
Best Garments To Use For Printing
This is a complete guide for the most used garments in t-shirt printing based on Price, Quality, Availability, Comfort and Printability. The last point is specific for Direct to garment printing technique (DTG) since the brand you use will affect greatly the end result.
There are too many Brands and garments to mention so we only focus on the 3 main ones our customers use all the time and why.
Quick links:
- Why Garments Are So Important?
- Russell 180M
- Gildan Soft Style (Medium Quality T-shirts)
- Stanley Stella Brand (High Quality T-shirts and Hoodies)
- JH Just Hoods (Medium Quality Hoodies)
Why Garments Are So Important?
The most obvious aspect about your garments is the look and feel of them, if the garment is not comfortable to wear or it doesn’t have a good look, then your customers will not be happy and won’t buy from you again.
The second aspect about using the correct garments is less known to brand owners and personal sellers because it has to do with the printability and durability, this is something your T-shirt Printing Shop have to be well aware of and should be able to advise you on the correct garments to use.
In this list we only focus on medium to high quality garments and will only list those options since using a cheaper material is not something we advice from a Direct to garment print shop point of view.
Cheap garments print very badly, don’t last very long and are not very comfortable, this means you will not make your customers happy and yourself when they will complain about your product. As a print shop we only advise to use medium to high quality t-shirts since the price difference between those is often just a few pence.
The list consists of garments that are ideal for printing, especially for Direct to garment (DTG)

Russell Classic T (180M)
Russell brand has the best t-shirt for printing with DTG, heavy yet soft feel gives this material extremely high printability and very good feel. We highly recommend it. Click here to visit their main page.
Here is a list of the main benefits of this garment:
“High Quality”
- Great availability Online
- Moderate colours selection
- Affordable price for high quality material
- Soft Feel material
- Ideal for Direct to garment printing Technique
- Good washability
- Comfortable to wear
- Up to 4XL size availability
- 100% Cotton, Ring Spun, 180 g/m²
- Our best pick for DTG printing

Gildan Soft Style (Code 6400)
Having your preferred garments always available to buy means you never have to worry about the shortage of stock and keeping your customers waiting. The great worldwide availability also means the price is not too high. The overall quality of the garment is very good and your customers will be happy with the product.
Here is a list of the main benefits of this garment:
“Medium Quality”
- Great availability
- Over 54 available colours
- Extremely Affordable price
- Soft Feel material
- Ideal for Direct to garment printing Technique
- Good washability
- Comfortable to wear
- Up to 4XL size availability
- Tear away label for easy rebranding
- 100% Cotton, Ring Spun, 153 g/m²

Stanley Stella Brand (High Quality)
The Stanley & Stella Brand focuses on Organic Cotton, combined with direct to Garment printing technique you can make your brand Eco-Friendly.
This option is also available worldwide and has great stock availability online, however not as good as Gildan soft style. The feel and quality of the garment is high and the price is not too far from the medium option described above. This brand also provides a medium/high options of their classic t-shirt, besides the high quality one.
Here is a list of the main benefits:
Unisex Creator Iconic T-shirt ( Code STTU755)
“Medium/High Quality”
- 100% Organic Cotton
- Very good feel
- Best washability
- High overall quality and comfort
- Good colour selection
- Ideal garments for Direct to garment (DTG)
- 180gsm Cotton
- Available up to 3XL on all colours
- Available up to 5XL in most common colours
- Very small size label, easy rebranding
- Tear away inside label
Stanley Sparker Heavy T-shirt (Code STTM559)
“High Quality”
- 100% Organic Cotton
- Better feel and washability
- Very high overall quality and comfort
- Good colour selection
- Best garments for Direct to garment (DTG)
- 220gsm Cotton
- Available up to 3XL on all colours
- Very small size label, easy rebranding
- Tear away inside label
Besides those 2 options the SS Brand offers a range of high quality hoodies, pants and shopping bags, so if you are looking for very good quality garments for your brand and don’t mind the price then we recommend Stanley Stella.
Another brand that has all the same qualities as Stanley Stella is Continental Clothing. We decided not to cover this clothing brand in this list to don’t be repetitive since they are very similar in both quality and price, however, we recommend Stanley Stella for your High quality garments since they have better online availability and stock.

“JH” Just Hoods (Medium Quality Hoodies)
All there is left to cover is your Medium quality hoodies provider if you wish to start with slightly cheaper garments that will make your customers happy. Just Hoods are a big provider of sweater, hoodies and bottoms, with affordable prices and very good online stock availability, is one of the best brands to use.
Here is a list of the main benefits of this brand:
“Medium Quality”
- Ring spun cotton, ideal for Direct to garment (DTG)
- Very good feel and washability
- Large colour selection
- Good overall quality and comfort
- 280gsm Cotton
- Available up to 3XL on all colours
- Available up to 5XL in most common colours
- Easy to remove labels for rebranding
If you want the best medium quality sweaters from Just Hoods then check this link:
The quality will be the same as the hoodie we described above.
This list is based on our own experience over 14 years on Screen printing and Direct to garment. There are simply too many brands to list them all, and adding even 2 more would only make the choice harder, so we decided to only showcase what we think are the best options for you.
If you want to print your garments with us then click this link and get in touch.