If you’re selling t-shirts or other custom clothing, simply making the shirts isn’t enough. Once they’ve been produced, you still have to get them to your buyer. Unfortunately,shipping isn’t free. This leaves you with a couple of options; either pay for a flat-rate box or pay by weight.
For many people’s purposes, paying by weight makes more sense. But this leads to another problem. How do you estimate in advance what your shipping costs are going to be? \
The answer is to understand how much a t-shirt weighs. If you have a rough idea before you even order your plain shirts, you’ll know how much to quote your customers.
So, how much does a shirt weigh? Here’s everything you need to know.
T-shirt Weight Basics
Before we talk about t-shirt weights, a brief disclaimer: different manufacturers use different materials, which means there’s some variation between brands.
But even within the same brand, there can be variations from region to region or from batch to batch. Even factors like ambient humidity can affect the weight of a shirt. All of this is to say that we’re talking about a rough estimate, not a hard and fast number.
That said, an estimate is still a lot better than nothing. So, what kind of weights are we talking about?
Let’s start with a small t-shirt—the average small t-shirt tips the scales at around 6 ounces. So a box of 20 would weigh in at 120 ounces – 7½ pounds. Keep in mind that larger sizes have more material.
For every size that you increase, add about half an ounce. A large weighs about 7 ounces each, and an XL weighs more than 7.5. For 2XL and up, the weights increase in larger increments. A 2XL weighs around 8.75 ounces, and a 3XL can weigh as much as 9.5 ounces.
Packaging Concerns
Another related concern is the packaging. If you’re paying by weight, the package matters just as much as what’s inside.
Let’s say you’re shipping an individual t-shirt. In that case, you’re probably using something small, like a 10” x 14” mailer pouch. These will add about half an ounce to your total weight.
If you’re adding a slip or any other type of paperwork, you’ll also need to account for that. An A5-sized card (greeting card) will add about 0.2 ounces.
What About Other Clothes?
So far, we’ve talked about t-shirts. But what if you want to ship other shirts or another type of clothing?
Larger shirts and hoodies made of heavy material can weigh as much as 1 or 2 pounds. That’s a lot of weight if you’re adding multiple shirts to a box. Even medium-weight jeans can weigh over a pound.
Clothes for babies and children weigh less. For example, baby shoes weigh under a pound, while men’s work shoes can weigh 3 pounds, and a big pair of boots can weigh 4 pounds or more.
