Youth

Youth runs XS–XL and exists so the kids in a school, camp, or team order can wear the same shirt as the adults. Most youth staples are scaled-down versions of an adult style: same fabric, same color card, same design.

Sizing & fit reality

Youth XS–XL covers roughly ages 4 through the early teens, but age is a guide, not a measurement. A tall ten-year-old can need a youth large while the chest reads medium. Collect measurements or offer a fit set for big rosters rather than guessing from grade level.

Youth XL overlaps closely with adult small in the chest. That overlap is the bridge on orders that span teens and adults: when a kid outgrows the youth run, the matching adult style picks up where it left off (chest overlaps cleanly; length and fit shift more).

What sells

School spiritwear, team uniforms, camps, clubs, and youth-league fundraisers: jobs where the whole point is that everyone matches. Pick a youth blank that mirrors an adult style (Gildan 5000B under the 5000, or LAT's youth line) so one piece of art and one color order covers the entire group.

CPSIA & decoration notes

Youth apparel is generally treated as a children's product under CPSIA (the test is whether it's intended primarily for kids 12 and under, not the size name), and the decorator who creates the finished product carries compliance, not the blank supplier. Strictly, the finished product needs its own Children's Product Certificate backed by third-party testing at a CPSC-accepted lab, plus permanent tracking-label information (who made it, where, when, batch), compliant inks, and supplier documentation on file; the blank's certification covers the blank, not your print. In practice small shops lean on the blank's component testing plus tested, compliant inks, so check with a lab before a children's run.

Practically: buy CPSIA-compliant, phthalate-free plastisol The most common screen-printing ink. PVC particles suspended in a plasticizer. It sits on top of the fabric rather than soaking in, which gives a slightly raised feel and very opaque coverage. or water-based ink Screen-printing ink where the carrier is water rather than PVC. It soaks into the fabric fibers instead of sitting on top, so the print feels like the shirt itself. Less opaque on dark garments than plastisol. ink and keep the supplier's compliance docs with your batch records. Art scales down too. Run youth platens The flat board a garment is stretched over during printing. In screen printing it holds the shirt in place; in DTG it positions the shirt under the print head. and a smaller art size instead of cramming adult dimensions onto a 20-inch body.