Tote bags · MOQ 500 pcs per design
Cotton canvas from 10oz to a heavyweight 12oz, plus drawstring pouches, jute shoppers and non-woven carriers. Every bag is cut and sewn to your dimensions, with the handle and print method chosen to match the load it has to carry — and quoted line by line so you can see exactly what the extra fabric buys.
Range
We quote every bag against the same brief, so you can see what the extra fabric actually buys. Our recommendation is to lead with 10–12oz canvas and treat the cheap end as a supporting line, not the flagship.
The default printed tote: 10oz cotton canvas, sized to your product, with the handle and print method chosen around how much weight it has to carry. This is the spec most brand retail and event programmes land on.
A heavyweight, wide-bodied canvas bag with a reinforced handle and full-colour printing or embroidery. This is the end of the range where the premium is real and where corporate programmes reorder annually.
A folded, pack-flat cotton pouch with a drawstring closure for jewellery, candles and apparel. Low unit cost, small carton volume, and a natural add-on item when you are already ordering totes.
PP non-woven is the cheapest reusable carrier on the market and behaves like it: priced by the cent, high competitor density, weak custom surcharge. Useful as a low-cost volume item, not as the line to build a margin on.
Jute and laminated linen sit above the cotton line at $0.98–1.85 a piece. Heavier and more structured than a cotton tote, and increasingly bought as a gift bag with a printed brand panel rather than as a give-away.
Our own 10oz canvas tote in two colourways — one natural, one dark-dyed, both carrying the CW Packing mark. It shows the two print routes side by side: screen print straight onto natural cloth, and a white underprint on dark canvas.
Fabric weight
A tote is priced by how much cotton is in it. Fabric is sold by weight per unit area, and you will see two units in quotes: ounces per square yard (oz) and grams per square metre (gsm). One ounce per square yard is about 34 gsm, so a 10oz canvas is roughly 340 gsm and a 12oz canvas roughly 405 gsm. A 6oz promotional blank is around 200 gsm — a third less cloth than the bag your customer keeps for years.
The difference shows up in three practical ways. A heavier fabric holds a crease and stands on a shelf instead of collapsing. It carries a heavier load without the handle stitching tearing out of the top edge. And it takes a denser print without the ink showing through as a halo on the reverse, which is why full-colour and embroidery work is normally quoted on 10oz and up.
That is also why logo size is the wrong thing to optimise. Enlarging a one-colour print costs far less than moving from 6oz to 12oz, because the screen or the embroidery head is set up once either way. When a quote comes back high, look at the fabric weight and the print method first — and the artwork size last.
Fabric weight
Published factory bands put canvas totes anywhere from $0.40 to $6.37 a piece — a sixteen-fold spread that has almost nothing to do with the size of the print. The bottom of that range is blank 6oz promotional stock sold by the thousand. The top is a heavyweight 12oz wide-bodied tote with full-colour printing or an embroidered mark, quoted at $2.84–6.37 at 500 pcs.
We would rather tell you where the money is. Corporate gifting and brand retail programmes pay for fabric they can feel, they print and embroider on it, and they come back every year. That is the line we lead with: 10–12oz canvas, reinforced handles, and a print method chosen for your artwork rather than for the cheapest option available.
The give-away end behaves like the non-woven market below it — a few cents of difference decides the order, and there is no room for a premium in either. Quote both if you want, but do not expect the $0.40 bag to pay for the brand work.
Printing
The method is chosen per position and per artwork, so there is no single right answer. This is the comparison we give buying teams before they commit to a design.
| Print method | Best at | Where it fails | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen print | Bold flat colour on heavy canvas, and the cheapest way to print one to three colours in volume | Photographs and gradients. A separate screen is needed for every colour, so the cost climbs fast with a full-colour logo | One- or two-colour marks on 10–12oz totes |
| DTG (direct to garment) | Full-colour artwork, fine linework and short runs, with no screen setup charge | Softer and less opaque on dark or very heavy canvas, and the least durable of the four under repeated washing | Sampling, launches, detailed illustration |
| Embroidery | A raised, tactile mark on heavyweight fabric that survives washing and years of use | Priced by stitch count, so fine detail and small text fill in; needs a digitised stitch file, which is a one-off cost | Corporate gifting and bag-plus-cap programmes |
| Heat transfer | Photographic full colour on one or two positions without screens | Can crack or peel if the fabric is not flat and the press is not dialled in; less premium in the hand than embroidery | All-over prints, detailed artwork, mid-volume runs |
Construction
A tote fails at the handle, not in the middle of the panel. The load runs from your hand into two attachment points, and everything we do in construction is about spreading that load over more fabric.
We specify a reinforced top fold with internal webbing or a double-stitched bar-tack at each end of the handle, and size the stitch to the load you tell us the bag has to carry. If it is going to hold a bottle, a hardback or a kilo of coffee, say so at quoting stage — it changes the handle material, the stitch pattern and the base, and it is much cheaper to decide now than after sampling.
Gussets are the other decision. A flat bag prints beautifully and packs small, but it will not stand up on a counter. A bottom gusset gives it a base so it sits upright; side and bottom gussets together give depth for a boxed product. More panels mean more fabric and more sewing, so it is a real cost line rather than a free upgrade.
Other bags
Not every programme needs a heavyweight canvas tote, and we would rather quote you the right bag than the most expensive one. The rest of this family sits below the canvas line, and the economics are different for each one.
Non-woven is the one to handle carefully. A blank PP non-woven bag at 5,000–10,000 pcs lands at $0.05–0.10 a piece, and that is a price war rather than a price. Competitor density is extremely high, the custom surcharge is weak, and the light, foldable freight advantage has already been competed away. It is a usable low-price traffic driver or a large supermarket contract, and a poor flagship line — if a supplier leads with non-woven, they are competing on cents rather than on product.
Jute and laminated linen sit at the other end at $0.98–1.85 a piece: heavier, more structured, and increasingly bought as a gift bag with a printed brand panel. Cotton drawstring pouches are the cheap, folded, pack-flat option for jewellery, candles and apparel — a natural add-on in the same carton as a tote order, and the cheapest way to put a brand into a customer's hands.
Pricing
The ranges below show what each specification lands in at each quantity tier. Your quote will be itemised against your own size, board or fabric, finishes and insert.
| Bag | Quantity tier | Indicative ex-works | Assumed specification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard cotton canvas tote | 500 pcs/design | $0.40 – 1.20 | 10oz body, single-position print, natural or dyed |
| Felt shopping tote | 500 pcs | $0.55 – 0.95 | Published factory listing range for the felt weight |
| Jute or laminated linen shopper | 500 pcs/design | $0.98 – 1.85 | Structured body with a laminated brand panel |
| Heavy 12oz wide canvas tote | 500 pcs | $2.84 – 6.37 | Full-colour print or embroidery, reinforced handles |
| Non-woven bag, blank | 5,000 – 10,000 pcs | $0.05 – 0.10 | Price-war end of the bag market — quoted, not recommended |
| Non-woven bag, single-colour print | 1,000 pcs | $0.65 – 1.10 | Standard grocery format with a one-colour logo |
| Non-woven, laminated or insulated | 1,000 pcs | $1.20 – 2.00 | Full-colour print; the only non-woven spec with real headroom |
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Tote bag FAQ
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Keep reading
oz versus gsm, cotton versus canvas versus jute, and how to choose a weight without overpaying.
Line-by-line pricing across every structure and bag we make, and what moves the number.
How to size a first run you will not get stuck with.
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