Screen Printing vs Embroidery

What each one costs

At 50 pieces, one logo, one location, sizes S–XL. Screen print is a single ink color.

Garment	Print	Embroidery	Premium
Gildan 5000 tee	6.03	9.85	63%
Richardson 112 cap	10.67	14.49	36%
Port Authority K500 polo	14.49	18.31	26%
Gildan SF500 hoodie	16.37	20.19	23%
Port Authority J901 soft shell	28.77	32.59	13%
OGIO OG1003 quarter-zip	37.86	41.68	10%

Bigger order, or not sure what you need?
Call (833) 722-3808 or email orders@merchylo.com.

Every row is the same $3.82. The garment and its markup are identical either way, so the only difference is the decoration — which is why the premium looks enormous on a cheap shirt and disappears on anything decent.

The gap by quantity

What embroidery adds per piece over a one-color print, on any garment.

Quantity	Embroidery adds
24 – 49	4.56
50 – 99	3.82
100 – 199	4.34
200 – 299	3.88
300 +	3.70

Bigger order, or not sure what you need?
Call (833) 722-3808 or email orders@merchylo.com.

Choose embroidery for polos, caps, fleece and outerwear

Not because it is dearer — because ink is the wrong material for those garments.

Piqué polos have a raised waffle texture. Fine lines and small type break up across it, and a solid fill sits on the surface looking exactly like what it is. Thread goes into the fabric instead of onto it.

Soft shells, nylon and coated outerwear resist plastisol by design. The water-repellent finish is there to stop liquid bonding to the face, and it does not make an exception for ink. The cure temperature is also above what a lot of technical fabric will take.

Fleece has a nap. Ink flattens it into a shiny patch that reads as cheap the first time it goes through a dryer.

And it outlasts the garment. Stitching does not crack, fade or peel — it is structural, not a coating. That is the whole reason uniforms and corporate wear are stitched and event giveaways are printed. A polo somebody wears weekly for two years is a uniform.

We do not screen print caps

A structured cap has a curved crown and a seam up the middle, and it will not lie flat on a press platen. Shops that print caps are either running a flat unstructured style or heat-pressing a transfer on. Caps are embroidered here, and that is the only way we will do them.

Choose screen printing for cotton tees

On a Gildan 5000 the premium is 63%, and a tee is smooth cotton with nothing to fight — exactly the surface plastisol is designed for. If the job is 100 shirts for a 5K or a spirit week, print them. It is not close and we will tell you so.

The same goes for any large graphic. A full front print is one pass of the press; the same area in thread is tens of thousands of stitches, which prices by area and stiffens the garment. Embroidery is for a logo, not a poster.

Color count works backwards between them

Screen printing charges for every color, because each one is another screen and another pass. Embroidery does not — a color is a needle, and up to fifteen of them cost the same as one.

Design	Print, 50 tees	Embroidery
1 color	6.03	9.85
2 colors	7.47	9.85
4 colors	10.37	9.85
6 colors	13.22	9.85

Bigger order, or not sure what you need?
Call (833) 722-3808 or email orders@merchylo.com.

At four colors they cross. A detailed multi-color crest on a polo is cheaper stitched than printed, and it will still be there in three years.

Minimums and turnaround

Embroidery starts at 6 pieces, screen printing at 24 — a stitch file is digitized once, while screens have to be burned and reclaimed whatever the quantity. Both run on the same schedule, so choosing embroidery costs you nothing in time.

Minimums in full · Turnaround times