You need 50 shirts for a launch, a team, or a booth, so you call three shops. One says “starting at $6.” Another says “from $3.34.” The third wants your art before it will say anything at all. Then the real numbers land, and they are nowhere near the anchor.
Custom t-shirt printing Miami pricing for a 50-piece order generally lands between roughly $6 and $18 per shirt all-in, tax included. Four inputs drive that spread: the blank garment, the decoration method, setup or screen fees, and extended-size upcharges. Add 7% Miami-Dade sales tax on top, because published per-shirt prices almost never include it.
Key Takeaways
- The blank is about 40% of a 50-piece screen-printed order, and it is the cheapest input to change. Blankstyle publishes the Gildan 64000 at $4.08 per shirt, while a Comfort Colors 1717 runs $8.82 to $10.14, more than double before a drop of ink.
- Fifty pieces sits right on the screen-print versus digital breakeven. Printavo puts the crossover near 24 pieces; French Press Custom puts it at 50 to 72. So at 50, color count and garment mix decide the method.
- Miami-Dade adds a 1% surtax on top of Florida’s 6% rate, for 7% total. On a $537.20 order that is $37.60 nobody quoted you.
Why Custom T-Shirt Printing Miami Quotes Start With a Floor
Ask a custom t-shirt printing Miami shop what a shirt costs and you get a floor, not a price. That floor is real. It just belongs to the cheapest blank, in the cheapest color, in a standard size, at the highest volume tier, with one ink color.
Look at what local shops publish. King DTG lists a 50 to 99 tier at “from $6/shirt” with no setup fees. Custom One Express publishes “From $3.34” on a Gildan 5000. Those are honest numbers, and they are also floors. None of those pages shows what happens when you need six 2XLs, and none applies sales tax. That gap is why quotes surprise people.
The Four Inputs That Move Every Quote
| Input | Typical swing on 50 pieces | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Blank garment | $3.23 to $10.14 per shirt | You, entirely |
| Decoration method | $6.40 (screen, 1 color) to $15.00 (DTG on darks) | Your art and fabric |
| Screen or setup fees | $0 to $65 for one color, one location | Your color count |
| Extended sizes | +$1.54 (2XL) to +$7.54 (5XL) | Your size run |
Every range above comes from a published third-party price list. Together they explain almost all the variance in custom t-shirt printing Miami quotes. None of them is The Shirt Lab Miami’s rate card.
Get a Real Total, Not a Floor
The Line-by-Line Build for 50 Shirts
Here is how to price a 50-piece order yourself. Pick the blank and count your sizes, since extended sizes carry real upcharges. Pick the decoration method by fabric and color count, not price alone. Add setup or screen fees, then divide them across all 50 pieces. Add 7% Miami-Dade sales tax. Then divide by 50 for your true landed cost per shirt.
Setup is a fixed cost, so it hurts most at low quantities. Spread a $35 screen fee over 50 shirts and it is $0.70 each; spread it over 12 shirts and it is $2.92 each. That is the whole reason bulk pricing exists. DTG and DTF skip setup entirely, so they win on small runs and mixed garment orders. Here is a worked build for 50 shirts, 44 standard sizes and 6 2XLs, one-color front print on a Gildan 64000.
| Line item | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Blanks, 44 at S to XL | 44 x $4.08 | $179.52 |
| Blanks, 6 at 2XL | 6 x $6.28 | $37.68 |
| Decoration, 1 color | 50 x $6.40 | $320.00 |
| Screen setup (waived above 24) | – | $0.00 |
| Subtotal | $537.20 | |
| Miami-Dade sales tax | 7% | $37.60 |
| Total | $574.80 / 50 | $11.50 per shirt |
Illustrative build using published third-party prices. It is not a Shirt Lab Miami quote. The garment decision usually costs more than the art decision. Adding a second ink color on this build adds about $0.42 per shirt, while switching to a Comfort Colors 1717 would add roughly $5 per shirt. Most buyers assume the opposite.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to print 50 custom t-shirts in Miami? Published rate cards put a 50-piece, one-color order between roughly $6 and $18 per shirt once tax is added, depending mostly on the blank and the method. Always add 7% to the subtotal you are quoted.
Which is cheaper at 50 shirts, screen printing or DTG? Screen printing usually wins at 50 pieces for simple one or two-color art, because the screen fee spreads across the run. DTG tends to win below that quantity or when the artwork is photographic, since it carries no setup cost.
Is there a minimum order? The Shirt Lab Miami has no minimum order requirement, and bulk tiering begins at 10 pieces.