In search of the perfect T-shirt? The problem is there are a thousand different types to choose from (give or take). Between the dozens of major brands, hundreds of styles, a wide variety of fabric types, and new blends each year, it&#;s a lot to sort through.
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How did the humble T-shirt become so complicated? And how to find the best one? We&#;re here to help. This article covers the different shirt fabrics, including cotton vs polyester, different cotton and polyester blends, their attributes, pros and cons, and specific recommendations in each category.
First, a short answer to the burning question.
Like the answer to most questions in the custom apparel business, it depends on a combination of your particular requirements. Cotton is the go-to fabric for most people because it&#;s soft and non-irritant, polyester is the go-to for performance, and cotton and polyester blends give you the best of both worlds.
Here are the factors to consider when deciding on what T-shirt fabric to choose:
Here&#;s a simple breakdown of the pros and cons of each category of T-shirt fabric:
Go with 100% cotton if you want shirts that are soft, comfortable, breathable, gentle on the skin, non-clingy, and can be customized with any method. Cotton tees are popular with everyone, so it&#;s a safe bet.
Keep in mind: they may shrink a bit, can stain, wrinkle, and tend to absorb moisture and hold it, rather than allow it to evaporate quickly.
Go with 100% polyester if you want shirts that are lightweight, durable, silky smooth, and resistant to wrinkles, shrinking, or fading, plus allows moisture to evaporate quickly.
Keep in mind: When comparing polyester vs cotton, polyester is less breathable, clingy, irritates the skin, and is restricted as far as printing methods. The price can be higher than other garments, depending on the brand.
Go with a blend if you want the best of both worlds. The poly-cotton 50/50, or cotton and polyester blend, was the first major blend, but now we have the increasingly popular tri-blends, which add rayon for extra softness and drape, and are a big favorite among our customers. Then there&#;s CVC, a predominantly cotton blend.
Keep in mind: They tend to be priced higher, but are still affordable.
Wait, there are only four? Granted, people have made T-shirts out of everything from alligator leather to human hair&#; but I&#;m guessing you&#;re not in the market for that. So here are the three main fabric categories you will need to know about to make an informed choice. Here&#;s a brief description of each and a few of our favorites.
By far the most common and popular fabric for T-shirts, cotton is a fluffy, natural vegetable fiber obtained from the seedpod of the cotton plant. The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make the soft, breathable fabric everyone knows and loves.
Most of your T-shirts are probably cotton or partially cotton. After all, it&#;s the fabric of our lives if you believe commercials. It also happens to be hypoallergenic, which is a huge plus for the itchy/rashy types. Cotton as a fabric dates back to prehistoric times. Concert tees from 500 B.C. must be worth a fortune now.
Here are a few of our favorite cotton T-shirts:
Premium: Bella+Canavs Fine Jersey (C) &#; Fitted, soft, well-constructed, smooth print surface. One of the most popular tees for retail and merch.
Standard: Hanes Perfect-T () &#; A classic, mid-range tee with solid construction by the famous Hanes brand. Most are tagless or tear-away tags.
Budget: Gildan Heavy Cotton (G500) &#; The best value for the price and one of our most popular T-shirts, especially for large bulk orders.
Polyester is a durable, synthetic fabric with excellent resiliency. Low moisture absorbency allows the fabric to dry quickly, also known as &#;moisture-wicking&#;. It&#;s so scared of water they call it hydrophobic. This material always keeps its shape, so there&#;s almost zero shrinking or stretching, regardless of what kind of extreme wash and dry cycle you put it through.
As a performance fabric, it&#;s a favorite of athletes and adventurous outdoor types who subject themselves to extreme conditions. And although a trip to your local gym might tell you otherwise, polyester is also somewhat odor-resistant, because the stink departs with evaporating sweat. Plus it doesn&#;t stain as easily as other fabrics. There&#;s a lot to love with poly even when you compare polyester vs cotton.
100% Polyester always keeps its shape, so there&#;s almost zero shrinking or stretching, regardless of what kind of extreme wash and dry cycle you put it through.
