Custom apparel represents apparel that displays a catchy slogan and/or company logo. Some types of custom clothing, such as shirts and jackets, include the contact details for a brand. Custom apparel plays an influential role in helping businesses increase brand awareness that leads to a stronger bond developed with potential customers. Another way custom apparel makes a positive branding impact is when a company such as GoPromotional creates custom apparel that businesses use to hand out at trade shows and other types of public events.
When employees wear customized uniforms, the apparel exudes professionalism, as well as a commitment to representing a brand. For example, the employees playing for a company softball team wear customized uniforms during each game, which increases brand awareness for prospective customers that only know about the company by attending the softball games.
Now that you know why customer apparel is an important promotional technique, what are the most popular fabrics used to design custom clothing like hats and t-shirts?
Fleece
As a type of wool that is typically shaved off sheep, fleece represents a super-soft fabric that delivers ultimate comfort. Flexible fleece works as fashionably well as standalone apparel, as it does as a garment liner. The types of custom apparel that incorporate fleece into the design include hoodies and similar types of apparel that possess high levels of breathability. Sweat clothes such as hoodies make ideal gifts for the members of your staff, as well as present a visually appealing appearance for embroidery and screen prints.
Fig: Fleece fabric
Cotton
A natural fiber, cotton is by far one of the most popular apparel fabrics. One-hundred percent cotton breathes well, but it takes more time than average for it to dry outside of a dryer. The versatile fabric resists pilling, which involves a collection of short and/or broken fibers that tangle to form small balls or knots. Pills not only present an unattractive appearance, but their development also compromises the strength of a fabric. Custom apparel such as dress shirts and athletic socks work well when designed with cotton as the fabric.
Cotton t-shirts represent the most popular type of fabric to use for screen printing logos and brand slogans.
Polyester Highly durable polyester represents the best option for custom apparel that goes through rigorous use. For example, polyester resists the damage done by participating in high-energy sporting events such as tennis. Contemporary polyester typically features moisture-wicking technology that delivers optimal comfort for users that enjoy an active lifestyle. Polyester also works well as the fabric used for designing bowling shirts and softball uniforms. Just remember to add a logo and/or slogan that leaves a positive impression in the minds of potential customers.
Cotton-Polyester Blend
Capturing the benefits of both cotton and polyester produces a blended shirt that provides comfort through moisture-wicking technology, while preventing the development of pills. Cotton delivers the super-soft feel that makes this blended fabric perfect for wearing for a night out on the town. The polyester component of the blended fabric enhances the durability that cotton sometimes does not achieve.
Nylon Nylon is part of the design for outerwear such as parkas and winter coats. For example, a standard parka design includes a nylon shell and polyester lining. Both types of fabrics deliver optimal durability, but nylon by far does the best job among all fabrics for resisting the worst types of weather like snow and sleet. Custom apparel designed for winter use represents an effective way to get your brand noticed at indoor events. When screen printing, the designer adds a special formula to work well with water-resistant nylon.
Leather
Designed to present a sleek appearance, leather stands out among other fabrics for its attention-grabbing panache. Because of its attention-grabbing appeal, leather represents one of the most influential fabrics for raising brand awareness. However, leather is not the best option for adding embroidery, as leather is a thick material that makes it difficult to run even a sharp needle through it.
The Bottom Line
Because custom apparel helps businesses increase awareness of their product and services, choosing the right fabric is one of the most important decisions to make. Choose a fabric that matches well with the type of branding message that you want potential customers to see.
Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
