UNITEE / Practical buying guide
How Should Gyms Order Custom Shirts? Four Options That Actually Work
Samples, preorders, limited-run webstores, or ready-to-sell stock items? The right choice depends on how your gym sells, how much work you want to do, and how much risk you're willing to carry.
The goal isn't to make shirts available. It's to get shirts sold, worn, and seen around your community without turning the gym owner into a merch manager.
After helping independent gyms with Murph, The Open, staff gear, and seasonal releases, we keep coming back to four useful models: one-offs and samples, preorders collected at the gym, limited-run webstores, and stock items for the retail area.
In our experience, preorders offer the best combination for most gyms: healthy margin, very little unsold inventory, more shirts actually making it onto members, and manageable admin work when you use simple collection tools.
Start with your goal. Are you testing a shirt, creating a member drop, reaching buyers online, or keeping proven favorites ready for walk-in traffic?
Four Ways to Run Your Next Order
One-offs and samples
Use when: you need to check fit, feel, print placement, or an unfamiliar garment before making a commitment.
Don't use when: the decision is already straightforward. Sampling every familiar garment and every revision can add expense and slow the entire project.
UNITEE can review qualifying below-minimum requests individually. Published one-off pricing for premium T-shirts starts at $25+ per garment.
Preorders collected at your gym
Use when: you have a real member community and want to build excitement around Murph, The Open, an anniversary, or a seasonal release.
Why we like them: members commit before production, the inventory is largely spoken for, and your gym can earn a good margin without taking on a warehouse of risk.
Don't use when: nobody can communicate the drop, collect orders, or close out the quantities by the deadline.
UNITEE provides an automated preorder spreadsheet to make collecting and tallying sizes easier. A few simple payment and signup tools can keep this manageable.
Limited-run webstores
Use when: you need a central checkout, buyers are spread across locations, or you want the least amount of collection work for your staff.
The catch: webstores reduce administrative effort but usually require the most deliberate promotion, both inside the gym and online. A link by itself rarely creates demand.
Don't use when: nobody will champion the campaign or remind members that the buying window is closing.
UNITEE offers approved limited-run stores with no upfront setup fee. Suitability depends on the project and likely participation.
Stock items
Use when: you're established, have predictable demand, run multiple locations, or receive regular drop-ins who want to take a shirt home today.
Why they can be profit maximizers: you commit upfront, control the retail display and availability, and can capture impulse purchases. That also means you carry the inventory risk.
Especially strong for: core logo apparel and destination gyms in places like Hawaii or Key West, where the location itself helps sell the shirt.
Don't use when: you haven't learned which designs, colors, and sizes reliably sell.
Which Order Type Fits Your Gym?
| What you're trying to do | Our recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Test an unfamiliar garment or print treatment | Sample | Resolve real uncertainty before committing, without turning sampling into an endless step. |
| Launch Murph, event, or seasonal shirts to members | Preorders | Known demand, good margin potential, and a natural reason to promote the shirt inside the gym. |
| Let buyers at different locations pay individually | Limited run webstore | Centralized checkout with less admin for staff, provided promotion is strong. |
| Sell everyday logo shirts at the front desk | Stock items | Immediate availability for members and drop-ins, especially when sizes and designs are proven. |
| Sell shirts at a destination gym in Key West or Hawaii | Stock items | Travelers can buy a wearable memory of the location before leaving. |
| Outfit coaches in multiple colors or styles | Preorders | Collect accurate sizes and quantities without tying up money in extras. |
These are starting recommendations, not fixed rules. The same gym may use different methods for different collections.
The UNITEE experience
Preorders Usually Give Gyms the Best of Both Worlds
A good preorder is more than a spreadsheet. It creates a short window when members see the artwork, talk about the drop, choose their sizes, and commit. Then you order what people actually want.
That means good profit potential without guessing at inventory. And with a straightforward form, payment process, and UNITEE's automated tally sheet, the gym isn't buried in manual work.
A webstore can eliminate more of that collection work. But our experience is that the easier the checkout becomes for the owner, the more important deliberate promotion becomes. Offline reminders and online communication have to work together.
The coaches matter. They aren't required to become cheerleaders, but a coach showing a sample and mentioning the drop during class huddles, before and after workouts, will often do more than another social post. Repeat the announcement throughout the ordering window. Members buy what they see their community excited about.
