Shop Provided Blank Garments
Welcome to sourced garments 101, this post is intended to help you find the right blank garment for your project. It’s a lot of information to take in; but we hope this empowers you to make the right decision in choosing your garment(s).
Hopefully you’ll find everything you’re looking for through our preferred vendor links and the products by category breakdown. If not send us a description of what you have in mind and we’ll come back with product links that match your description. You will find all of our preferred garments in our catalog linked above.
Shop Provided Blank Garments
Welcome to sourced garments 101, this post is intended to help you find the right blank garment for your project. It’s a lot of information to take in; but we hope this empowers you to make the right decision in choosing your garment(s).
Hopefully you’ll find everything you’re looking for through our preferred vendor links and the products by category breakdown. If not send us a description of what you have in mind and we’ll come back with product links that match your description. You will find all of our preferred garments in our catalog linked above.
In this basic canvass of garment sourcing you’ll find an intro to fabric compatibility, a general fit guide, a list of our top vendors and our leading garment brands by category.
Here at The Foundry we believe that good embellishments start at the garment. With so many fabric blends on the market it’s a literal arms race between fabric and print technology. In many ways, the attributes that make modern fabrics so comfortable can also make them difficult to print; take moisture wicking, water repellency or stain resistance for example. Most fabrics are designed around wear-ability opposed to being suitable substrates for embellishment. We believe that in order to achieve premium print results you have to approach every project in the same order; knowing the fabric material then determining the embellishment system used to decorate it.
Fit Guide
A basic guide to fit:
Humans are shaped differently from one another by many dimensions and everyone has their own definition of a good fitting garment. Knowing this the garment manufacturers pull fit specs from a pool and average them to try and get a consensus for dimensions by size for each subcategory. The basic subcategories are age and gender, and within each of those you have either contemporary or basic fit.
With that let’s look at the difference between contemporary and basic fit and understand that the following is a generalization. Contemporary fits are slightly longer in the body and trimmer in the overall silhouette. Contemporary garments are typically constructed from finer materials and cost roughly 20% more than their basic companions. Basic fits are slightly shorter in length and have a wider more relaxed overall silhouette. Basics have a heavier more traditional construction as well. These principles apply to all tops whether it’s tees, jackets or hoodies. Both contemporary and basic fits have a healthy market share at our shop, the difference really comes down to end user demographic and value.
Preferred Distributors
Distributors with top credentials:
Now the garment industry is enormous, it’s safe to say that we have access to tens of thousands of garment styles. Navigating all those products can be a real challenge, fortunately there are a handful of distributors that filter a lot of that for us and you’ll find most of the top products on their websites. It’s a lot to take in so don’t be afraid to 
reach out to us for guidance.
Garments by Category
As you can see there are a lot of products out there and to assist in your search we’ve broken it out by category/brand below. These are our top selling favorites based on the leading characteristics; quality, availability, fit, embellish-ability (we made that word up) and the logistics to obtaining them.
Know that we are here to help you so reach out if you have any questions.
Blank Tee Shirts
Top selling tees and long sleeves:
Bella + Canvas – Our single most popular tee shirt line
Gildan – Our most popular brand for basic fits as well as the very affordable contemporary softstyle line
Next Level – An awesome verity of blended fabrics and modern colors in contemporary fits
Royal Apparel – Some great contemporary styles made in the USA
Hanes – A basic brand known for its quality, availability and affordability
Blank Hoodies and Sweatshirts
Top selling hoodies and crews:
Independent Trading Co – Our #1 fleece line, contemporary and basic fits in great quality fleece.
Gildan – A great basic and affordable line of fleece.
Beimar – Good contemporary fleece along with some cool technical styles
Burnside – A great brand for fleece tops and bottoms as well as woven and flannel tops.
Blank Jackets
Top Selling Outerwear:
Independent Trading Co – We love their water resistant windbreakers (with and without hood)
Beimar – Overall our favorite Jacket brand, their modern fit coaches jacket is one of our favs.
