Vinyl Printing - Which shirt do you use?

[Justin]

Which cotton shirts do folk prefer to use? I'm guessing most will say Gildan Ultra but I'm putting an order together for a customer and wonder if this is the best option.

[mrs maggot]

depends on the costings, i still like the feel of the hanes T's over most others, but Gildan wins over FOTL - biggest issue is customer ignorance, FOTL seem to hold more favour with some customers

[Justin]

Thanks Laura, customer did initially request FOTL but they've also had Gildan in the past so I swayed them over to those. Hopefully being stocking more clothing again, always used to use Starworld but probably move over to Gildan.

[soulclaimed]

I'm a fan of the Gildan heavy weight tees customers seem to be happy with them. I have one customer who always complains that he thinks FOTL are "crap" and shrink to which i advised he is probably washing and drying them wrong as ive never had this problem myself but personally I do prefer Gildan.

[Chunk]

We use a lot of the Heavy Cotton Gildan GD005, loads of colours and decent quality. I also like Uneek as it's good hard wearing but we tend to use that more for work wear.

[Paul]

As Laura said, most people ask about fotl as well known brand. but gildan premium weight is a winer for me every time.

[Justin]

Is the Glidan GD002 ok?

[Paul]

BTC call them Gildan 2000 i believe but i think is same t-shirt. if so then this is the one i buy. excellent quality.

[Chunk]

Is the Glidan GD002 ok?

Yes, good t-shirts that have a nice feeling.

[Renniwano]

I prefer Guildan too.. but do get asked about FOTL a lot..

[NikGrey]

Just had a nice order for Tee's - Yellow, so I assume BTC's 'Daisey' would be best but guess what ? they have no stock of the sizes I need :(

But looking at whats been said above - it seems the 5000 is the 'Heavy Cotton' and the 2000 is 'Ultra Cotton' !

Wish I had some samples as I am going for a big nationwide contract here..

Is Gildan's 'Honey' a yellow or more of a brownish yellow ?

OK - Ralawise have what I need - Thanks to my friend here :)

[NikGrey]

.SO I found what I needed at Ralawise and ordered at 19:30 last night - this morning at 08:30 they were here :)

I found Gildan 002, they are a nice soft material and feel lovely to wear. I'm going to use my usual matamark MetaTex on them as soon as I can get to the supplier.

This is the only way I am going to be able to sample each type of shirt it seems.

What is YOUR favourite tee shirt flex? this metamark stuff is not cheap but I have been pleased with it so far but I am sure there are others out there !

[Paul]

i would like to add that Gildan is my t-shirt of choice every time for vinyl. But DTG printing no way :) FOTL premium for that! Tighter wave.

[ArtyGamer]

You know, I've never used Gildan myself. I always go for FotL Super Premium as I just like how they feel; they feel weighty. I'd quite like to try Gildan now, having read all the replies.

I have one Gildan tee that I got as part of one of those 'premium' gig packages years ago and it was always very thin. I tell you something though, as a gamer and writer, I'm at a lot of gaming expos throughout the year and some of those t-shirts they give away are absolutely shocking. I have a Portal t-shirt from PAX that feels as thin as a Kleenex and an Aliens Colonial Marines shirt from E3 which you can see through. It's amazing how bad these shirts get when they're being given away. Understandable, of course, but still.

[OurSchoolBadge]

Not a well known brand but CKL's Top Sport premium t-shirts are miles better than Gildan, Fruit, etc.

[Chunk]

I agree that TopSport are pretty good, we also use them for fleeces/jackets etc for certain schools, my only moan would be I always thought the name and label sounded cheap, but as an 80's kid we always joked about the 4 stripe tracksuits and called them 'TTS' (Tesco Top Shelfers), so might just be a personal thing :)

[Justin]

I went with Gildan for this order, customer was happy. Personally I wasn't over pleased with the shirts. First one out of the box had so much thread loose the whoile arm seam had come away, very poor QC Ralawise! Couple of others less than perfect. I had to substitute one with a FOTL Super Premium I had and personally preffered this to the Gildan.

Now I have a customer who wants something a little more 'Premium' than the usual shirts. FOTL may well be good enough but I'd like to offer something better. looking through the Ralawise book there's plenty to choose from but not sure which way to go...Hanes maybe? As with everything, it will come down to the price of the final printed item....I'm guessing Gildan or FOTL will be premium enough for them ;-)

[OurSchoolBadge]

I guess it depends on your cusomer's definition of "premium". Is it fashion premium or weight and quality of the fabric premium? Personally I wouldn't touch Gildan's with a barge pole as they don't wash too well.

[Frostee]

gildan softstyle are my personal favourites. used them for over 2 years now. have had a couple customers request FOTL on occasions to match previous clothes they've had made

[icfnuk]

Gildan Ringspun every day