The guide
All Fabrics & Weights
Fabric and weight decide more about a finished job than the artwork does: how the ink sits, how the garment drapes, and what the customer feels when they pull it out of the box. Two numbers tell most of the story, the fiber content on the label and the fabric weight in oz/yd² (multiply by ~34 for GSM). A third detail rarely makes the label: how the yarn was spun.
These guides cover the six fabric families decorators actually buy: smooth ring-spun cotton, budget open-end cotton, CVC and 50/50 blends, drapey tri-blends, performance polyester, and the heavyweight class driving streetwear. Each one explains what the fabric actually is, how it behaves under every major decoration method, and which jobs it wins on, with the anchor styles we stock as reference points.
Ring-Spun Cotton
Smooth & print-ready
Ring-spun cotton is spun into a finer, smoother, stronger yarn than the carded open-end cotton in budget tees. It is the fabric DTG and fine-detail screen printing want, and the default for anything sold at retail.
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Open-End Cotton
The budget workhorse
Open-end (rotor-spun) carded cotton is the cheapest way to turn cotton into a t-shirt and among the most hard-wearing once it's a garment, even though the yarn itself is weaker than ring-spun. It is rougher to the hand, but for bulk spot-color work it remains the volume standard.
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CVC & Blends
Soft meets durable
CVC stands for chief value cotton, a cotton/poly blend where cotton is the majority fiber, as opposed to a 50/50. The polyester adds shrink and wrinkle resistance and makes heathers possible, while the cotton keeps a natural hand.
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Tri-Blend
The vintage drape
Tri-blend is cotton, polyester, and rayon knit together, typically 50/25/25 with poly leading. The rayon gives it the softest drape and most lived-in heather look in the wall, which is exactly why fashion merch buys it.
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100% Polyester
Performance & sublimation
100% polyester is performance territory: moisture-wicking, fast-drying, shrink-resistant, and the only fabric sublimation bonds to. It is also the fabric most likely to ruin a print run if you cure it like cotton.
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Heavyweight (6 oz+)
Boxy streetwear standard
Weight has become the trend axis of the tee wall: heavyweight blanks at 6 oz and up drape boxy, hold a print flat, and read premium straight off the rack. Streetwear made them the default, and the rest of retail followed.
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