The method decides the price, the durability and the minimum order — and most buyers are never told there is a choice at all.
You ask for a price on branded shirts and get one number. What you were not told is that there are four ways to put that logo on, they cost different amounts, they last different lengths of time, and the right one changes completely depending on whether you are ordering 10 or 500.
Screen printing: the volume method
Ink pushed through a fine mesh screen, one screen per colour. Setting up those screens takes real time, which is the whole story: screen printing has a high setup cost and a very low per-shirt cost after it.
At 500 shirts nothing else comes close on price. At 15 shirts it is the most expensive option on the list, because you are paying for the screens either way. The finish is excellent and it survives washing better than almost anything, particularly on cotton.
For scale, our printed round-neck shirts are KSh 450 each and polos KSh 600, from 50 pieces, and campaign shirts are KSh 250 from 100.
Its limitation is colour count. Every colour is another screen and another pass, so a photographic design is either impossible or absurdly expensive. Logos with two or three flat colours are what it is for.
Heat press: the small-run method
A design is printed onto transfer material and pressed onto the garment with heat and pressure. Almost no setup, so the cost per shirt barely changes with the size of the run, and that is exactly why it exists.
One heat-press route depends entirely on the fabric. Sublimation ink is sold by makers such as Sawgrass for polyester apparel and coated hard goods like mugs; for natural cotton, Sawgrass sells a different ink altogether. A sublimation quote for plain cotton shirts is a quote for the wrong method.
Use it for small runs, one-off names and numbers, and anything where the design changes between garments: a set of shirts each carrying a different name is trivial by heat press and a nightmare by screen. It is also what most cap branding uses at small quantities (printed caps are KSh 300 each, from 12).
The trade-off is feel and life. A pressed transfer sits on top of the fabric, so you can feel it, and on a shirt washed weekly for two years it will show its age before a screen print would.
DTF: the flexible one
Direct-to-film. The design is printed onto a film, powdered with adhesive, and pressed on. It handles full colour and photographic detail, it works on cotton, polyester and blends alike, and it needs no screens.
That combination is why it has taken over so much small and medium work. A 20-shirt order with a full-colour design and mixed fabrics is straightforward by DTF and awkward by every other method here. Durability sits between heat press and screen: good, not indestructible.
Quantity first, then design: a small run with a design built for volume is a large bill for very few shirts, as 50 shirts with a five-colour screen-printed logo shows. Say your quantity first and let the method follow, instead of designing and then discovering.
Embroidery: the durable one
Thread stitched into the fabric. Nothing is printed, so nothing can crack, peel or fade. It lasts as long as the garment, and often longer.
It is the right answer for corporate shirts, team kit (football sets from KSh 800), polos, caps and anything worn constantly. It carries a setup cost of its own, because the design has to be digitised into stitch instructions first, but that file is reusable forever afterwards.
Embroidery cannot do fine detail or photographs. A logo with small text needs simplifying, and any embroiderer worth using will tell you that before stitching, not after.
Choosing, by quantity
- 1–20 garments: DTF or heat press. Screens cannot be justified.
- 20–100, few colours: screen printing starts to win. Ask for both quotes.
- 100+: screen printing, unless the design is photographic.
- Full colour or photographic: DTF, because it needs almost no setup.
- Worn daily, has to survive years: embroidery.
- Individual names or numbers: heat press or DTF, whatever the total quantity.
The two questions worth asking your supplier
Which method are you quoting? A quote that does not say is a quote you cannot compare, and the answer changes the durability you are buying, not just the price.
What happens at the next price break? Methods have step changes, not slopes. 80 shirts and 100 shirts are sometimes the same money because the 100 crosses into screen printing.
For uniforms, sizing matters more than method, and the sizing mistakes are where the real money is lost. Had a print fail before? Why prints crack explains which of these four it was and what to ask for instead.
Sources: Sawgrass, sublimation inks (read 14 Oct 2026).
Common questions
Which method lasts longest?
Embroidery, comfortably, because there is nothing to crack or peel; the design is thread in the fabric. Among the printed methods, screen printing on cotton lasts best, then DTF, then heat press. For a garment worn a few times a year the difference barely matters; for a uniform worn daily it decides whether you reorder in year two or year five.
Can you print on polyester sportswear?
Yes, and it is worth flagging the fabric when you ask. Polyester behaves differently under heat and some dyes migrate into a print, turning white areas pink over the following weeks. It is a known effect with a known fix, but only if the supplier knows what fabric they are printing on before they start.
What is the minimum order?
Branded T-shirts and polos start at 50 pieces and campaign shirts at 100, as the product pages list, whichever method prints them. Above that, the method follows the quantity: screen printing pays off on long runs with few colours, DTF and heat press need almost no setup, and embroidery spreads its digitising cost across the order.
How should I supply my logo?
Vector if you have it: AI, EPS, SVG or PDF from the designer. A high-resolution PNG with a transparent background works for DTF and heat press. Screen printing needs the colours separated, and embroidery needs the design digitised into stitches, which is a conversion someone has to do. Sending the original file, not a version saved from a website, avoids all of this.
