Business March 19, 2023

6 Apparel Items Worth Stocking Samples Of

The six garments I actually recommend to customers, from budget tees to hoodies, and why upselling to a nicer shirt isn't about your profit margin.

Somebody asks you what shirt they should order, and if you don’t have an answer ready, you either freeze or you guess. I used to guess. Then I spent real money on samples I didn’t need and skipped samples I should have bought, and I learned the hard way which garments actually hold up and which ones customers complain about. Here are the six I actually put in front of customers now, organized by what they’re looking for.

Why I Show the Premium Option Even When It Doesn’t Pay Me More

Before the list, one thing worth saying plainly: the way I’ve set up my pricing, I don’t make meaningfully more profit when a customer chooses a nicer shirt over a cheaper one. I still show them the premium option every time, and tell them what it costs. That’s not an upsell tactic. A customer who ends up with a shirt they genuinely love is more likely to be happy with the whole order, more likely to recommend me, and more likely to come back. The nicer shirt is a retention play, not a margin play.

Two Short Sleeve Tee Options, Depending on Budget

Bella+Canvas 3413 Triblend Short Sleeve T-Shirt. This is my favorite shirt to sell, full stop. It’s the one item I’ve printed for my own family that every single person, down to my three-year-old, actually wears. It’s a unisex triblend that comes in a huge range of colors, in crew neck or v-neck, and it’s available in toddler and youth sizes too. If a customer wants one shirt that will make almost anyone happy, this is the one I point them to.

Bella+Canvas 3001 and 3001CVC Short Sleeve T-Shirt. When the triblend is too expensive for the budget, this is where I go next. Both are more affordable cotton options from the same brand. The 3001CVC is the step up between the two — it swaps in some polyester alongside the cotton, which gives it a nicer hand feel than straight cotton, and many of its colors come heathered, which tends to look better than a flat solid color. Between the two versions there are more than 80 color options to choose from, so budget-conscious customers still get real choice.

The Long Sleeve Hooded Option

Sport-Tek ST406 Long Sleeve Hooded T-Shirt. This one surprised me. It’s thin, lightweight, and genuinely comfortable, which makes it a great option for a summer sun-hoodie or an extra layer in the fall. The downside is it only comes in five color options — but they’re good ones, so it’s rarely a dealbreaker.

The Hoodie

Bella+Canvas 3719 Hoodie. Bella+Canvas earns its reputation again here. This hoodie is extremely soft and comes in many of the same colors as the 3413 tee, plus it’s available in a crew neck version for customers who don’t want a hood. My one complaint is that it runs short in the body. I tell every customer to size up, and once they do, nobody has come back unhappy.

Two More Options for Comfort and Long Sleeves

Next Level 6210 Short Sleeve T-Shirt. This was my favorite shirt back when I first got into screen printing, and I used it for my own product company’s brand apparel at the time. It became so popular with friends and customers that we started calling them the “family shirts” — people kept asking for more. It’s a poly-cotton blend, comes in a strong range of colors, and is a solid alternative any time the Bella+Canvas 3001 line doesn’t fit the job.

Next Level 6071 Triblend Long Sleeve T-Shirt. Long sleeve shirts are harder to source well because most brands put a ribbed cuff on the sleeve, and I don’t love how that looks or wears. Next Level’s triblend long sleeve skips the cuff, and it’s thin and comfortable like the rest of their triblend line, with a good color selection. When a customer wants a premium long sleeve option, this is the one I steer them toward.

One Real Caveat: Ink Type Changes What “Best” Means

Every recommendation above comes from a shop running only water-based ink, and water-based ink pairs well with thinner, premium triblend fabric. If you’re printing plastisol, some of these shirts — especially the triblend options — may feel too thin for the look you’re going for with that ink type. That’s not a knock on plastisol. It just means the “best” shirt depends on what’s coming out of your press, not just what’s popular. Figure out your ink and your process first, then match the garment to it.

I didn't figure any of this out by reading a spec sheet. I figured it out by ordering samples, printing on them myself, and handing them to my own family to actually wear and wash. If you're new, that's still the fastest way to know what you're recommending instead of repeating what you read somewhere.

Where to Start

If you’re just getting into this and don’t want to blow a chunk of your budget on samples you’ll never use again, start with one shirt from each category above — one budget tee, one premium tee, and one hoodie — and get real feedback from a few actual customers before you build out your full lineup. That’s a lot cheaper than guessing at scale. And if you want to see exactly how I run my own water-based print process on garments like these, I’ve got more than 120 free videos walking through it at youtube.com/@startupscreenprinting.