What It Really Costs to Start a Clothing Line (3 Real Budgets)

You want to start a clothing line, and the first real question is money. Search it and you'll find "anywhere from $500 to $500,000," which is true and useless. What you need to know is what your version costs, what you can skip, and where the money actually goes.

I built my own menswear brand and I run a development studio that works with factories in LA and overseas, so I've watched a lot of first budgets meet reality. Below are three realistic starting budgets, each built line by line. Every figure is a typical, approximate range. Prices vary by country, factory, fabric and quantity, so use these to plan, not as quotes.

Budget 1: around $3,000 — a blanks-and-print drop

This is the fastest way to find out whether people want your brand. You buy quality blanks, decorate them, and sell. Here's a drop of about 120 heavyweight tees in one style, two colorways.

| Line item | Approx. cost | |---|---| | Blanks (~120 premium heavyweight tees) | $850–1,450 | | Screen printing, 1–2 colors, incl. screen setup | $400–750 | | Relabeling or custom neck print (optional) | $100–250 | | Test prints and samples | $50–150 | | Photography (DIY or a friend with a good camera) | $0–300 | | Website: store plan, domain, theme | $50–200 | | Packaging: mailers, stickers, thank-you card | $100–250 | | Launch marketing: seeding, small paid test | $200–500 | | Approximate total | $1,750–3,850 |

No pattern, no grading, almost no development. The trade-off is that your fit and fabric aren't unique, and margins are thinner than custom. That's fine for a first drop. The point is learning what sells.

Budget 2: around $15,000 — a small custom cut-and-sew run

This is where you make something that's yours: your fit, your fabric, your label sewn in. Keep it to one style, two at most. Here it's a single hoodie, about 200 units, made at a domestic small-batch factory.

| Line item | Approx. cost | |---|---| | Tech pack (DIY draft or hired) | $0–800 | | Pattern + grading | $500–1,500 | | Samples: 2–3 proto rounds + pre-production | $500–1,500 | | Fabric swatches and lab dips | $100–300 | | Production (~200 units, cut, sew, fabric, trims) | $6,000–9,000 | | Print or embroidery in production | $400–1,000 | | Labels, hang tags, packaging | $400–900 | | Freight in | $150–500 | | Photography | $500–1,500 | | Website | $200–600 | | Launch marketing | $1,000–2,500 | | Contingency (~10%) | $1,000–1,500 | | Approximate total | $10,750–21,600 |

Notice that development (tech pack, pattern, samples) is a few thousand dollars before you've made a single sellable unit. That's normal. It's also why the second style is so much cheaper than the first: you've learned the process and often reuse a base pattern.

Budget 3: $50,000 and up — a small collection

Four to six styles, a few hundred units each, often with a consultant or product developer running development and an overseas or larger domestic factory for production.

| Line item | Approx. cost | |---|---| | Design and development support (consultant) | $3,000–10,000 | | Patterns + grading (5 styles) | $2,500–7,500 | | Samples across all styles | $3,000–7,000 | | Production (~1,000 units total) | $20,000–35,000 | | Fabric minimums and surplus | $1,000–4,000 | | Trims, labels, packaging | $1,500–3,500 | | Freight, duty and tariffs | $1,000–4,000+ | | Photography and lookbook | $2,000–6,000 | | Website | $500–3,000 | | Launch marketing | $4,000–10,000 | | Contingency | $3,000–6,000 | | Approximate total | $41,500–96,000+ |

Duty and tariffs on imported goods depend on fiber, origin and destination, and they change, so get current numbers from a customs broker before you budget this line.

Why I'd start with one style

Every new style brings its own pattern, its own grading, its own samples, often its own fabric minimum. Five styles isn't five times the production; it's five times the development, and five times the chances something goes sideways.

One great style lets you put your money into getting it right and making enough units to hit a sensible per-unit price. Plenty of big brands started this narrow. Everlane started with tees. Ralph Lauren started with ties. A single hero product that people love is a real business, and it gives you the cash and the customer list to add the next one.

If you're unsure how many units to make, the run-size planner shows how quantity moves your unit cost, margin and cash tied up in stock.

Where first-timers overspend

• Too many styles. The single most common budget killer, for the reasons above.
• Too many sizes and colors. Each one splits your run and leaves you with dead stock in the tails. Start with a tight size range and one or two colors.
• Custom everything on day one. Custom zipper pulls, printed poly bags and embossed boxes can wait until the product sells.
• Big inventory bets. Ordering 1,000 to get a lower unit price, then sitting on 700 of them. A higher per-unit cost on a run you can sell through is often the better deal.

Where first-timers underspend

• Samples. Skipping a sample round to save a few hundred dollars and then finding the fit is off across a whole run.
• Contingency. Something always comes up: a fabric delay, a reorder of labels, a freight surprise. Keep 10% back.
• Photography. Your product page sells the product. Bad photos waste the money you spent making it.
• Launch marketing. Many founders spend everything on product and have nothing left to tell anyone it exists.

When a consultant pays for themselves

A good product developer, pattern maker or tech designer costs money up front, and first-timers often try to skip that line. Sometimes that's right. On a blanks drop you don't need one.

On custom cut-and-sew, they often pay for themselves. A clear tech pack gets you accurate quotes the first time. An experienced eye catches fit problems at the first sample instead of the third. Someone who knows factories can tell you whether a quote is fair and keep the back-and-forth short. One avoided sample round, or one avoided bad run, can cover their fee. You can browse pattern makers, tech designers and product developers in our consultants directory.

Start the conversation before you feel ready

Going from a first factory conversation to a quote, a sample, a contract and bulk production takes weeks to months. You don't need the full budget in hand to begin; you need a clear idea of the one style you want to make. Post a free brief and factories and consultants can tell you what your version would really cost.

The same thing, from the other side of the table

If you run a factory: a lot of the brands you'll hear from are working off one of these three budgets. Small, clear runs from founders who've done the math can turn into long-term clients. List your factory on Runsheet with 90 days free.

If you're a consultant or product developer: helping a founder size their first budget and trim it to one strong style is work they'll remember. Join the consultant directory for free, with no commission.

The short version

1. A blanks-and-print drop can start around $3,000 and is the fastest way to test demand.
2. A small custom cut-and-sew run of one style is roughly $10,000–20,000 once development, samples and launch are in.
3. A small collection usually starts around $50,000, mostly because every style carries its own development cost.
4. Start with one style, a tight size range and one or two colors.
5. Don't cut samples, contingency, photography or launch marketing to zero.
6. On custom work, a good consultant often saves more than they cost.

Pick your one style and post a free brief to get real numbers for it.