How do you calculate garment margin?

Subtract the required cost amount from the available price amount to get the dollar gap, then divide by the reference base. With price 125, cost 100, and a base of 100, margin is (125-100)/100 = 25%.

What is a good margin for a garment?

Wholesale apparel often targets 30-50% over cost, while brands selling direct aim much higher to absorb markdowns and returns. The 25% in our example is thin for a branded product but may work in high-volume basics.

Is this markup on cost or margin on price?

When the reference base equals cost, the result is markup on cost. If you instead set the reference base to the selling price, the same gap becomes gross margin on revenue — which is always the smaller percentage.

Why did my garment margin shrink after sampling?

Landed cost usually grows as freight, duty, testing, and trims get added to the FOB price. A style costed at 25% on FOB can drop below break-even once the fully landed cost is entered as the required amount.

Garment margin vs contribution margin: what's the difference?

Garment margin here is price versus landed product cost. Contribution margin also subtracts variable selling costs like commissions and freight-to-customer, so it is a tighter measure of what each unit truly contributes.

How much dollar margin is in the example garment?

The amount gap is 25 per unit — the difference between the 125 price and the 100 cost — which the tool then reports as a 25% margin against the 100 reference base.

Textiles & Apparel Manufacturing calculator

Garment Margin Calculator

Garment margin expresses the profit built into a garment as a percentage of a reference base — typically its landed cost — by comparing selling price against what it costs to make and deliver. Apparel brand managers, wholesale merchandisers, and factory account managers use it to confirm each style clears its cost floor before it goes into a line plan. Because apparel carries heavy material and labor content plus freight and duty, a margin that looks healthy on the cut ticket can evaporate once landed cost is fully loaded. This calculator makes the gap between price and cost explicit so pricing decisions are grounded in real numbers.

What this calculator does

Estimate garment margin for textiles and apparel manufacturing using production-ready inputs so teams can measure the gap between available and required amounts.
Use it when garment margin in textiles and apparel manufacturing needs a clean margin number for a textiles and apparel manufacturing go / no-go review.
It computes the dollar gap between available price and required cost, then expresses that gap as a percentage of a chosen reference base.

Formula used

Garment margin amount gap = available garment margin amount - required garment margin amount
Garment margin = amount gap ÷ reference garment margin amount

Inputs explained

Garment selling price:
Total landed garment cost:
Reference base for margin (usually cost):

How to use the result

Use it when setting wholesale or retail pricing, screening a new style's viability, or checking that a costed sample still clears margin after landed cost.
It is a single-unit, cost-plus view. It ignores order-quantity discounts, markdown risk, returns, and blended margin across a range, so a strong per-unit number can still under-deliver at the assortment level.

Common questions

How do you calculate garment margin? Subtract the required cost amount from the available price amount to get the dollar gap, then divide by the reference base. With price 125, cost 100, and a base of 100, margin is (125-100)/100 = 25%.
What is a good margin for a garment? Wholesale apparel often targets 30-50% over cost, while brands selling direct aim much higher to absorb markdowns and returns. The 25% in our example is thin for a branded product but may work in high-volume basics.
Is this markup on cost or margin on price? When the reference base equals cost, the result is markup on cost. If you instead set the reference base to the selling price, the same gap becomes gross margin on revenue — which is always the smaller percentage.
Why did my garment margin shrink after sampling? Landed cost usually grows as freight, duty, testing, and trims get added to the FOB price. A style costed at 25% on FOB can drop below break-even once the fully landed cost is entered as the required amount.
Garment margin vs contribution margin: what's the difference? Garment margin here is price versus landed product cost. Contribution margin also subtracts variable selling costs like commissions and freight-to-customer, so it is a tighter measure of what each unit truly contributes.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.