Colour Matching Bulk Joggers
By The Velocity Wear Team
You can get very close to a Pantone on a jogger, but you cannot get an exact match the way you can on a printed card. Dyed fabric absorbs and scatters light differently from coated paper, and a brushed surface shifts the reading again. The workable approach is to agree a physical reference, approve a physical strike-off, and accept a small tolerance in writing before production starts.
Why does the same reference look different on fabric?
A Pantone chip is ink sitting flat on paper. A jogger is dyed yarn knitted into loops, and the surface has texture that throws light in every direction. Brushing adds a nap that softens and slightly lightens the apparent colour. Even the fibre blend matters, because different fibres take dye at different rates. None of this is a fault; it is what fabric does. The mechanism is explained further in colour matching in custom apparel.
Should you send a hex code or a Pantone number?
Send a Pantone reference, ideally the textile version rather than the coated paper one, and say which it is. A hex code describes light emitted by a screen and has no direct equivalent in dye, so it is a starting point at best. Best of all, send a physical object in the colour you want. A garment you already own removes an entire round of argument, because both sides are looking at the same thing under the same light.
What is batch variation and how do you plan for it?
Dye lots vary slightly. Two runs of the same fabric in the same colour, dyed weeks apart, can sit marginally different, and you will see it if the garments are laid side by side under strong light. The way to avoid it is to order the whole quantity at once rather than reordering later, which is also the cheaper option: the tiers reach up to 35% off the fifty-piece price as quantity rises. From-pricing starts at $22 a piece at fifty on our wholesale joggers page.
What about matching a jogger to a top?
This is where most colour complaints come from. A hoodie and a jogger in the same stated colour can be different fabrics, different constructions and different dye lots, so they will not match perfectly unless they were made together as a set. If a matching two-piece is the goal, say so at the quote stage so both halves are cut from the same lot. The reasons behind it are covered in can two different garments match in colour.
How do you lock colour before production?
Put it in the paperwork. Name the reference, state whether it is a textile or coated standard, record that a physical approval was given and by whom, and note the tolerance you have accepted. Use the terms defined in our glossary so nobody is interpreting words differently. A sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, is the physical approval most buyers use, and it also lets you check how the print colour sits against the garment colour rather than against white.
Approve under consistent light. Two colours can appear to match under office strip lighting and clearly differ in daylight, which is why an approval given on a desk at four in the afternoon sometimes falls apart the following morning. Look at the sample next to your reference by a window, then again under artificial light, and only sign off if it holds in both. If the garments will be worn somewhere specific, such as a shop floor or a stand, judge them under something close to that lighting.
