Sweatshirt Manufacturer

One hundred and fifty pieces per style, per colour, so a crewneck in three shades is three dye lots of 150, or 450 pieces. Each colour is its own lot of French terry or fleece, a heavier and dearer cloth than jersey that is knitted and dyed in lots, and that lot size sets the floor rather than the sewing. Sizes are not colours: one lot can be cut into XS to XXL in whatever split you sell, with no extra setup. Fabric is a larger share of a sweatshirt's unit price than a tee's, so a 280 GSM crewneck and a 400 GSM one are different products at different price points, and picking the wrong one for your market costs more here than on lighter garments. Past the minimum, crewneck pricing steps down at around 500, 1,000 and 5,000 pieces. We will send you fabric swatches at the sampling stage so you feel the difference rather than choosing a number on a page.

A sweatshirt is cut and sewn from knitted cloth, not knitted as a finished garment. The loopback French terry or brushed fleece is knitted, dyed and compacted by partner mills, not our own, to the weight on your spec, anywhere from 280 to 500 GSM. In our own Narayanganj factory, on a side-seamed body, the front and back are cut from your pattern as separate panels, which we recommend because a tubular body torques after washing. The sleeves go on as set-in, raglan or drop shoulder, whichever the pattern was drafted for. Three rib pieces knitted with elastane are attached at the neck, cuffs and hem, and the shoulder seams are taped so the neckline keeps its shape. A half-zip adds a bought-in zip and its own placket operations. Before cartons are packed for DDP, Walter Meyer, our QC lead, and his team hold finished crewnecks against your sealed sample and check that the neck rib recovers.

For knits we work up to about 500 GSM, which covers everything from a lightweight summer tee to a heavyweight fleece hoodie. The useful reference points: 140–180 GSM is a standard t-shirt, 180–220 reads as premium tee weight, 220–280 is a lightweight sweat, 280–350 is a standard sweatshirt or hoodie, and 350–500 is heavyweight and structured; our sweatshirts run from 280 to 500. Weight drives cost more than almost any other specification, because fabric is roughly half the factory price and you are buying it by the kilo. It also changes how the garment behaves — a heavy fleece shrinks and relaxes differently from a light jersey, so the pattern is cut to suit. Tell us the feel you want and we will send swatches rather than asking you to pick a number.

Cotton sweatshirts shrink slightly, but ours should not lose a size, because the fleece is compacted before it is cut. Cotton fleece and French terry leave the knitting machine under tension, and untreated cloth contracts in its first hot wash, so a sweatshirt bought in the right size comes out of the machine a size too small. Compacting shrinks the cloth under control at the partner mill before cutting. It is a per-kilo finishing charge, and on our sweatshirts it is standard rather than an upgrade. Even then, a well-finished cotton knit keeps around three to five per cent residual shrinkage, more in length than in width, so the pattern carries an allowance for it. The neck, cuff and hem rib are knitted with elastane for recovery, so they spring back rather than stretching out permanently. We wash-test the sample and build your size chart from the washed measurements, so the chart matches the sweatshirt your customer owns.

Tubular bodies are knitted as a continuous tube, so there is no side seam at all; side-seamed bodies are cut as separate front and back panels and joined. Tubular is cheaper and faster because it saves two long seams per garment and takes less fabric from the marker, which is why cheap sweatshirts use it. The problem shows after washing: a tube has no shaping, so the garment hangs straight and boxy, and tubular fleece and French terry tend to torque, so the side line spirals around the body and the hem twists. A side-seamed sweatshirt costs more in fabric and labour, but it keeps hanging straight and lets the pattern shape the fit through the body. We make either, and we recommend side-seamed for anything sold at a premium price point. If your brand is competing on fit rather than price, this is not a place to save.

Three different silhouettes with different fits, not three ways of doing the same thing. A set-in sleeve joins at the natural shoulder point, giving the most defined, structured shoulder, and it holds its shape best. Raglan runs the sleeve seam diagonally from underarm to neckline for a softer, more athletic line and more arm movement. Drop shoulder places the seam below the natural shoulder for a deliberately oversized, relaxed line — the streetwear default, but it only looks right if the whole sweatshirt is cut for it rather than being a standard pattern with the seam moved. The choice shows on the quote: a raglan sleeve is a larger pattern piece that consumes more cloth, and a set-in sleeve takes more careful sewing at the shoulder. The pattern is drafted for one of them from the start, so changing your mind after sampling means paying for a new pattern. Tell us the look and we will cut the block accordingly.

Because the rib is under-specified and the neckline is not stabilised. Three things cause it. The rib itself: cheap sweatshirts use a light 1x1 rib with little or no elastane, which stretches over the head and never fully recovers. Ours is a heavier 2x2 rib with elastane content chosen for the fabric weight. Second, the shoulder seam: without taping, the seam stretches along its length every time the garment is pulled on, and the neckline widens permanently. We tape shoulder seams as standard. Third, the ratio: the rib has to be cut shorter than the neckline opening so it is sewn under tension and pulls back; get that ratio wrong and it gapes from day one. Walter Meyer, our QC lead, checks neck rib recovery on finished crewnecks. None of this is expensive. It is just specified rather than assumed.

Yes, we make organic cotton crewnecks in loopback French terry or brushed fleece. We are GOTS certified (RSC 9687), and the scope certificate is available on request. Organic behaves slightly differently from conventional in ways worth knowing before you specify it: the fibre is typically a touch softer, it takes reactive dyes well but tends toward slightly less intense brights, and it costs more per kilo, which shows up more on a 400 GSM crewneck than on a lightweight tee simply because there is more fabric in the garment. GOTS allows a small share of elastane, though not virgin polyester, so a fleece with a little elastane in the cuff and hem rib can still be certified. The blend decides the label: 95% organic fibre or more can be called 'organic', and from 70% it becomes 'made with x% organic materials', as our organic cotton page explains. We will tell you where organic genuinely changes the product and where it only changes the price.

Yes. The rib at the neck, cuffs and hem is a separate knitted component, so it can be a different colour from the body, like the cream rib on the burgundy sweatshirt in the video on this page. On a self-colour sweatshirt the rib is dyed to match the body. On a contrast style it goes on the bill of materials as a fabric of its own, with its own colour reference, and is checked against your approved swatch. The risk to plan for is colour bleed: a pale rib beside a deep body shows any dye that runs in the wash, so judge the pairing on a washed sample rather than a new one, and write your colour fastness requirement into the spec. Tipping, a thin stripe knitted into the rib, is a separate rib specification again. We confirm at the quote how a contrast rib affects the colourways and the minimum on your order.

It is called a V-insert, sometimes a V-stitch: a small triangle of rib, or a V of stitching, set into the centre front just below the neck rib. On early athletic sweatshirts it was functional. As Gear Patrol explains, the ribbed insert stretched as the wearer pulled the sweatshirt over their head, helped the collar keep its shape and soaked up some sweat; early versions had one at the back of the collar too. Later it became decorative, and today it mostly signals a vintage or collegiate look, because a 2x2 rib with elastane already recovers without it. If you want one, put it on the flat sketch and the tech pack with its depth, and say whether it is a separate rib triangle or a stitched V, since they look different and are sewn differently. We set it on the sample first, so you can judge it against your neck rib height before bulk.