Abstract: An element manufacturing method for a transmission belt of a continuously variable transmission having a thick wall portion and a thin wall portion formed by sequentially feeding a material having a strip shape with a uniform thickness to each press position and performing press working on the material at the press position. The method includes, as the press working performed at the press position: a preliminary punching step in which a portion other than a connecting portion is cut off from surrounding material and the cut off portion is punched so as not to overlap with the surrounding material in a plate thickness direction; a crushing step of compressing and crushing a region of the thin walled cut off portion, after the preliminary punching step; and a punching step of punching the cutting off portion into an outer shape corresponding to the element, after the crushing step.