What we print on

We don't sell cheap t-shirts

There is a whole trade built on the £6 tee. You know the one: printed for a stag do, worn twice, thin enough to read a newspaper through, out of shape by the second wash. We are not in it. Everything here goes on a blank we would wear ourselves, and that decision is most of what you are paying for.

The t-shirt: Gildan Softstyle 64000

100% ring-spun cotton, spun to 30 singles, knitted at 4.5 oz per square yard (about 153 gsm).

The number that matters there is not the weight — it is ring-spun. Cheap tees are carded, or open-end: the cotton is spun fast and rough, so the yarn is hairy and uneven and the cloth knitted from it comes out coarse and loose. Ring-spinning twists and thins the fibres first. The yarn ends up finer and smoother, which means more threads in the same square inch — a denser, tighter, softer cloth that takes a print cleanly and holds it, instead of one that feels papery on day one and pills by the spring.

The neck and shoulders are taped and the collar is a seamless double needle. That is the join that gives out first on a cheap tee — it is why the £6 one is wavy and slack round the neck by the second wash and this one is not. The body is quarter-turned, so there is no crease running down the middle of the print, and the sleeve and bottom hems are double needled. The label tears away, so nothing scratches your neck.

Straight talk, since you can look all this up: 4.5 oz is a mid weight, not a heavyweight. If a shop tells you their 4.5 oz tee is thick, they are guessing or hoping. What the Softstyle actually gives you is a finer, denser, better-behaved cloth than a heavier but cruder blank — which is why it drapes and prints the way it does. The body is tubular, too, not side seamed: a shaped, side-seamed blank costs more and we would tell you if we used one. We would rather say all that than make up a number.

The hoodie: Gildan Heavy Blend 18500

8 oz per square yard, cotton and polyester, brushed to a soft fleece on the inside. That one genuinely is a heavyweight — a proper winter hood with a double-lined hood, a set-in sleeve and ribbing that comes back after you have pushed the sleeves up. It is not a summer-weight hoodie sold at a winter price.

Where the price comes from

• The blank, which is not the cheapest one available and is not meant to be.
• Printing one shirt, on its own, on the day you order it — not a pallet of five hundred with the ones nobody wanted going to landfill.
• The artwork sized properly for the garment rather than shrunk to save ink.
• UK delivery, which is free because it is already in the price.

No bargain bin, no clearance rail, no seconds. There is nothing left over to put in one.

If it isn't right

Print faults and wrong items are ours to fix, not yours to argue about — see returns. Or just write to hello@savagesvgs.co.uk.