Discuss the wholesale blanks industry: Factory direct, custom labels. You can also use this forum to locate a wide variety of wholesale products including t-shirts, hoodies, mousepads, coffee mugs and other imprintable products.
I am currently planning to start a shirt company, in the latter researching phase, and have started to look into selecting blank shirts. I will of course be printing/embroidering on the shirts when I acquire them.
I am sooo glad I found this forum today and wanted to take advantage of my good fortune to pick your brains on my current situation.
What is the protocol for ordering shirts to test? Will any smaller companies provide a few shirts free for sample with the idea that you'd order from them later if they suffice.
I was wondering, and I know this varies, but what is the difference in pricing between 100% cotton and 50/50 shirts?
How much should I expect/be willing to pay per shirt for 50/50 shirts if my order quantity is around 100? 500? 5,000?
What is the cheapest you'll generally find organic cotton, bamboo, and hemp tees (I ask this in particular because I can't imagine the sources I've discovered are fair... they seem as steep as I'd pay retail for one) wholesale?
What should I expect the shipping cost to be per shirt on an order of 500 shirts from across the country?
I apologize for the extremely vague nature of my questions. I've just been reading threads that trumpet those starting out to do as much research as possible, and then more.
If you open an account with Sanmar, you can get grommetted samples for 1/2 price. Those have an information card attached with a grommet.
For tees, I generally use Sanmar, or Golden State Activewear (the latter being close enough to me that I can will call).
Some manufacturers will let you order direct from them by the case, others will sell only through distributors.
Set yourself up with some distributors so you can view your options, and order one of each style that you're interested in.
Also, you may already be aware of this, but if you're going to embroider on a tee (or polo, etc.), the heavier weight tees will work much better for this, and a ball point needle helps as well.
General Pricing Q's 
