How much does it cost to start a clothing brand? A line-by-line budget

Starting a clothing brand costs whatever your first collection multiplies out to: the number of styles, times the colours, times the pieces per colour, plus the fixed costs of getting there. A small first drop of two or three styles can be funded from savings; a full range of ten styles with bulk minimums needs a business loan or an investor. This guide gives you the budget line by line, so you can put your own numbers in and see the total before you spend anything.

The budget in one formula

Every clothing start-up budget, from a single t-shirt to a full collection, has the same shape:

Start-up cost = development + production + landed costs + launch costs + a cash buffer

• Development is paid once per style: tech packs, patterns and sample rounds.
• Production is paid per piece: the factory price times the number of pieces, plus labels and packaging.
• Landed costs move the goods from the factory to your shelf: freight, insurance, import duty, customs clearance and any taxes you cannot reclaim.
• Launch costs are what it takes to sell: photography, a website, barcodes, marketing and payment fees.
• The buffer covers returns, a second sample round you did not plan, and slow sellers.

The first three are the manufacturing side, and they are where most founders underestimate. The guide to starting a brand with a Bangladesh factory covers the route from idea to stock; this article is only about the money.

Line by line: what each category covers and how to price it

The table lists each budget line, the unit it is priced in, and the figure to use. Where a public price exists, it is quoted with its source. Where it does not, the line is a formula, because a number invented for an article is worse than no number.

Two lines deserve a warning. Samples are charged per style, not per piece, so a ten-style collection pays ten times the development cost of a one-style launch before a single piece is sold. Trims such as woven labels and printed polybags carry their own minimums, which can make them cost more per piece than you expect on a small run.

Low, mid and high: three first-collection scenarios

The same formula gives very different totals depending on how wide you start. These three shapes are the common ones. The quantities are examples to show the arithmetic, not offers from any supplier.

Moving from low to high multiplies every per-style line by four and every per-piece line by far more. That is why most founders who survive their first year start narrower than they planned.

A worked example, for illustration

Here is the mid scenario worked through with invented round numbers. They are chosen to make the arithmetic easy to follow. They are not quotes, and they are not anyone’s prices. Replace each one with a written quote before you commit.

Notice the shape rather than the total. Production is well over half of the budget. Development is small in money but decides whether the production money is well spent. Duty swings the total by nearly 10% depending on where you sell. To run the production line with real per-piece starting prices, use the order cost estimator.

The costs founders forget

The lines that sink first collections are rarely the factory price. They are the ones that arrive after it.

• Import duty. It depends on the market and the product’s HS code. Clothing made in Bangladesh enters the EU duty free under the Everything But Arms arrangement, which gives least developed countries duty-free, quota-free access for all products except arms, as long as the origin is proved. In the United States the general rate for a cotton knitted t-shirt under HTS 6109.10.00 is 16.5%, and additional tariffs have changed several times since 2025, so check the current total with a customs broker.
• No more duty-free parcels into the US. Since 29 August 2025 the United States has suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries, so even a courier box of samples or a small restock is now subject to duty.
• Testing. Childrenswear, anything with a safety claim, and orders for retailers with their own manuals need laboratory reports. Budget per style, per test.
• Returns. The US National Retail Federation estimated in October 2025 that 19.3% of online sales would be returned that year, across all retail. Clothing sold online by size needs a return line in the budget, not an apology later.
• Payment fees. Every card sale loses a percentage plus a fixed fee to the payment processor. On a low-priced tee, the fixed part matters.
• Tax thresholds. In the UK, you must register for VAT once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in 12 months. Price your retail with that in mind from day one, or your margin shrinks the day you cross it.

The landed cost calculator adds freight, duty and clearance to a price per piece, market by market, so the forgotten lines appear before you order rather than after.

When a small run beats a bulk order

A bulk order gives a lower price per piece. A small run gives a lower total bill. For a new brand, the total bill is usually the one that matters, because unsold stock is cash you cannot use again.

A small run is the better choice when:

• You have not yet sold this product to paying customers, so demand by size and colour is a guess.
• You want more than one colour, and the bulk minimum applies per colour.
• Your cash would otherwise be spent on stock rather than on photography and marketing, which is what actually sells the first run.

Bulk is the better choice when one style has already sold through, when you know your size curve from real orders, and when the saving per piece is larger than the cost of carrying the extra stock. At our export partner factories, the confirmed minimum for t-shirts is 1,000 pieces per style. For smaller first drops, the low minimum route exists so that a founder can test before committing to that volume.

How much does it cost to start a streetwear brand?

The formula is the same, but three lines behave differently.

• Fabric weight. Streetwear leans on heavyweight jersey and fleece. A heavier fabric puts more kilograms of cloth into every garment, so the weight you choose moves the price per piece directly.
• Decoration. Screen printing, puff print and embroidery each add set-up costs, such as a screen per colour or an embroidery file per design. Those are fixed costs, so they hit a small run hardest.
• Drops rather than seasons. Streetwear brands usually release fewer styles more often. That keeps each drop cheap, but development costs recur with every drop.

A streetwear founder’s cheapest honest start is one or two heavyweight pieces in one or two colours, well photographed. The small-run streetwear page shows the product types and decoration options that suit that route.

Where the budget usually goes wrong, and how to protect it

• Too many sample rounds. Each round adds a sample fee, a courier bill and two or three weeks. A complete tech pack with measurements cuts rounds more than anything else. The free tech pack template lists every field a factory needs.
• Quotes that are not like for like. Compare prices only when the fabric, weight, trims and shipping term are identical. A low price on a lighter fabric is not a saving.
• Buying the size curve wrong. Ordering equal quantities in every size leaves extremes unsold. Weight the ratio towards your middle sizes until real sales tell you otherwise.
• No buffer. Plan for at least one surprise: a failed lab test, a fabric delay, a re-shoot. A 10% buffer is a sensible floor for a first order.

What to do next

Write down your styles, colours and pieces per colour, then run them through the cost estimator for production and the landed cost calculator for delivery. That gives you the two largest lines in an afternoon. When you have a tech pack or even a reference garment, send it for a written quote: we name the partner factory before production, and we reply within one working day.