Wholesale plain T-shirts: from €0.80 to €5 depending on the channel

Cheap plain T-shirts: from Roly's one-euro option to Spanish-made textile at €5

An order of 200 T-shirts for a promotion is the kind of job that separates industry insiders from people who spend three afternoons on Google sifting through junk. The price range in the promotional textile trade is so wide that the question "where do I buy it cheapest?" has no single answer, but a map. And on that map, the price depends less on the T-shirt than on the channel you buy it through.

What a wholesale plain T-shirt really costs

The most frequently cited reference is the 160-gram, 100% combed cotton T-shirt at €1.20 per unit for an order of 200, and €0.80 if it's white, according to a calculation circulating among people who claim to be distributors or industry members. That price, however, is not available to everyone: it requires being a distributor or belonging to the trade. It's the same barrier applied by the big promotional brands —Roly, Fruit of the Loom, B&C—, which don't sell to individuals and require registration under the relevant business category.

For those without that status, the realistic floor is set by the B&C 190, one of the most highly regarded promotional T-shirts, which at a distributor like Linitex comes to €1.80 per unit even if you buy a single piece, according to one user. Below that figure you only go by buying in wholesale industrial parks, with the well-known risk: garments that get scorched in the drying tunnel when printing.

Spanish-made textile isn't as expensive as it seems

Against the narrative that manufacturing here is unviable, a calculation emerges that shakes things up: 150 metres of fabric of good Spanish quality at between €2 and €3 per metre, a four-size pattern for around €40, and a cutting, sewing and pressing cost of €3 per garment. The result would be medium-high quality T-shirts, made in Spain, for €5 or €6, according to one participant.

The problem with that figure is that it competes against one that isn't comparable. A plain cotton T-shirt bought in Asia can cost 10 US cents per unit, which puts the Spanish margin to shame. The honest comparison isn't price against price, but quality against quality: within the Asian product there are also grades, and it's the bulk textile that has wiped out the Catalan industry.

Where to buy cheap plain T-shirts without being a business

The routes that work for an individual or a small brand go through distributors that do sell without requiring a business registration. Bazar Iberia, with its own brand and distribution of Roly and Fruit, is the most frequently mentioned option; also outlets like Sports Direct, with genuine Slazenger polos at €4, or lots of 10 and 20 units at wholesale retailers. For small quantities, the minimum order matters more than the unit price.

The question that remains open is the usual one: how much of that saving is paid for later at the ironing board. The full calculation, with fabric weights and qualities broken down, is what separates a profitable order from a box of T-shirts nobody wears.

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There's one figure that sums up the whole mess: the difference between €0.80 and €5 for the same garment isn't about quality, it's about access to the channel.