We have nearly 500 custom t-shirt choices in our online catalog. Each of them is perfect for someone. One of them is perfect for you. We’ve created this handy selection guide to help you figure out which tee shirt that is. Just decide which of the following qualities is most important to you and before you know it you’ll have arrived the ultimate t-shirt for your needs.
1. Select Your Sleeves
The first thing you’ll want to decide is whether your event calls for short sleeve, long sleeve, or sleeveless t-shirts. Of course, seasonality will have a major influence on your decision here, but for those transitional times between spring and summer or summer to fall, you may want to give your group a choice between long-sleeve or short-sleeve t-shirts. In the height of summer, some people will prefer sleeveless styles while others will be perfectly comfortable in short sleeves; again, it would be nice to offer your folks a choice if you can.
So if sleeve options are something you want for your group, you’ll need to choose a shirt that has coordinating styles so you’ll have consistent colors and sizing regardless of sleeve choice. For example, the Gildan 8000 short-sleeve tee coordinates perfectly with the Gildan 2400 long sleeve t-shirt. If it’s a summertime event, consider the Gildan 2000 (short sleeve) and the Gildan 2200 (sleeveless).
If there’s a season when you might want to offer all three options, then the Badger B-Core collection is the perfect choice with the short sleeve 4120, the long-sleeve 4104, and the sleeveless 4130 in coordinating colors and sizes.
2. Find Your Fabric
If there’s an emotional component to choosing the perfect t-shirt, it’s the fabric selection. Just ask a few people in your group which they prefer and you’ll quickly discover that people have strong feelings about cotton vs. polyester.
Give Them Both
Of course the simple solution is to compromise with a poly/cotton t-shirt such as the Gildan 8000 or the Champion T380. These shirts look and feel like cotton, but are more resistant to shrinking and fading because of their poly content.
The best thing about a poly/cotton blend, though, has to be the price. These are the most affordable shirts for customization and they typically come in a full range of sizes and a huge selection of colors.
The one knock against poly/cotton blends is that they tend to be a bit “plain” compared to their flashier “performance fabric” (polyester) counterparts, which will make them less popular with some people in your group.
Putting the Poly in Performance
The term polyester has largely been replaced with sexier names like “performance fabric” and other trademarked labels, and for good reason. Today’s polyesters are far different than the double-knit horrors of the 1970s that nearly ruined the fabric as a viable garment option.
Modern polyester is a technological marvel that sometimes looks and feels silky and sometimes has a light texture to it. Some manufacturers are even having some luck getting polyester to mimic the feel of cotton.
The real advantage to polyester, however, is in the fabric’s durability. Compared to cotton and even poly/cotton blends, polyester shirts tend to resist shrinking, fading, stretching, and tearing. This can be really meaningful if you want your shirts to be worn and promote your team, brand, or event beyond the day they are handed out.
Durability alone, though, isn’t enough to earn the moniker “performance.” That label is reserved for fabrics that
As you might expect, this durability and performance do come at a price and polyester shirts can run toward the higher end of the price spectrum.
The Look, The Feel Of Cotton
America's Cotton Producers website calls cotton “The fabric of our lives” and that seems fair. Most of us started wearing cotton on the day we were born and have been wearing it ever since. Chances are, you’re wearing something made of cotton right now. Tonight, you’ll sleep between cotton sheets. Tomorrow, you’ll dry yourself with a cotton towel. Cotton is everywhere. So it’s easy to understand how the simple cotton t-shirt transcended mere popularity to become iconic, even legendary.
Today, even in the face of stiff competition from blended fabrics and full synthetics, cotton remains an enormously popular choice for custom t-shirts. There are the obvious reasons for that – cotton feels amazing, has a natural warmth and softness to it, and comes with nostalgia baked in. Then there are the reasons it might be the perfect choice for your next custom t-shirt order.
Case in point, cotton is the only fabric that works with virtually every type of garment decoration: screen printing, heat press, digital printing, and embroidery. Poly and poly/cotton aren’t good candidates for digital printing some heat press techniques can damage the polyester fibers. Likewise, many performance fabrics are way too light to accept an embroidery design. So, advantage cotton if you’re considering any of those options.
As for pricing, cotton occupies the middle ground priced slightly higher than poly cotton, but significantly less than many performance fabrics.
3. Select Sizes
One size does not fit all. Do not make the mistake of ordering just men’s shirts and expecting the women and children in your group to make do. Instead, select a shirt that has coordinating styles to fit everyone in your group comfortably.
Hanes does a great job of this with their Tagless Collection that includes men’s, women’s, and youth sizes with a shared color palette. If you’re looking for performance tees for your group, consider Under Armour Locker Tee, also available for men, women, and youth.
4. Choose Colors
Sometimes you need color choices that go beyond the traditional t-shirt palette. Sometimes you need the same design printed on several different colors of shirt (this is popular for school trips where each class has a distinct shirt color to make it easy to keep track of groups). In those cases, you’ll want to consider shirts such as the Port & Company Essential Tee which is available in 55 colors, the Anvil Lightweight Tee and its 38 colors, or the Gildan Ultra Cotton Tee which has 62 color choices, including heathered looks.
5. Buy a Brand or Be The Brand
We’re proud to be among a select few t-shirt printers that are trusted by brands like Under Armour and adidas to decorate their apparel. As you can imagine, we work with a lot of sports teams and other athletic organizations to outfit them in performance shirts that are meant for the games people play.
But we also understand that not every occasion calls for premium performance apparel. Budget, of course, is an important consideration and sometimes it just makes sense to spend a little less and forego the prestige of a premium brand.
Another instance when you might be better off with a less prominent label is when you don’t want the brand of the shirt to overshadow or clash with your brand. It makes perfect sense for a coaching staff to shirts upon which the UA logo shares equal billing with the school mascot. But what looks auspicious on the sidelines could look ostentatious at the company picnic.
In those cases, we have plenty of great shirt choices from Hanes, Jerzees, Fruit of the Loom, and many others that you can feel good about putting your artwork on knowing it won’t be competing with the brand of the shirt.
Still Can’t Decide? Let Us Help!
Hopefully this has helped you narrow your choices down to a few good choices for your next custom t-shirt purchase. But if you still need a little help to find just the perfect shirt, please drop us a line or give us a call. We help people pick the perfect apparel every single day!
