So you’ve decided to create printed shirts and you’re considering Gildan vs Hanes!
That’s great as the t-shirt printing market is huge with lots of cash to be made. But there’s one more step to take before you can put your products up for sale – selecting a t-shirt brand.
Picking the best t-shirt brand for printing is crucial for how the print displays and the general outcome of your shirts.
Hanes and Gildan are arguably 2 of the largest t-shirt brands (with maybe Fruit of the Loom of course) and both create quality shirts at affordable costs. So how do you decide the best option to use for your printable shirts?
To make the decision easier we’ve selected 3 of their top shirts and analyzed their general quality, wholesale cost, and availability.
We also studied customer reviews for each brand, and expert analysis to ensure we covered every aspect of each product.
Gildan or Hanes? Let’s find out!
Gildan vs Hanes: Gildan Ultra Cotton vs Hanes Authentic T-shirt
Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton
General Quality
The Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton options come in 100% US cotton and fabric made with 90% cotton and 10% polyester, a classic standard fit, and a fabric weight of 6 oz. They also have sizes S to 5XL.
Comfort
Some features for comfort include:
- Taped neck and shoulders for durability
- A tear-away label for easy customization
- Supports screen printing, DTG, bleaching, embroidery, iron-on transfers, and tie-dye
- Over 60 colors are available
- Youth and women companion shirts available
In general, Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton is a wardrobe basic for everyday use.
Availability
The Gildan Ultra Cotton offers a large selection that’s readily available for wholesale purchases and you can always restock quickly.
Wholesale Cost
Gildan Ultra Cotton comes at a significantly low price point when compared to options like Fruit of the Loom and Hanes. BlankApparel.com sells S-XL for just over $4.00 each. Larger orders lower the price significantly.
If you are printing with Printify, you can get the Gildan 2000 Ultra Cotton for as little as $6.50 each (one-off shirts including the design).
Hanes Authentic T-shirt
General Quality
Hanes Authentic shirts are made with 100% cotton and are preshrunk to minimize shrinkage. It also has a double-needle cover-seamed neck and is taped from shoulder to shoulder. The Hanes Authentic T-shirt weighs 6.1 oz.
Comfort
The primary comfort feature is that it’s tagless, which makes it easy to customize.
Availability
This is where the Hanes Authentic T-shirt falls short. It’s usually out of stock on most platforms where you can get it wholesale, which makes restocking a huge issue. For instance, here’s, a screenshot of its Amazon page:
Wholesale Cost
Hanes Authentic T-shirt offers a similar price point for wholesale purchases, however, it tends to be a bit more expensive. This shirt is also not available on the Printify POD platform.
Winner
Gildan Ultra Cotton wins this round. It offers a wide range of shirts and is consistently readily available for wholesale purchases than the Hanes Authentic T-shirt.
Gildan vs Hanes: Gildan Dry Blend vs Hanes Eco-smart
Gildan 8000 Dry Blend
General Quality
The Gildan 8000 Dry Blend is a 50-50 shirt. This means that the shirt’s fabric is made with 50% US cotton and 50% Polyester. Gildan Dry blend fabric weighs 9.2 oz (classic midweight fabric). Gildan also uses 100% US cotton for its Dry Blend shirts, which are sustainably grown following all ethical harvesting procedures.
Comfort
This Gildan shirt comes in both adult and youth sizing, midweight fabric with dry blend technology that ensures moisture-wicking properties. There’s also a tear-away label making it easy for customization, and a 7/8″ rib collar.
Availability
The Gildan Dry Blend comes in S and 4XL sizes. And is readily available on both Gildan’s website and platforms like Amazon for wholesale purchases. You can also get both adult and youth sizes in up to 23 colors which gives a range of options for printing.
Wholesale Cost
Gildan offers an industry average price point here for wholesale purchases. It’ll cost you the same as a wholesale purchase of a brand like Fruit of the Loom or Hanes.
T-shirtWholesaler.com sells these shirts for $3.83 each (S-XL) and offers sizing up to 5XL.
This shirt is available on several wholesale sites, but not on Printify.
Hanes Eco-smart
General Quality
These shirts by Hanes are an eco-friendly option like the dry blend for Gildan. Its fabric type is 50% Polyester and 50% cotton and it weighs 5oz. However, unlike Gildan, its cotton isn’t 100% United States cotton. It’s made with up to 5% recycled Polyester from recycled bottles.
