At Pulse Merch in Cedar City, we screen print a lot of band shirts for Southern Utah acts, and the size split is the question that decides whether a run sells through or sits in a box. For a band’s first tee order, we start at roughly 15% Small, 28% Medium, 28% Large, 18% XL, 8% 2XL and 3% 3XL, then adjust for who actually comes to your shows. The rest of this article covers how we adjust it.
The starting split we use for bands
These are the numbers we work from on one men’s/unisex tee when a band has no sales history:
- Small: 15%
- Medium: 28%
- Large: 28%
- XL: 18%
- 2XL: 8%
- 3XL: 3%
On a 100-shirt run that is 15 S, 28 M, 28 L, 18 XL, 8 2XL and 3 3XL. It is flatter than what we use for a work crew, because a music crowd is a mix of body types, ages and genders, and a lot of fans buy a smaller, fitted size on purpose.
The public guides you will find land in a similar place. One group-order guide puts Medium at 25 to 30% and Large at 30 to 35% for mixed groups, which is a little heavier on Large than our band ratio. Treat any of these as a first draft. Your merch table will tell you more than a chart.
We keep a longer version of the same logic, including crew and club ratios, on our T-shirt size ratio page.
Working it out for a small run
Percentages stop making sense below about 40 shirts. A 3% share of 30 shirts is less than one shirt, and you end up deciding by rounding rules instead of math.
Here is how we would split a 60-shirt first run: 9 S, 17 M, 17 L, 11 XL, 5 2XL and 1 3XL. That adds up to 60. If someone in your circle needs a 3XL, you already have one. If nobody does, it is the one piece you can afford to be left with.
Rounding rules we follow:
- Round the odd shirts toward Large and XL, never toward Medium.
- Never order a size in a quantity of one unless you know who is buying it.
- If you must cut a size to hit a minimum, cut Small before 2XL.
On a 30-shirt run, a split of mostly L and M, a couple of S and XL, and maybe one 2XL is about as precise as the numbers can get. Anything finer is false accuracy.
Why Medium is the trap
Bands tend to pad the order with Medium because it feels like the safe middle. It is the size we see left in the box most often.
A fan who wears a Large will pull a Large down from the stack. A fan who wears a Medium will happily buy a Medium. But a Large-wearer will not squeeze into a Medium, and a Small-wearer will rarely buy a Medium unless it is cheap. So extra Mediums have a narrow audience and extra Larges have a wide one.
The usual advice agrees: when you are unsure, skew slightly larger, since a shirt that runs big is easier to wear than one that is too small. If you have spare budget for a buffer, put it in Large and XL.
A shop-floor mistake we see a lot
The most common problem is a band that reorders the exact same split after the first run. They sold out of Large and XL at the second show, and they still have eight Smalls, so they reorder 15% Small again because that was the plan.
The other one is a print that was sized for a Medium and then applied to every size. A big back print that looks right on an XL looks cramped on a Small and floats on a 3XL. When we run a mixed-size job, we flag whether the art should scale for the extreme sizes. Ask for it before the job goes to press, not after you see the proofs of the shirts.
Who comes to your shows changes the split
The ratio shifts with the room. Some adjustments we make:
- Heavier, older male crowd (metal, country, punk): move 5 points from Small and Medium into XL and 2XL.
- Younger, mixed crowd: keep Small at 15% or go a bit higher, and consider a women’s cut.
- College town shows: more Small and Medium, fewer 2XL and 3XL.
- Festival or tourist traffic: you will sell more Large, because people buy a shirt as a souvenir and size up for comfort.
If you play more than one kind of room, base the split on the room where you sell the most, not the one you like best. Compare against a show you have actually sold at. The advice from one indie merch guide is to adjust using audience at comparable shows, garment and fit history, size requests, stockouts and the current offer. That matches how we would do it.
Women’s cuts, youth and extended sizes
Women’s cuts. If a meaningful share of your fans are women, a separate women’s tee in a smaller run often sells better than a larger share of unisex Smalls. Keep it to one color and a few sizes, say S through XL, and treat it as its own SKU. Fit varies by brand, so check the specific blank’s size chart before you commit.
Youth. Only order youth if kids actually come to your shows. If they do, a small separate run in two or three sizes is plenty. We would not carve youth out of the adult split. If you cannot say which kids will buy one, skip it on the first run.