Dickies – Some very cool basic workwear type jackets.
Blank Pants, Shorts and Joggers
Top Selling Pants and Sweats:
Carhartt – Rugged work pants for construction and outdoor labro.
Sport-Tek – Leading in affordable but quality sportswear.
RedKap – Industrial work styles that are modern and economical.
Independent Trading – Masters of all things fleece including sweatpants.
Blank Hats and Beanies
Top Selling Headwear and Accessories:
Flexfit/Yupoong – Something for everyone, our go to for modern caps and knit beanies.
Rothco – Our leading supplier for knit caps. They also have helmets and airsoft guns, I’m just saying.
Decky – great traditional styles and modern takes. We really like some of their novelty fabrications.
Richardson Cap – Great modern styles with lots of color options.
Liberty Bags – Our leading line of tote bags.
Blank Safety Gear
Top Selling High Vis Lines:
Bulwark – Pretty much the top of the line in high visibility apparel.
Kishigo – Another top of the line safety wear brand and probably our most popular.
CornerStone – A great affordable link of high visibility basics.
RedKap – Great styles for everyday, our favorite workwear line.
Conclusion
There’s a lot out there and the above is just a small sampling of our sourcing reach. We’re here to make your project so put us to work, ask us any question and we’ll either know the answer of we’ll figure it out.
Below are some relevant links around the site if you wish to continue your research.
Details on starting a project with The Foundry
A guide to sizing your graphics
Thanks for reading!
Contemporary Tees
Layering Outerwear
Windbreakers
Fashion Apparel
High Vis Workwear
Intro
A basic intro to fabric/print compatibility:
Here at The Foundry we believe that good embellishments start at the garment. With so many fabric blends on the market it’s a literal arms race between fabric and print technology. In many ways, the attributes that make modern fabrics so comfortable can also make them difficult to print; take moisture wicking, water repellency or stain resistance for example. Most fabrics are designed around wear-ability opposed to being suitable substrates for embellishment. We believe that in order to achieve premium print results you have to approach every project in the same order; knowing the fabric material then determining the embellishment system used to decorate it.
Fit Guide
A basic guide to fit:
Humans are shaped differently from one another by many dimensions and everyone has their own definition of a good fitting garment. Knowing this the garment manufacturers pull fit specs from a pool and average them to try and get a consensus for dimensions by size for each subcategory. The basic subcategories are age and gender, and within each of those you have either contemporary or basic fit.
With that let’s look at the difference between contemporary and basic fit and understand that the following is a generalization. Contemporary fits are slightly longer in the body and trimmer in the overall silhouette. Contemporary garments are typically constructed from finer materials and cost roughly 20% more than their basic companions. Basic fits are slightly shorter in length and have a wider more relaxed overall silhouette. Basics have a heavier more traditional construction as well. These principles apply to all tops whether it’s tees, jackets or hoodies. Both contemporary and basic fits have a healthy market share at our shop, the difference really comes down to end user demographic and value.
Preferred Distributors
Distributors with top credentials:
Now the garment industry is enormous, it’s safe to say that we have access to tens of thousands of garment styles. Navigating all those products can be a real challenge, fortunately there are a handful of distributors that filter a lot of that for us and you’ll find most of the top products on their websites. It’s a lot to take in so don’t be afraid to reach out to us for guidance.
Garments by Category
As you can see there are a lot of products out there and to assist in your search we’ve broken it out by category/brand below. These are our top selling favorites based on the leading characteristics; quality, availability, fit, embellish-ability (we made that word up) and the logistics to obtaining them.
Tees
Top selling tees and long sleeves:
Bella + Canvas – Our single most popular tee shirt line
Gildan – Our most popular brand for basic fits as well as the very affordable contemporary softstyle line
Next Level – An awesome verity of blended fabrics and modern colors in contemporary fits
Royal Apparel – Some great contemporary styles made in the USA
Hanes – A basic brand known for its quality, availability and affordability
Fleece
Top selling hoodies and crews:
Independent Trading Co – Our #1 fleece line, contemporary and basic fits in great quality fleece.