Know the Economics Before You Choose
The ordering method and the production price are different decisions. How you collect and sell shirts determines inventory exposure and potential margin; garment selection, decoration, quantity, artwork, and service level determine the price.
The dollar amounts below are examples for a premium T-shirt blank. Popular items such as hoodies, sweatshirts, joggers, and other apparel are priced differently based on the garment and decoration.
Premium T-shirt / Qualifying one-offs
$25+
Published starting per-piece pricing for qualifying small T-shirt requests. Useful when a sample answers an important question.
Premium T-shirt / Full service
$11–$25
Typical per-shirt range for a premium blank, depending on artwork, decoration, quantity, and order details.
Retail stock at the gym
Higher upside. Higher risk.
Stock can maximize profit on proven sellers, whether tees, hoodies, or joggers. Your return depends on actual product cost, selling price, and sell-through.
Pricing clarification: The $25+ and $11–$25 examples refer to premium T-shirts, not hoodies, sweatshirts, joggers, or every garment UNITEE offers. Each product type is quoted separately. These are illustrative ranges, not guaranteed quotes. See UNITEE pricing for current details.
Whichever Method You Choose, Make the Program Net Positive.
Your apparel should generate a reasonable profit. But the bigger win is getting more members wearing it, building community, and putting your gym in front of people who haven't walked through the door yet. Don't sacrifice that opportunity to squeeze another dollar from a shirt.
Before you open orders
Engineer the Shirt to Sell
The order model can't rescue a bad product. Be strategic and intentional about the design, garment, price, and timing. Look at previous releases: which colors sold, which artwork got worn, what sizes moved, and what sat unsold? Share that history with UNITEE. It helps us make better recommendations.
Samples are useful when they remove a meaningful risk, particularly with new blanks or unfamiliar print treatments. But repeated sampling can slow the entire project. If you're using a garment and approach that already worked, don't create extra steps just because you can.
Long-tailed ideas suck.
We've seen a gym propose a sexualized inside joke that only four coaches and three members in the 3:00 afternoon class would understand. That's an audience of seven, not a merch program. If your goal is to sell shirts to the whole gym, the idea needs broader appeal. We make no apologies for speaking up when we believe a design won't sell.
That doesn't mean every shirt has to be safe or generic. It means knowing the difference between an intentionally limited novelty shirt and a design expected to carry the whole release.
A Successful Drop Takes Both Sides
UNITEE's job
Make the apparel worth buying.
Contribute design and garment expertise, recommend the right production approach, give candid feedback, and keep production milestones clear.
Your gym's job
Put the idea in front of members.
Share honest input and past sales lessons, approve artwork and milestones promptly, promote the launch actively, and make the buying deadline hard to miss.
We can make the shirt. We can't manufacture excitement inside your gym without your help. The best results come when both parties do their part.
Our Simple Preorder Playbook
- Review what worked. Share previous best sellers, popular colors, and the sizes members actually buy.
- Choose a focused collection. One or two strong designs beat a menu of loosely related options.
- Sample only when it helps. Check unfamiliar garments or techniques without slowing a proven order.
- Show members the product. Ask coaches to mention it repeatedly in class huddles, and post reminders online.
- Set a firm deadline and collect orders. Use simple payment and size tools, then organize the results in UNITEE's preorder spreadsheet.
- Approve quickly, then distribute. Timely feedback helps us keep production moving. Put finished shirts directly into members' hands.
Frequently Asked
What's UNITEE's standard minimum?
Our standard gym order minimum is 16 pieces per design. Garment colors and styles can be mixed within ordering guidelines. Samples and below-minimum requests are considered separately.
Are webstores easier than preorders?
Usually for collecting sizes and payments, yes. But a webstore demands strong promotion online and inside the gym. Preorders are often our first choice for the best balance of margin, sell-through, and effort.
When should a gym carry retail stock?
When demand is proven, you have space to display it, and members or drop-ins want to buy something immediately. Established, multi-location, and destination gyms are often strong candidates.
Do we need to make samples before every order?
No. Sample when there's a meaningful uncertainty about fit, garment feel, or decoration. Sampling every familiar item can add cost and unnecessary delays.
