[CheeseHead05]

I've seen local brands in my town selling in boutiques with original labeling like "American Apparel" and "Bella", is this frown upon on?

 

[NoXid]

Personally, I don't think consumers give a #$%& about labels. Some remove all labels because they hate the feel of them; no one else is even likely to notice that they are there, much less read them. No one with any sense needs to read the care instructions, but they are required by law.

Like you, I have seen shirts in shops that still have the label from the blank. I leave the labels in the shirts I sell direct to consumers online. I am now preparing to wholesale to shops and felt some unknown compulsion to remove the labels ... but wholesale I would be making half as much per shirt and doing twice as much work (chest print and neck/label print)?!!! No. #$%& no.

I say leave the OEM label for legal compliance and skip all the hassles of adding your own.

 

[splathead]

You want your customer to have to come back to you if they love the look and feel of your shirt. If you relabel, they are forced to. If you don't relabel, they will find a blank American Apparel or Bella cheaper elsewhere.

Relabel if you want repeat customers.

 

[CheeseHead05]

Thanks you guys!

 

[needtshirtsnow]

If it is your own brand I would relabel. In my opinion, It just gives off a more professional vibe for your own brand. For custom shirts, we don't bother removing the brand's labels.

 

[Colossus]

I agree with the previous mention of relabeling if it is your own private label. At a minimum, be sure to remove the tags. Most shirts from Bella, Tultex, etc. come with tearaway labels. Obviously, if it has a heat transfer label, that's a little tougher.

American Apparel doesn't really offer tearaway labels, due to the fact that they want everyone to know you're wearing an American Apparel shirt. That may be changing, since they were recently acquired by Gildan.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

 

[wonkylogoltd]

If you are selling online the main thing customers look at is price. 99% of the shirts sold online the label says Gildan. It's not a problem often enough for it be worth changing the label.

 

[decipherdev]

We work with a lot of fashion customers, usually i advise moving over to custom labels once they've sold a few lines already. It's more likely to impact on returning custom than initial custom.

James

 

[elcielo]

As a consumer, I couldn't care less about labels. I will purchase based on looks, fit, and price. Anything else is more the seller's ego, which means nothing to me.

 

[DrivingZiggy]

I have been pondering this. I never really looked at labels. The only one I ever noticed that have their own labels are my Old Navy t shirts. But then some (non t shirt industry) friends got into a discussion about what t was their favorite and I grabbed my Mossimo 50/50 and looked at it.

But now that I'm working on getting into the business, I'm always looking at the labels. And I've kinda convinced myself that I should do my own labels with website/contact information so that people can re-order without having to guess about where to buy it.

 

[NoXid]

...And I've kinda convinced myself that I should do my own labels with website/contact information so that people can re-order without having to guess about where to buy it.

Which is fine if you are directly retailing online, or whatever. But if you are looking to wholesale to brick-n-mortar shops, they won't want to be seeing your retail URL on the product.

Most of my designs already have a small logo with my URL on it, but I can tape that off when printing for a wholesale order.