Who's your customer? That's how you tell.

 

Joe is right, it'll depend on your customer. American Apparel is popular among people who like fashion fit (tighter fit) shirts, younger age group 15-35 years old. Gildan is great for promotional tees but some of their "soft style" shirts are used by tshirt brands as well.

 

I personally prefer Gildan

 

I don't like the Gildan Ultra cotton, they feel super heavy to me. I like their soft ring spun cotton though. American Apparel's ring spun is better than Gildan's but more expensive...

 

I dislike Gildan Soft Style ring spun. I like American Apparel 2001. Male/36

 

If the cost was the same, I'd guess 95% of people would go with AA

 

I like the thicker feel of the gildan, the AA seems so thin, hold it up to light and you can see right through it. 34/m

 

Are you comparing the Gildan Ringspun to the American Apparel 2001? To me the American Apparel seems thicker.

I guess it's just a matter of preference and how each person gauges the fabric. If you're comparing the Gildan Ultra 2000 to the American Apparel 2001, some people feel the ringspun feels thicker than the regular cotton of the Gildan 2000. Others prefer the heavier weight of the Gildan (6.1 ounces on the Gildan 2000 vs the 4.3 ounces American Apparel 2001)

My best advice is what Joe (splathead) said above. Know your market. What they "prefer" is what will be the better "quality" t-shirt for your stuff

 

I guess some of us have to be in the 5%....

 

Have you checked out Next Level? I know it wasn't one of the choices, but there are a lot of people who have never heard of it and aren't familiar with the quality.
You can find their stuff at Bodek And Rhodes or Next Level Apparel
I use them at least 90% of the time.

 

Gildan are great at first but they shrink into potato sacks. AA are the best I find after washing and drying. Alstyles has a great fine jersey fitted tee that is pretty much a knock-off of the AA shirt. But I find it shirks a lot as well. If you have a business license you can AA for around $7 which isn't bad. But it is expensive compared to $1.70-$2.00 for most other shirts. good luck

 

Canvas has some really good shirts as well... right in the middle of AA and Gildan as far as price but actually exceeds AA on quality IMO.

 

I LOVE the new Canvas line of tee shirts. I think they're really great quality! I think they're actually closer to Gildan in price. I just bought a bunch of them the other day and they were all around $3.

 

Who wholesales Canvas/Bella?

 

Broder and Bodek And Rhodes are who I go through. Both of their west coast DCs are here in Fresno so I'm able to go down for one or two shirts which is really nice. However, I know Golden State Activewear at https://www.gsactivewear.com/ also distributes them and are super nice people to work with. But they're up in San Jose so it's not practical for me to go through them.

www.broderbros.com carries both of the complete Bella and Canvas lines as far as I know and even has the whole line of baby/toddler/kids Bella stuff.