If you’ve started pricing out custom scrubs for a clinic, practice, or hospital department, you’ve probably noticed the numbers are all over the place — $6 a top on one site, $28 on another, with embroidery fees that seem to appear out of nowhere. That spread isn’t random. It comes down to three variables that determine what you’ll actually pay: fabric grade, order quantity, and how the logo gets applied. Once you know where those numbers come from, a quote either looks fair or it doesn’t.
This guide walks through what custom scrubs actually cost at each stage — fabric, embroidery or print, minimum order quantities, and turnaround — using published pricing from scrub manufacturers and embroidery vendors, so you can budget a real order instead of guessing from a “request a quote” button.
Source: Lano Wear (lanowear.com); Scrub Authority, The Right Scrubs, Scrubs & Beyond, Blue Sky Scrubs, 2026
How much do custom scrubs actually cost?
Scrub pricing splits into three rough tiers based on fabric quality and brand positioning. According to pricing data published by scrub manufacturer Lano Wear, economy poly-cotton scrubs run $4 to $8 per piece wholesale, mid-tier fabric blends land at $9 to $15, and performance or recognizable-brand styles climb to $15 to $28 — with a handful of premium branded sets passing $30. That’s the garment cost before any logo work goes on it.
The gap between tiers mostly comes down to fabric weight and construction, not marketing. A 220 GSM poly-cotton top with two pockets and straight seams sits at the bottom of the range. A 4-way stretch performance blend with reinforced stitching, more pockets, and a contoured cut sits at the top. If a quote for custom scrubs comes in under $6 a top, ask what the fabric composition is — that price point usually means a basic poly-cotton weave, which is fine for a stockroom but wears out faster on a 12-hour clinical shift.
Order volume moves the number too. Fixed costs — pattern-making, cutting markers, and setup — get spread across however many units you order, so unit price drops as volume rises even within the same fabric tier. A 50-piece order and a 500-piece order of the identical top will not land on the same per-unit price, even from the same factory.
Embroidery and logo costs, vendor by vendor
Once you’ve picked the garment, the logo is the second line item, and it’s usually quoted two ways: a per-piece embroidery charge and a one-time digitizing fee to convert your logo into a stitch file the embroidery machine can read. The digitizing fee is paid once per logo design, not per order, so it amortizes down fast if you’re reordering the same design for new hires later.
Per-piece embroidery pricing is fairly consistent across the vendors that publish it: most land between $6 and $9 for a standard left-chest logo under roughly 9,000 stitches. Digitizing fees vary more — some vendors bundle it into a lower ongoing per-piece rate, others charge closer to $95 upfront and keep the per-piece cost lower after that. If you’re only ordering a handful of tops now but expect to reorder for new staff over time, the vendor with the higher digitizing fee and lower per-piece rate usually wins over a year.
| Vendor | Per-item embroidery | One-time digitizing fee |
|---|---|---|
| Scrub Authority | $8.00 | $60.00 |
| The Right Scrubs | $7.00 | $95.00 |
| Scrubs & Beyond | $9.00 | Included with order |
| Blue Sky Scrubs | Priced per order | $50.00 |
Minimum order quantities: what to expect
This is where custom scrubs shopping gets confusing, because “minimum order” means different things depending on whether you’re buying from a factory or an embroidery-and-fulfillment vendor. Factory-direct custom programs, where the manufacturer is cutting and sewing a garment to your spec, typically want around 500 pieces per style to hit the lowest per-unit price — that’s the volume where a full production run, dedicated fabric dye lot, and packaging make sense for the factory. Some manufacturers have loosened this, offering 100–200 piece tiers with a smaller volume discount attached.
If 500 pieces is far more than your practice needs, you’re not stuck. Embroidery vendors working with pre-made stock scrub tops — rather than cutting custom garments — routinely accept orders of 10 to 24 pieces, and several explicitly advertise no minimum at all, embroidering a single top for one new hire at the same per-unit price as a 50-piece order. The tradeoff is fabric selection: you’re choosing from the vendor’s existing stock colors and cuts rather than specifying your own fabric blend or garment pattern.
For a first order, it’s worth matching the MOQ path to your actual need. A single-location practice outfitting a 15-person staff is a better fit for a no-minimum embroidery vendor. A multi-site health system standardizing scrubs across departments is closer to factory-direct territory, where the 500-piece minimum stops being a barrier and starts being the point where pricing gets genuinely competitive.
