Merch: what does a collection cost and what does it earn?

Merch: what does a collection cost and what does it earn?

Merch is your logo worn by your community. On tknp.io, a decorated Creator 2.0 t-shirt costs €9.46 excluding VAT for 50 units, at 5 November 2026 prices. On the tknp.io Store, the example the site worked out on 30 September gives €311 in the pot for 50 t-shirts sold at €19.90.

The essentials in 4 points:

• Merch means the garments carrying its logo that a brand, a club, an association or a company has its community wear; in French, "merchandising" means something else, the layout of a shop.
• On tknp.io, for 50 units at 5 November 2026 prices, a decorated t-shirt costs €9.46 excluding VAT, a hoodie €19.35 and an embroidered cap €17.95.
• A 100-garment collection, 50 t-shirts, 25 hoodies and 25 caps, comes to €1,468.50 excluding VAT when you buy it upfront.
• On pre-order through the tknp.io Store, nothing is paid upfront: the example the site worked out on 30 September 2026 shows €790 in the pot for 100 t-shirts sold at €19.90.

A tour t-shirt, a graduating class hoodie, a club cap: merch is everywhere, and anyone launching their own always asks the same two questions. What does it cost, and what does it earn? Here is first what the word covers, then both answers, priced on our product pages of the day.

What is merch?

Merch (short for "merchandise") refers to branded goods, most often clothing, that a brand, an artist, an association, or a company makes for its community: t-shirts, hoodies, caps printed or embroidered with its logo or visual identity. Not to be confused with merchandising, which in French refers to store layout and retail display techniques.

How much does a merch garment cost?

A merch garment on tknp.io, for 50 units with decoration included, costs €9.46 excluding VAT for a Creator 2.0 t-shirt, €19.35 excluding VAT for a King Hooded hoodie with a DTF transfer and €17.95 excluding VAT for an embroidered Classic Snapback cap. The price goes up with a heavier garment: a 350 g/m² hoodie such as the Cruiser 2.0 reaches €33.50 excluding VAT for 50.

These prices are for guidance and dated 5 November 2026. They are quoted before VAT, for a garment decorated in a single spot, in its cheapest colour and in standard sizes, at the two-week lead time, without delivery and before the 10% discount for a verified organisation. The quote is what counts.

At least 10 units of a model are needed to have it decorated, all sizes and colours counted together. Its price drops at each tier: the volume pricing grid of a custom t-shirt follows it tier after tier, up to 1,000.

How much does a merch collection cost?

A 100-garment merch collection, 50 t-shirts, 25 hoodies and 25 caps, costs €1,468.50 excluding VAT on tknp.io at 5 November 2026 prices. That is the amount a stock order asks you to pay before you have sold a single garment.

Each model forms its own run: the 25 caps stay at the 25-unit price, even though the collection counts 100 garments.

How much does a merch collection earn?

A merch collection earns, on each garment sold, the difference between what the buyer pays and what the garment cost you. On the tknp.io Store, that difference is called the pot: the example on the Store page, calculated by the site on 30 September 2026 with that day's grid, gives €311 for 50 reservations of a Creator 2.0 tee in screen print, priced at €19.90, and €790 for 100, online payment fees deducted.

That €19.90 is paid by members, VAT included. For a hoodie or a cap, the site publishes no costed example, and the pot of a t-shirt sale is set out tier by tier in our costed guide to association t-shirt sales.

Bought as stock, a merch collection only earns on what actually sells. Out of 50 Creator 2.0 t-shirts paid upfront at €9.46 excluding VAT per piece, every ten left in the box stand for €94.60 excluding VAT lost: unsold stock is what eats the margin of a collection bought upfront.

Doing merch with no stock: print on demand

Doing merch with no stock is the principle of print on demand: the garment is made once it is sold, so the €1,468.50 excluding VAT you would have to advance for 50 t-shirts, 25 hoodies and 25 caps never leaves your account. How print on demand works, and what it costs per piece, is covered in our guide. To find out where to print on demand, see our guide to print on demand in France.

Only verified organisations can open a tknp.io Store, and it sells the collection during a pre-order campaign that stays open for 7 to 21 days. Each garment in the campaign carries a reservation threshold, worked out by the site so that the price asked of members pays for making it. At closing, the garments that reach it go into production; for the others, the site plans a fallback: the same garment at the same price, in a technique still workable at that volume, DTF printing instead of screen printing, or failing that a full refund of the reservations.

Where the word comes from, and why it gets confused with merchandising

"Merch" is short for "merchandise". In everyday French usage, it refers to a brand's or an artist's branded goods: a tour t-shirt, a brand hoodie, an association cap.

The trap comes from the neighboring word, "merchandising". In English, it covers roughly the same meaning as "merch". But in French, "merchandising" took on a different meaning, inherited from retail: the set of techniques used to present products in a store and drive purchases (shelf layout, product placement, window displays). A job description or a marketing definition using "merchandising" in French is almost always talking about that, not t-shirts. The two words look alike, but they don't answer the same question.

Why brands, artists and organizations do merch

The reason is the same regardless of the structure: a worn garment is seen. A festival t-shirt, a student association hoodie, or a company polo circulates on the street, at work, in the evening, long after the purchase. It's a medium that keeps existing once the campaign, the event, or the launch month is over.

Three reasons come up most often:

• Visibility that lasts. An ad stops when the budget runs out. A worn garment keeps circulating as long as it stays in a wardrobe.
• A sense of belonging. Wearing the merch of a club, an association, or a company signals that you're part of it. This is especially strong for communities (student associations, sports clubs, associations) where the garment becomes a sign of recognition among members.
• Direct revenue, for brands and artists. Merch sells, and it complements other revenue sources (music, events, a company's main activity).

Textile merch versus other branded goods

A large share of what sells under the name "merch" isn't textile: mugs, pins, stickers, water bottles. These products have their place, but textile holds a spot apart for a simple reason: it's what gets worn the most, and for the longest. A mug stays on a desk; a hoodie leaves the house. A logo on a garment is seen dozens of times by the people wearing it, and by everyone who crosses paths with them.

That's also why a badly chosen personalized textile merch item costs you in image: a t-shirt that's too thin, a print that cracks after three washes, or a cut nobody wants to wear ends up at the back of a closet instead of out on the street.