1330 S Santa Fe Ave, Suite 102
Los Angeles, CA 90021
By appointment only.
T-Shirt & Tank Top Manufacturer Los Angeles
Essentials Made is a garment-dyed t-shirt and tank top manufacturer in Los Angeles.
100% cotton jersey, cut and sewn in the Arts District of Downtown LA, then dyed as finished garments to your Pantone color. Lightweight 40/1 through heavyweight 20/1.
All t-shirt manufacturing happens on our own floor — patterns, cutting, sewing, QC and finishing — with garment dyeing a few blocks away.
Have patterns already? Send them. Don't have patterns yet? Send a tee you love and we replicate it — pattern, grading and sample, all made here.
For the full picture of how production works here, see our Los Angeles clothing and apparel manufacturer guide. Already running a program? Start with cut and sew manufacturing.
T-shirt manufacturers — what we make
Most start from a stock garment and decorate it. We build the tee itself.
Most t-shirt manufacturers start from a stock garment and decorate it. We build the tee itself, from your pattern, in fabric knit for your run.
As t-shirt garment manufacturers we handle the whole chain. The garment is cut and sewn first in greige fabric, which is fabric that has not been dyed yet. Then it goes to our Los Angeles dye house as a finished piece. That is what gives a garment-dyed tee its tonal, lived-in color.
Brands comparing t-shirt clothing manufacturers usually find two kinds of shop. One decorates existing garments. The other builds them. We are the second kind.
Classic and boxy-fit t-shirts
Heavyweight and vintage-wash tees
Tank tops and muscle tees
Long sleeve tees
Cropped and oversized fits
Coordinated tee and short sets
Kids and toddler tees
Tees in organic cotton
As a custom t-shirt manufacturer we work from your spec, not from a catalog. Pattern making, grading, cutting, sewing, QC and finishing happen in house. Garment dyeing runs through our Los Angeles dye house partner.
Kids and toddler tees run on the same program as adult sizes. They use less fabric, but the pattern work, the sewing operations and the handling are the same, so they price the same as the adult style. Worth knowing before you plan a family or mini-me drop.
Start your t-shirt or tank project in Los Angeles
Tell us the weight, the fit and the quantity you are planning. We reply within one business day.
Prefer email? Email us your project. Include your brand, Instagram, whether you are currently selling, pieces per style, what you want to make, and a description of your project.
An American t-shirt manufacturer, made in Los Angeles
Nothing finished offshore. Nothing imported and relabeled.
Brands looking for a t-shirt manufacturer in the USA are usually solving one of two problems. Either they want shorter lead times than an overseas program allows, or they need to say the garment is made here and mean it.
We are a 100% cotton t-shirt manufacturer working only in US-knit fabric, cut and sewn in Los Angeles. Nothing is finished offshore and nothing is imported and relabeled.
That applies across the program. Most American t-shirt manufacturers and tank top manufacturers in the USA either hold stock or sew to order. We do neither — we knit the fabric for your run, then build to your pattern.
We are a registered garment manufacturer and SB62 compliant, which is the first thing an established brand checks before placing production.
Tank top manufacturing in Los Angeles
Tanks share a jersey spec and a dye lot with your tees.
Tanks share a jersey spec and a dye lot with your tees. That is the practical reason to run them together.
When two jersey styles use the same fabric and go through the same dye bath, the color matches across both. A tee and a tank from the same run read as one set. Ordered separately, they rarely do.
As tank top manufacturers we produce classic tanks, ribbed tanks, muscle tees and cropped tanks in the same 100% cotton jersey as the tee program.
Jersey weights — 40/1, 30/1 and 20/1
The number is the yarn count. Higher number, finer yarn, lighter fabric.
The number is the yarn count. A higher number means a finer yarn, which makes a lighter fabric. 40/1 is the finest and lightest. 20/1 is the thickest and heaviest. The "/1" means single-ply.
GSM is grams per square meter, the standard way to describe fabric weight. These are the three jerseys we run.
