Hidden costs of a custom clothing order

Hidden costs of a custom clothing order

To make a custom clothing order cost what you planned, compare the delivered total for your quantity, never just the unit price. Hidden costs come down to ten lines: technical fees, logo colours, a second placement, colours and larger sizes, a short lead time, the proof, a sample, shipping, VAT and unsold items.

Key points:

• A €50 embroidery programme fee, like the one a sports retailer lists, adds €5.00 to each of 10 hoodies and €0.50 to each of 100.
• A second logo placement is one more decoration, priced separately at tknp.io as at one online printer.
• At tknp.io, 25 Creator 2.0 t-shirts with a one-colour screen print go from €318.75 excl. VAT to €420.75 incl. VAT with the shortest lead time and 20% French VAT, shipping extra.
• At tknp.io, a garment decorated in your colours cannot be returned, except if faulty: a wrong size costs money.

Three quotes on the table, three unit prices that look close, and the bottom line decides it: setup fees, a logo on the back, a rush lead time, shipping. That is often where a merch project for the whole team stalls. Here I have gone through every line people discover too late, with what it costs when a source says so, the question that brings it out, and what our product pages, our FAQ and our terms of sale say about it.

The tknp.io prices quoted here are given as an indication, read on 27 October 2026 on the Creator 2.0 t-shirt page. Unless stated otherwise, each is excluding VAT, shipping extra, for a single run of that model carrying one logo in one spot, at the public price shown on the page, using the standard lead time grid, in standard sizes and the cheapest colour.

What are the hidden costs of a custom clothing order?

The hidden costs of a custom clothing order are the lines added on top of the price per item: logo preparation, colours, placements, colour and size options, lead time, checks before production, delivery, taxes, and the cost of mistakes. The table lists them in the order they come up.

The price listed on a tknp.io product page and what it includes are covered, model by model, in the article on custom company clothing; the sections below take each line in turn so you can spot it before you pay.

Technical fees, screens, embroidery programmes: the cost you pay once

The technical fees on a custom clothing order are the line that pays for preparing the logo before the run: a screen for screen printing, an embroidery programme, a film for a transfer. The FAQ on our product pages points out that every run starts with a preparation (screen, film or embroidery programme), and our printing page sums up the two costs: one cost is paid once, the other on every item, and on a large run the fixed cost is "already forgotten".

On the market, this fixed cost sometimes gets a line of its own. One workshop lists, for private customers, €30 to €43 incl. VAT in technical fees depending on the size of the embroidered logo, and none when the text is embroidered in a font from its own range. A sports retailer announces a flat €50 for the programme of a chest embroidery and €100 for the back, which it no longer charges on a reorder as long as the logo does not change.

Spread over each garment, a €50 flat fee weighs €5.00 on 10 hoodies, €2.00 on 25 and €0.50 on 100: it is on small runs that it skews the comparison of two unit prices.

What tknp.io does about these fees, waived for a verified organisation according to our FAQ, is explained in our guide to embroidery pricing.

Logo colours and a second placement: two lines that multiply

A logo in several colours and a second placement are the two options that multiply the price of a decoration. For screen printing, our printing page puts it simply: each colour needs its own screen, so its own price line. Digital techniques, DTF transfer and direct-to-garment printing, reproduce every colour at no extra cost.

In embroidery too, colour can count: one workshop charges €3 incl. VAT more for an embroidery with 6 to 10 colours and €4 beyond that. Before comparing, check how many colours the price covers. On our product pages, the screen printing line is priced for one colour.

The second placement is a decoration in its own right. Our price grids apply to one position, and our printing page states that chest, back, sleeve or nape are each counted and priced separately. Our advice: two decorations at most per garment, in the same technique. To place them where they read well, follow the pointers in our article on logo placement.

Colours and larger sizes: the surcharge that shows up late

At tknp.io, the price grid of a custom garment applies to the most accessible shade and standard sizes, and the note under the grid says so: some shades and the largest sizes carry a small extra charge from the brand, and that surcharge is added as soon as you select them.

