Most people want to skip to the fun part. The name, the logo, the colorway.

That comes second. The first question is whether the economics work.

The actual cost of a first run

Pick a design. Pick a garment. Here is what a real first order looks like.

Say you want 24 hoodies, one design, one color. A heavyweight blank (12 oz fleece, the kind that feels like something) costs $15-20 each from a supplier. That is $360-480 in blanks before anything touches them.

Screen print setup is charged per screen, per color. One color, one screen: roughly $35-50. Print on top of that runs $4-8 per piece at this quantity. So the print cost on 24 hoodies is about $130-240, setup included.

Total for 24 hoodies, one design: $490-720.

Retail those at $80 each and you have $1,920 in potential revenue. Sell 8-10 of them and you have broken even. The rest is margin.

That math is the thing worth understanding before you pick a name.

Blanks: what to choose and why it matters

The blank is where most of the quality perception comes from. The print sits on top of it, but the blank is what the buyer wears.

Two things drive the decision: weight and construction. Weight is measured in ounces per square yard. A 5.3 oz tee is lightweight, 6.5 oz is heavyweight, 7.5 oz starts getting into premium territory. For hoodies, 12 oz fleece is the baseline for anything worth selling at full price.

Construction matters for decoration. A garment with a rough, open-end yarn surface will take a puff print differently than a ring-spun cotton with a tight face. The blank choice constrains what you can put on it. That is the thing to decide early, not after you have already committed to a design.

The practical answer: start with one of the workhorses. They have been tested by thousands of runs and do not surprise you.

Print method

Screen print is the default for runs above roughly 12 pieces. The economics work because the setup cost (the screen) gets spread over the run. More pieces, lower cost per piece. A design that works at 24 units costs significantly less per unit at 48.

The limitation is minimums. Most print shops want at least 12 pieces per color per design. Some want 24. For a first brand with multiple designs, that adds up fast.

Direct-to-garment (DTG) removes the minimum. One piece is fine. The catch is cost. Expect $8-18 per print, regardless of quantity, because there is no setup to amortize. Use DTG to test whether a design sells before committing to a screen print run. Use screen print to scale what you have already validated.

Embroidery is the fourth option. Thread versus ink. It sits above screen print in perceived quality for most buyers, costs more, and has real limits on detail. Fine lines stitch poorly and large fill areas get expensive. It is the right call for polos, structured hats, and jackets where ink on fabric looks casual and thread looks intentional.

The packaging trap

Hang tags, woven labels, custom poly bags. They feel like the difference between a real brand and a side project.

They are also $2-4 per unit. On a 24-piece test run, that is $48-96 spent before you know if the design sells.

Test the design first. A heat-transfer label on the inside collar or a minimal stamp-print tag tells buyers what they need to know. If the design moves, do the packaging properly on the second run, when you know it is worth the investment.

The brands that get this backwards spend a month on labels and ship 24 units with packaging that cost more than the print. Then they run the numbers and wonder why it did not feel profitable.

The administrative parts

Business name, LLC filing, sales tax permit, payment processor. That is the scaffold. Not the business itself.

Set up the entity before you take any orders. A sole proprietorship selling custom garments carries personal liability for product issues. An LLC does not. The filing costs $70-200 depending on state and takes a few weeks. Do it at the start.

Everything else (trademark, e-commerce platform, email marketing, ads) comes after the first run confirms the product is worth building around.

What to make first

The question that actually matters on a first run: is there a design that a specific group of people will want before you explain it to them?

Not “do people like streetwear.” Whether the people you already know will buy this specific thing.

If yes, make 24 and sell them. Learn from what people say about the fit, the weight, the print, the price. Make 48 of the adjusted version. That is how a brand gets built.

If no, make 6 via DTG and show them to real people first. Find out before spending real money on a production run.

ThreadGhost handles the print side. Puff print hoodies, heavyweight tees, embroidered sweatshirts. Single pieces to full runs. If you have a design and a garment in mind, get my quote and the price comes back with the garment on screen.

By Michael Monfared, ThreadGhost