40/1 lightweight
140 GSM
Soft, fluid drape. The classic fashion tee weight. Our lowest minimum.
30/1 midweight
160–180
GSM. The everyday premium tee. Holds shape better than 40/1, still drapes.
20/1 heavyweight
200–220
GSM. Structured, boxy, substantial. The weight most heavyweight tee brands use.
Heavier jersey costs more per yard and takes more dye, so the price per piece rises with the weight. Heather grey and tri-blend need a cotton-poly yarn rather than 100% cotton, which is a tradeoff worth talking through before you choose.
Minimums, and what sets them
Minimums come from the mill, not from us.
Minimums come from the mill, not from us. Fabric is knit to order for your run, and a knitting machine has to run a certain length to be worth setting up.
Depending on the fabric and the quality, the mill's minimum knit can start around 600 yards and goes up from there. That yardage is what sets the piece count, not a house rule.
40/1 lightweight
From 150 pieces per style
30/1 and 20/1
Usually 300 pieces per style
Colors
Split your run across colors with no separate per-color minimum. 300 pieces in three colors is 100 of each.
Sizes
Split evenly by size, or weighted to your sales history
Organic cotton
Roughly 2,000 yards minimum from the mill — about 1,500 tees. More if GOTS certification is required.
Organic cotton sits in a different place entirely. It is never shelf stock, so the mill knits it to order like everything else, but the minimum run is much larger. Around 2,000 yards is the usual floor, which works out near 1,500 tees in one fabric.
GOTS-certified organic raises that again. Certification follows the fiber through every step, so the certified mills carry their own minimums on top. If a manufacturer quotes you 200 or 300 units in certified organic, ask what they are quoting. It is usually existing stock or a fixed colorway, not fabric knit for your run.
None of this is our rule. These are the mill's numbers, and you will meet them at any US cut-and-sew manufacturer. Tell us early if organic matters to you and we will work out the yardage against your style count before anything else.
Production pricing
Working ranges for 100% cotton garment-dyed tees, cut, sewn, dyed and QC'd in LA.
These are working ranges for 100% cotton garment-dyed tees, cut, sewn, dyed and QC'd in Los Angeles. Unlike a t-shirt manufacturing company quoting off stock garments, the number moves with the weight you choose and how the style is built.
300 pieces per style
$18 – $25
per piece
40/1 at the lower end, 20/1 heavyweight at the upper end
150 pieces per style
From $20
per piece
40/1 lightweight. Smaller runs carry more of the setup cost per piece.
Tee development
$300
into production
$600 for development only
Price per style moves with construction. A binding neck, a contrast rib, a chest pocket, a side slit or hand distressing each add labor, so two tees at the same weight can price differently. We quote once we see the style.
Pricing excludes trims, printing and embroidery. Those are billed to you directly by the partners who make them.
Development covers the pattern, the fabric and one finished sample, garment-dyed in a single color. If you are producing with us, half the development fee comes off up front. If you only want the pattern and sample, the full fee applies. Half of it is then credited toward production, as long as you start within two months of approving the sample.
Want more than one color at sample stage? Additional colorways are lab dips at $120 per color.
Trims, printing and embroidery
All billed to you directly by the partners who make them.
Trims and labels
We work with Tag Time, a trim maker two miles from our floor. Neck labels, care and size labels, hang tags and poly bags. They can make whatever you want, you pay them directly, and we sew everything in. If you already have a trim supplier you like, that works too.
Printing and embroidery
Both go to partner contractors who bill you directly. We handle the scheduling and QC the finished piece. These costs never sit inside our invoice.
Timeline
Production runs 6–7 weeks after your deposit. That is 2–3 weeks to knit the fabric, then 4 weeks production. Development adds about 2 weeks before that when pattern or sample work comes first.
Ready to start?
Use the form at the top of this page — every project starts there. Prefer email? Email us your project. Include your brand, Instagram, whether you are currently selling, pieces per style, what you want to make, and a description of your project.