Buying t-shirts by GSM: a South African buyer's guide
How to specify fabric weight so you get what you ordered — tolerances, the questions that go with the number, and how to compare two quotes that are not quoting the same garment.
South AfricaNotes from the factory
Page 2 of 4. Things worth knowing before you place an order, written from the manufacturing side.
Cotton or poly-cotton for South Africa's climate
Fibre is a separate decision from fabric weight, and it changes more about how a garment behaves. What cotton, poly-cotton and polyester each do in heat, in a commercial laundry and under a print.
South Africa
How to start a clothing brand with custom T-shirts
The practical sequence — validate, cost, sample, then commit — for launching an apparel label on tees without burning your capital on stock nobody ordered.
BS EN 14682: cords and drawstrings on children's clothing
What the cord and drawstring standard covers, why the neck and hood area is treated as the highest risk, and the questions to put to a factory before a children's range goes into production.
United Kingdom
Sportswear manufacturing: fabrics, seams and what to specify
Performance fabric behaves nothing like cotton on the cutting table or under a print head. What to put in a sportswear tech pack — fibre, weight, seam type, decoration method and the fit details that decide whether it works.
United Kingdom
Tirupur: why India's knitwear comes from one district
What Tirupur is famous for, why cotton knitwear concentrated in one Tamil Nadu district, and what that concentration actually does for a buyer's lead time.
Fabric dyeing and shade matching: why repeat orders drift
Colour that moves a fraction each season is the failure that loses uniform contracts. What a lab dip is, why matching against the last batch is a slow disaster, and what to put in writing.
Screen, DTG, DTF or sublimation: choosing a decoration method
Four ways to get a design onto a garment, and what each one is actually good at. Fabric, quantity, colour count and hand-feel decide it — not preference.
AQL inspection explained for first-time importers
What an AQL inspection actually checks, what the numbers mean, when to book one, and why a factory that welcomes a third-party inspector has told you something useful.
How quality T-shirts impact repeat customers
Retention in apparel is decided at the tenth wash, not the first impression. What actually fails, why, and the four spec decisions that determine whether anyone buys from you twice.
Tell us what you want made
Send a tech pack, a reference garment, or just a photo and a quantity. We come back with a quote and an honest lead time — usually within one working day.