5 Best Blank Wholesale T-Shirt Distributors

Discover Where to Get the Best Blank T-Shirts

Learn About the Best T-Shirt Printing Methods

Make T-Shirt Mockups!

Custom t-shirt business owners who choose to go through an in-house fulfillment model rather than a drop shipping or outsourced one, need to find a t-shirt supplier and decide the t-shirt style/model to purchase. In this blog post, I will help you discover the exact t-shirt model you need that best fits your brand requirements, I will also help you decide what printing technique you should use and where you can buy blank bulk wholesale t-shirts at wholesale price.

It’s easy to find and order t-shirts at a wholesale price from wholesale t-shirt distributors. By selling blank t-shirts at a wholesale price, these businesses allow us to actually run a profitable venture.

About Blank T-Shirts

Is it important to purchase high-quality blank shirts? Should I always go for 100% cotton t-shirts? These are two frequently asked questions that I will answer throughout the post. You will want to make sure that the t-shirts that you are going to buy, print, and sell will fit and feel good in order to satisfy or even exceed customers’ expectations.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that depending on the design that you will put on your t-shirts, there could be some garment fabrics and printing techniques that are better suited than others.

Some customers look for 100% cotton t-shirts, others look for 50/50 cotton/poly t-shirts. Some customers want 100% because they think they’re better, some others want 50/50 because they think they’re cheaper, and some want 50/50 because they think they look better for fashion.

These are all good t-shirts but a better question to ask yourself is how heavy or how light you need a t-shirt to be. If your target market is an elder audience living in an area with cold weather, then you should go for a heavyweight t-shirt. Cool, lightweight, breathable t-shirts are more suited for younger audiences and warmer weather.

Another good thing to keep in mind is that the more t-shirts you order, the more you will save. Instead of paying $11 USD for a t-shirt when buying at a retail price, you could end up paying as low as $2 USD per t-shirt when acquiring your t-shirts from a wholesale t-shirt distributor.

Let’s get down to business.

I will now help you figure out which printing technique you should use to print your t-shirt designs, which bulk blank t-shirts to get based on your designs, and where to buy the best wholesale t-shirts so that you can get started with your t-shirt business today.

Wholesale T-Shirts Supplier Guide

• A Bit About T-Shirt Printing Methods
• T-Shirt Printing Methods Infographic
• What’s the Right Blank T-Shirt for my T-Shirt Business?
• T-Shirt Distributors in My Area
• Best Wholesale T-Shirt Suppliers Directory
• Selling T-Shirts with Designs Online
• Marketing Your Designs with Placeit Mockups

A Bit About T-Shirt Printing Methods

When starting your t-shirt business, think about printing methods before jumping into it. A simple graphic design like Nike’s famous Swoosh would be properly and easily screen printed on a t-shirt. On the contrary, a family photo with hundreds of different colors in it would be better suited for a Direct-to-Garment printing or sublimation process.

If you’re having trouble coming up with design ideas, we have a post exactly on that and we also gathered creative t-shirt ideas in this 2022 t-shirt calendar, so be sure to check them out! There you’ll see how to use Placeit’s t-shirt design templates to create killer designs that your target market will love.

The ultimate goal is to achieve the greatest, brightest, most vibrant, longest-lasting print on a t-shirt. It’s terrible when you purchase a t-shirt, you throw it into the washing machine, and the next time you wear it the design has faded away or changed color.

This could happen for several reasons, such as an old and uncalibrated PTG machine, broken screen printing or sublimation equipment, low-quality supplies, an inpatient screen printer, an incorrect amount of pressure applied when pushing the ink through, and many other human or machine mistakes. But when you have the right t-shirt and choose the right printing technique, you will most likely produce high-quality t-shirts for your customers.

To make things easier for everyone, here’s an infographic that will facilitate your decision-making process when determining which printing technique to use to create high-quality custom t-shirts.

T-Shirt Printing Methods Infographic

It all starts with the number of colors that a design has. Even though screen printing has been the leading t-shirt printing technique for ages because of its long lifespan and durability, it is very limited in the sense that the process of layering the inks to get the desired effect turns out to be quite a bit of work when adding more than a few colors.

