How much do custom polo shirts cost?

Search for a custom polo price and you will find two kinds of answer. The first is 'contact us for a quote', which tells you nothing. The second is a single number like $6, which is usually the 1,000-piece price presented as if it applied to a 20-piece order. Both are unhelpful, and both are avoidable.

Fabric is the floor

Before any logo is discussed, there is a knit with a weight and a composition. A 220–250 gsm piqué cotton blend costs more per garment than a 175–200 gsm performance polyester, and it should: there is more yarn in it. A supplier quoting the same price for both is either using one fabric for both or has hidden the difference elsewhere.

Weight is also a durability decision. A uniform worn five days a week is washed far more often than a retail shirt. Choosing 180 gsm to save a dollar usually shows up as a rolled collar and a see-through body by month three. If the wearer is outdoors in a hot climate, the lighter knit is genuinely the better choice — but that is a specification decision, not a discount.

The quantity ladder

Our own published tiers run 5–99 pieces at $9–11, 100–299 at $7–9, 300–999 at $6–8 and 1,000+ from $6, for short-sleeve polos with digital print, FOB Guangzhou, based on our July 2024 costing. The shape of that ladder is the same at most factories: the first tier carries the setup, and each step up spreads cutting, setup and machine time across more garments.

This is why 'can you do 20 pieces' and 'what is your best price' are different questions. Twenty pieces is entirely possible — our custom minimum is 5 — but it sits in the highest tier. A buyer who understands that can compare two quotes properly instead of wondering why a 300-piece price does not apply to their first order.

Decoration and setup

Embroidery is priced by stitch count and by the number of placements, not by the size of the logo alone. A dense left-chest crest may cost more than a larger flat one, and a crest with fine gradients or text under 5 mm often needs a woven badge instead — a separate component with its own lead time.

Sublimation changes the logic completely. Because the whole panel is printed at once, a full-colour gradient costs the same as a one-colour design, and the collar and placket can be printed in the same operation. It needs a light polyester base, so it is not a universal substitute.

Sampling is its own line

A 1–4 piece sample run carries nearly the same setup as a production run: a pattern, a cut plan, a print or embroidery file, and someone's time on the machine. That is why a sample is quoted per piece at a much higher figure than bulk. It is not a markup trick, and a supplier who waives it entirely has usually put the cost somewhere less visible.

The useful question is whether the sample cost is credited against the production order, and whether the approved sample becomes the colour standard. Ask both. A sample that nobody keeps on file is just an expensive photograph.

What is usually missing

An FOB figure excludes freight, duties, insurance and, in most quotations, the decoration setup. DDP to a UK or US address can be a materially different number. Ask which Incoterm the figure refers to before you compare two suppliers — otherwise you are comparing a factory-gate price with a delivered one.

Also ask what happens on the second order. A cheap first run is not a saving if next season's 20-piece top-up has to be re-specified from memory. The cost that never appears on a quotation is the hour spent chasing a colour that nobody wrote down.

The short version

For a 60-piece custom order, budget against the 5–99 tier, add decoration, and treat freight and duties as a separate line. Ask for the sample cost, the exact gsm of the blank, and the reorder colour procedure in the same message. A factory that answers all four without hedging is usually the one worth ordering from.

If you want a firm number rather than a range, send the style, quantity, colours and destination. We quote against the published ladder.