Ok so you have a basic idea of the printing methods and hopefully you have some inspiration and vision for your line…so now what do you do?
Before you really get into it you should be familiar with what resources and garments you have available to print on. Here is a list of some blank apparel manufactures available for print. I am sure I missed some but these are some well known and not as popular brands you can look at.
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Here are my personal favorites along with the quality…
American Apparel Most popular among indie clothing brands, I think its a little over rated
Alternative Pricey but great styles and quality
Tultex Best value for the money
Alstyle Good basic shirt to start with
Eternal Very high quality, high end type shirts
The ones marked with asterisks are some of the more used ones in the industry.
*Alstyle www.alstyle.com
*Alternative www.alternativeapparel.com
*American Apparel www.americanapparel.net
*Anvil www.anvilknitwear.com
Apparel Whiz www.apparelwhiz.com
Article 1 www.article1.net
A.S. Tees www.astees.com
Authentic Pigment www.authenticpig.com
Ayers Rock www.ayersrock.co.uk
Bare www.bareapparel.com
Bay Island www.bayislandsportswear.com
Bella www.bella.com
Canvas www.bella.com/mens-clothing.html
Comfort Colors www.dyehouse.com
Continental www.continentalclothing.com
Cygnus www.cygnussportswear.com
District Threads www.districtthreads.com
Edun-Live www.edun-live.com
Eternal www.eternalapparel.net
*FruitOfTheLoom www.fruit.com
*Gildan www.Gildan.com
*Hanes www.hanes.com
In Your Face www.inyourfaceapparel.com
Independent Trade Co. www.independenttradingco.com
*Jerzees www.jerzees.com
Kavio www.kavio.com
*Next Level www.nextlevelapparel.com
Pacific Sports www.epacificsports.com
Pima www.pimaapparel.com
Royal www.royalapparel.net
Skinni Fit www.skinnifit.com
TQM Group www.tqmapparelgroup.com
*Tultex www.tultex.net
If you notice a brand I have missed please contact me and let me know!
info@makeascenenow.com
October 29th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Bookmarked it. I will be coming back to this quite often. Great resource, thank you.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Awesome, I will be adding some more great resources soon as well!
October 29th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Great resource!
October 29th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
TULTEX ARE AWESOME MAKE A SCENE NOW ROCKS!!!
October 29th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Yea tultex is my top pick for the price point
October 30th, 2008 at 6:57 am
extremely helpful article thanks for all the information! this should get the ball rollin’ pretty well!
October 30th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks for the support!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Great resource and website keep it up!!!
January 16th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
We’re big fans of organic American Apparel shirts; and all of our new shirts on Resist Today are organic. Sometimes AA will redye shirts, which isn’t a problem for water-based inks & screen printing, but it is for discharge printing. Also on occasion we get shirts with seams on the sides, but only in certain sizes, but every company has their issues for sure.
Sweat shop free is a good way to go if you can. We LOVE the feel of Alternative apparel organic tees, but the sleeves are way too short!
Gildan is good for just basic shirts for larger sized folks; slim beanpoles like myself will appreciate the narrow cut of American Apparel shirts.
Just found this site today and it’s a great resource, keep up the wonderful posts!
February 23rd, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Just Great resource! Trying to buy some samples of a few this brands to see the different feels and sizings! Thanks!
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
@LeonE Ossa, if you need any help let me know. I also run a Design/Print/Web studio so I can send you samples if you would like.
Email me at Hillman@madebymas.com
March 19th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Thanks for this posting and for having the courage to say American Apparel is overrated.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
@Dustin, yeah sometimes I catch a little heat for it but any start up brands on a budget should look elsewhere if they think their market isn’t too biased and only wants AA.
April 19th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Yeah. agreed in regards to AA. I’m starting up a line and im DYING to use Alternative. But, yeah, it is on the pricey side and I fear being known as ‘too expensive’ amoung my competators who are using AA. However, the quality is 10x better.