Check out some of our popular 100% polyester T-shirts:
Premium: Nike Legend Tee () &#; High-quality construction, moisture-wicking, temperature regulating, ultra-tight knit for great printing.
Standard: Augusta Sportswear NexGen Wicking T-shirt (790) &#; Excellent moisture-wicking knit fabric, may run a bit small, so talk to a sales rep before ordering.
Budget: Team 365 Performance T-shirt (TT11) &#; Polyester interlock knit. Moisture-wicking and UV protection. The best value for the price and our most popular poly.
A blend&#; as you might guess&#; is a yarn or fabric that is made up of more than one type of fiber. Blends, particularly cotton and polyester blends, are huge right now, making up a massive percentage of the T-shirt market, and for good reason. Blended fabrics are the best of both worlds&#; or in the case of tri-blends, the best of three worlds.
In the category of blends, there are three types:
Cotton-poly blends, including 50/50s and CVCs, combine the softness and natural feel of cotton with polyester&#;s temperature-regulating and moisture-wicking properties. They also tend to shrink less, wrinkle less, and are more durable and stain-resistant than their cotton counterparts. It&#;s a win/win for blends.
Here are our favorite cotton/poly blends:
Premium: Bella+Canvas Heather CVC T-shirt (CVC) &#; Lightweight, fitted, 52/48 mix, airloom combed ringspun cotton, quality construction, side-seamed.
Standard: Next Level CVC Crew T-shirt (N) &#; Fitted, 60/40 mix, ringspun cotton for smooth printing, and side-seamed for a perfect fit.
Budget: Gildan DryBlend 50/50 T-shirt (G800) &#; 50/50 mix, moisture-wicking, best value for the price, and our most popular cotton-poly blend.
Tri-blends are head and shoulders above other T-shirts when it comes to softness. The combination of polyester, cotton, and rayon form a powerful alliance that will make you want to wear it every day. The combination of breathability, durability, flexibility, and drape makes it a winner in all categories.
Believe it or not, this fabric type has only been on the market for around 20 years. In that short time, it&#;s become one of the most popular fabrics in the T-shirt business.
When people rave about their favorite T-shirt, it tends to be a tri-blend. There are very few downsides. But there are a few things to keep in mind:
Here are some top picks among the tri-blends:
Premium: Threadfast Apparel Unisex Tri-Blend Short-Sleeve T-Shirt (102A) &#; Ultra-lightweight, fitted, high-quality construction that uses 50% cotton, 38% cotton and 12% rayon for a super-soft feel
Standard: Bella+Canvas TriBlend Crew T-shirt (C) &#; Ultra-lightweight, fitted, excellent fit, combed ringspun cotton, side-seamed, and retail-ready.
Still not sure which kind to get? Still deciding which is your favorite when comparing cotton vs polyester? We put four T-shirts to the test&#; one from each category of fabric type. We feel them, wear them, stretch them, wet them, wrinkle them, print on them, mess them, wash them, and damage them&#; all to see what happens. There&#;s even some axe throwing for some reason - anything to better compare polyester vs cotton right? Enjoy!
Are you interested in learning more about conductive fabric? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Whether you&#;re new to the industry or an industry vet, we&#;re sure you&#;ve wondered what the difference is between a Heather CVC and a Triblend. And what the heck does Slub or Poly-Viscose mean? This post is going back to the basics. We&#;re breaking down each fabric type, which will help you navigate the wholesale garment world and determine which BELLA+CANVAS products are best for you!
The only cotton we use is 100% combed and ring-spun. That means the raw cotton is literally combed through to remove impurities and then it&#;s ring-spun to create a long, nice strand of yarn. That yarn is turned into our fabric, which has a super tight weave, smooth consistency and creates an ideal surface to print on! A lot of our competitors use carded open-end fabric, which results in a really scratchy and heavy tee. We&#;re not sure about you, but that doesn&#;t sound like something we want to wear&#; In our industry, single counts generally range from 18 to 40. Those scratchy carded open-end tees are in the 18 &#; 20 range. Our 100% cotton is a 30 single, meaning it has a significantly softer hand.
