# What is a good shirt weight?



## OrangePeel (Jan 31, 2010)

I am looking at buying some Mens Hanes Beefy fitted t shirts. They are white and are 4.5 oz, I am not sure how thick these are. Does anyone know, or have an opinion, if these will be see through or not ( I don't want them to be) ?

Is 4.5 oz good for sceen printing?

also I may try heat transfer, does anyone know if they would be good for that?

Thanks

Kevin


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## mikelmorgan (Nov 1, 2008)

4.5 oz is very thin. Very comfortable, but thin. I thought Beefy t was a 6.1 oz fabric. The weight you are asking about refers to the fabric. The standard is they take a square yard of fabric and weigh it. So you can tell by the weight they advertise as to how thick the shirt is.


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## thutch15 (Sep 8, 2008)

I started out using 5.3 gildans, but I have now switched to 6.1 oz 100% cotton gildans.


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## veedub3 (Mar 29, 2007)

I use the 6.1 oz tees as well. I have used 5.4 on a few occasions because the color I needed but I usually stick with 6.1 oz tees.


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## Boomerbabe (Sep 5, 2009)

Agree 6.1 oz T-shirts. Just be aware that even if it says preshrunk it can still shrink - primarily in length if it is 100% cotton.


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## ohioguy33 (Jan 1, 2010)

6.1 is my choice as well. The small savings of the lighter weights are not worth giving up the quality of the 6.1 oz.


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

For a decent shirt, get Hanes 6.1 oz. Tagless Tees. They're nicer than Gildan 2000s. The only problem is the distributors always carry the Gildans in more colors. Gildan must be bribing the distributors with booze and hookers or something, because their quality has gone downhill over the past few years. Oil stains on darks, seams coming loose, and small brown specks that look like rust stains on the whites.


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## nation03 (Sep 2, 2008)

tpitman said:


> For a decent shirt, get Hanes 6.1 oz. Tagless Tees. They're nicer than Gildan 2000s. The only problem is the distributors always carry the Gildans in more colors. Gildan must be bribing the distributors with booze and hookers or something, because their quality has gone downhill over the past few years. Oil stains on darks, seams coming loose, and small brown specks that look like rust stains on the whites.


Agreed. Hanes 6.1 have become my favorite shirt to wear.


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## PhilDx (Feb 13, 2010)

Thanks for the info. It's good to get this 'group knowledge'.


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## mikelmorgan (Nov 1, 2008)

Does thickness equal quality? If you had a choice between a 200 count bed sheet or a 500 count bed sheet witch one would you pick? The 500 count is thinner. The open weave shirts (gildan 2000, hanes tagless) are a 6.1 oz., 18 count cotton fabric. When I show my customers the difference between an 18 count shirt and a 30 count shirt they will pick the 30 count shirt almost every time. The weight is much lighter and the feel is much softer. They print even better than the feel. They cost a little more and some styles have been known to shrink. I like the thinner shirts myself. I still sell more of the heavier shirts because of the shrinking and price. So go figure. It depends on what my customer wants, I make them make the choice.


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## Greatzky (Jan 28, 2009)

tpitman said:


> For a decent shirt, get Hanes 6.1 oz. Tagless Tees. They're nicer than Gildan 2000s. The only problem is the distributors always carry the Gildans in more colors. Gildan must be bribing the distributors with booze and hookers or something, because their quality has gone downhill over the past few years. Oil stains on darks, seams coming loose, and small brown specks that look like rust stains on the whites.



I notice this a lot when I buy from distributors. I thought it might have been the way the shirts were handled at the distributors warehouses.

Have you tried working with Delta before? They don't deal with distributors. They deal right to garment decorators. I've bought my last 2-300 shirts from them an have been pretty pleased so far.


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## Greatzky (Jan 28, 2009)

to answer the question of the original poster...
A 4.5 oz shirt is in the "designer" or "fitted" shirt category. These are fine if someone wants a very light shirt that is more fitted than a standard men's box cut shirt. Usually the 4.3oz shirts are also made from Ringspun Cotton which gives them a much softer feel as well.

As for Regular box Cut shirts go with the 6.1oz shirts like the gildan 2000, Delta 65000, hanes beefy t, etc. The shirts that are made in this category that are in the 5.2-5.6oz weight don't hold up as well as their 6.1oz brothers and I only pick up the 5.5oz shirts when someone is doing shirts as "promos" or if they really just want something that is really light(for the summer).

So Regular fit shirts Go with 6.1oz.
For fitted shirts you can definitely go down to 4.5oz. hanes offers them in that weight. Delta offers a 4.3oz men's fitted shirt(style 11600). Delta even offers a 3.3oz junior ringspun cotton shirt for ladies. It's in junior sizes, but I usually end up picking up L,XL, and 2XL for ladies and it has a longer length too. Those look really comfortable.

Hope I helped a little bit.


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