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Need your input MBuzz

5K views 25 replies 20 participants last post by  heliodorus04 
#1 ·
ok, so i have 2 designs that i want to have printed on t-shirts. the designs are unique & aesthetically tasteful -- i work for a creative agency after all, so i think they'd look good on a t-shirt.

anyway, my main question is on pricing. i'm pretty committed to using organic cotton blanks, which obviously drives the price up considerably. (( until OG becomes the standard on the supply side, until the infrastructure exists to support OG, & until wholesalers really adopt OG product, it will be at price premium compared to conventional cotton))

obviously creating screens for 2+ colors drives up price. for many colors, you gotta go digital, which is spendy. for a short-run, you can easily end up with landed costs that are in the normal *retail* range.

so my question -- what price or price range would you guys pay for a limited-edition, unique design printed on a short-sleeve organic cotton blank?

0-5
5-10
10-15
15-20
20-25
25-30
30-35
35+

what price is your absolute cut-off?

is supporting organic important enough to you that you'd pay a little extra?

thanks amigos.
t
 
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#2 ·
I wouldn't pay more than $25 for a T-shirt, and it would have to be a pretty sweet T for me to spend that much...but I'm a cheap (and broke) bastard. I have never taken into consideration whether or not the cotton is organic, since I don't eat the shirt, but I haven't read anything on the pro's of organic cotton either.
 
#5 ·
I'm probably behind the times because the last time I bought an item of clothing that wasn't a dry-top or surf trunks or something like that was probably about ten years ago... but I would not go over $20 for a tshirt.

For less than $15 I'd buy one, no problem. For $20 it would have to have a Slayer logo or something that made me fall in love with it.
 
#6 ·
$25 is the max that I would even consider and it isn't likely that I would pay that much unless the cause and design was really Kick A$$. Call me cheap but most of the tshirts I own were free promo style.
 
#7 ·
6 foot twenty fucking killin for fun..

what up ToddG..nice avatar.

When I look at a potential T purchase, it's a combo of sweet shit on the front, thin-ness of the T (thinner the better), and cut (don't want it too baggy)

the most I've ever paid is $30 for my "Ski Iraq" shirt. the bomb.

I refused to pay $40 (including S$H) for a "Jackie Treehorn Presents" T that I could only find online from the UK and wanted real bad. in the end, couldn't pull the trigger.

as far as orgo cotton, can't say as it matters that much. maybe it should, but like homeboy said "I ain eatin it".

Opponents of ToddG and Washington beware...he's coming he's coming he's coming!
 
#8 ·
10 for an okay shirt. 20 for a totally awesome shirt. 25 might be pushing it but if was a really sick shirt and you were pushing the fact that it OC, I might go for it.

COUNT
 
#9 ·
as far as orgo cotton, can't say as it matters that much. maybe it should, but like homeboy said "I ain eatin it".
BSOE - I hope Yvon Chouinard doesn't browse through the buzz. . .

I'd pay $15 if it was normal cotton, and pay $20 for organic, because it is a good thing.

Keck's smart too - Long Sleeve definitely doesn't suck. If it doesn't cost much more to make, I'd pay $25.
 
#10 ·
Shirt Prices

$20 is the upper limit and $10-14 is the mostly likely range.

What I really want are T-shirts made out of wicking material with anti-stink built in. I have enough cotton t-shirts and most of my "tech" shirts stink horribly after one wearing. I would be more likely to pay $25-$35 for a stink resistant wicking t-shirt than $15 for a regular shirt.

It would be cool if you posted your designs here so we know what you are looking at.

-------
Unsolicited advice (feel free to ignore or mock with witty comments): I work at a publishing house and we do "fashion" covers on our books - so one book (a day planner) with 6 different professionally designed covers goes to market each year. We usually start out with 30+ designs and then use market research to pick the winners and get weighted numbers of each cover to retail (1500 of cover A, 1300 of Cover B, 700 of Cover C, etc.). It only takes about 2-3 afternoons to get the data and process it - but it saves us every year from picking designs that we like but that fail to market well to our target audience.