Lead times: how long a custom order actually takes
Custom scrubs move through two production stages, and both take real time. First comes the sample: the factory cuts and sews one or a few units so you can check fabric hand, fit, color match, and logo placement before committing to volume. That typically takes 10 to 15 working days. Once you approve the sample, bulk production starts, and that stage runs another 30 to 40 working days for a full custom order.
Shipping is on top of both of those numbers and isn’t included in “production lead time” quotes unless a vendor says otherwise. Add roughly a week to ten days for express air freight, or four to six weeks if the order ships by sea — a route some overseas manufacturers default to on larger orders to hold the price down. Altogether, a fully custom order with an unapproved sample can run eight to twelve weeks from first order to delivery. If you need scrubs sooner than that, a no-minimum embroidery vendor working from in-stock garments is the faster path — those typically ship in one to two weeks since there’s no fabric cutting or dye-lot wait involved.
Fabric specs worth checking before you order
Two numbers matter more than marketing copy when you’re comparing scrub fabric: GSM (grams per square meter, a proxy for weight and durability) and spandex percentage (which determines how much stretch and recovery the fabric has). Scrub fabric commonly sits around 220 to 240 GSM, and blends run anywhere from a lightweight 93/7 poly-spandex performance weave up to heavier poly-rayon-spandex combinations near 72/21/7. Spandex content in stretch scrubs generally falls in the 3 to 25 percent range blended with polyester, cotton, or rayon.
Heavier GSM fabric holds up better to frequent industrial laundering and resists pilling longer, which matters if your scrubs are going through a hospital laundry service rather than a home washer. But it also runs warmer over a 12-hour shift. Lighter, higher-spandex blends move more and breathe better, at some cost to long-term durability. If your team is standing and moving for full shifts, ask the vendor for the specific GSM and fiber blend rather than trusting a generic “stretch” or “performance” label — those terms aren’t standardized and get used loosely across the industry.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the minimum order for custom scrubs?
It depends on the vendor type. Factories that cut and sew scrubs to your own spec generally want around 500 pieces per style for the best pricing, though some now offer 100–200 piece tiers. Embroidery vendors working from pre-made stock scrub tops often accept 10–24 pieces, and several advertise no minimum at all for a single embroidered top.
How much does it cost to put a logo on scrubs?
Standard left-chest embroidery on scrubs typically runs $6 to $9 per garment, based on published pricing from vendors including Scrub Authority, The Right Scrubs, and Scrubs & Beyond. On top of that, expect a one-time digitizing fee of roughly $50 to $95 to convert your logo into a stitch file — that fee is paid once per design, not per order.
How long does a custom scrubs order take to arrive?
A fully custom order — new fabric, new pattern — typically needs 10 to 15 working days for a sample and 30 to 40 working days for bulk production after you approve it, plus shipping. Total time from order to delivery is often eight to twelve weeks. Ordering from a no-minimum vendor using in-stock garments is faster, usually one to two weeks, since there’s no cutting or dye-lot wait.
What fabric should I choose for custom scrubs?
Most scrub fabric runs 220–240 GSM with a polyester base blended with spandex, cotton, or rayon for stretch. Heavier GSM fabric holds up better to frequent industrial laundering but runs warmer on long shifts; lighter, higher-spandex blends breathe better but wear faster. Ask any vendor for the specific GSM and fiber percentages rather than relying on labels like “performance” or “stretch,” which aren’t standardized.
Is it cheaper to order scrub tops and pants separately or as a set?
Sets are usually priced lower per piece than buying a top and pant individually, since the vendor is running one combined production and packaging batch. Basic wholesale sets run roughly $9–$14, compared to buying a $4–$7 top and $5–$8 pant separately — the combined pricing typically saves a small amount per unit at the same fabric grade.
The bottom line
The custom scrubs quotes that look wildly different usually aren’t measuring the same thing — one is pricing economy poly-cotton at low volume, another is quoting a performance blend with a 500-piece factory minimum. Before you compare numbers across vendors, pin down three things: the fabric grade and GSM, whether the price includes the digitizing fee or just the per-piece embroidery charge, and whether you’re buying factory-direct or from a no-minimum stock embroiderer. Match the order path to your actual headcount — a 12-person practice and a 400-bed hospital system have no business shopping the same MOQ tier — and the pricing stops looking random.