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You can charge $70 for<br />
your t-shirt if you brand<br />
yourself appropriately.<br />
This simple shirt by BAPE is priced at $75<br />
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley<br />
Pricing Your Tees<br />
The simple answer on how much to charge<br />
for your shirts is whatever price makes you<br />
the most money. We creative people love<br />
what we do, so we would do this for free<br />
(for a while at least). Remember though,<br />
you are in business to make money. If you<br />
can make more money in the long run selling<br />
your shirts at $25 compared to $15, do<br />
it. You’ll make more of a profit selling your shirts for $25 but you can probably<br />
sell more at $15. You’ll need to do some testing of various price points to find<br />
that magic number that makes you the most money.<br />
How Much are Your Customers Willing to Pay?<br />
Lots of the pricing is going to be dictated by your market. How much are they<br />
willing to pay for your products? Look at other similar clothing companies as<br />
examples or ask your target market what they would pay. The best information<br />
will come from you actually selling your product and seeing how well products<br />
do at different prices.<br />
Typically, if you spend a lot of money to create a very high quality garment that<br />
people describe as “boutique” then you’re looking at the $20-$40 range. If<br />
you’re just printing a simple graphic onto a tee, people generally expect to pay<br />
in the $10-$20 range. Of course, this is just a rough idea because some brands<br />
like BAPE can get away with selling 1 color tees for over $70. Why? Because<br />
people are buying into the culture surrounding the brand, <strong>not</strong> the quality or<br />
cost of the garment. Will your audience pay that much for a t-shirt? Have they<br />
done so in the past with other brands?<br />
Product Shots and Mockups<br />
When selling anything online, you need high quality photos of your products.<br />
In the t-shirt world, this is just as important. Photos add character and context<br />
to your products. However, <strong>not</strong> everyone has access to pro photography so<br />
that’s where mockups come in.<br />
Professional Photos are the Secret Sauce<br />
“When showing off your products online or in print, be sure to use beautiful<br />
and consistent photos,” says Matt Wigham of Big Cartel. “Even if you need to<br />
hire someone, it’s worth it. You can have the best designs in the world, but they<br />
can only look as good as the photos they’re in. Use a solid photographer, great<br />
models, consistent cropping, maybe some subtle branding, and your designs<br />
will look like a million bucks.”<br />
If you can<strong>not</strong> afford a photographer, chances are you know someone who wants<br />
to be. Let them shoot your photos or shoot them yourself with an everyday consumer<br />
level camera. Shoot photos of your friends wearing your tees. Make sure<br />
the background isn’t super busy and distracting and that your design is visible.<br />
Shoot them from the waist up to show off your designs and make sure things<br />
are in focus.<br />
Branding & Marketing 57
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