Apparel Brand Founder Kit: Your First One Hundred Units, Priced to Actually Sell
A curated one hundred unit launch bundle for first-time apparel brand founders. Brand-quality blanks by hand feel not by price, two gang sheets sized for a real launch, a photography guide, and a launch checklist so your first drop looks like a brand, not a print-on-demand experiment.
Short version, straight from the floor.
The Apparel Brand Founder Kit is a curated one hundred unit bundle sized around the reality of a first apparel drop with a $2,000 budget. The founder has a logo, a name, an Instagram, and no idea whether Comfort Colors runs a size larger than Bella. She has to turn that into a hundred shirts she can actually sell on a Shopify launch without buying $8,000 worth of the wrong blanks and printing them the wrong way.
This is not a design agency. The kit assumes you have a logo already. If your logo is a Canva template, we will print it, but we will not stop you from making a launch-day mistake. Get your logo cleaned up (vector, print-ready) before you order. A $150 to $400 design service line is available separately.
One hundred units is not enough to be cheap per unit. Your per-unit cost on one hundred units of premium blanks plus DTF gang sheets lands at $7 to $13 per finished shirt before your labor. If you are trying to retail at $22, the math is tight. Retail at $34 to $45 and the math works. This kit is not for a $19.99 apparel brand.
We do not run your Shopify. The kit ships a sizing chart template and a launch checklist. It does not include Shopify theme customization, ads, or influencer outreach. Those are separate specialties and separate budgets.
Tag insertion and neck relabeling are add-ons. The kit ships with the blank's original manufacturer tag intact. If your brand needs relabeled necks (woven brand labels sewn in), that is a $1.10 to $2.40 per unit add-on and adds a week of production time. Worth it once you know a design sells, not for drop one.
One hundred units. Real blanks. Launch-ready.
The Apparel Brand Founder Kit is a curated one hundred unit bundle sized around the reality of a first apparel drop with a $2,000 budget. The founder has a logo, a name, an Instagram, and no idea whether Comfort Colors runs a size larger than Bella. She has to turn that into a hundred shirts she can actually sell on a Shopify launch without buying $8,000 worth of the wrong blanks and printing them the wrong way. The mistake tolerance is low. This kit is designed to remove the four most common launch mistakes: wrong garment hand feel, wrong sizing chart, wrong print placement, and wrong photography.
Blanks are picked by hand feel and brand context, not by unit cost. Comfort Colors 1717 for the vintage-washed streetwear feel. Bella+Canvas 3001 CVC premium tier for soft-hand modern brands. Independent Trading SS4500 or SS1000 for elevated hoodies and heavyweight tees. LA Apparel or Champion Reverse Weave where a heavier premium tier is justified. The kit ships one hundred units across two or three styles so the founder can offer a tee, a heavier tee, and a hoodie at launch instead of a single SKU that has to work for every customer.
Two DTF gang sheets ship with the kit sized for the actual print placements a brand launch needs: a front logo, a back print, a sleeve hit, and a small pocket variant. That covers most launches. If the brand aesthetic needs foil, puff, or reflective, we upgrade the gang sheet to a specialty ink at a per-square-inch premium. A photography guide, a Shopify sizing chart template, and a launch checklist ship with the kit because the difference between a $10K launch and a $500 launch is rarely the product: it is the presentation.
If your Instagram teaser is up and you have not printed yet, this is your kit.
First-time apparel brand founders
You have a logo, a name, and a launch date. You do not have industry contacts, you do not know which blanks match which aesthetics, and you have $2,000 to get to one hundred sellable units.
Streetwear starters
You need heavyweight tees and premium hoodies with print placements that match streetwear conventions (large back print, small chest, sleeve hit).
Faith-based and community brand founders
You are launching a purpose-driven brand where the message matters more than the fashion cycle. Comfort Colors and pigment-dyed tees, keepsake quality.
Fashion-adjacent creators
Influencer merch that has to look like the influencer's aesthetic, not like a print-on-demand template. Premium blanks, considered placements, brand photography.
Small-batch launch drops
One hundred units per drop, five drops per year. This kit anchors drop one and gives you the workflow for drops two through five.
Backwards from launch day.
