Chances are you clicked on this video because you're new to the apparel world or
maybe you're just here to learn more about the apparel industry in general.
Either way, get ready to take some notes.
Hey everyone i'm Wes Tate with BELLA+CANVAS. There are so many industry-specific terms
floating around and they can be a little confusing especially if you're just starting out. To make
things easier for you i'm going to break down and simplify some of the most common terms that you
should know to help navigate the apparel industry. These are the 21 must-know terms when starting
your clothing line. First up let's go over some manufacturing terms. Distributor or wholesaler.
This is a term you need to know if you're buying shirts in bulk and doing the printing yourselves.
A wholesaler or distributor buys directly from apparel companies like BELLA+CANVAS then ships
products out from their national distribution network of warehouses. You can buy BELLA+CANVAS
from these wholesalers or directly from us with a resale license. What's a resale license?
Depending on your state it may be called a resale certificate,, seller's permit, resale license,
or something like that. This license lets you buy wholesale goods without paying sales tax.
Then once the goods are sold your customer pays the sales tax to you and then you report them
back to the state. Decoration and decorator. And no we're not talking about decking the halls.
Decoration is the term used when talking about the artwork that is actually going on the shirt.
That could be print with ink, embroidery, foil and so on. Which makes the decorator the person
or company who is physically putting the design on the shirt for you. Most often that's going to be a
print shop or a print on demand company. This is also another source where you're able to purchase
your blank apparel from making it a little bit more of a one-stop shop. Which brings us to the
next term, print on demand or pod. This is a company that specializes in printing one-offs.
This is a term commonly used in e-commerce when you're selling online. You're able to route orders
directly to the pod company where they fulfill the order and ship it out directly to your customer.
This is a process known as drop shipping. Drop shipping is when the pod company or a
fulfillment company ships your product directly to your customer. This is a very common practice
and if you've shopped online yourself you've most likely already had something drop shipped to you.
Direct to garment or dtg. This is a newer type of printing where all colors of your design
are printed at the same time and directly onto your garment. Picture a giant version of your
at-home inkjet printer. This allows for a more cost-efficient way to print low quantities or
even one-offs. If you choose to go with a print-on-demand company they will most
likely be using dtg to print your apparel. The alternative to dtg is screen printing. This is
a term you're most likely already familiar with. It's the more traditional way to print apparel.
Individual screens are made for each color in your design then each color is printed one by
one. This type of printing is ideal if you're ordering in bulk with orders of 25 shirts or more.
Okay we've talked about the manufacturing, now i'd like to talk more about the garments and fabrics.
First let's start with what to even call the apparel product. Shirt blank or blanks. This
is a term used when discussing the wholesale shirt that you buy in order to add a decoration on it.
Buy off the shelf or retail ready or other phrases you'll come across when finding your blank.
Basically it means you're buying a ready-made shirt to print on and aren't sewing a shirt from
scratch. That term is cut and sew, which means you're starting with a roll of fabric and are
cutting and sewing a custom shirt for your brand. Fabric weight. The weight that you'll see listed
on the site is not talking about the actual weight of the shirt but the weight per square yard of
fabric. What does this mean for you? The heavier the weight, the heavier the shirt and vice versa.
So if you're looking for a lightweight shirt look for a lighter fabric weight. Single or single
count. Just like a thread count for sheets, single counts define the number of cross sections within
one square inch of fabric. The higher the single count the tighter the knit and softer the feel.
An insider tip, the higher single count typically means that you're working with a premium,
high quality blank. Silhouette. This refers to the cut or style of the shirt. For example the
BELLA+CANVAS 3001 and 3413 are the same silhouette but they're just different fabric blends. So let's
talk about fabric blends. There are a few which are the most popular that you should know about.
100% Airlume Combed and Ring-Spun Cotton. This is the signature cotton found here at BELLA+CANVAS
that we engineer from raw materials. Longer staple cotton with almost no impurities make our Airlume
the best for printing and the softest feeling shirt. Heather or Heather CVC. This is one of
BELLA+CANVAS' most popular products. This shirt is typically a 52% cotton and 48%
polyester blend. These are the shirts you see with a little speckle or differentiation in the
color of the shirt, like i'm wearing today. The technical industry term is Heather CVC but often
times you see the word Heather just listed with the color - like heather navy or heather red and
just know that that's what this is talking about. Triblend this is arguably the lightest and softest
shirt out there. It's made up of three different fabrics - cotton, rayon and polyester. It's great
for a vintage feel, athletic brands, or even if you're just wanting the most comfortable shirt.
Now let's talk a little about some of the business terms that you're going to run into. E-commerce
platform. If you're selling online, which i highly recommend you do, this will be the site that your
online store is on. Shopify, Weebly, Woocommerce and others like these are examples of what an
e-commerce platform is. Most commonly this will be a standalone website that you will direct traffic
to like myshirtstore.com There's another type of e-commerce platform that you should look into,
that's called a marketplace. A marketplace is where a customer visits a larger website and
can organically find your products along with many other stores. Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, Storenvy are all
examples of marketplaces. End user. In our corner of the apparel world the end user would be the
final person who's wearing your shirt. You may also hear this referred to as the end customer.
Fulfillment. Fulfillment is the term used when talking about completing an order. A customer
buys something from you and now you need to fulfill it. That may be you personally,
the print on demand company or another fulfillment company that you're using. Pop-up shop.
If you're selling online you may decide to run a pop-up shop. This is where for a limited time
or even just one day you sell your products in person. This is a great way to grow your brand
awareness, grab some new customers and meet your actual customers in person, which will
help strengthen your community. If you do this you might want to make sure that you have a good
point of sale or POS. POS is how you check out your customers and keep track of your inventory.
At this point many e-commerce platforms out there already have a great built-in way to sell
both products online and in person. If you know that selling in person regularly will be a part
of your business model i encourage you to find an e-commerce platform that has a POS system already
built in. And there you have it the 21 terms you should know when starting your clothing line.
If there's a term that you've come across and we didn't cover it, ask away in the comments below.