Garment selection is one of the most important aspects of achieving retail-level prints with your DTG printer. In this article we will discuss the various types of fabrics used and what to look for when adding blank garments to your catalog…
Ring-Spun & Combed Cotton; You should familiarize yourself with this type of fabric as it produces the best print quality, but why? Ring-Spun cotton provides a super soft and smooth print surface, this is accomplished by putting the raw materials through a variety of processes to create a denser, tighter weave bolt of fabric for garments to be made from. Then there’s Carded-Cotton, this cheaper fabric is much more common in the screen print segment as the quality of the garment doesn’t have the same impact on the finished product.
As you can see from the image above (provided by Bella+Canvas), the Ring-Spun cotton has much less fuzz than the budget-minded Carded-Cotton. For commercial printers that are just now getting into the textile market, the easiest way to think about the differences in fabrics is how coated vs uncoated paper affects print quality. Carded = Uncoated | Ring-Spun = Coated
New garments are being released all the time so how do you know which to add to your catalog? The first thing to determine is the fabric makeup.
Black, White, Navy, Royal, and Athletic Heather colors outsell all other colors combined. It’s crucial that your shop has built the proper recipe for these big sellers before adding new colors/styles to your catalog.
Just because the blank garment ticks all the boxes above doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee the print quality will be perfect. Testing is required to determine if it meets your print shop’s expectations. I recommend doing random audits on your blanks and the workflow processes your shop developed to make sure nothing changes from dye lot to dye lot or even country of origin. Remember, not all cotton (even from the same manufacturer) is the same and it’s your job to build the best garment catalog for your shop.
Here’s a link to our Garment Guide that outlines Millcraft’s favorite blank garment brands and styles, it’s a great place to start when building your catalog.
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