When you’re getting shirts for an event and everyone has written down their sizes for you, deciding on a size breakdown for your order can be easy. But if you’re making shirts for an unknown audience, event, or future and potential customers with no previous sales data to choose from, it can be a little tricky.
Trust us, we’ve been there before and we’ve seen the worry in our customers’ eyes when they were faced with this decision. We don’t like being here any more than you do.
But have no fear, we’re here to help.
We’ve been making shirts for over ten years. We can make this decision easy for you.
Ever since we started printing custom shirts for different organizations, we have been helping our customers choose the best size distribution for their buik t-shirt orders. Our customers come from all types of industries – breweries, retail brands, music, tech companies, small businesses, and agencies, among others.
While we must admit we weren’t perfect with it in the early days, over the years we’ve honed our skills and used historical sales data to become confident in our system of choosing the right breakdown.
We always say, you have to trust the numbers. And we’ve run the numbers on thousands of orders to bring you the information we have below. The averages from those orders gets us the order size breakdown that we’ve come to rely on and trust.
What shirt sizes should you order?
At the end of the day, you want to make sure you have a shirt for everyone that needs one. Our ratio will make it easy for you to choose the right sizes when you don’t have everyone’s info.
Here’s our foolproof breakdown ratio to apply to all order quantities:
Adult Sizes
Small: 1
Medium: 2
Large: 2
XL: 1
2X: .5
As illustrated by this example, for a 100 quantity order for adults, the best breakdown would be:
Small: 15
Medium: 30
Large: 30
X-Large: 15
2X-Large: 10
Kids Sizes
XS: .5
Small: 2
Medium: 2.5
Large: 2.5
XL: .5
2XL: .5
As illustrated by this example, for a 100 quantity order for kids, the best breakdown would be:
XS: 10
Small: 20
Medium: 25
Large: 25
X-Large: 10
2X-Large: 10
This can be applied to any total order quantity. We print shirt orders from 100 pieces to 100,000 pieces. You can extrapolate your size distribution with these numbers.
A few tips and tricks for choosing the right shirt sizes for your group order
Considering all audiences aren’t going to be 100% the same – it’s always important to be flexible with this ratio and keep your group’s demographic in mind.
If your brand or event is set for a specialized audience, say body builders, you may want to increase your quantity of larger sizes to accommodate all those serious guns. Or if your brand is popular with horse jockeys, you should probably stock up on more smalls.
And last but not least, always keep track of your sales! We can’t stress this enough.
As we mentioned above, we used historical sales data to discover this size breakdown. Even if you think this may be a one time order, there’s always the chance of a re-order, and it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
Be sure to note if you ran out of a particular size more quickly than the others, if you have a bunch of one size leftover, or any other kind of buying patterns you may encounter along the way. When your event is finished, get an end count of leftover sizes and compare that to what you ordered. You can learn a lot this way.
All of these details will help you adjust your breakdown later down the road.
We can help you choose the most common shirt sizes for your order!
One final tip! If you’re still unsure of what to do, contact us!
We have been in the t-shirt business for well over a decade. This experience has provided us the expertise and knowledge to help guide you through your t-shirt creation journey.
We have plenty of reps who are more than happy to talk through the details of your order with you. No one should have to navigate the waters of custom t-shirt ordering alone!
You can fill out the contact form on our contact page today to get started. You’ll be amazed at how quickly we respond and how helpful we can be!
Still unsure, we have over 200 reviews on Google and a 4.9 star rating! Listen to the hundreds of happy customers that have worked with us in the past.
“One of the best customer service experiences I ever had. All the details and products were described in detail by the BM team.” – Alexander
“Thank you Barrel Maker Printing team for providing OUTSTANDING service and quality. My project for the initial launch put me under immense pressure and it made all the difference that I could ask the questions I needed for clarity and have prompt and detailed responses.” – Kye
“We have been doing business with this company for several years now and have not had any bad experience’s ever–Great company , always made deadlines, and friendly hard working people” – Wayne
“I love my shirt I should have ordered 20 more! Thanks guys” – Kesha
“If you are looking for a printer for t-shirts look no further. I have ordered from Barrel Maker Printing multiple times and they are second to none! Top of the line t-shirts used and the printing is very clear and precise. Reasonably priced and they ship quickly! Looking forward to future business with them.” – Diane
What are you waiting for? Get your order started today!
Put your trust in Barrel Maker and never have to worry about choosing the right sizes ever again!
Contact us about your shirt order today!