The pack arithmetic: what a 3-pack costs per tee, and when a single wins

A pack is a price divided by a number, and every Arssm card prints that number under the price. 21 of the styles we list are multipacks of two to five, and this page is about reading them. What a tee costs inside a pack, when a pack is the wrong buy, and how three garments share one size and one colour set.

The figures below come from the prices we last refreshed and change when the prices do. The date of the last refresh is on the prices page.

Tees, tanks, polos and henleys are the pack pieces, for adults and for kids. Sweaters, coats, pajamas and the close-cut tops are singles, because nobody needs three faux fur coats and a sweater with a dinosaur on it does not come in a three.

Every pack card divides the pack price by the pack count and prints the result. The table below does it for the ten packs people rate most, so you can see the spread without opening ten pages.

Two things to notice. The per-piece figure on a 3-pack of oversized tees lands where a single plain tee usually does, so the pack is not a discount on the tee. It is three tees without three decisions. And a 4-pack is not automatically cheaper per piece than a 3-pack: you pay for the fourth tee.

A pack comes as a colour combination, and the combination names the variant: black, grey and khaki, or army, grey and beige. You choose the combination, not the three colours separately.

That is where the arithmetic turns. A pack with one colour you will not wear is a pack priced for three and worn as two, and the per-piece figure you actually pay is the pack price divided by two. Compare that number with the single tees in the same department before you buy. Two singles in colours you like beat a pack with one you do not.

The colour rows on each pack's page list every combination the maker sells in every size, with a price and a button on each row. Read the row, not the photograph: the photograph shows one combination.

The three tees in a pack are one size. There is no pack with a Medium and two Larges, and there is no way to split one. That has two consequences.

Kids' packs follow the same rule in years: a 3-pack in 9-10 years is three tees for one child, not one each for three.

A plain oversized tee gets worn once, washed, and worn again about a week later. For someone who wears one most days that is six or seven tees in rotation, which is two 3-packs, and a third pack when the first two have faded enough to look like a different colour from the new ones.

That rotation is the honest case for packs: not that three are cheaper than one, but that three arrive at once in colours that go together, and the rotation starts the day the box opens. Buying the same tee three separate times means three arrivals and, often, three slightly different colours, because acid wash differs from batch to batch.

The other side of the arithmetic is the drawer. Three oversized heavyweight tees take the space of five ordinary ones. A wardrobe built on packs is a wardrobe with fewer, larger pieces, and it suits people who wear the same thing most days better than people who want a different look each morning.

Every pack tee in the range has a single cousin in the tees department: the same cotton, the same wash, one at a time, priced per piece. The singles are the comparison for every pack on this site, and they are the buy when you want one colour, when you are trying a size for the first time, or when a pack's combination has a colour you will not wear.

Sweaters, hoodies, coats, pajamas and the close-cut tops are singles by nature. Nobody needs three faux fur coats, and a sweater with a dinosaur on it does not come in a three. The kids' range follows the adult one: packs for tees, polos and shorts, singles for sets, coats and snow pants.

Each tee in a pack carries its own fibre and care label, and the rule behind it speaks of the garment rather than the box. The fibre content has to be written in full:

And the care instruction has to be on the garment itself:

So if one tee from a pack ends up in a different drawer, it still tells you what it is and how to wash it. The wash guide on this site covers what those labels mean for acid-washed cotton.

A pack is right when three things are true at once: you want the same tee in more than one colour, you wear the colours in the combination, and one size fits the way you want. That describes most people buying a plain oversized tee, and that is the reason packs carry the range.

A single is right when one of those is false. The single oversized tees in the tees department are the same cotton in the same wash, priced per piece, and they are the honest comparison for every pack on this site.

Either way, the per-piece figure is on the card before you click, and the row with your size and colour is on the page with its own price. Nothing here needs a calculator.