T-shirt manufacturer in Bangladesh

The UK, the EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all admit cotton t-shirts made in Bangladesh at 0% duty under their schemes for least developed countries, each with its own proof of origin: a DCTS origin declaration or Form A for the UK, a REX statement for the EU, and the local-content rules that Canada, Australia and New Zealand apply. The EU rate continues for three years after Bangladesh graduates on 24 November 2029, so to about November 2032. The United States is the exception: it gives Bangladesh no preference, so a cotton t-shirt pays the 16.5% general rate for HTSUS 6109.10.00 plus the 10% Section 301 tariff from 24 July 2026. Everywhere except the US you still pay the tax at import (VAT or GST), which a registered business recovers. Use the landed cost calculator with your own quote to compare markets.

Fabric weight, measured in grams per square metre (GSM), shapes how a t-shirt feels and hangs. Lightweight jersey around 140 to 160 GSM is soft and breathable, suited to promotional tees and warm climates, but it can look sheer in pale colours. Midweight jersey from about 180 to 220 GSM is the usual choice for premium basics: it holds its shape, drapes well and survives repeated washing. Heavyweight jersey from 240 up to 300 GSM gives the structured, boxy look popular in streetwear, at a higher fabric cost. Yarn matters as much as weight. Combed and ring-spun cotton feel smoother and pill less than open-end yarn at the same GSM. We send knit-down swatches in the weights you are considering before sampling, so you can compare hand-feel, opacity and shrinkage before committing to bulk fabric.

It depends on the artwork, the quantity and the feel you want. Screen printing suits bold logos with a limited number of colours and gives the most durable result at volume; water-based and discharge inks feel softer than plastisol, while puff and high-density inks add texture. DTG, or direct-to-garment printing, reproduces full-colour and photographic designs without screens, which works well for detailed artwork and smaller runs, and is best on cotton. DTF transfers handle fine detail on a wider range of fabrics. Embroidery adds a premium, long-lasting finish for small chest logos but becomes costly across large areas. Garment dyeing and washes change the colour and softness of the whole garment. Your artwork is struck off on the chosen fabric before bulk production, so you can approve colour, placement and hand-feel first.

Our minimum for t-shirts is 500 pieces per style and colour. What a first order costs depends on your specification: fabric weight, organic or recycled cotton, custom colours and printing set the price per piece, each is shown as its own line on the quote, and sampling and freight come on top. If you want fewer pieces, runs from 150 pieces per style and colour go to our sister factory (see the t-shirt small-run page), which prices them separately; that route suits a first collection or a test of a new style. The minimum applies per colour because every colour is its own dye lot, so three colourways of one tee are three commitments. Send a tech pack or a reference tee and we reply within one working day with a first costing for your specification; the order cost estimator then turns a price per piece into a budget for any quantity.

Shrinkage and twisting are decided in the fabric, not at the sewing machine, so that is where we control them. Bulk fabric is tested for dimensional change after washing to ISO 5077 using ISO 6330 wash procedures before any cutting, and the result is compared with the limit written in your tech pack, typically a small percentage in length and width. Fabric that fails should be rejected or re-finished, not cut. Twisting, where side seams spiral round the body after washing, comes mainly from twist left in the yarn, made worse by loose knitting, and is checked on the pre-production sample with a wash test. Combed ring-spun jersey and pre-shrunk, compacted finishing both reduce movement, and we specify them when your fit tolerance is tight. The pre-production sample is washed and measured before it is sealed, so the garment you approve has already survived the test your customer will put it through.

T-shirts are manufactured in Bangladesh in six stages: knitting, dyeing and finishing, cutting, decoration, sewing, and final finishing with inspection. Cotton yarn is knitted into jersey on circular machines, with rib for the neck. The fabric is dyed to your approved colour, compacted to control shrinkage and tested before any of it is cut. It is then laid up in layers and cut to the pattern for every size. Prints and embroidery are usually applied to the cut panels, so give the artwork placement as a measurement from the high point of the shoulder. Sewing joins the shoulders, attaches the neck rib and shoulder tape, sets the sleeves, closes the side seams and hems the body. Each tee is trimmed, pressed, folded and bagged, and a random sample is inspected before shipment. In a knit composite the knitting, dyeing and sewing happen on one site, so ask which steps the factory named to you does itself.

More exported t-shirts come from China and Bangladesh than from any other country we checked in the trade data. China reported US$10.92 billion of exports under customs heading 6109 (knitted t-shirts, singlets and vests) in 2024, according to UN Comtrade. Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau recorded US$7.07 billion under the same heading in FY2025-26 (July 2025 to June 2026), US$6.57 billion of it in cotton. The other exporters we checked in UN Comtrade are far smaller: Germany US$3.00 billion and Turkey US$2.76 billion in 2024, Vietnam US$2.47 billion in 2023 and India US$2.29 billion in 2024. The periods differ, so read these figures as scale, not as a league table. For a buyer the scale matters because volume builds a supply chain: local mills supply about 85% of Bangladesh’s knit fabric, so a cotton tee seldom waits on imported cloth.

A t-shirt should pass five laboratory tests before bulk production: dimensional change after washing, spirality, colour fastness to washing, colour fastness to rubbing, and pilling. Shrinkage is measured to ISO 5077 using ISO 6330 wash procedures. ISO 16322-3 measures spirality, the twist of a garment after laundering. ISO 105-C06 covers colour fastness to domestic and commercial laundering, and ISO 105-X12 covers rubbing, tested once with a dry cloth and once with a wet one. ISO 12945-2 rates pilling by the modified Martindale method. Write the standard and the pass level for each into the tech pack, because a report without an agreed limit settles nothing. Printed tees add a wash and rub test on the strike-off, and children’s tees add the safety tests your market requires. Have the tests run at an accredited laboratory on the bulk fabric, not only on sample yardage, and see the reports before cutting starts.

Custom t-shirts do get cheaper per piece as the quantity rises, but only part of the price moves. In a published cost sheet for a basic knitted t-shirt made in Bangladesh (Rajib et al., 2023), fabric was 42.6% of the factory price, trims and accessories together 12.3%, and cut, make and trim 15.2%. Fabric and trims are used by every piece, so they barely fall with volume. What falls is the share of fixed costs each tee carries: pattern and sampling, print screens, and the mill’s dye-lot minimum on a custom colour. That is why 3,000 pieces in one colour usually cost less per piece than 1,000 in each of three colours. Our t-shirt minimum is 500 pieces per style and colour. We publish no prices or price breaks, so ask for the quote at two or three quantities.

Yes. A blank made through us is a t-shirt made to order to your specification in a factory we name before production, from 500 pieces per style and colour; it is not taken from stock. Specify the jersey weight and yarn, the size chart, whether the tee is dyed to your colour or left PFD (prepared for dyeing) for garment dyeing, the neck label and the packing, ideally one size and colour per carton. A PFD blank should be sewn with 100% cotton or core-spun cotton/polyester thread and left without chemical finishes such as resins and some softeners, which Cotton Incorporated says generally interfere with garment dyeing. If your printer will replace a tear-away neck label on tees for the United States, the FTC’s labelling guide says the new label must carry the required information too. Have the printer print and wash a pre-production sample before bulk is cut. For fewer than 500 pieces, our sister factory takes runs from 150 pieces per style and colour, cut and sewn from your pattern and priced separately.