Gildan – A great basic and affordable line of fleece.
Beimar – Good contemporary fleece along with some cool technical styles
Burnside – A great brand for fleece tops and bottoms as well as woven and flannel tops.
Jackets
Top Selling Outerwear:
Independent Trading Co – We love their water resistant windbreakers (with and without hood)
Beimar – Overall our favorite Jacket brand, their modern fit coaches jacket is one of our favs.
Dickies – Some very cool basic workwear type jackets.
Headwear
Top Selling Headwear and Accessories:
Flexfit/Yupoong – Something for everyone, our go to for modern caps and knit beanies.
Rothco – Our leading supplier for knit caps. They also have helmets and airsoft guns, I’m just saying.
Decky – great traditional styles and modern takes. We really like some of their novelty fabrications.
Richardson Cap – Great modern styles with lots of color options.
Liberty Bags – Our leading line of tote bags.
Safety Gear
Top Selling High Vis Lines:
Bulwark – Pretty much the top of the line in high visibility apparel.
Kishigo – Another top of the line safety wear brand and probably our most popular.
CornerStone – A great affordable link of high visibility basics.
RedKap – Great styles for everyday, our favorite workwear line.
Conclusion
There’s a lot out there and the above is just a small sampling of our sourcing reach. We’re here to make your project so put us to work, ask us any question and we’ll either know the answer of we’ll figure it out.
Below are some relevant links around the site if you wish to continue your research.
Details on starting a project with The Foundry
A guide to sizing your graphics
Thanks for reading!
Daisley Gordon2021-09-02We've worked with The Foundry for two projects. Logo'ed kitchen towels which we sell and custom embroidered custom aprons for a special group of out staff at Café Campagne We were very happy with the results.
Peter Keckemet2021-08-30Great to work with, very helpful in getting concept to product.
Janet Charbonnier2021-08-24We love The Foundry! We too are a small business and appreciate working with another small local business. The communication was on spot, our bags and patches were perfect and our job was done in a timely manner. You guys rock!!!
jeremiah robinson2021-08-04These guys were awesome to work with! Not only were they more than helpful with the process of getting my shop custom shirts and hats, but also helped with getting the image I wanted to come to life a reality. Very helpful and easy to work with! highly recommend for your next project.
Nina Arranza-Riley2021-08-03I chose Foundry out of the many print shops available to us nearby because of their stellar communication and follow-up, plus they made the shirt-making and ordering so easy for me to understand! I have no knowledge of screen printing and shirts whatsoever, but with Clint and Kara's help I was able to pick and design one for my company AND THEY TURNED OUT AMAZING! Seriously, I can't thank you guys enough. The people at the Foundry are kind, helpful, patient and professional, answering my many questions and easing my worries. Project was completed on time and on budget, shipped fast, shirts were comfortable and the designs well printed. I am absolutely going back here in the future.
BS_creativeDir.2021-05-05Working with Foundry was a wonderful experience. Clint was professional and he helped us tremendously. I will most definitely do more business with Foundry. Foundry is A1.
Aimee Peck2021-04-15Great experience with The Foundry! They were able to do a project super fast and the end result was awesome! I will be working with them again.
Drew Mortenson2021-03-31Fantastic customer service with friendly employees and high quality prints. They are great at accommodating for their customers and making sure that everything comes out absolutely perfectly. Definitely recommend for anyone who needs quality screen printing services!
Liv Nagler2021-03-29The Foundry ROCKS!! So quick to respond and able to accommodate anything we threw at them! I can't wait to order from the team again!
Marcus Hahnemann2021-03-29I got awesome service and some really cool swag for my new business. Forrest talked me through best bang for my buck and with some high-quality items. The logos turned out great in my members at the Cle Elum Back9 love the gear. I’ve already had to re-order some more gear.
