First run quantities...your advice

Dawgwood said:

Curious what you guys think. I'm getting ready to do my brands first run. I'm looking at 4 designs, 600 shirts. I'm being optimistic I suppose but quantity drops costs from what I'm seeing.

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That seems like a lot for first run. Sure the cost comes down with quantity but what if most of those don't sell for one reason or another. Lets say you sell 1/3 of those shirts. 400 shirts that don't sell is a lot of money wasted. If you print up 50 (or even less) of each design, your cost of the product per item will be higher but your overall risk is less. You may not make as much profit to start but you will see which of the designs if any are sellers without having a lot of money invested.

I'd rethink qtys. that's a lot of shirts to sell. Optimism is good though.

You should definitely order a lot less than that. Maybe 36 pieces each. Start small and grow accordingly, as opposed to giving away free shirts after they sit in a box for months...

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Thanks for the input guys. I'll sit down again today, crunch some numbers and see if I can make smaller runs cost effective

I'm starting with about the same quantity, I figure with 600 shirts, 5 different sizes , 3designs that will be @ 40 shirts of each size in each design( if spread evenly on sizes of course). More designs dwindles by 10 shirts each one and cost is much less.Hustle and sell you 600 shirts is my opinion.I know that I increased profit margin by $6.00 by buying more shirts out the gate.Cheaper printing with contract pricing, cheaper labels( for woven min is usually 500 to 1000.) Sell,Sell,Sell.

If you guys do not have any priority designs then 100/design is well enough quantity to start with, 25x4.
if you have anyone outta those 4/5 as special article "whom you think may boost the sales" then adjust those number with more quantitative focus on that.

Your first designs aren't supposed to make a profit. They're supposed to build brand recognition.

My brand cost me thousands of dollars to get the name rembered and recognized in my first 3 months.

Don't focus on profit yet. Focus on branding.

Either you are in the t-shirt business or you are not.....IMO (free so take it for what you think it is worth) 36 shirts per design is just a "hobby"....150 shirts per design is a minimum in my mind....

Depends if you think you can sell them or not.

Personally (talking from experience) I'd start with lower quantities, you can always get more printed if you sell out but you can't send them back to the printer if they don't sell.

It also looks better on your website if you've sold out and can become even more desirable to customers.

TLK said:

Depends if you think you can sell them or not.

Personally (talking from experience) I'd start with lower quantities, you can always get more printed if you sell out but you can't send them back to the printer if they don't sell.

It also looks better on your website if you've sold out and can become even more desirable to customers.

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I always think my designs will sell......If you do not, get a job at 7-11.....

I do not get the idea of designs being sold out.....If a design sells, keep printing it......

You might need to take a part time job at a 7-11 until your t-shirt business takes off. It doesn't just happen over night...

Lmao at the 7-11 comments. Think I'm gonna pass on that.

Seriously tho guys thanks for the feedback. I've decided to scale it back a little to 75 shirts per design. I've still got to pull in a photographer for web site pics. I'll let that extra cash sit in the bank with my cushion money until I actually see sales and can identify what styles are worth the investment. It's going to eat up some profit but I've got more time than money lol.

Again, thanks guys....this forum has saved me from myself several times lol