On the market, one online printer keeps the same price from XS to 5XL on its best-selling t-shirt: the rule therefore changes from one seller to the next. The right reflex: enter the real size breakdown and the real colour before reading the total, instead of comparing shop-window prices worked out in white and size M.

Short lead time: the price of urgency

The shortest lead time on a custom clothing order comes at a price: on our product pages, it adds 10% to the price of the run for delivery within a week. Ask the seller for its price for your delivery date, not for the standard lead time, and see what choosing the lead time changes at tknp.io in our guide to production lead times.

Proof and sample: what gets checked before the run

The proof (in French, BAT) is the mock-up you approve before production. One online printer announces it as included in its price; elsewhere, ask before you sign. At tknp.io, you approve the proof online, almost instantly; our guide to the proof lists the seven checks to make on it.

The sample is the other check. With us, a blank garment is available from a single item, at the unit price of the first tier according to our terms of sale: €7.72 excl. VAT for a blank Creator 2.0, shipping extra, enough to try the fit, feel the fabric and see the shade. A single decorated item does not exist on our grids: decoration starts at 10 items per reference. Our terms of sale also point out that the designer preview is a simulation: on-screen colours do not exactly match the result on fabric.

Shipping and VAT: from the price excluding VAT to the total paid

Shipping and VAT are not included in the prices on tknp.io product pages: our terms of sale state that prices exclude taxes, and that delivery costs and taxes are added and shown before you confirm the order.

The standard VAT rate is 20% in mainland France. If your organisation does not recover VAT, the amount including VAT is what comes out of its budget: compare quotes with all taxes included. As for shipping, one seller offers it from €250 excl. VAT; with us, the amount shows before you confirm. As for timing, our FAQ counts 1 to 2 working days of transport to a French address, up to 7 elsewhere in Europe.

Unsold items and wrong sizes: the costs that come after delivery

A wrong size and a garment too many are the hidden costs that no quote prices in advance. Our terms of sale are clear: a garment decorated in your colours can be neither returned nor exchanged, except if faulty.

The first safeguard comes before the order: gather everyone's size, with the method in our guide to collecting sizes, which also works out what a mistake costs. The second: order the right number, not the quantity that reaches the next tier, as our article on minimum order quantities explains. For a community where everyone pays for themselves, a pre-sale on the Store, reserved for verified organisations, has each person reserve and pay for their size before production.

Example: 25 t-shirts, from listed price to total paid

At tknp.io, 25 Creator 2.0 t-shirts with a one-colour screen print cost €12.75 excl. VAT each, or €318.75 excl. VAT. Depending on the lead time chosen and with French VAT at 20%, the total changes as follows:

The percentage is applied to the whole run; the amount in your basket prevails. Still to add: shipping, shown before you confirm, any colour or larger-size surcharge, and a second placement if you want one. Between the grid at the standard lead time (€318.75 excl. VAT) and the shortest lead time with VAT (€420.75 incl. VAT), the gap already reaches €102.00 for 25 t-shirts, of which €31.88 excl. VAT comes from the lead time alone.

How do you compare two quotes for custom clothing?

To compare two quotes for custom clothing, bring them to the same total: same quantity, same logo, same number of colours and placements, same sizes, same delivery date, VAT and shipping included. Six questions bring out the missing lines:

1. Are technical, screen or programme fees included, and charged again on a reorder?
2. For how many colours and placements is the price worked out?
3. Does the price apply to every size and colour in my order?
4. What is the price for my delivery date, not for the standard lead time?
5. Are a proof and a blank sample possible before the run, and at what price?
6. How much is shipping to my address, and is VAT included?

A quote that answers everything in writing can be compared; a quote that leaves a question open often hides the missing line.

See the total on tknp.io before you pay

At tknp.io, the total of an order builds up before payment, not after. The product page gives the price with decoration included for your tier; the production lead time chosen at the top of the page adjusts that price; the colour and sizes you enter bring up their surcharge; the basket shows the estimated delivery date; shipping and taxes are shown before you confirm the order. For a verified organisation, whose technical fees are waived, the final amount can be read this way before any commitment.