screen/pallet.
• Youth XS (YXS) through Youth Medium (YM): These are too small. They require a Separate Pallet and a Separate Screen (smaller art).

The Client Friction: A client orders 75 Adult shirts and 25 Youth Small shirts. They think they are ordering “100 shirts.” The Reality: You must educate them. Because the small shirts require us to stop the machine, change the pallets, and burn new small screens, this is physically two separate manufacturing runs:

1. One order of 75 (Adults)
2. One order of 25 (Youth)

Because they are separate runs, the price per shirt will be higher than a bulk order of 100.

The “Flash” Factor & The Tito Joke

The Concept: When we print on dark shirts, we have to use a Flash Cure unit. This is a heater that dries the white underbase instantly so we can print the next color on top. It slows the machine down because we have to wait for the drying cycle. Slow machine = higher cost.

The “Tito Joke”: I want to share a little industry humor with you—a “Tito Joke” (Uncle Joke)—so you never forget this concept.

When you see a price increase for dark shirts, you might wonder if we charge a separate fee for the Flash Cure unit. Well, in this industry, we say that cost is… “BAKED IN” to the price.

Ba-dum-tss! 🥁

Get it? Baked in? Because the Flash unit is literally an oven! (I’ll see myself out).

The Hidden Fees (Don’t Forget These!)

These are the extra costs that VAs often forget to add. If you miss these, the shop loses money.

1. Rush Fees (The “Panic Tax”) Standard production time is usually 10 business days. But Americans are often impatient. If a client needs shirts this Friday, we have to push other orders aside to fit them in.

• The Policy: If they want it fast, they pay the “Panic Tax” (usually +25% or +50% of the total order).

1. Art Charges (The “Napkin Sketch” Fee) We cannot print a fuzzy screenshot from a phone. We need a Vector file (math-based lines). If a client sends a low-quality JPG, our artist must manually re-draw it.

• The Script: “Mr. Customer, your file is a bit blurry. To make it crisp, our artist needs to ‘Vectorize’ it. There is a small one-time fee for that redraw service.”

1. Spoilage & CPG (The “Bring Your Own” Risk) Sometimes clients want to buy their own shirts at Walmart and bring them to us. We call this CPG (Customer Provided Goods).

• The Risk: Machines sometimes “eat” shirts (jam, tear, or ink spill).
• The Rule: If WE provide the shirt and ruin it, we replace it. If YOU provide the shirt and we ruin it, we do not replace it (because we cannot go to Walmart for you). Always warn the client of this risk!

1. Shipping (Inbound vs. Outbound)

• Inbound Freight: The cost to get the blank shirts from the warehouse to our shop.
• Outbound Shipping: The cost to send the finished box to the customer. Never forget to add the UPS/FedEx cost to the final invoice!

7. The Pricing Matrix

You will likely be given a grid to calculate prices. It is simple to read:

• Rows = Quantity (How many shirts?)
• Columns = Colors (How many ink colors?)

How to read it: If a client orders 50 shirts with a 2-color logo:

1. Find the row for 48-71 pieces.
2. Slide across to the 2 Color column.
3. That is your Run Charge.
4. Add the cost of the Blank Shirt + Screen Charges to get the total.

Key Takeaway: The “Youth Split” Script

Use this script when a confused parent asks why their child’s tiny shirt costs more than the adult shirt.

“I totally understand why that seems odd! Even though the shirt is smaller, the ‘machinery’ we use for the adults is actually too big to fit inside the youth sizes.

To print the little ones, we have to stop the presses, swap out the boards for ‘Junior’ pallets, and set up a new, smaller screen so the design fits perfectly. Since it requires a separate setup, it counts as a separate print run. But don’t worry—they are going to look great and fit perfectly!”