[Nikar]

If I'm selling my t-shirts to a niche and I'm going for the higher end of the market (quality and not price), what women's t-shirt blanks would you guys recommend?
What do most players in the industry use?

Would Gildan 5000L, Anvil 880, Anvil 780L be considered cheap and poor quality? How about Hanes 5680 Tagless women's T-Shirt?

I'm selling the t-shirt at $28, going for an initial production run of 50 pcs, with screenprinting on front + inner neck label (with branding) + a sewn hem tag with my logo on the bottom + folding & polybagging + hangtags + custom packaging. All this ends up at a total final production cost of $15 per tee, so I'm earning $13 per tee sold.

If I'm gonna be using AA or Bella as blanks, it will eat into my margins even more. Any advice?

 

[NoXid]

None of those.

For higher-end women's shirts you might want to think outside the crewneck box and offer scoops and dolmans and tanks in a tri-blend fabric.

Next Level prices tend to be a bit better. The 3900 (women's ringspun crewneck) is under $3. The 6730 (tri-blend scoop) will set you back $4.

I make more than you propose per shirt, but I do the printing and all else myself, so that money comes at the expense of my time and labor. If you can clear $10 per unit with outsourced production, you are doing well.

You might also want to consider the cost of some of the bells and whistles you mentioned and whether they add value for the customer or only expense. If selling in an actual brick-n-mortar store, you need hangtags. If selling online, it is just a thing the consumer has to hunt for scissors in order to get it off garment and into the trash. Don't think they care about labels, or read them. Outside of an actual store, I think that stuff is more about our ego as creators than the customer. But opinions on this vary.

 

[Nikar]

None of those.

For higher-end women's shirts you might want to think outside the crewneck box and offer scoops and dolmans and tanks in a tri-blend fabric.

Next Level prices tend to be a bit better. The 3900 (women's ringspun crewneck) is under $3. The 6730 (tri-blend scoop) will set you back $4.

I make more than you propose per shirt, but I do the printing and all else myself, so that money comes at the expense of my time and labor. If you can clear $10 per unit with outsourced production, you are doing well.

Thanks! Yup, my future goals will be to go for those dolmans and scoops and other fancy stuff but for a start, crew necks are good.

Btw, I heard anvil t-shirts (Anvil 880 etc.) tend to break apart after a few washes, meaning their durability factor isn't that good and worse than gildans. Is this true?

 

[NoXid]

Thanks! Yup, my future goals will be to go for those dolmans and scoops and other fancy stuff but for a start, crew necks are good.

Btw, I heard anvil t-shirts (Anvil 880 etc.) tend to break apart after a few washes, meaning their durability factor isn't that good and worse than gildans. Is this true?

I haven't tried Anvil, so have no experience to share about their durability.

As to the rest ... it's my opinion at this point in time. Hopefully some others will chime in with their varied experiences and opinions.

 

[Industryps]

Stay away from brands like Gildan, Hanes, Anvil, Fruit Of The Loom for women's tees. The fits and fabrics are not on par with the finished product you have in mind, not to mention they have poor durability.
I would start with Next Level, Bella+Canvas, and Alternative Apparel for your tees. These brands started as mostly women's collections and have superior fabrics and fits as well as interesting variations of your basic ladies tee.

 

[Nikar]

Stay away from brands like Gildan, Hanes, Anvil, Fruit Of The Loom for women's tees. The fits and fabrics are not on par with the finished product you have in mind, not to mention they have poor durability.
I would start with Next Level, Bella+Canvas, and Alternative Apparel for your tees. These brands started as mostly women's collections and have superior fabrics and fits as well as interesting variations of your basic ladies tee.

Thanks, actually I've been reading a lot of reviews on amazon and jiffyshirts about all these next level, bellacanvas and Alternative apparel and I realized there's 2 recurring complaints about them:

1) too small (have to order 1 - 2 sizes up), feels more like junior fit

2) too thin (bra and undergarments get seen through)

Problem 1 is still not so bad as I can put a message on the product page saying "NOTE : Order 1 size up as sizes run small".
Although I don't understand what these guys are thinking. These are women's t-shirts, but the sizes are for juniors? Jesus (I read an article that says this is due to influence by american apparel back in the 2000s where AA t-shirts run really small and all these manufacturers followed them). I suspect these t-shirts are probably made in asia for asian sizes, thus the small cutting.

The bigger problem is 2). Looking at the specs of these t-shirts, they seem to be in the 3.9 - 4.5 oz range (averge is 4.3).

Isn't a 4 - 4.3 oz t-shirt a bit too thin? I mean, at that thickness, you're basically wearing a single layer of tissue paper on your body. I don't even dare to imagine what the t-shirt is gonna look like after 2 - 3 washes. It's probably gonna look 80% transparent (for white t-shirts).

I'm gonna get some samples of the Anvil 880 and Next Level (3900, 3300L) to compare next month.

All of a sudden, I've this uncontrollable rage to start my own line of t-shirt blanks, have them made in SE Asia / China, and then launch them as alternatives for these Next Level/AA/Alternative Apparel/BellaCanvas/Anvil nonsense. I'll show them what real t-shirts for real women should be like in terms of thickness and sizing!!!

 

[NoXid]

Old school boxy cut shirts tend to be heavier weight fabric and lower quality cotton (not ringspun) and a coarser weave. Some people like a heavyweight shirt and associate that with quality. These days, more people associated quality with a soft feeling shirt, so ringspun cotton and a fine weave, or same thing in a tri-blend.

Named sizes: Small, Large, etc have NO MEANING in women's garments. Those names originated with men's jacket sizes, and for that use most brands agree on the chest measurement from Sm to Xl.

The closest thing women's garments have is the dress size #. However, many, many brands use vanity sizing--meaning that what would have been a size #16 is instead labeled as a #12 or #8.

That leaves us with the actual physical measurements of the garment from the spec sheet. When selling to women, list the actual bust measurement of the garment and describe the nature of the cut: a fitted hourglass waist, straight waist, curvy cut, etc.

Your goal in selling to women is to get them to see the measurements and description of the cut while ignoring the size name.

In addition to the junior cuts, Bella has a relax cut 6400.

 

[Nikar]

Thanks folks. What about LAT Apparel? What's their backstory and the general view on them? Seems like they're in the same level as Next Level and Bella, although their shirts seem slightly even more expensive. I'm looking at this LAT 3516.

 

[TwisSis]

We personally like LAT products, although I'm not sure if we have used this specific shirt. The sizes seem a bit more generous and the fabric a little heavier than the Bella + Canvas, and the manufacturing more dependable (not as much seam raveling, crookedness, etc.) than the cheaper lines, in the tees we've used. Just one note for your future decision-making: the v-neck (i.e., on the LAT 3507) seems a bit off to us. We're both a little larger than average, so it's good that their sizes are generous and they go to 3x at our supplier, but the v-neck is shallower than normal (I think?) and uncomfortable. We haven't tried the "curvy" lines because they're significantly more expensive, and it makes us mad!