Factoring in artwork, unless you're an artist, you should release a run with 5 professionally done designs. Most skilled graphic artists will charge you anywhere from $500. - $800 for a graphic. Some will try to go higher, but there are far too many hungry and talented graphic artists for you to spend more than $800 for a design. Sometimes, you may just need one hot design that catches fire and sells enough to put you on the map. But, that's why having multiple designs at launch is smarter, so that you increase the chances of one sticking. Then you look at print costs. The more colors in your art, the higher your screen printing expenses. Let's say you have 5 designs, all of them with 4 colors, released on all sizes in numbers of 20 shirts each. So, that's about 100 shirts, which is typical of a run. You have to pay a onetime screen fee for each design, but that means ypu won't pay for the screen when you re-up. If you want customers to take you seriously, you will have a neck tag with relevant info - logo, size, etc. you can either print it, which is another screen you will have to purchase, or or create your own clothing tags and have them stitched (I think that's a waste of money and most customers won't see any added value as opposed to a screenprinted tag). You will then have to choose the printer. Some have higher quality print than others, using techniques that add to the total expense (i.e. doing an underlay to add pop to your design). 100 multicolored shirts printed by a respected screenprint outfit will cost you around $4,000.
Then you have to market the shirts, which will start with a photoshoot. That'll run you about a G. Then there's the travel to sell your clothing to stores. Are you going to stay local and try to build a buzz or go to markets like NYC, where new brands are born every minute in a city filled with streetwear fanatics looking for the next hot product?
Expect to spend $6,000 on your first run.
