QUANTITY is the biggest lever, and it works in a way that surprises people. A print job carries a chunk of cost that happens exactly ONCE no matter how long the run is: the art gets separated into colors, a screen is burned for each color, and the press is set up and aligned. That cost is identical whether you print 24 shirts or 240. Spread across 24 shirts it is brutal. Spread across 240 it nearly disappears. That is the entire reason bulk pricing exists, and it is why a hundred is where most groups land: it is the point where setup stops dominating the per-shirt price.
INK COLORS are the second lever and the one most people get wrong. Every color in a design is its own screen and its own pass through the press. A two color design on a hundred shirts is meaningfully cheaper than the same art in five colors, and from ten feet away it usually reads better. If a budget is tight, dropping a color saves more than dropping shirts.
PRINT LOCATIONS work the same way. A front print is one pass. Front and back is two. Add a sleeve and it is three. Each location is set up and printed separately, so think of it as printing the shirt more than once.
THE GARMENT is the floor under everything. A basic cotton tee, a heavier ringspun shirt, a performance poly, and a hooded sweatshirt are all different starting costs before a drop of ink is involved. A hoodie order is not a tee order with a bigger number on it.
TWO THINGS THAT COST EXTRA AND ARE WORTH KNOWING ABOUT. Printing light ink on a dark shirt needs an underbase, a white layer laid down first so the color reads instead of sinking in; that is an extra pass. And names and numbers on the back are added in vinyl after the screen printing, priced per shirt, which is what lets one run carry forty different backs without forty sets of screens.
WHAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE PRICE: whether it is a school, a business, a team or a family. The press does not care who you are. It cares how many, how many colors, how many spots, and what garment.
- Quantity, ink colors, print locations and garment are the four levers
- Setup cost is the same for 24 shirts or 240, which is why bulk is cheaper per shirt
- Dropping one ink color usually saves more than dropping shirts
- Front and back is two passes, not one
- Any size order is welcome; bulk pricing starts around 100
Questions people ask about what 100 custom shirts cost
How much does it cost to print 100 shirts?
It depends on ink colors, print locations and the garment, not just the count. The published price chart and the estimator on this site give a real number for your exact combination, and the shop confirms it against your artwork. Anyone quoting a single flat per-shirt price without asking about colors is guessing.
Why is 100 shirts cheaper per shirt than 25?
Because the setup happens once. Separating art, burning a screen per color and aligning the press costs the same whether the run is 25 or 250. Across 25 shirts that cost lands hard on each one. Across 100 it is spread thin.
Is it cheaper to print fewer colors?
Yes, and it is usually the biggest saving available. Each color is its own screen and its own pass. Going from four colors to two on the same hundred shirts saves real money and often looks sharper from a distance.
Does printing front and back cost double?
Not double, but it is a second setup and a second pass, so it is a real increase rather than a small add-on. If the budget is tight, a strong front print alone goes further than a weak front and back.
Do I have to order 100 shirts?
No. Any size order is welcome. A hundred is simply where the price per shirt drops the most, because that is where setup stops dominating. Smaller runs get printed here all the time.
We take what 100 custom shirts cost work from Alice, Kingsville, premont, Freer and the rest of the Falfurrias area.
New to this? The plain-English guide to ordering walks through what to decide first.
Want numbers before you ask? See the published price chart for custom t-shirts.