If you&#;re familiar with our brand, you probably know about our Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee. It&#;s our bread and butter, and the most competitively priced premium 100% cotton tee you can get your hands on! Click the link to shop our full retail Jersey collection.
First of all, let&#;s define what CVC means. It&#;s an acronym for Chief Value Cotton, which refers to a cotton and polyester blend with a heavier percentage of cotton. Our Heather CVCs are a blend of 52% combed and ring-spun cotton and 48% poly. They are 30 single and 4.2 oz. These blends were initially made to lower import and export duties, but it&#;s their quality and price that has made them a fast favorite in the industry. A lot of customers love to use these tees, because that polyester blend gives it a nice subtle textured look that elevates any print. Plus, they are lightweight and have a super soft hand. Click the link to check out the full collection of heather cvc T-shirts.
While we may be biased, we think our Triblend T-shirts are the best on the market. And If you&#;ve ever held one in your hands, we&#;re sure you&#;d agree! If our 100% cotton products are good, our Heather CVCs are better and our Triblends are best. This fabric is a blend of three types of yarn &#; 50% polyester, 25% combed and ring-spun cotton and 25% rayon. You get the comfort from the cotton, durability from the polyester and the luxurious drape from the rayon. Did you know that rayon was originally developed as a substitute for silk? Well that&#;s what gives our Triblends such a silky feel.
The BELLA+CANVAS Triblends are knit with a 40 single needle, and we&#;re actually the only brand in the industry to offer that. The higher the single, the finer the fabric, meaning there&#;s a really silky hand. Similar to a Heather CVC, Triblends have a really subtle texture. The reason for this is because the natural and the synthetic fibers take the dye differently, so when it&#;s knit, there&#;s a really nice heathered look to it. However, while most of our Triblend tees have that texture, we also have engineered our dying process so that, at times, the natural and synthetic fibers take the dye in a way that results in a solid color. We&#;re actually the only brand in the industry to offer a solid Triblend, which gives you that same great hand but a solid color to print on. If you&#;re looking for premium, our Triblend is the way to go! You can view the entire collection HERE.
If you&#;re familiar with BELLA+CANVAS, you&#;ve probably heard of our Flowy collection. But what exactly does that mean? The Flowy collection is made up of our poly-viscose fabric, which is 65% polyester and 35% viscose, 30 single and 3.7 oz. What&#;s unique about this material is that is has an extremely soft, silky hand that feels like an elevated fabric that you find in retail stores. Our Flowy styles also drape away from the body, giving it that slightly oversized fit. That means, no matter what shape or size you are, you can find a piece in this collection that works for you!
For the past seven years, there have only been women&#;s styles made in our Flowy fabric, but we recently added a poly-viscose unisex tee to our FWD Fashion collection. If you&#;re a sublimation printer, this is the best tee for you!
At one time, slub yarn was considered defective yarn that would (sadly) end up on the cutting room floor. Now, it&#;s responsible for one of the most popular fabrications in manufacturing and has become a top selling signature fabric for us at BELLA+CANVAS. This unique texture is made up of 50% polyester, 37.5% combed and ring-spun cotton and 12.5% rayon. It&#;s knit in a certain way to give a really tonal texture. Since this fabric boasts an uneven surface and slightly sheer appearance, it creates really cool printed designs that give off that worn and vintage-vibe.
Marble is another one of our signature textures. This fabric has great dimension and is awesome for graphic tees. It&#;s made from 91% polyester, 9% combed and ring-spun cotton. It&#;s a 30 single and 4.0 oz., so it has a really soft hand and cool texture. While a lot of other brands have Heather CVC, Triblend, and 100% cotton options, but no one else offers dimension like we do!
Check out the video below for more details on these fabrics, and let us know if you have any questions in the comment section!
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Fabric Type 101: Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know
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We&#;re breaking down each fabric type, which will help you navigate the wholesale garment world and determine which BELLA+CANVAS products are best for you!
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BELLA+CANVAS
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BELLA+CANVAS
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