Black would be my first guess, although blue is by far and away the biggest selling clothing colour on eBay, by a long shot, and has been since the start.
How are you determining that? I did a few searches and it looks like ebay sells two to three times more black t-shirts than blue t-shirts.
anyone know what's the most bought t-shirt color by the consumer? are there any polls/survey of some sort to find out about this info?
Okay, I realize this thread is pretty old but I just received the 2008 Broder catalog and there's an insert included that answers this question. These are the top 30 t-shirt colors for 2007:
1 ~ White
2 ~ Black
3 ~ Light Grey Heather
4 ~ Navy
5 ~ Red
6 ~ Medium Grey Heather
7 ~ Royal
8 ~ Yellow
9 ~ Orange
10 ~ Pink
11 ~ Light Blue
12 ~ Kelly Green
13 ~ Chocolate
14 ~ Lime
15 ~ Gold
16 ~ Forest Green
17 ~ Purple
18 ~ Maroon
19 ~ Sand
20 ~ Natural
21 ~ Carolina Blue
22 ~ Dark Red
23 ~ Safety Green
24 ~ Indigo
25 ~ Dark Grey
26 ~ Bright Blue
27 ~ Blue
28 ~ Texas Orange
29 ~ Khaki
30 ~ Olive
And let's remember the usual caveat: white is bolstered by huge buys for promotional tees and re-dying, and all heathered greys are boosted by sports buying. It's dangerous to use this list for "What colours my new fashion line should stock" (although obviously white has also has a huge fashion resurgence over the last year).
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For every post I aim for 3 or 4 typos per line
We received American Apparel's wholesale list of of their top-20 selling garments, each listed in order of their most popular selling colors. This color list could probably be considered to be pretty reliable (for this type of market, anyway) because American sells a million pieces a week.
For their men's Fine Jersey short sleeve T (basic t), which is also their number one selling item, the most popular colors are:
1. Black
2. White
3. Asphalt (charcoal grey)
4. Brown
5. Navy
6. Heather Grey
7. Red
8. Army (brownish green)
9. Olive
10. Grass
For their women's fine jersey T (basic t), which is their number 2 best-selling item, the best selling colors are:
1. Black
2. White
3. Brown
4. Asphalt
5. Red
6. Heather Grey
7. Navy
8. Creme
9. Baby Blue
10. Grass
And let's remember the usual caveat: white is bolstered by huge buys for promotional tees and re-dying, and all heathered greys are boosted by sports buying. It's dangerous to use this list for "What colours my new fashion line should stock" (although obviously white has also has a huge fashion resurgence over the last year).
I think if you look at the American Apparel list I posted, it might be more accurate. I don't know if their shirts are used as much for promotional or sports buying.
It all depends on your market. For example, if you're selling into surf market, you are not going to sell a lot of black tees. But if you're in the biker, military, firefighter market, wow...black sells a lot!
This is a timely thread for me, and I agree with Steven's comments about color choices differing for different clienteles.
My target niche customers are "nature enthusiasts". I have been testing responses to my products from local nature/wildlife watching clubs. I recently donated some white Ts for a fundraising annual meeting and received positive feedback for my designs.
However, one of this group's "protocols" for going on field trips is to wear clothing that makes them less visible to the wildlife - definitely not white, light, or anything bright.
So I'm ordering medium to dark and muted colors to guage their responses.
BTW I am still in the start-up/research phase, so I don't have any sales history. Initially I shall be doing heat transfers, but will order plastisols for any designs that prove popular.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.
Re: popular t-shirt color 
August is Member Appreciation Month at T-ShirtForums.com - 
and brown is my FAVORITE color t-shirt.
