Custom T-Shirts Buyers Guide

Without the necessary information, ordering custom t-shirts for your business or organization can be a daunting task. Deciding what brand, style, fabric type, and decoration method shouldn't be done without proper research. That's why we've compiled everything you need to know to buy the perfect custom logo tees for your company into one comprehensive guide.

Popular Custom T-Shirt Brands

Introducing the most comprehensive collection of custom t-shirt brands you’ll find anywhere. We’ve got you covered on high-quality custom logo shirts from the world’s leading retail brands like Under Armour and Nike. Need a bulk order of low-cost promotional tees for your next trade show or corporate event? Gildan, Hanes, and Port Authority are a great choice. How about custom work uniform shirts? Check out Carhartt and Dickies. With Merchology, you get to choose. It’s your logo + brands you love.

Custom T-Shirt Styles

Custom t-shirts come in all shapes, sizes, fabrics, and styles. Certain styles might be more or less fitting for you depending on what your plans for your new personalized shirts are. Here's a look at our customers' favorite t-shirt styles.  

Custom Cotton T-Shirts

Cotton has been the go-to fabric for t-shirts for as long as we can remember. That’s because cotton tees are cheap, soft, comfortable, and are the perfect material for screen printing.

Custom Moisture-Wicking T-Shirts

These awesome shirts are made with high-performance fabric that’s designed to keep you dry and cool under the collar in any situation. They make ideal custom work shirts or sports team apparel.

Custom Short Sleeve T-Shirts

Here it is, the traditional t-shirt. If you didn’t know what a short sleeve t-shirt is you probably wouldn’t be reading this, but we’d be remiss not to mention the most popular t-shirt style. The short-sleeved t-shirt provides ample space for your custom printed company logo.

Custom Long Sleeve T-Shirts

A bit too brisk for a short sleeve t-shirt, but a bit too warm for a sweatshirt? In that situation, a long sleeve t-shirt is your best friend. These personalized long sleeve tees are available in a wide variety of fabrics to match any application.

Custom Sleeveless T-Shirts

There’s nothing better than a personalized sleeveless t-shirt on those sweltering hot summer days. These custom tank tops are great as teamwear or as corporate gifts for your company retreat!

Custom V-Neck T-Shirts

Add a little stylistic flair to your custom t-shirt collection with these custom logo V-neck t-shirts. Everyone has dozens of crew neck tees in their closet. Now you can switch it up with something more unique.

Custom Pocket Tees

Adding a pocket to your custom t-shirts is an easy way to improve the overall look and perceived quality of your custom logo tees. Plus, these personalized pocket tees are super handy when you need to have easy access to a pen or tool when you're on the job.

Custom Compression Shirts

These custom compression shirts from Under Armour and BAW are made from high-performance moisture-wicking fabric that's engineered to keep you cool under pressure while you're competing. They make perfect base layers under your team uniforms for just about any sport.

Custom Henley T-Shirts

Speaking of unique collars, these trendy Henley t-shirts are another way to spice up your corporate apparel collection. Henley t-shirts are the only custom tees to feature a button collar, making them stand out from other custom logo shirts. 

Custom 3/4 Sleeve Raglan T-Shirts

With Merchology you can customize t-shirts of all shapes and sizes with your custom design. That means short sleeve, long sleeve, sleeveless, and ¾ sleeve t-shirts are all fair game! These custom baseball style Raglan tees make perfect company softball or kickball team uniforms! 

Custom Work Shirts + Hi-Vis Shirts

No matter what you’re looking for in your custom work shirts, we’ve got you covered with options from some of the top brands in workwear. These work t-shirts are rugged, durable, and are available in high visibility and moisture wicking performance fabric.

Applications for Custom Tees

Whether you're using your shirts for internal purposes or to promote your brand, there's a ton of ways that you can make custom t-shirts work for you and your business. Here's a quick look at some of the most common ways that companies use custom logo t-shirts.

Promotional Products

The most common use for custom logo t-shirt is as promotional products. Whether they’re shot out of a cannon at a basketball game or they’re meticulously distributed at a recruiting event, pretty much everyone agrees that a promotional tee is a great way to get your brand out there.

Corporate Gifts

Personalized t-shirts as corporate gifts can mean a few different things. You could give your new employees a shirt with your custom printed logo as a welcome gift. You could distribute them to your whole team as part of a holiday gift set. Or you could give them out to your employees as a simple thank you for being awesome.

Employee Uniforms

A custom logo t-shirt is a perfect base for any employee uniform. They’re casual, comfortable, easy to clean, and they add a degree of professionalism to your staff. Plus, when you provide uniform shirts you don’t have to enforce a dress code. They’re perfect for the construction, restaurant, and healthcare industries to name a few.

Sports Team Uniforms

A custom t-shirt can be an integral part of your sports teamwear in a few different ways. You can use a moisture-wicking t-shirt or compression shirt as a base layer to wear underneath your uniform. Or you could have a custom made t-shirt serve as your primary team uniform for a more informal sports league like a work league.

Custom Logo T-Shirt Decoration Methods

Enough about the shirts themselves, let's talk about how we're going to get that beautiful logo of yours onto them. The decoration experts at Merchology practice more than 10 product decoration methods, but these are the 3 that work best for customizing t-shirts.

Screen Printing

Custom t-shirts and screen printing go together like peas and carrots. It's almost like they were made for each other. Screen printing works best on flat surfaces and works especially well on cotton. There's a reason that silkscreen printing has been the most popular t-shirt customization method for decades.

 

Heat Transfer Printing

Heat transfer printing may be a bit more expensive, but it excels in many areas where screen printing falls short. With heat transfer printing you are able to achieve an intricate design with fine details, small text, and a lot of colors. All of those would be difficult to achieve using screen printing. It is also the recommended decoration method if you're individually customizing shirts with something like your last name or a jersey number.

Embroidery

We typically reserve custom embroidery for heavier garments of clothing like sweatshirts, hats, and jackets. That's because embroidery thread has its own weight and it can cause lighter fabrics to sag. However, we can utilize embroidery on some of our more study t-shirt styles like custom pocket tees, henley t-shirts, and work shirts.

 

Where Can I Add my Logo or Design on my T-Shirt?

When you're designing your own custom t-shirts, you have a lot more freedom than you'd have with most garments. This is especially true if you're decorating a completely blank shirt. With that large of a canvas to work with, the logo placement is really up to you, but here is where our customers most commonly place their logos on t-shirts.

• Center Chest
• Left Chest
• Right Chest
• Center Back
• Left Sleeve
• Right Sleeve

Next Steps

By now you should be armed with all the knowledge you need to start shopping for the perfect custom t-shirts for your business! If you still have questions don't hesitate to contact us for answers. Finally, if you found this buying guide helpful, be sure to check out our Product Buyers Guides page for more insightful guides like this.