T-shirt printing is the biggest, if not the most important part of the promotional clothing industry, and when I hear people describing Indigo to their friends, I often hear us being to referred to as t-shirt printers. Not only that, every time we list in a web or printed directory we often have to classify ourselves as such. We are, of course, far more than that, offering embroidery as well as screen printing, offering hundreds of garments other than t-shirts. Consequently, with t-shirt printing being foremost in our potential clients’ minds we must keep a close eye on our t-shirt range, the suppliers we use and the prices we charge if we are to continue being a dominant force in the industry.
In the past we have recommended Gildan t-shirts. Their high fabric weight (measured in gsm (grams per square metre)) to price ratio is excellent, they have a huge colour palette and the brand was new to most of our customers, who felt they were getting something slightly different. Over the past 12 months though, we have started to use Gildan products less frequently as clients were commenting they preferred smooth, ring spun, combed cotton to the more coarse, brushed, cotton that Gildan uses.
We started to look around for alternatives. Jerzees have a great t-shirt range but in the end we decided to offer Fruit of the Loom items for most of our standard t-shirt range as we managed to obtain substantial discounts with our suppliers, giving us the opportunity to lower our list prices and pass the savings onto our clients. Fruit of the Loom’s name is synonymous with plain t-shirts and the Valueweight and Super Premium are the backbone of the t-shirt industry. They use combed cotton, offer 24 different colours and with great prices thrown in, it was an obvious switch for Indigo to make.
We now offer 3 standard crew neck t-shirts of varying weights:
- Fruit Valueweight (165 gsm) – Ideal for promotions and give-aways; from £1.75
- Fruit Premium (205 gsm) – The ultimate all-round t-shirt; from £2.31
- Jerzees Gold Label (215 gsm) – A luxurious t-shirt suited for retail; from £2.759
We have also looked at long sleeved and v-neck t-shirts, as well as adding baseball-style t-shirts, which in the past we had only offered in women’s styles. In truth, we can offer nearly 80 different t-shirts to our customers but we have selected a limited range to show on the web to avoid the paralysis that too much choice can often cause. Not only can we offer a large range of stock t-shirts but there is always the option to custom manufacture bespoke t-shirts if a client needs a specific Pantone® colour or trim.
Our revamped t-shirt range now gives our clients a bigger, and better, range of items to choose from, now at a significantly lower price. How cool is that!