Six to eight weeks before launch
Ideal. Order the kit, receive blanks and transfers in two to three weeks, press and photograph the first sample week four, run pre-orders week five, ship to customers week six.
Four weeks before launch
Realistic. Same workflow but tighter. Pre-order window compresses to one week. Product photography happens the same weekend the shirts arrive.
Two weeks before launch
Rush case. We can produce and ship in a week. Pre-order window is essentially zero and you launch on inventory. This is the highest-risk configuration and we recommend against it unless you have a hard deadline you cannot move.
Post-launch reorder (drops two through five)
Reorders come at the same per-unit price with no setup fee because your art is on file. Sizing distribution is now data-informed rather than guessed. Drops two through five should take four weeks each.
Wholesale-account graduation point
Once your monthly volume clears three hundred units consistently, we apply for a wholesale account arrangement which improves per-unit blanks pricing and offers priority production windows.
What this kit is not.
The Apparel Brand Founder Kit optimizes for launch quality and mistake avoidance at a $2,000 budget. That is the constraint. If you have $10K and want a full agency-driven launch, you are in a different program.
This is not a design agency.
The kit assumes you have a logo already. If your logo is a Canva template, we will print it, but we will not stop you from making a launch-day mistake. Get your logo cleaned up (vector, print-ready) before you order. A $150 to $400 design service line is available separately.
One hundred units is not enough to be cheap per unit.
Your per-unit cost on one hundred units of premium blanks plus DTF gang sheets lands at $7 to $13 per finished shirt before your labor. If you are trying to retail at $22, the math is tight. Retail at $34 to $45 and the math works. This kit is not for a $19.99 apparel brand.
We do not run your Shopify.
The kit ships a sizing chart template and a launch checklist. It does not include Shopify theme customization, ads, or influencer outreach. Those are separate specialties and separate budgets.
Tag insertion and neck relabeling are add-ons.
The kit ships with the blank's original manufacturer tag intact. If your brand needs relabeled necks (woven brand labels sewn in), that is a $1.10 to $2.40 per unit add-on and adds a week of production time. Worth it once you know a design sells, not for drop one.
The blanks that anchor most founder-kit launches.
These are the exact SKUs that anchor most first-drop apparel launches, ranked by how consistently they hit the launch-quality bar without exceeding the $2,000 kit budget.
Comfort Colors 1717 Pigment-Dyed Tee
The streetwear and faith-brand default. Vintage-washed hand, sits on a body like a well-worn favorite. Retails at $32 to $38.
Bella+Canvas 3001 CVC Premium Tee
The modern-brand default. Soft-hand poly-cotton blend, holds a print, retails at $28 to $34.
Independent Trading SS4500 Midweight Hoodie
The elevated hoodie tier. Midweight fleece, tapered fit, retails at $58 to $68.
Independent Trading SS1000 Lightweight Tee
The premium tee alternative for brands that want a heavier hand than Bella but less rugged than Comfort Colors.
Champion Reverse Weave Hoodie
The heavyweight hoodie tier. Retails at $75 to $95, works for brands with real brand equity to lean on.
DTF Gang Sheet: Launch Package (Front, Back, Sleeve, Pocket)
Two sheets sized for a full launch. Front logo, back print, sleeve hit, pocket variant. One sheet decorates the tee run, one decorates the hoodie run.
First-time founder, $2,000 budget, launch in six weeks.
Order sixty Comfort Colors 1717 tees plus thirty Bella 3001 tees plus ten Independent SS4500 hoodies plus two DTF gang sheets.
For a first-time apparel brand founder launching in six weeks with a $2,000 budget, the safest configuration is sixty Comfort Colors 1717 tees split across two colors (typically bone and off-black), thirty Bella+Canvas 3001 CVC tees in one accent color (typically heather or pigment-dyed), ten Independent Trading SS4500 midweight hoodies in one color (typically the darkest color your palette supports), and two DTF gang sheets. One gang sheet sized for the tee runs (front logo, back print), one sized for the hoodie run (front logo, sleeve hit). Total kit lands at $920 to $1,180. Retail the tees at $34 and the hoodies at $65 and your drop grosses approximately $2,400 to $2,900 if you sell through, which nets you $1,400 to $1,700 to reinvest in drop two.
