Activewear Buying Guide
This Buying Guide provides industry insight to the decorated apparel buying decision, thereby aligning delivered results with expectations. Tees or fleece products for embroidery or printing can be viewed in (2) website locations. The most popular of our lines are accessible in (6) separate industry catalogs within our Staff & Apparel area. This section offers an apparel focused line-up with current inventory visibility. Alternatively, our Promo Plus site offers a full digital access and our complete line of (28) industry resources.
Defined
Activewear is the industry title given to three mainstay products that remain relatively unchanged since the previous millennium.
Very simply, a sweatshirt is simply a cold weather version of a t-shirt, with the same basic purchase considerations. The same brands that manufacture t-shirts also produce fleece, which is the industry term used to describe the deep pile fabric in both crewneck and hooded sweatshirts.
The term crewneck refers to the collar styling of the first two listed products According to Websters, it was first coined to describe the sweaters worn by sailors in the 1930's. Now, it simply means the standard collar pattern used for both t-shirts and sweatshirts.
Some styling minor variations exist, but a few large brands drive this high volume product segment. Where distinguishing variations do occur, it is usually by smaller boutique brands, with products commanding a higher price. These brands are found in the Fashion, Camouflage and Tie-dye categories.
Material Elevation
Apparel purchases for organization branding efforts can be a daunting exercise if one looks at the sheer magnitude of available mill labels and product offerings. Nevertheless, the decorated apparel industry, as is the retail market, is simply competition between brands operating within multiple price-point (read quality) categories.
Quality Categories
PREMIUM
Within our industry, there exists premium athletic retail brands such as Champion, Russell and New Era. These command a higher overall unit price delivering additional optimum product features and a brand legacy factor.
STANDARD
The products comprising this category are high volume, competitively priced medium and heavyweight products (see below) varying little from year to year, other than shifts in their color pallet offerings. They provide consistent annual sales volumes through high brand loyalty, requiring minimal product change. New product styles, with minor variations from these standard platforms, are introduced from time to time. However, the product line-up remains basically the same from one year to the next. Standard activewear brands such as Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Gildan and JERZEES have the biggest footprint in this product category.
VALUE-PRICED
Rounding out this segment are select offerings of value priced activewear, brought to the marketplace by the wholesalers who supply the decorating industry with blank goods. These remaining brands include Port & Company and Sport-Tek, catering specifically to the decorating industry with little retail visibility. These offerings appeal to price sensitive buyers not concerned with the basic quality and unrecognized consumer brand.
Fabric
Most fleece and t-shirts are made with some variation of 100% cotton, polyester or a blend of both.
Cotton fabric quality descriptions start with
100% cotton.
The next grade up is a slightly more refined combed cotton and concludes with the superior ringspun cotton. Ringspun is a high-grade cotton reputed for its inherent softness and found in the following product categories:
Premiumweight Fashion T-Shirts Fashionweight Fleece
100% COTTON
The SUPERIOR material substrate for screen printing multi-color and
large design images. The material ink retention
and absorbency, along with the longevity of the print is greater than
with any other fabric. This is due to the absorbent nature of cotton
fibers.
50/50 COTTON / POLYESTER
Delivers less moisture retention than a comparable 100% cotton t-shirt.
Due to the polyester content, it also holds it's material softness longer
than 100% cotton. For buyers familiar with
100% cotton t-shirts,
check the shorter length of a comparably sized 50/50 before making a final
purchase decision.
50/50 shirts also tend to lack the abundant color choices available with
100% cotton.
Print wise, they
are second to 100% cotton in overall printing
receptiveness and much less restrictive than 100% polyester
for both image size and multi-color prints. 100% POLYESTER
Early on the industry was plagued with 100% polyester material that did not inhibit odor retention. Many brands switched to treated anti-microbial polyester fabrics. For certainty, watch for an anti-microbial or odor inhibiting statement in the product description. Some premium brands may or may not list this feature. Still, industry commentary suggests these treatments may break down over time. If fabric odor becomes a problem, add baking soda and table salt to the wash.
As is the case with most shirts, higher prices generally yield better fabrics. Polyester is no exception as breathability, cooling and material softness all improve with the better brands (Badger) and higher prices. The higher end shirts offer a spandex component, yielding the softest polyester material.
