If you are buying blank t-shirts to print or embroider, the short version is this: for printing you want a smooth, tightly knit combed cotton tee around 160–185gsm. For embroidery you want something heavier and more stable, 180gsm and up, that holds a stitch without puckering. The best blank is rarely the cheapest one — it is the one matched to your decoration method and to how long the shirt has to last.
This is the advice we give printers, embroiderers and brand owners who buy blanks from us every week, written down once. If you are choosing a garment and a branding method at the same time, read it in that order: decide the method first, then pick the blank that suits it.
Start with the method, not the shirt
The single most common mistake is buying a blank because it felt nice in the hand, then discovering it fights the decoration. A soft, thin, stretchy tee that feels lovely on the shelf can pucker under embroidery and warp under a heat press. A heavy, textured vintage-wash tee that looks premium can swallow fine print detail.
Printing and embroidery want almost opposite things from a fabric. Print wants a smooth, stable, low-stretch surface. Embroidery wants density and structure it can anchor thread into. Get the method clear first and the rest of the decision narrows quickly.
What GSM should you actually look for?
GSM is grams per square metre — the weight of the fabric. It is the number that tells you most about a blank before you have even touched it.
- 140–155gsm — light / promotional. The cheapest tees. Fine for a one-day event shirt or a giveaway, but thin enough that a dark print can shadow through the front, and light colours can be slightly see-through. Not what you want carrying a brand.
- 160–185gsm — the sweet spot. Retail-quality weight. Opaque, holds its shape, presses cleanly and feels like a shirt someone will actually keep. This is where most good printed tees live.
- 190–220gsm — premium heavyweight. The boxy, structured streetwear feel. Excellent for embroidery because there is real fabric to stitch into, and it reads as a premium garment. Costs more and takes longer to dry, but it is the weight that makes an oversized tee feel expensive.
For a printed brand tee, 160–185gsm is the safe answer. For embroidery, lean heavier.
Combed vs carded cotton — and why it shows in the print
Two shirts can both say "100% cotton" and behave completely differently, because of how the yarn was spun.
Carded cotton is the standard, more affordable yarn. The fibres are cleaned and aligned roughly, which leaves a little more texture and short surface fibres. It is perfectly good for budget and promotional work.
Combed cotton goes through an extra step that combs out the short fibres and straightens the rest. The result is a smoother, stronger, tighter surface with far less lint and pilling. That smoother surface is exactly what a print sits on best — cleaner edges, finer detail, less fuzz breaking up the artwork. Ring-spun combed cotton is the premium print surface, and it is what we would put a detailed, full-colour job on.
If the artwork has fine lines, small text or a photographic image, combed cotton earns its slightly higher price. For a bold one-colour logo on a budget run, carded is fine.
Cotton, polyester or a blend?
The fibre content decides how the shirt prints, how it wears and whether it will shrink.
100% cotton is the default for printing. It takes DTF and screen print beautifully, feels natural, and embroiders well with the right backing. The trade-off is that untreated cotton can shrink on the first hot wash, so allow for it when you order sizes.
Polyester is the sportswear fabric — moisture-wicking, quick-drying, wrinkle-resistant. If you are decorating dri-fit tees or anything for the gym or the field, it is polyester you want, and you can browse our polyester tees for exactly that. Two cautions: on dark polyester, cheap printing can suffer dye migration (the garment's colour bleeding up into the print over time), which good film and a correct cure prevent; and sublimation — a separate method entirely — only works on white or very light polyester.
Cotton-poly blends (50/50 or 65/35) are the sensible all-rounder. They shrink less than pure cotton, resist wrinkles, stay durable through heavy washing, and print well. Melange and heather-look tees are almost always blends. For staff shirts that get washed hard every week, a blend often outlasts pure cotton.
The best t-shirt for DTF and screen printing
Print wants a smooth, stable, low-texture surface. In practice that means:
- A combed cotton or cotton-rich blend, 160–185gsm.
- A single-jersey knit with an even, tight surface — no heavy slubs, ribbing or texture in the print zone.
- Low stretch. Very stretchy fabric distorts the artwork as it moves through the press and as it is worn.
Avoid: heavy vintage-wash textures, waffle knits, and anything with a visible surface pattern where the graphic needs to land. If you want us to handle the decoration too, that is what our branding service is for.
The best t-shirt for embroidery
Embroidery is the opposite problem. Thread needs something firm to anchor into, and thin or stretchy fabric is its enemy — it puckers around the stitching and pulls out of shape.
