Gildan Blog - Why?

Simply put I sell a ton of these t-shirts and I want to answer every question I can for my customers without having to pickup the phone. I plan to sell even more of these shirts this year, because of their competitive pricing and wide range of colors, and I feel if I invest my time in anything it should be in this product line for my wholesale t-shirt business. More information is more sales and this is one of those shirt brands that is everywhere, but we may no very little about how it got there and why it is successful as a t-shirt for the world.

This blog is an accessory to my retail and wholesale website, but the comments are more subjective and inquisitive in order to figure out and discuss the market relevance of Gildan t-shirts to the consumer. This is not an interesting blog that is going to inspire or captivate the imagination, but it should answer questions about the styles and be used as a resource to find out more about Gildan products before you buy.

Gildan versus other brands. The main brands for wholesale t-shirt printing are Hanes, Gildan, Anvil, American Apparel, Fruit of the Loom, Jerzee, Tultex, Alstyle and a few more.

The best known t-shirt on earth is the Hanes Beefy T, which has dominated the US for over 25 years and is a decent quality medium priced garment. American Apparel has made a big run into the t-shirt market, but tends to be overpriced for mass consumption in the wholesale t-shirt distributors world. Fruit of the Loom has faded from significance, but they are there. Anvil provides some good products, but the inventory availability is always lacking when I need it most. Same thing goes for Alstyle, a good t-shirt company, well liked by the kids and not overly priced, but I can't always get what I need when I need it and that creates problems. Gildan is popular because of the cheaper t-shirts, the Ultra Cotton and the Heavy Cotton, which both use open-ended less expensive cotton, but they do a decent job at the manufacturing and except for style issues, these are the best value shirts on the market. This is why Gildan sells so many shirts and this is why I have this blog.

Open-ended cotton is the basic thread style that cheaper because it is less refinded than other thread types. The more refining, the more expensive the cotton thread. The more expensive the thread, the more expensive the shirts, just that simple. Ring-spun cotton thread is the higher end thread that is used to make softer cotton t-shirts. Generally these shirts are knitted tighter and with smaller diameter thread counts in order to make tighter knitted garments, but with a lighter feel. The Hanes Beefy T 5180 t-shirts is a thicker version of a ringspun garment and the American Apparel Jersey t-shirt, 2001, is a lighter version of the ringspun cotton t-shirts. The difference in price is 30-50% more for the ringspun equivalent of the open-ended cotton thread garments.

Weight and thread-count are two other concerns when it comes to comparing garments. Usually ounces, as measured in some dimension, square inch I think, is shown in a range of 4.5-6.2oz. for the different t-shirts. 4.5 oz t-shirt is lighter than a 5.4 oz. t-shirt. Thicker shirts are in the 6 oz range and tend to be stronger work style shirts that may last a lifetime, these are the Hanes Beefy T and the Gildan Ultra, with the Hanes Beefy T being softer, because of the ringspun cotton, than the Gildan Ultra Cotton t-shirts. These are both boxier cut t-shirts for men, but they come in youth sizes also. The weight drops to the 5.4 oz level for the lighter, but cheaper Gildan Heavy Cotton t-shirts and it still isn't see-through, but it is a lighter garment.

Over the years many people prefer a lighter garement than the heavier t-shirts, so this is still a sellable product on the retail side and with the economy in the situation that it is in, people tend to look at their wallets when they are buying 2-500 t-shirts. On a small scale customers tend to go towards the Gildan Ultra or other shirts, unless they are for a one-time use promotional event. Both of these styles of shirts print reasonably well.