Comfort
Hanes Eco-smart offers a ton of features for comfort including a tag-free neck label, stitching throughout, it dries faster than 100% cotton, and a cover seam with a lay flat collar.
Availability
Hanes Eco-smart shirts come in over 15 different colors and from S to 4XL in available sizes. It is also readily available for wholesale purchases for printing, unlike other models like the Authentic t-shirt.
Wholesale Cost
These Hanes shirts cost more than the industry average for wholesale purchases with a single shirt starting at 7$.
Winner
This round goes to Gildan again as while both the Hanes Eco-smart shirts and Gildan Dry Blend excel in eco-friendly quality and are readily available for purchase, Gildan offers a more budget-friendly price point.
Gildan vs Hanes: Gildan Heavy Cotton vs Hanes ComfortSoft
Gildan 5000 Heavy Cotton
General Quality
The Gildan 5000 fabric is 100% cotton and weighs 180 g/m and comes in a classic fit. The details of the shirt’s quality include a 2.2 cm rib collar, twin-needle sleeve and bottom hems, classic midweight fabric, and taped neck and shoulders. Many people consider these budget t-shirts (which means reduced quality) but I have found that my customers like these shirts alot. Many of them actually think of quality with thickness and they like the heavier feel.
Comfort
For printing comfort, these shirts come with a grey razor tear-away label and offer a classic fit tubular body. This Gildan style also comes in family sizing for adults, ladies, and youth which makes customized printing for a family more seamless.
Availability
You can find the Gildan Heavy Cotton shirt in S to 5XL and in 50 colors. It is also available for wholesale purchases, however, as with most t-shirts the packaging size (amount of shirts in a pack) reduces depending on the size of the shirt. For example, S size contains 72 pieces per packaging while 5XL has just 12 pieces.
Wholesale Cost
As previously mentioned, this is considered a budget-friendly Gildan option and its price reflects that. BlankApparel.com sells these for $3.63 each for quantities of 1-11 (through size XL). 2XL – 5XL are $6-$7 apiece.
You can get these on Printify for as little as $6.50 each (for one-off prints, including the design).
Hanes ComfortSoft
General Quality
Comfort Soft offers tons of features that enhance its overall quality, like odor protection, 100% ringspun cotton, and wicking fabric. Its advanced odor protection fights odor-causing bacteria and prevents it from retaining the stench. There’s also a lay flat crewneck collar designed to keep its shape in place.
Comfort
ComfortSoft is tagless and just like its name, it uses Wicking Cool Comfort fabric that helps to keep the end user cool and comfortable. For customization comfort, the shirts are available for both men and women and come in over 10 colors.
Availability
This Hanes shirt is available for S and 4XL and a couple of colors, although not in as many colors as Gildan offers. For wholesale purchases, Hanes suffers in availability as you’ll struggle to restock your products. It isn’t readily available for bulk buys.
Wholesale Cost
ComfortSoft is meant to be a budget-friendly option for Hanes but when compared with Gildan for bulk buys (concerning cost) it falls short. It usually has a starting price point of 30$ per pack.
Winner
Gildan easily wins this one. The style it offers supports a larger range of colors which aids printing customization and it goes for less in terms of cost. It also offers higher availability for restocking than Hanes ComfortSoft.
Gildan vs Hanes: What Do Customers Think?
Based on our research of various customer reviews on platforms like Amazon, customers prefer Gildan in overall quality and cost.
Gildan vs Hanes: What Do We Think?
TshirtGrowth.com owner Bryan Robinson says, “I’ve printed a ton of t-shirts since 2013. Back when I first started my Etsy shop, the Gildan Softstyle 64000 was my favorite shirt for the feel and for the money. More recently, I have had a lot of customers asking for more of the Gildan 5000 shirts.
I especially like that Printify offers these up to 5XL and the price is right. They also carry this shirt in Military Green, which is a hugely popular color (at least for Veteran and Outdoor shirts).
For me, Gildan is the clear winner if you are looking for the right price and a shirt that customers will love.”
Gildan vs Hanes: The Verdict
In general, Gildan comes out on top. They win in availability and wholesale cost. However, both of these shirts offer styles with similar quality and comfort features. But end users tend to prefer Gildan more than Hanes.
Emmanuel Egeonu is a digital marketing consultant/writer with vast experience in SEO & marketing for startups. He has helped numerous SaaS, eCommerce, and brick-and-mortar brands over the years with industry-relevant and winning digital marketing strategies that impact their online growth index positively.