Category Weight
T-Shirts
LIGHTWEIGHT
A fine 3 - 5 ounce fashion oriented material commanding a higher overall unit price than comparable heavyweight cotton. It is the most active category segment in regards to new products and alternative styling. It typically features the softer ring-spun cotton and refined cotton/ poly blends.
HEAVYWEIGHT
The industry standard-bearer weighing in at 5 - 5.6 ounces. This segment covers the high volume, price competitive, traditional t-shirt offered in an abundance of colors for men, women and children. It features short and long sleeve options and is the pre-eminent best seller of the imprinted apparel industry. Dominant brands include Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, JERZEES, Gildan and a USA Made offering Bayside.
PREMIUMWEIGHT
The thicker 6 ounce category group is similar in style to the heavyweight class,
but priced slightly higher for the added material and lower volumes. For a WHITE event t-shirt, women appreciate this version more than the standard
heavyweight
(Note: for warmer temperatures, we recommend the standard heavyweight in a light heather grey). The
premiumweight segment includes product offerings from
Champion,
Hanes,
Fruit of the Loom,
Gildan
and
Bayside
with ringspun cotton
upgrades from
Hanes Beefy T
and
Comfort Colors.
POLYESTER
These shirts range in weight from 3.7 to a JERZEES 5.3 ounce offering. With the exception of Fruit of the Loom, most of the activewear staple brands offer products in this category.
Crewneck and Hooded Fleece
FASHIONWEIGHT
Material innovations and fashion have made a lightweight impact upon the fleece clothing market with the
Alternative brand weighing in a 4.9 ounces,
Bella+Canvas at 6.5
ounces and concluding with a 7 ounce entry from both
District and
Anvil. Other athletic brands including
Badger &
Adidas &
Holloway are here as well. In addition
to the lighter fabrics, these products feature contrasting element colors and some ringspun cotton fabrics.
MEDIUMWEIGHT
This category weighs in at 7 to 8 ounces and features promotional weight (entry level) product and is most popular as an inexpensive casual summertime or slight cool weather cover. It is sought after for resort retail, sport and program promotions. Properly decorated, they can reflect traditional athletic and university sports apparel at a lower unit price. This is where the BIG FOUR brands of Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, JERZEES and Gildan compete on volume, price and color.
HEAVYWEIGHT
The most popular functional weight is 9 - 10.5 ounces. This category offers a warmer layer in colder weather than lighter weight options. It features sturdier construction, better overall quality and a longer cold climate wear expectancy. This weight is popular in the trades, uniform programs and premium athletic retail sales. In this segment, the 50/50 material blend is a BEST BET due to its reduced susceptibility to sleeve and body shrinkage, which can be an issue with higher cotton product. To offset this 100% cotton issue, order the next size up. Look for Russell , Bayside & Champion.
SUPERWEIGHT
The ultimate in fleece inspired warmth is 11 to 12 and in some cases 16 ounces. Along with the standard options from Fruit of the Loom, trade features include Champion's Reverse Weave woven horizontally to offset vertical sleeve and body length shrinkage and two work brands, Dickies and Dri-Duck, providing thermal lined options.
Printing
Printing on 100% polyester fabric requires print considerations not found with cotton.
High heat is detrimental to polyester, as it can act as a catalyst for dye
migration and cause the actual fabric to pucker or melt. Heat is used during printing to advance dry one ink color prior to printing
additional ink colors and then again to dry cure the overall design. Dye migration is the tendency of polyester fabric colors to bleed
into a lighter printed ink color (ex: white ink can turn pink, resulting from absorption of a heated red
colored polyester material).To be resilient on polyester material, Plastisol inks used for printing on cotton material, are chemically altered to cure at a lower drying temperature
Unlike cotton, heated prints on polyester must be cooled completely before being bundled and boxed for shipment
Large prints on polyester fabrics reduce the moisture wicking capacity of the shirt, similar to painting a screen
For promotional requirements necessitating screen printing on polyester t-shirts, we recommend a small image with no more than a few image colors or larger prints with reduced fill
For polyester printing with larger images, multiple location requirements or overall prints similar to a bicyclist jersey, we recommend dye sublimation printing. Dye sublimation is a gas based chemical process conducive to printing on polyester material.
Contact McGRAPHIX Advertising Products for more information.