How to Sell Personalized Drawstring Bags Online (2026 Guide)

Why drawstring bags are worth selling

• They fit a lot of buyers. Sports teams, dance studios, swim clubs, schools, camps, gyms, churches and companies all use them, and parents buy them for kids' activities.
• Back to school is big. The National Retail Federation (NRF) expected K-12 back-to-school spending to reach a record $43.3 billion in 2026, about $864 per family.
• Kids play a lot of organized sport. According to the Aspen Institute's Project Play, 55% of US youth played organized sports in 2023. That's a lot of practice bags, team bags and end-of-season gifts.
• Promotional demand never stops. US promotional products sales reached $27.1 billion in 2025, according to PPAI, the industry association, and 4imprint alone lists more than 300 drawstring sportpacks.
• Personalization is the reason to buy. A plain drawstring bag costs about a dollar in bulk. A bag with a child's name and jersey number, a team logo or a monogram is something parents happily pay more for.

Personalized drawstring bag ideas that sell

1. Team bags: team name and logo on the front, the player's name and number on the back.
2. Kids' name bags: a first name in a fun font, for school, swimming, dance or sleepovers.
3. Camp and school bags: the camp or school name, the year and the child's name.
4. Gym and yoga bags: a monogram or short motto for adults.
5. Bridesmaid and bachelorette bags: each guest's name, filled with party favors.
6. Holiday sacks: personalized drawstring gift sacks. Personalization Mall sells personalized canvas Santa sacks, for example, at $23.99 for a large one on sale.
7. Shoe and laundry bags: a name on a bag that keeps shoes or swimwear separate.
8. Business and event bags: a company logo for conferences, races, charity walks and staff gifts.

Pick one audience to start, such as youth sports teams or parents of young swimmers, and design for them first.

Types of drawstring bags and how they're printed

A few notes from the product listings:

• Denier measures how thick the individual fibers are. A higher number generally means a thicker, more durable fabric, so 210D bags are a common middle ground for everyday use.
• Printful's all-over print bag is 100% polyester (225 g/m²), 15 x 17 inches, rated for up to 33 lbs, and printed edge to edge.
• Some Port Authority blanks are labeled "Not for children 12 and under." Check every blank's listing before you market it to kids (more on that below).
• Gooten also offers a spun polyester sublimation drawstring bag (15.5 x 19.5 in) and a cotton canvas Liberty Bags drawstring backpack, but doesn't show prices publicly.

Our ranking of Shopify print-on-demand services compares the main partners, and if you also sell totes, our guide to the best print on demand for tote bags covers the bag side in more depth.

Bulk orders: what teams and businesses expect to pay

When a coach or a company wants 50 or 100 bags, they compare you with promotional printers. Know their prices:

• 4imprint: drawstring sportpacks from about $0.99 to $6.25 each on its first page of results, with minimums of 50 to 200. Its basic non-woven sportpack starts at $1.49 each for 72 and drops to $0.99 at 5,040, plus a $35 setup charge.
• Custom Ink: minimums "vary by style", with some styles having no minimum. Its 210 denier nylon zipper drawstring bag has a minimum of 12, and its non-woven bag a minimum of 75.

You won't beat those prices with one-at-a-time print on demand, and you don't need to. What you sell is personalization: every player's own name and number, small quantities, no minimum, and an easy online order page for parents. For large orders with one design and no names, quote a bulk printer's price or partner with a local screen printer.

Set up your Shopify drawstring bag store

1. Open a store on Shopify Basic (from $29 a month, billed yearly).
2. Connect Printify or Printful and create your bag products. Start with one cotton and one nylon or polyester style.
3. Use variants for color (and style, if you sell more than one bag).
4. Add personalization with PIMW Product Personalizer (next section).
5. Write a clear product page: size in inches, material, print method, care instructions, delivery time and whether the bag is suitable for children.
6. Create a team order page: a product with a minimum quantity, or a contact form for quotes on 25+ bags.

Our guide to adding product options in Shopify explains how to set up colors and styles.

How PIMW Product Personalizer helps you sell drawstring bags

On a drawstring bag, the personal part is usually a name, a number or a logo, and the buyer is often a parent ordering for a child or a coach ordering for a team. They want to see that "SOFIA 7" fits and looks right before they pay. That's what PIMW Product Personalizer, our Shopify app, does on your product page.

What it does for drawstring bags:

• Name and number fields placed on your bag photo, each with a maximum number of characters, so long names don't spill off the print area. Text shrinks to fit automatically.
• Fonts and colors: choose which Google Fonts to offer (a bold sports font, a fun kids' font, a clean monogram font) or upload your own team font, and limit colors to the team colors.
• Text effects such as Drop Shadow, Glow and Neon for kids' designs.
• Front and back views: the team logo on the front and the player's name and number on the back, each shown as its own tab in the live preview.
• Logo and photo upload: customers can add their own team or company logo, or a photo, on paid plans.
• Clipart: offer a set of ready-made images, such as a soccer ball, ballet shoes or a swim icon, that customers can pick from.
• Options with prices: bag color as swatches, "add name on back" as a paid checkbox, or a gift wrap add-on, with the extra added in the cart.
• Cart preview: shoppers can check their design once more in the cart before checkout.
• Print-ready orders: the app's Orders page shows each design with the customer's text, font and color, a download link for every uploaded logo, and a print-ready image of the finished design.

