Verified published price grids (all CAD, 1-colour / 1-location, garment included unless noted):
Donkey Tees (Mississauga, 905-282-9292) — cheapest published grid: - up to 24 pcs: $9.58 each - up to 49 pcs: $8.03 each - up to 99 pcs: $6.82 each - 24-hour rush available
Unimpressed Screen Printing (Gildan 980 Softstyle / Bella+Canvas 3001): - 12–24: $13.00 / $14.00 - 25–49: $12.00 / $13.00 - 50–74: $11.00 / $12.00 - 100–149: $9.75 / $10.75
Sterling Screen Printing (Toronto) — ballpark: 1-colour front on a quality blank, 50 pcs $10–14; 200 pcs $7–9; 8-colour DTF $14–20 at any quantity.
Printing Uncle (East York, 16 Bermondsey Rd) — 24-piece minimum, $35 screen setup fee, blanks from ~$4 (Gildan 5000); prints both screen and DTF and will tell you which is cheaper.
Vistaprint could not be price-verified — its pricing is generated live per design/quantity, so there is no published grid to quote. Treat it as the convenience option, not the cheap one; the GTA shops above are local (no shipping, no duty, no 2-week wait).
| Route | Per design | Both brands (25 each) |
|---|---|---|
| Donkey Tees, 25 pcs @ $8.03 | $200.75 | $401.50 |
| Unimpressed, 25 pcs @ $12.00 (Gildan 980) | $300.00 | $600.00 |
| Printing Uncle, 24 pcs, blanks ~$4 + $35 setup | ~$131 + print | ask — they quote per job |
| Vistaprint | unverified | — |
Two designs means two setups — there is no combined-run discount. 24–25 pieces is the price cliff: going to 50 per design drops the per-shirt to ~$11 (Unimpressed) or ~$6.82 (Donkey, 49+). If the plan is ever to give shirts to clients, order 50 and pay less per unit than 25.
Die-cut vinyl, 3" × 3", free shipping to Canada, 4-day turnaround: - 10 → $9 - 50 → $60 - 100 → $73–$91 (Sticker Mule's own FAQ uses $88 for 100 3"×3") - 200 → $95–$127 - 500 → $152–$220 Their proofing pass adjusts the price down if your artwork's real size is smaller than ordered — so upload at the final size, don't guess large.
Both brands at 100 stickers each: ~$176. At 50 each: ~$120. Cheaper per sticker at 200+ but there's no reason to hold 400 stickers of a two-person brand.
Both logos should be built to the cheapest, most durable spec:
1. One colour, pure black on white for the screen-print version (a second colour doubles the setup and the per-piece print cost). Colour version can exist separately for web.
2. Vector only: SVG or PDF with outlined text. Printers reject or re-charge for raster JPGs.
3. Wordmark + optional mark: the name must be legible at 3" sticker size and at 3" chest-print size. Test by shrinking to 25 mm wide.
4. Sticker needs 2–3 mm bleed and a cut path — Sticker Mule cuts to the artwork outline, so the design must have a defined outer shape.
5. CADsmart: industrial/technical register — geometric, tight letter-spacing, no gradients, works embroidered and screen-printed.
6. Protonotebook: warmer, more product-like, but same one-colour discipline. If a notebook/cover mockup matters, the logo must survive being printed 40 mm wide on a spine.
7. Deliver: logo_black.svg, logo_colour.svg, sticker_cutline.ai/svg, plus a 2000 px PNG for socials.
Donkey Tees for 25 shirts per brand (~$400 both, or ~$340 at 50) and Sticker Mule at 100 each (~$176) — ~$580 all-in for real branded merch for both companies, before HST. Order one sample shirt and one sample sticker pack first ($9 sticker sample), which is what the "order samples" step is for.
The logos. Neither brand has artwork yet — that's the Canva/design step, and it's the gate on every quote. Once there's an SVG, the quotes above convert to orders in about ten minutes.