When we come up with heavy-colored designs, using direct-to-garment printing or sublimation is recommended. These are techniques better suited for designs with a lot of colors on them. Many have fallen in love with the direct-to-garment printing technique because of its low set-up costs, its instant turnaround time, and the great results that can be achieved.

The main disadvantage of DTG is the equipment maintenance and ink cost, nevertheless, it can be expected that ink producers will eventually offer better performing inks and at lower costs.

Sublimation printing is a printing method that works with polyester and polymer-coated substrates. Results are permanent and do not peel or fade. When the design is transferred onto the garment, the dye turns into a gas and permeates the fabric, and then solidifies into its fibers. As a result, the fabric is permanently dyed so it can be washed without damaging the quality of the design.

Every technique has its pros and its cons. Screen printing and direct-to-garment printing give excellent results on cotton-based garments while sublimation needs a polymer to permeate into the fabric and solidify into its fibers. Use these recommendations as a guide when choosing a printing technique so that you can get a superb printing quality. Here’s a shortlist of the Best Screen Printing Equipment in case you are thinking of purchasing your own gear.

Now that we clarified the mist around the t-shirt printing techniques let’s move and learn what are the blank t-shirts for printing that you need for your custom t-shirt printing business.

What’s the Right Blank T-Shirt for My Business?

As the custom t-shirt industry has grown and evolved, a few key players have emerged. These designers, manufacturers, and suppliers of undecorated blank t-shirts have transformed custom t-shirt manufacturing into a multi-million industry.

These t-shirt brands have almost perfected the art of t-shirt manufacturing. T-shirt sellers are now able to get their hands on t-shirts of almost any kind of fabric combination which allows them to sell custom t-shirts that look and feel exactly as their customers wish them to. Lightweight, heavyweight, 100% cotton, 100% polyester, 50% 50% blends, Triblends, you name it. Here’s a shortlist of the top key players of 2022.

What are the Top 5 Best Blank T-Shirt Brands for Your Custom T-Shirt Business?

• Gldan
• Bella + Canvas
• Next Level Apparel
• Hanes
• Anvil

Check out Real Thread’s t-shirt selection for in-depth details on these shirt products.

Now I’ll show you the best blank t-shirt distributors from whom we all can purchase t-shirts at a wholesale price without minimum quantity requirements or having to provide a Tax ID number.

Where to Buy High-Quality Blank Wholesale T-Shirts for a Custom T-Shirt Business

After testing and trying several websites I can confidently list these 5 reliable bulk t-shirt distributors where you can simply add t-shirts to your cart, purchase them, and have them sent to your home for cheap. Buying directly from the previously mentioned t-shirt brands is mostly exclusive for these following blank t-shirt distributors since they purchase t-shirts by the thousands, who are about to start a t-shirt business, usually need just a couple hundred blank t-shirts to start with.

The Non-Official Top 5 Best Wholesale T-Shirt Distributors List for Your Custom T-Shirt Business Needs

• Blank Apparel
• Jones T-shirts
• The Deal Rack
• Jiffy Shirts
• The Adair Group

All of these websites will ship anywhere in the US and they also have physical retail stores spread all over the country for you to go to and personally visit them. They offer low prices to everyone, so compare prices, read the reviews, check availability, and place your orders!

How to Find Wholesale T-Shirt Distributors in My Area

Not an online shopper? No worries. Google Maps and Yelp can help you find the best t-shirt distributor in your area effectively. Here’s how to find blank tees in your area.

Go to Yelp, give it a location, and type your search in.

The process to find blank tees distributors in your area is very similar to Google Maps.

Search queries like “wholesale blank t-shirts” will let you know where your nearest wholesale blank t-shirt distributors are. You can try these search terms as well:

• blank t-shirts
• wholesale plain t-shirts
• bulk blank t-shirts
• wholesale blank apparel
• t-shirt wholesale suppliers

Once you have your t-shirt suppliers’ list, depending on the distance and availability, you should give them a call, email them, or simply pay them a visit and tell them about your plans. In my experience, a quick call can help you quickly determine if one of these t-shirt wholesalers or retailers will be a good fit for your needs.

