Minku Apparel is a custom t-shirt manufacturer for New York brands, producing boxy heavyweight tees from 50 pieces per design with full private-label finishing. We run 180 to 240 GSM combed cotton, decorate in-house with screen print, DTG, and embroidery, sample before bulk, and ship DDP to your New York door in roughly 5 to 8 days by air. In the city that wrote the rules of American streetwear, this is the factory behind the tee your label is built on.
This page covers how we make tees for the New York market: the cotton weights and cuts that stand up downtown, in-house decoration and private labelling, MOQ and pricing in dollars, sampling, and DDP shipping with US duty already handled.
Why the tee is everything in New York
New York is the birthplace of much of US streetwear, and the graphic tee is its native language. From the Bronx and Brooklyn to the SoHo and Lower East Side shops that set the pace for the whole country, the box-logo heavyweight tee is the piece a label lives or dies on. NYC consumers have seen every blank and know the difference between a premium heavyweight and a cheap wholesale shirt on sight and on touch. A tee built for this city needs real weight, a boxy structured drop, and print quality that can sit on a rack next to the names New York already buys.
Cotton weight, fit, and cut for NYC
Weight is what separates a premium tee from a giveaway, and New York notices. We run combed cotton from a 180 GSM mid-weight to a dense 240 GSM heavyweight, in a boxy structured drop, a fitted classic, an oversized block, or a cropped cut. Ring-spun and combed yarns give a smooth print surface and a soft hand, and side seams, double-needle stitching, and a ribbed set-in collar keep the shirt sharp through hard wear and city laundry. For a year-round NYC program, a 220 to 240 GSM combed cotton is the heavyweight standard – heavy enough to carry the winter, still wearable in a humid summer. Every spec is logged so reorders match.
Decoration that makes a New York tee
The tee is where decoration earns its keep, and we run it all in-house. Screen print delivers bold, opaque graphics with plastisol or soft water-based inks, DTG handles photographic and multi-colour art with no minimum penalty, and puff or flat embroidery adds a premium chest or sleeve hit. All-over print, garment dye, acid wash, and tie-dye cover the vintage and washed looks NYC vintage culture loves. Every tee carries your woven inside label, neck tape, and hem tag – so it reads as your brand, not a decorated blank, the moment someone flips the collar in a Manhattan fitting room.
Screen print
Best for bold, limited-colour graphics and larger runs, with durable plastisol or soft water-based inks. Cost per unit drops as quantity climbs – ideal for the classic NYC box-logo tee at volume.
DTG
Prints photographic and multi-colour art directly into the cotton with no colour-count penalty, ideal for detailed art and smaller downtown drops. A dense combed-cotton face holds the detail crisply.
MOQ and pricing in dollars
Minimum is 50 pieces per tee design, so a New York founder can test a graphic before scaling. Pricing is quoted in dollars and tracks cotton weight, fit, and decoration, dropping as you move into reorders. Because the tee is the volume driver for most NYC labels, consistency across reorders matters more than shaving pennies – so we price on a heavyweight blank that stays identical drop to drop. Request a quote for landed cost per unit in New York.
DDP shipping and duty to New York
Tees are light per unit, which makes air freight efficient, and we ship Delivered Duty Paid. DDP means US import duty and customs handling are already in your landed price – no broker bill after delivery. Air freight lands your tee order at a New York address in about 5 to 8 days once QC clears. Cotton knit tops carry their own US HTS duty rate, and under DDP we build that into your quote instead of leaving it at the border – clean math for setting your NYC retail price. Because tees pack flat and light, replenishing a sold-out drop is fast.
Ready to build the tee your New York label runs on? See the full custom t-shirt manufacturing program, explore the wider custom streetwear manufacturing range, and check MOQ and pricing. When you are ready, get your custom quote.
Custom T-Shirt Manufacturer in New York – Tees for NYC Streetwear Brands | Minku Apparel — In Detail
