How much can you make printing shirts from home with DTF transfers?
Buy DTF sheets from $3.50, press them at home and sell shirts. Startup costs and profit scenarios from 10 to 50 shirts a week.
By PrintingDTF, College Point, NY ·
Printing and selling your own shirts from home sounds like a big investment. It doesn't have to be. If you buy your DTF transfers instead of buying a printer, your startup is a heat press, a stack of blank shirts and your first order of sheets. Below is the math, step by step, so you can see what it could look like for you.
Important: the numbers below are examples, not promises. The transfer prices are PrintingDTF's actual prices. The blank shirt cost, the selling price and the number of sales are assumptions you should replace with your own. Your results depend on your designs, your market and how much you sell.
What it costs to start
- Transfers from PrintingDTF: $5 per 12" × 12" sheet for 1–4 sheets, $4.50 for 5–9, $4 for 10–24 and $3.50 each from 25 sheets. No minimum, no setup fees, free layout.
- A heat press: this is the main tool you need. Entry-level presses cost a few hundred dollars (check current prices before you buy; we're using $300 in the example).
- Blank shirts: plan on roughly $4 each in the example. Price varies by brand and quantity.
- Shipping: free delivery in College Point (11356). Elsewhere, transfers ship for a flat $6, free on orders over $150.
Compare that with running your own DTF printer: $5,000 to $20,000 for the printer, shaker and dryer, plus clogged heads, wasted ink and film, and time spent fixing a machine instead of selling. When you buy your sheets from us, we print every day on a machine that never sits idle, and you keep the press and the selling.
How much does each shirt cost you?
A 12" × 12" sheet fits one full-front design (up to 11.5" × 11.5") or about six left-chest logos. For this example, one full-front design per shirt:
- Transfer sheet at the 25+ price: $3.50
- Blank shirt: $4.00 (assumption)
- Total: $7.50 per shirt, before packaging and shipping
If you sell left-chest logos or small designs, you can fit several on one sheet and your transfer cost per shirt drops. For example, 6 logos on one $3.50 sheet is about $0.58 per logo.
What you could earn: three scenarios
Let's say you sell each shirt for $25 (assumption). Your profit per shirt is $25 − $7.50 = $17.50, before the press, card fees, shipping, ads and taxes.
- Side hustle: 10 shirts a week. Revenue $250, cost $75, profit about $175 a week, or about $700 a month.
- Serious side business: 25 shirts a week. Revenue $625, cost $187.50, profit about $437.50 a week, or about $1,750 a month.
- Full-time push: 50 shirts a week. Revenue $1,250, cost $375, profit about $875 a week, or about $3,500 a month.
These are before-expenses figures. Take out card and platform fees, packaging, shipping, anything you spend on ads, and your taxes to get what you actually keep.
How fast can you pay back the press?
With a $300 press (assumption) and $17.50 profit per shirt, you recover the press after about 18 shirts. Sell 10 a week and that's roughly your second week. If your press costs more or your price is lower, the number changes, so run it with your own figures.
Start small: your first order
You don't need to order 100 sheets. A starter order could be 10 sheets at $4 each = $40, with different designs mixed on the sheets. Add 10 blank shirts at $4 = $40. You've invested $80 in product, and if you sell all 10 shirts at $25, you collect $250.
Once you know which designs sell, order 25 or more sheets to get the $3.50 price.
Where to sell
- Instagram and WhatsApp to friends, family and your neighborhood.
- Local businesses that need uniforms or logo shirts: restaurants, barbershops, delivery crews, daycares.
- Teams, school events, family reunions, quinceañeras and holidays.
- Markets and pop-ups on weekends.
- An online store once you have designs that sell.
Selling custom orders to businesses and groups gets you a higher price per shirt than selling one design to everyone, because the customer is paying for the design work and the convenience.
Ways to make more per shirt
- Charge more for back prints, names and numbers, or custom designs.
- Offer bundles: three shirts for a set price.
- Add hoodies, kids' sizes and tote bags. DTF presses on cotton, polyester, blends, nylon, canvas and denim.
- Repeat designs that already sell instead of starting a new one every week.
What you need to do right
- Design files: send a transparent PNG at 300 DPI at the real print size. See our DTF file setup guide.
- Pressing: most of our transfers press at 300–315 °F for 10–15 seconds with medium pressure. Follow our pressing guide.
- Quality: test your first shirts, wash one, and keep your best photos for your page.
Ready to try it?
Upload your designs, we lay them out for free, print them and have them ready the next day. See our DTF transfer prices or join the launch list to get started.
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