Branded apparel people wear when nobody is making them.

Screen printing is more economical above roughly 25 to 50 pieces per design, produces more durable prints and handles specialty inks. Direct-to-garment suits short runs, full-color and photographic artwork with no setup cost. Quantity and design complexity usually make the decision obvious.

For a general adult audience, a common distribution weights medium through XL most heavily, with fewer small and 2XL. But it depends entirely on the group. A trades crew and a conference audience have very different curves. If you can survey, do, because leftover smalls are the usual waste.

Properly cured screen printing lasts the life of the garment. Cracking comes from under-cured ink or from heavy ink coverage on stretchy fabric. Print placement matters too. A design across a seam or a ribbed area will distort no matter how well it is printed.

Fabric weight, fit and feel. Standard tees are heavier cotton with a boxier cut and lower cost. Premium tees use finer, often ring-spun or blended fabric with a closer fit and a softer hand. Premium costs more per piece and gets worn considerably more often, which is the metric that matters.

Sometimes, though it complicates things. Customer-supplied garments carry no spoilage allowance, so if a piece is misprinted it cannot be replaced from stock. We will discuss it, but for most orders sourcing the garments together is lower risk and often no more expensive.