Breweries, coffee shops, and restaurants are the best local accounts in printing, because they buy twice. Side one is retail merch — shirts and hats their regulars buy at the counter, where the garment is a badge of taste and cheap blanks kill sales. Side two is staff gear — shirts and aprons that get washed sixty times a season and hit with bleach, grease, and espresso. One account, two completely different blank strategies.
Retail merch: the badge tier
Walk into any successful taproom and count the Comfort Colors 1717s. The garment-dyed heavyweight tee owns this market because its washed, muted palette looks like vintage merch the day it’s printed — and it retails at $28–$32 without resistance. (Our full 1717 review covers colors and print notes.) For coffee shops with a softer, more minimal brand, the Gildan Softstyle 64000 and BELLA+CANVAS 3001 keep the retail feel at a lower blank cost — margin room for smaller print runs.
Round out the counter display with a Gildan 18500 hoodie for winter, a Richardson 112 with a woven patch or embroidery, and cuffed beanies from October on. Hats and beanies are the impulse buys — they sit by the register and need no size run.
Staff gear: the survival tier
Staff shirts need color that survives industrial washing — dark-bodied, tough, replaceable. The Gildan 5000 in black or dark heather is the kitchen standard at ~$3.20: cheap enough to hand every new hire three, tough enough to last a season. Front-of-house teams step up to the Softstyle or a tri-blend for a fitted look.
The apron is where a print shop shows off. The Artisan Collection Organic Cotton Bib Apron (~$9) embroiders beautifully for coffee bars, and the heavier Annex Oxford Bib Apron suits full-service kitchens; the ripstop Utility 2.0 is the pick for BOH durability. An embroidered apron program at $25–$35 per piece is recurring revenue every time the restaurant hires.
The starter merch program
| Item | Blank cost | Printed cost | Retail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garment-dyed tee (CC 1717) | ~$8.50 | ~$13 | $28–$32 |
| Soft tee (Softstyle 64000) | ~$4 | ~$8 | $20–$25 |
| Hoodie (Gildan 18500) | ~$13.50 | ~$18.50 | $45–$55 |
| Hat (Richardson 112, patch) | ~$6.65 | ~$11 | $28–$32 |
| Embroidered apron (RP102) | ~$9.30 | ~$15 | $25–$35 |
Where a $30 taproom tee goes
Retail price (Comfort Colors 1717, one-color print): $30.00
Brewery margin$17.00
Blank$8.50
Printing$4.50
The garment-dyed blank costs more — and earns more: nobody pays $30 for a thin promo tee.
Selling the program, not the print run
- Pitch a capsule, not a shirt: one tee, one hoodie, one hat — 36/24/24 pieces. Small enough to say yes to, structured enough to reorder.
- One-color prints on garment-dye. The blank carries the aesthetic; a single-color print keeps setup cheap and looks intentional.
- Put reorders on a calendar. Check in before summer patio season and before the holidays — the two merch spikes in F&B.
- Bundle staff + retail. Print staff shirts in the same run as merch and give the owner one invoice — you become the apparel vendor, not a print vendor.
Everything above — Comfort Colors, Gildan, BELLA+CANVAS, Richardson, and the Artisan Collection aprons — ships from B2B Sportswear at true wholesale with no minimums and automatic quantity breaks, same-day from US warehouses nationwide. A 36-piece capsule and a 300-piece reorder get the same account.
FAQ
What is the best shirt for brewery merch?
The Comfort Colors 1717 is the industry default — its garment-dyed, vintage look fits taproom branding and supports a $28–$32 retail price. Coffee shops with minimal branding often prefer the softer Gildan Softstyle 64000 or BELLA+CANVAS 3001.
How much should a restaurant charge for merch?
Standard F&B retail is 2.5–3× the printed cost: a tee that costs $11 printed sells at $28–$32, a hoodie at $45–$55. Merch that’s priced too low reads as staff surplus, not brand goods.
What aprons are best for embroidery?
Cotton bib aprons like the Artisan Collection RP102 (organic cotton) or RP144 Oxford hoop cleanly and hold a left-chest logo well. Ripstop utility aprons suit back-of-house where durability beats looks.
Where can I buy blank merch apparel wholesale for a restaurant?
B2B Sportswear carries all the blanks in this guide at wholesale pricing with no minimum order and no membership fee, shipping blind the same day from the nearest US warehouse.