Setup in five steps (no code):

1. Install PIMW Product Personalizer from the Shopify App Store and turn on the app embed in your theme.
2. Create a personalizer, from a bag template or from scratch, on a flat photo of your blank bag.
3. Add a text field for the name with a character limit, and a second view for the back if you print both sides.
4. Add an option set for color, a paid "name on back" checkbox and gift wrap.
5. Assign it to your bag products, then place a test order and check the design in the Orders page.

There's a free plan, paid plans from $7.99 a month, and no per-order fees, which matters when a single team order brings in 20 bags. Our page on the visual product customizer shows every feature with screenshots, and our ranking of the best Shopify product personalizer apps compares PIMW Product Personalizer with nine other apps.

PIMW Product Personalizer use cases for drawstring bags

How to price personalized drawstring bags

Here are two examples, sold with free shipping in the US:

A few things stand out:

• Single cotton bags are thin on margin once shipping is included. Charge for shipping, set a free-shipping threshold, or bundle the bag with a matching shirt or water bottle.
• Full-color all-over print bags carry more value, so they leave more room for profit.
• Each extra bag ships for less (Printful charges $2.00 for each additional bag), so team and family orders are more profitable per bag.
• Charge for the extras: a name on the back, a second color or gift wrap.

Shipping drawstring bags

If you print on demand, your partner ships for you. If you ship yourself, a drawstring bag is light and soft, so it travels well as a small package. USPS Ground Advantage retail prices (from October 4, 2026) start at $8.40 for up to 8 oz and $10.05 for up to 1 lb in the nearest zone, with commercial rates lower. USPS also lists a $4 nonstandard fee for polybags whose contents can shift, so pack bags snugly in a mailer that fits.

Safety rules for kids' bags

Many drawstring bags end up with children, so know the rules:

• The federal drawstring rule is about clothing, not bags. The CPSC rule on drawstrings covers hood and neck drawstrings on children's upper outerwear in sizes 2T to 12. Its guidance doesn't mention bags or backpacks.
• Children's products need testing. A product designed or intended mainly for children 12 and under needs third-party testing and a Children's Product Certificate (CPC).
• Lead limits apply. Paint and surface coatings can't contain more than 90 ppm lead, and accessible parts can't contain more than 100 ppm total lead. Plain textiles are exempt from lead testing, but printed bags lose that exemption unless the inks or the product are tested.
• Read the blank's label. Some blanks are labeled "Not for children 12 and under". Don't market those to kids.

The simplest path is to market general-use bags to adults and teams, and to ask your print partner for compliance documents before you sell bags made for children. This isn't legal advice.

How to market personalized drawstring bags

• Go where teams are. Contact local coaches, clubs, dance studios and swim schools before each season, with a simple order page where each parent enters their child's name.
• Back to school and camp season: promote name bags in July and August.
• Show the bag in use: on a kid's back at practice, at the pool, at the gym.
• Bundle: a drawstring bag with a matching tee or water bottle makes a better gift and a bigger order.
• Holiday gifting: personalized drawstring gift sacks and stocking stuffers. Our Christmas marketing ideas for personalized gifts covers the season.

For more on building a gift catalog, see our guide on how to sell personalized gifts on Shopify, and for apparel, how to start a custom t-shirt business on Shopify.

Mistakes to avoid

• Competing on price with bulk promotional printers instead of selling personalization.
• One character limit for every design, so long names run off the bag.
• Thin fonts that print poorly on cotton.
• Selling blanks labeled "Not for children 12 and under" as kids' bags.
• Forgetting shipping in your price on single bags.
• No easy way for a team to order 15 bags with 15 different names.

Your drawstring bag launch checklist

1. Pick one audience: youth teams, swim and dance families, schools or businesses.
2. Order samples of a cotton and a nylon or polyester bag.
3. Open your Shopify store with color variants.
4. Install PIMW Product Personalizer: name and number fields, front and back views, team colors and a live preview.
5. Add paid extras: name on back and gift wrap.
6. Price singles with shipping in mind, and set team pricing.
7. Check each blank's label and decide whether to market to kids.
8. Contact five local teams or clubs before the next season.

Drawstring bags are simple, but for a kid with their name on the back, or a team with matching bags, they're special. Make it easy to add a name, show the result before checkout, and make team ordering painless, and drawstring bags can bring in orders all year.

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• Print on demand personalization