They will most certainly point you in the right direction according to your plans. Before contacting them, make sure you first make a quick outline of what you need, for example:

• How many t-shirts you need, sizes, and colors.
• What kind of fabric you want your t-shirts to be made of. Is it a polyester, cotton, hybrid?

This would look something like this:

It is recommended that you let them know:

• What you are planning to print on the t-shirts and what printing technique you are planning to use
• What t-shirt colors you need
• What is the expected delivery time after placing an order

After a few calls, you will be able to determine which t-shirt stores are worth the visit.

At the t-shirt stores, you will be able to assess the t-shirt quality. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to sell good quality t-shirts. When visiting a t-shirt wholesale shop, ask to see first their Premium quality t-shirts. These will generally feel and fit better and last longer.

These small details are definitely worth paying for, so remember to always try to exceed or at least meet customers’ expectations.

Best Wholesale T-Shirt Suppliers Directory

Selling T-Shirts with Designs Online

Once you get your t-shirts and you are ready to start your online t-shirt business you should check out this guide. It should help you get prepared to have an online t-shirt shop with Shopify in no time. Once you get your t-shirt website up and running, check out this Instagram guide for t-shirt business owners to help you get sales directly through social media too.

If you’re an Etsy seller, use this guide to help you increase your sales this fall or any time the seasons change.

Although artists end up earning less money for their designs when selling through a Print-on-Demand website, for many, it is still the way to go. When you sell through a Print-on-Demand website, like TeePublic for example, you don’t have to worry about buying t-shirts and sending customers their items since it is all processed through these platforms.

Of course, it comes with a cost, in this case, a commission, but it simplifies the process for busy people. If you want to learn more about the subject, check this best print-on-demand website guide and this other post on where to sell t-shirts online which includes a database of all the POD sites, their specifics, and features so you can choose the best one for your business.

Now you will need to promote your designs whether using a t-shirt product photo editing service or creating mockups.

Now, How Do I Promote My T-Shirt Business?

The best way to promote your t-shirt business is by using Placeit’s t-shirt mockup templates! That’s how t-shirt business owners and print shop owners promote their t-shirts online. Placeit allows you to simply drag and drop your design into hundreds of t-shirt mockups and templates to easily create high-quality visuals that look like they were made by a skilled graphic designer but really weren’t, they were made by you!

That’s right! Picture the combination of high-quality t-shirts and a solid visual marketing strategy that includes t-shirt mockups, BOOM! When it comes to mockups, no one beats Placeit’s effectiveness. Have a look at some of the top seller t-shirt mockup templates available on Placeit, and if you’re selling online, check out this guide on how to drive targeted traffic to your online store.

Tip – Placeit has a subscription that gives you access to every single mockup and video mockup that Placeit has available. That means you don’t have to limit yourself to just a few mockups when you want to promote your t-shirt designs!

Make Summer T-Shirt Mockups

Make White Background T-Shirt Mockups

Get T-Shirt Mockups Being Worn by Kids

Make T-Shirt Mockups with Text

Make Video T-Shirt Mockups

Over To You

And that’s a wrap. Hopefully, with this short but helpful guide you will be able to get your hands on high-quality t-shirts, start experimenting (hopefully not too much) with the different printing techniques, and make your first sale soon!

If you’ve found this guide useful, please let us know in the comments section, and feel free to share it with your closest ones. If you need help creating t-shirt designs to actually put on t-shirts, then check this guide on how to find a t-shirt design tool for your t-shirt business.

Not looking to make a profit out of them but rather organize a charity run for a good cause? Then, once you finish reading this article, go and get shirt ideas for charity runs! In fact, using Placeit’s t-shirt design templates you can create all sorts of t-shirt designs to sell in your online shop, create charity t-shirts, or simply create fun t-shirts for yourself.