3XL and up. You only need a few, but a fan who wears a 3XL has fewer places to buy a shirt that fits and will buy from you if you have one. We keep this at around 3% on a band run, and we raise it on work-crew jobs.
International sizing. If you sell or tour outside the US, check how the blank is cut. Some brands run on a different sizing scale, and a Medium from one brand is not a Medium from another. We would confirm the size chart for the exact garment before ordering.
Track sizes as separate items
The best data you have is your own. Count every design, color and size as its own item with a known opening count, as this merch guide suggests, so a stockout is visible and not buried in a total.
At minimum, write down after every show:
- How many of each size you started with.
- How many you sold.
- When a size ran out, and at what point in the night.
That third line matters. A size that sold out at 9:30 p.m. cost you sales that never show up in the numbers. Tools exist for this. Merch Cat’s app is reported to track sales by size, style and quantity so sellers can avoid lost sales when a size is out, and atVenu’s tour reports include dollars per head, which helps you decide how many shirts a given crowd will absorb. A spreadsheet works fine too.
We go deeper on this in our guide to managing merch inventory.
Deciding the total before the split
The size split is a percentage of a total, so the total has to come first. Look at your last few shows and estimate how many shirts you move per head, then multiply by expected attendance for the next run. If you have never sold shirts, use a conservative number and plan a reorder instead of a big first run.
Screen printing gets cheaper per shirt as the count rises, but the savings do not justify 200 shirts you cannot sell. A realistic first run you can reorder from is better than a deep one in the wrong sizes. Our guide on how many shirts to order covers the quantity side.
Screen print or embroidery for band merch
For tees, screen printing is the default. A full-chest or back print on a cotton or cotton-blend tee holds up through many washes, and the per-shirt cost drops as quantity goes up. It is what we run for most bands, and our screen printing process page shows how a job moves through the shop.
Embroidery makes sense on hats, beanies, jackets and heavier garments, where a printed design would crack or sit badly on the fabric. A small embroidered logo on a hoodie or cap also stays sharp. But it is a poor fit for a large, detailed graphic on a thin tee, because the stitch count climbs and the shirt puckers.
That affects the size run too. Hats are one-size, so no breakdown is needed. Hoodies and jackets run bigger and cost more per piece, so we order fewer of them and weight the split heavier toward L, XL and 2XL, since people wear them with layers.
Our perspective
We would rather print you a smaller run in the right sizes than a big run in the wrong ones. Most of the reprints and leftover boxes we see come from the split, not from the print.
Because we produce everything in-house here in Cedar City, a band can come back after a weekend of shows, tell us which sizes sold out, and have the next run built on that. That feedback loop is the thing that actually improves a size breakdown, and it is easier when the shop is down the road instead of a national site with a queue.
Our starting ratio is a place to begin, and we expect you to move away from it. Send us your sales notes and we will help you rebuild the next split.
Cohen
Ordering your next band run with us
If you are in Southern Utah or shipping from anywhere in the US, we can help you set the size split, scale the art for the smallest and largest sizes, and run the job in-house. Send the show history you have, even if it is rough notes, and we will quote from there.
Start on our screen printing page or go to Pulse Merch to request a quote. For design prep, our printer-ready file checklist will save you a round of revisions.
FAQ
What is a good size breakdown for a first band shirt order?
For a first run on one men’s/unisex tee, we start at 15% Small, 28% Medium, 28% Large, 18% XL, 8% 2XL and 3% 3XL. On 100 shirts that is 15, 28, 28, 18, 8 and 3. Adjust it after your first few shows.
Should I order extra Mediums as a safety buffer?
Usually not. Mediums are the size most likely to stay in the box. If you want a buffer, add the extra shirts in Large and XL, which sell out first.
How do I split a very small run, like 30 shirts?
Skip the percentages. Order mostly Large and Medium, a couple of Small and XL, and maybe one 2XL. Round odd shirts toward Large and XL.
Do I need youth sizes?
Only if kids come to your shows and you know they buy. Make it a small separate run in two or three sizes, not a slice of the adult order.
Sources
- Shirt Order Size Distribution: What Sizes to Order for T-Shirts
- How to Sell Merch as an Independent Artist
- How Merch Cat Is Taming Music Merchandise for Artists
- Artist Account: Tour Reports Overview, atVenu Help Center