Order the Beginner Founder KitWhere to go if this is not the right kit.
Etsy Seller Starter
Better fit if you are pre-brand, still testing what sells on Etsy, and are not ready to commit to one hundred units of premium blanks. Small-batch pricing, no minimum.
CompareNon-profit Fundraiser Kit
Better fit if the drop is a 501(c)(3) fundraiser rather than a retail brand launch. Different pricing sheet, different sizing distribution.
CompareTeam Merch Kit
Better fit if the brand is actually a team merchandise line (roster-driven jerseys, coach polo, sponsor placements) rather than an open-quantity brand launch.
Compare
Read these before you order.
First Apparel Launch Checklist
Week-by-week checklist for a six-week launch. Pre-order timing, photography schedule, packaging, and ship windows.
Comfort Colors vs Bella+Canvas vs Independent Trading
Hand feel, sizing, retail price ceiling, and brand aesthetic fit for the three most-launched-into blank families.
DTF Print Placement Guide
Front logo size, back print size, sleeve hit dimensions, pocket variant sizing. What actually looks brand-quality versus what screams print-on-demand.
Apparel Photography with a Phone
Flat lay vs model shot, lighting basics, mockup shortcuts, and the free tools that replace a $200 photography subscription.
Add-ons and adjacent SKUs founders actually buy.
Custom DTF Transfers by Size
For one-off custom sizes or a placement that does not fit the gang sheet layout. Per-square-inch pricing, no setup fee.
Comfort Colors 1717 Pigment-Dyed Tee
The launch anchor for most first drops. Retails at a real brand price point without feeling like a $6 blank.
LA Apparel 1801 Garment-Dyed Tee
Boutique-tier alternative to Comfort Colors. Better colorfastness, higher retail ceiling.
Independent Trading SS1000 Lightweight Tee
For a boutique tee at a slightly lower price than LA Apparel. Common for the second SKU inside a founder kit.
Champion Reverse Weave Crewneck
Crewneck alternative to the SS4500 hoodie. Retails at $65 to $80, high perceived value.
Woven Neck Label (Relabel Service)
Add-on for founders who want the blank's manufacturer tag replaced with a brand-owned woven label. Adds one week and $1.10 to $2.40 per unit.
Adjacent hubs with the same operational reality.
What founders ask before they order.
- Can I split the kit across three colorways instead of two?
- Yes. The default is two colors per blank family because it maximizes size distribution per color, but we support three-color or four-color splits if you would rather have more colors and fewer units per color. Send the color breakdown when you configure the order.
- What if my logo is not print-ready?
- We can print any raster file at any size, but we cannot save a 400x400 JPG when it lands at twelve inches wide. If your logo needs vectorization or resolution work, we offer a $75 vector cleanup or a $150 to $400 design service depending on complexity.
- Should I use foil, puff, or reflective ink for the launch?
- Only if the brand aesthetic actually calls for it. Specialty inks add $2 to $6 per unit and add complication to reorders. For a first drop, start with standard DTF and add specialty inks in drops two through five as your data shows which SKUs deserve the upgrade.
- How do I collect pre-orders before I have inventory?
- Use a Shopify or Big Cartel storefront with pre-order deposits (Bold Pre-orders or Notify Me plugins). Collect deposits at 50 to 100 percent of retail, produce against confirmed pre-orders, and ship in the window your kit's turnaround allows. We supply the sizing chart template that reduces size-swap returns.
- Do you handle tag relabeling and hangtag printing?
- Tag relabeling is a $1.10 to $2.40 per unit add-on that adds one week of production time. Hangtag printing is a separate line item, typically $0.35 to $0.80 per hangtag. Both are available but neither is included in the base kit.
- When should I apply for a wholesale account?
- Once your monthly volume clears three hundred units of blanks consistently for two months. Wholesale access improves per-unit blanks pricing by ten to twenty percent and unlocks priority production windows. Message us with your last two months of order history and we open the wholesale application.
Order this kit.
Configure your one hundred unit blanks split, upload your logo, drop in your print placements, and pay one line item for the whole launch. Blanks and transfers ship in two to three weeks. Photography guide, sizing chart template, and launch checklist ship with the order.