Personally I would get at least 40 people to rate each design and t-shirt color choices on day one. Day two I would put the designs on the favorite color backgrounds from day 1 and get both subjective ratings for each (rate on a scale of 1-10) and comparative ratings (If you were to buy one design/shirt color combo which would it be?) and then take those combos to press weighted to the survey results. Or simply do a first run with the top overall choice in the right distribution of sizes and see how it sells. IMHO
 
#13 ·
BSOE - I hope Yvon Chouinard doesn't browse through the buzz. . .
Me too...no patagucci deals for me. I doubt he does...too busy saving the world. Just kidding..I have a lot of respect for the guy. I've always just kind of glazed over the section of the catalogue where they talk about OC.

I would be more likely to pay $25-$35 for a stink resistant wicking t-shirt than $15 for a regular shirt.
Too bad you can't touch merino for that price range. The stink resistant base layer is out there...you're just going to pay for it.
 
#15 ·
thanks for all the input y'all. (keep it coming).

the reasons for using OG cotton are many, but not as immediately sellable as the reasons you are so easily sold on OG foods -- you're not putting it in that hole in yr face. But consider that a HUGE part of OG agriculture in general, cotton and food production included, is it's lessened impacts on environment & labor resources -- in short, pesticides -- not just personal benefits. y'all might've heard of a little critter called a boll weevil (cool name). Personal health benefits is just a much easier sell to people who are unwilling to do the research. anyway .. to supply today's enormous demand for CHEAP cotton garments, conventional cotton production happens in underdeveloped nations (& US counties) where the undereducated populations are ignorant of the impacts of dousing food & water supplies with tons of toxic chemicals.

lots more to it than that of course, such as (another) opportunity to reinvigorate American agriculture, for one, but the info is out there if you take some time to figger it out. patagonia opened up the market, Nike legitimized it, & now it's happening for real with or without the haters .. but it costs on avg a little less than twice as much.

BSOE .. i doubt these suckas got yr point .. but i did, natch.

Nick .. i got you down for a half dozen, right? Right??

Progers .. i don't have enuff confidence in my designs to justify asking a lot for these. That's kind of at the heart of the original question. That & the fact that it's wise to take pricing cues from around "the industry", which I've done .. but we seem to have a bit of disagreement amongst the partners. I'm all for keeping cost down to at least parity with other similar products, lest we get stuck with a bunch of product in the basement.

late,
t
 
#19 ·
$16.95. A t-shirt, regardless of material. I'd spend $3 more for organic, if I was in that mindset, on a good day, with the wind blowing in a good direction, and knowing that I was hooking up TG. I'm willing to spend much more on long sleeve shirts and hoodies.

If the $25 included tax and maybe shipping, then I'd be game. But $25 base isn't that sweet.

I'll trade you a shuttle bunny shirt for one of your shirts. :D
 
#21 ·
I've read that un OG cotton alone is responsible for 25% of the worlds pesticides? Not sure if that's true, but EJ is crazy about never using it again. As a matter of fact we aren't making even OG cotten Jackson shirts anymore and have switched 100% to capeline long sleeves.

Todd, I thought it was a huge gamble when we rolled over to the Capeline, as we have to sell them for 45, but the entire first batch sold... and that was over the winter.

Not trying to convince you to get up that high, but my point is that I will pay additional for greener product. I would think other would as well.

I'd say go OG, go long sleeve (more use in moutain areas) and put um up on buzz for sale. If you can keep them at less than 30, and they are going to sell.

6 foot 20!
 
#23 ·
Not to rain on your paradeTodd but for a large part T-shirts are just schwag. I rarely ever pay for a t-shirt and I seriously have over 40. They usually have an advertisement for some company or another or are from an event etc. They are a marketing tool. In fact the t-shirts that I do pay for have no logos or print on them. Seems ironic. There are exceptions like origionals ie. Kyle's "shuttle bunny" I'd pay for one of those!

-BA
 
#24 ·
you weren't invited to the parade anyway brook :) long time no hear from. how you been?

anyway, gimme at least a little bit of credit here leroy, i'm not trying to make a giveaway-quality t-shirt for swag / "marketing tool" purposes .. i don't wear that shit even if it's free, & like you, i have access to plenty of free junk. so i wouldn't pay money to produce it, or expect anyone else to shell out loot to buy it. i just like cool graphics & i'm sitting on a couple that i made. i realize not everyone's gonna like em & i realize plenty of people in the boating community don't spend money on "fashion". so the question was intended more toward those that do ..
 
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