What Custom Long Sleeve Shirts Cost in 2026

A custom long sleeve shirt from Arklavo costs between $17.99 and $48.99, and that single number is the whole cost, not a starting quote that grows once a rep gets involved. The spread exists because two variables move price independently: the decoration method and the blank brand underneath it. Once you know how those two dials work, you can pick a price point on purpose instead of guessing at a quote form.

Most people searching for cheap custom long sleeve t shirts have already been burned by the industry's usual pricing model: a low headline price that turns into setup fees, digitizing charges, and a shipping surprise once you actually submit a logo. This page breaks the $17.99 to $48.99 range down by brand and decoration method so you can see exactly what moves the number, and what stays fixed no matter what you order.

What do custom long sleeve shirts actually cost in 2026?

Custom long sleeve shirts cost $17.99 to $48.99 per shirt, and that price already includes your logo. The cheapest option is a printed Gildan long sleeve tee at $17.99. The most expensive is an embroidered Champion long sleeve tee at $48.99. Everything else in the lineup falls somewhere between those two numbers, based on brand and decoration.

There is no per-order setup fee layered on top, no separate digitizing charge for embroidery, and no shipping line that appears only after you have submitted artwork. The price shown on the product page is the delivered price of a finished, decorated shirt.

The full price ladder

Ordered from cheapest to most expensive, the range moves in fairly even steps: $17.99, $22.99, $28.99, $30.99, $33.99, $38.99, $45.00, then $48.99. That spacing means there is almost always a price point available close to whatever budget you are working with, whether that is a five-person crew ordering once or an office stocking a rotation of sizes.

Why does the price range so widely between $17.99 and $48.99?

The price range is driven almost entirely by two factors: the decoration method and the blank brand, not order size. Decoration method is the bigger swing. Printing lays ink onto the fabric in a single pass. Embroidery stitches a design thread by thread, which takes longer per garment and uses a different machine setup, so it costs more no matter which brand it goes on.

Brand is the second factor. A Gildan long sleeve tee is a lower-cost blank than a Champion or AS Colour long sleeve tee, so the same decoration method costs more on the pricier blank. Stack the two variables and you get the full $17.99 to $48.99 spread: cheap brand plus print sits at the bottom, premium brand plus embroidery sits at the top.

Is print or embroidery cheaper on a long sleeve shirt?

Printing is cheaper than embroidery on every long sleeve shirt Arklavo carries, by $14 to $20 depending on brand. A printed Gildan long sleeve tee is $17.99, while the embroidered Gildan long sleeve tee is $33.99, a $16 gap. A printed Comfort Colors long sleeve tee is $22.99 against $38.99 embroidered, also a $16 gap. The AS Colour gap is $14.01, and the Champion gap is the widest at $20.

Cheap does not automatically mean the better call, though. Printing suits multi-color logos, gradients, and larger back designs, and it is the more budget-friendly route for a first order or a design you expect to update. Embroidery holds up to more washes without cracking or fading and reads as higher quality up close, which matters for a small, simple logo worn for years.

If your logo is one or two colors and you want the shirt to outlast the print, the extra $14 to $20 for embroidery is usually worth it. If price per shirt is the deciding factor, print wins every time.

How much does the blank brand change the price?

Blank brand can shift the price by up to $15 per shirt even when the decoration method is identical. Gildan is consistently the lowest-cost option at both decoration levels. Comfort Colors and AS Colour land in the middle, with AS Colour priced above Comfort Colors because it is a heavyweight fabric. Champion sits at the top for embroidery, though AS Colour is the pricier printed option.

Every long sleeve shirt Arklavo sells is a t-shirt style long sleeve. There are no long sleeve polos, button-ups, dri-fit, or performance fabrics on the long sleeve line, so the price differences above come entirely from blank quality and decoration, not from fabric technology. See the full lineup on the custom long sleeve shirts collection, and a deeper brand-by-brand fabric comparison in our Gildan vs Comfort Colors long sleeve guide.

Does order quantity lower the price per shirt?

No. There is no minimum order, and the price per shirt does not change based on how many you buy. A single shirt costs the same $17.99 to $48.99 per unit as a hundred shirts of the same style. That is different from the traditional decorator model, where a small order gets penalized with a high per-unit price until you clear a quantity threshold.

For a small business, this matters more than a bulk discount would. You can order exactly the roster you have today, in the exact sizes and mix of men's and women's cuts you need, without padding an order to hit a minimum or eating leftover stock in sizes nobody wears. If your team grows next quarter, you order more shirts at the same per-unit price rather than negotiating a new tier.

What else affects the total cost of a long sleeve order?

Beyond the per-shirt price, the only other line item most orders hit is shipping, and that depends on your order total and destination. Orders reaching $150 USD, or the local-currency equivalent for orders outside the US, ship free. Below that threshold, shipping is calculated at checkout based on destination and package weight.

Production and shipping timeline

Production takes about 2 days once you approve the free digital proof of your logo on the shirt, followed by 2 to 5 business days of shipping. Arklavo ships worldwide, so the timeline holds whether the order is going across town or across an ocean, with the shipping leg adjusting for distance.

What does not add cost

Logo setup and the proof are included in the shirt price, so approving a design does not trigger a separate charge. Mixing brands, decoration methods, or men's and women's cuts within the same order does not add a fee either. Each shirt is simply priced at its own line, and the order total is the sum of those individual prices.

How do you get the lowest price without hurting quality?

The lowest total cost for a quality long sleeve shirt is a printed Gildan tee, at $17.99 with logo decoration included. If your logo has more than two or three colors, print is also the more affordable route on any of the four brands, since embroidery pricing does not flex down for complex designs the way print does.

If durability matters more than upfront price, such as a uniform staff will wear weekly for a year or more, embroidery on a Gildan blank at $33.99 is the cheapest way into a stitched logo that will outlast repeated washing. That price sits below every other embroidered option on the list while still getting the wash durability embroidery is known for.

The one move that does not save money is ordering more than you need to chase a volume discount. Since price per shirt is flat, the only way to lower your order total is to order the shirts you will actually use, in the sizes your team wears. Compare printing and embroidery side by side in our embroidery vs printing for long sleeve shirts guide, and read more on ordering small batches without a minimum in our custom long sleeve shirts no minimum guide.

For teams that also need short sleeve options at similar price points, the custom t-shirts collection follows the same flat, no-minimum pricing, and embroidered orders across any garment type draw from the same custom embroidery apparel collection.

Frequently asked questions

Pricing questions cluster around five points, and these are them. Each answer here is the one-line version; the price ladder and brand-gap sections show the working.