We’ve just been getting notices about increases in tshirt pricing from our suppliers. As of September 13, most brands will show an increase of around 5%. There are many factors causing this. Below is an explanation from Gildan, one of the top manufacturers of tshirts:

“There are a lot of factors that have caused the increase with the price of Cotton being a large part.

There is a sub-commodity market for yarn spinning (the step where they take ginned cotton fibre and twist it into the yarns that end up getting knit into the fabric that gets dyed, cut and sewn into shirts). The recession forced some yarn spinners to either close or change their machinery to make finer yarns so globally there is also a shortage of yarn that has impacted prices.
India also temporarily initiated a block on exports which further dried up available yarns.
The last (and possibly most significant reason) is that almost the entire manufacturing supply chain was caught off guard at how fast demand for cotton products has rebounded. Corporations are spending on promotions, people are traveling and going to concerts and fundraising efforts around the globe are booming. “
At The Creative J, we will price check among our various suppliers, looking for specials and options to help keep your pricing competitive whenever we quote on apparel. Apparel quoting is a constantly changing beast, something we custom quote each time in order to get the best pricing available.