The garments you select say a lot about your brand/band/business. With a great selection of more sustainable and environmentally conscious choices available now and at more competitive pricing than when they were first introduced to the market there's less and less reason to make compromises when it comes to both quality and ethics.
Here's some information to accompany the video above and help you select the right garment type for your project.
Fabric Weight?
GSM meaning grams per square metre is how much one square metre of fabric weighs and the higher the GSM number the denser the fabric will be.
Lightweight fabric is typically between 30-150 GSM
Medium weight 150-350 GSM
Heavyweight 350+ GSM
Carded Open-End (COE) VS Ringspun cotton?
The way the cotton is processed has a big effect on the print quality and comfort of the shirt.
Carded Open-End is the cheapest way to spin cotton but it leaves a rough texture making both the feel and the print quality worse. This method tends to lose its shape quicker in the wash.
Ringspun cotton leaves a much smoother surface to print on, tends to be stronger and hold up better in the wash. You generally get a much softer feel with Ringspun cotton. Most Ringspun cotton tends to be combed too, this removes impurities from the cotton giving you a smoother and flatter surface to print on.
Image source: Bella+Canvas
It's important to remember there is no right or wrong. A lot of the rhetoric surrounding Ringspun, Combed and 'Airlume' cotton is marketing jargon. Generally speaking people use COE for promotional and low budget projects and anything that needs to be retail ready is usually on some form of Ringspun cotton.
Our Top 3 T-Shirts?
1. No Sweat NS01: 180gsm Organic Ringspun combed cotton with a really soft feel. They print great, wash well and to our knowledge are currently doing the most to push workers rights and fair treatment throughout the supply chain.
2. Continental EP01: 155gsm Organic Ringspun combed cotton. Great selection of colours, they work really well with discharge inks and one of the early adopters of organic and sustainable practices within the t-shirt industry.
3. Stanley/Stella Creator: 180gsm Organic Ringspun combed cotton. Much of the same again but these tend not to discharge as bright as the two shirts that we've put above it in the list. They also have both EU and US sizing on the same label which some people find confusing.