- Heavier is better. 180gsm and up gives the needle real fabric to work with.
- Denser, stable knits hold a design flat. A structured pique (the golf-shirt fabric) is one of the best surfaces there is, which is why corporate logos live on the left chest of a golf shirt.
- Backing is essential on lighter tees. A stabiliser behind the fabric stops the design distorting — but there is a limit to what backing can rescue, and a very thin, stretchy tee is not it.
A small, simple logo will embroider onto a decent mid-weight tee. A large or dense design really wants the heavyweight. If you are unsure whether your logo will sit flat at the size you want, send it over and we will tell you before you order — we embroider in-house, so we can check it against the actual fabric.
Colour: why white is cheaper to print
Garment colour changes the cost of printing more than most people expect.
On white and light garments, print goes straight onto the fabric. On dark garments, the artwork needs a white underbase laid down first so the colours read true rather than sinking into the shirt — an extra layer that adds cost and, on cheaper work, thickness to the hand-feel. DTF handles darks very well, so it is not a reason to avoid black tees; just know that a full-colour print on black is a bigger job than the same print on white.
For embroidery, garment colour barely matters — thread covers whatever is underneath. You match the thread to the design, not to the shirt.
Fit and cut: retail, classic or oversized
Weight and fibre decide how a shirt decorates; the cut decides whether people want to wear it.
Classic fit is the safe, everyone-fits choice for staff and event tees. Retail / fashion fit is trimmer and reads more like a shop-bought shirt — better for a clothing brand than a uniform. Oversized / boxy is the streetwear cut, and it needs the heavyweight fabric to carry it; an oversized tee in a thin fabric just looks like a shirt that is too big.
One construction detail worth knowing: side-seamed shirts hold a cleaner shape than tubular (seamless-sided) ones, which is part of why two tees at the same GSM can feel like different quality levels.
Quick reference: which blank for which job
| The job | What to reach for |
|---|---|
| Full-colour DTF brand tee | Combed cotton, 160–185gsm, smooth single jersey, white or light where possible |
| Screen-printed event shirt on a budget | Carded cotton, 150–170gsm — spend on the print, not the blank |
| Embroidered logo tee | Heavyweight 180gsm+, dense stable knit, with backing |
| Sports / dri-fit printing | Polyester (white or light for sublimation) |
| Staff shirts washed hard, weekly | Cotton-poly blend for shrink resistance and durability |
| Premium streetwear / oversized | 190–220gsm combed cotton, side-seamed |
Buying blank t-shirts for trade in South Africa
If you decorate garments for a living, the blank is your raw material, and consistency matters as much as the spec. A blank that is 175gsm in one delivery and 155gsm in the next will cost you a reprint and an awkward conversation with a client. Buying from a supplier who imports and holds stock — rather than drop-shipping whatever landed this month — is what keeps your dye lots and weights consistent across a repeat order.
We import our blanks, hold them in stock, and supply printers, embroiderers and brands nationwide, not just locally. That means you can order the same tee, in the same weight, in the quantities you actually print in — loose units for a sample run, sealed boxes for a production order. You can see the range on our garments for printing collection.
Frequently asked questions
What GSM is best for a printed t-shirt?
160–185gsm is the sweet spot for a retail-quality printed tee — opaque, holds its shape, and presses cleanly. Below 155gsm you risk shadowing and see-through; above 190gsm you move into premium heavyweight territory.
Is combed or carded cotton better for printing?
Combed cotton has a smoother, tighter surface that holds finer detail and fuzzes less, so it is better for full-colour and detailed prints. Carded cotton is more affordable and fine for bold, simple, budget work.
Can you embroider a normal t-shirt?
Yes, but a t-shirt is one of the harder garments to embroider well because the fabric is light and stretchy. Use a heavier blank (180gsm+), keep the design small to medium, and always use backing. For large or dense logos, a golf shirt or heavier garment is a better surface.
What t-shirt is best for DTF?
A smooth, low-stretch cotton or cotton-rich tee around 160–185gsm. DTF also works on polyester and blends, and it handles dark garments well.
Do you sell blank t-shirts wholesale?
Yes — we import and stock blanks and supply them wholesale across South Africa, in loose units or sealed boxes, to printers, embroiderers and brands.
Not sure which blank your job needs?
Tell us the artwork, the method and the run size, and we will point you at the right blank before you order rather than after. We stock the garments and decorate them in-house, so we have no reason to push you toward one over another — only toward the one that will actually work.