If you want to bring garments to life with custom printing, hoodies are a great choice. They are comfortable, cozy, and perfect for every season.
Hoodies come in a wide variety of styles, materials, and colors, so there are many different options to explore. How do you know which is the best? There are specific qualities that set apart certain hoodies from others, that make them the best selection.
Here is what you need to know about the qualities of the best wholesale hoodies for printing.
Best Materials for Printing Hoodies
Different materials that make up the hoodies will also determine the kind of printing you may want to use.
Jersey Cotton
Jersey cotton hoodies are typically made with a single knit of 100% cotton fabric. Jersey cotton is extremely lightweight, breathable, and comfortable, making it perfect for warmer weather.
Cotton is also by far the best material on which to print. Direct-to-garment (DTG) and screen printing both turn out the best with 100% cotton fabric, as the ink easily bonds to this material.
Fleece Blends
Fleece blends are another great material when searching for wholesale hoodies for printing.
Fleece is often made from a blend of cotton and polyester. The cotton gives the fabric breathability and movement, while the polyester helps provide some extra warmth and coziness. Polyester also gives the hoodie a bit of structure, helping to hold its shape.
While 100% cotton is the easiest overall material to print on, fleece — and other cotton-poly blends — can work great for printing, too. At Bella + Canvas, our polyester acts more like a natural fiber than a synthetic one. This makes it even better for printing than the fleece options from other companies.
We have a few tips that can help your design turn out the best, when printing on fleece hoodies:
DTG printing on fleece: Direct-to-garment (DTG) is great for printing designs with many colors or intricate details.
When DTG printing on fleece, it is best to use a pretreat and adjust the saturation level. We also recommend using a white underbase to help create bold colors.
Screen printing on fleece: Screen printing is an excellent printing method, if you have a large batch of hoodies — like 25 or more. It is very quick, allowing you to do hundreds an hour. When screen printing on any fabric containing polyester, we recommend using a poly ink and/or poly blocker to ensure the ink adheres to the fabric the way you envisioned.
Tri-blends
Like fleece, tri-blends combine the benefits of multiple kinds of fabric. At Bella + Canvas, our tri-blends contain a delicate balance of cotton, polyester, and rayon. The rayon adds moisture absorbency, giving the fabric more of an athletic feel.
You will want to follow these tips when printing on a tri-blend, to ensure that you get equally desired results.
Premium Production
A wholesale supplier that uses premium materials and production practices will make the best wholesale hoodies for printing.
For example, you may come across two wholesalers that use different kinds of cotton. One may use C.O.E. (carded open end) cotton, while the other uses combed cotton. How do you know which is better?
C.O.E. cotton is the cheapest you will find — and that low price is unfortunately reflected in the poor quality of the fabric. Many impurities are left in the cotton, making it stiff, scratchy, and uncomfortable.
Combed cotton has many of the impurities removed, making it much softer, more comfortable, and durable. The best wholesale hoodies for printing are made with combed cotton — or better yet, with the Bella + Canvas signature Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton. Our distinguished cotton — exclusive to us — is 25% cleaner than other kinds. This makes it not only much cozier, but also better for printing.
You want to ensure that the wholesale supplier you select takes great care when making their hoodies. Puckering on the seams and loose threads on the garment are telltale signs that the hoodie was made without care or attention to detail.
While it may be more of an investment, it is much better to choose quality-made hoodies. You and your customers will immediately notice the difference.
Pullover vs. Zip-up Hoodies
When searching for the best wholesale hoodies for printing, such as the white zip-up hoodies in bulk, you also want to consider whether you prefer pullover or zip-up styles.
Pullover styles give you more options to print large designs across the front of the garment. With zip-up styles, you’ll have to be careful when printing large designs on the front because of the zipper. Choosing smaller designs for the front or larger designs to put on the back will be best with zip-up styles.
However, if you are printing on the arms or the hood, both styles will work great for printing.
Eco-Conscious and Ethical
Other considerations to factor when looking for a wholesaler, is whether they use ethical production practices. This is a strong indicator that they not only care about the plant and environment, but also what they do, and want the positive impact of their products to extend from beyond their hands on to their customers. Consumers are also increasingly aware of how the products that they purchase are made, in some cases demanding that brands they support be more environmentally friendly.
Search for transparency when shopping for quality hoodies. Companies that are taking steps to be environmentally friendly, and ensure the rights of their workers, will make you aware of these practices.
At Bella + Canvas, we are platinum W.R.A.P certified and ensure that all of our team members are paid livable wages, and are treated with the respect that they deserve.
With our headquarters in Los Angeles, we also adhere to some of the strictest laws in the country, to reduce our environmental impact. For example, we use efficient dye machines that save 24 million gallons of water a week — using 7x less water than our competitors. We also recycle most of our clothing scraps into items like bibs and upholstery stuffing and take many steps to reduce our co2 (carbon dioxide) emissions.
Explore the Best Wholesale Hoodies for Printing
It can be overwhelming trying to sort through hundreds of available options to find the best wholesale hoodies for printing. However, knowing exactly what to look for in a wholesale supplier can help you choose the best material, style, and company that you are proud to support.
Whether you are searching zip-up hoodies, fleece pullovers, or athletic tri-blend styles, Bella + Canvas has you covered. On our website, we have over 300 color options across all styles, so there is something for everyone to love. We also have no minimum size, style, and color quantities on domestic orders, so you can order exactly what you need.
Check out the full selection of styles and colors on our site and find the perfect hoodie for your next printing project today!
