US Clothing Labels: What the Law Actually Requires on the Neck
By The Velocity Wear Team
A neck label is one of the few parts of a garment where a new brand has almost no creative freedom about the content and total freedom about the form. The Federal Trade Commission decides what has to be on it. You decide what it looks like, what it is made of, and whether it is woven, printed or a heat transfer. Knowing which half is which saves a lot of arguing.
This is not legal advice and the FTC publishes its own guidance, which is readable and free. But here is the shape of it, aimed at somebody about to place a first order.
Four things, two labels
Under the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act and the rules under it, a textile garment sold in the US has to disclose three things: the generic fibre names and their percentages by weight, in descending order; the identity of the company responsible for the garment; and where it was processed or manufactured.
Separately, under the Care Labeling Rule, it has to carry care instructions, permanently attached, that the seller has a reasonable basis to believe are accurate. Those are two different rules with two different origins, which is why brands sometimes get the first three right and forget the fourth entirely.
Fibre content, precisely
Generic names, not trade names. "Cotton" and "polyester", not a mill's brand name for a blend. Percentages by weight, in descending order, and they need to be true — a 50/50 described as 60/40 is a misstatement regardless of whether anybody would notice by feel.
The practical version for a brand: get the composition in writing from your supplier before the label artwork is finalised, and make sure it is the composition of the garment you are actually buying rather than the one on last season's spec sheet. If you switch blank mid-season, the label has to switch with it.
Company identity, or an RN
You can put your full company name — the registered business name, not a trading nickname — or you can apply to the FTC for a registered identification number, an RN, and print that instead. The RN is free to apply for, and it exists mostly for companies that do not want their full legal entity name on every garment.
For a small brand there is a genuine reason to prefer the RN: your legal entity name is often something like "Smith Holdings LLC" and printing it in the neck of a streetwear tee looks like exactly what it is. An RN is a short code that means the same thing to a regulator and nothing to a customer.
Country of origin
Where the garment was manufactured. This has to be accurate, it has to be on the label, and it is the field brands most often want to fudge. Do not. The origin rules are factual and the penalties for misdescribing origin are meaningfully worse than the marketing cost of being honest. There is a separate piece on what you can and cannot say about US origin in the Made in USA guide.
Care instructions, and "reasonable basis"
The Care Labeling Rule is the one with a clause that catches people. You need a reasonable basis for the care instructions you print — meaning you cannot simply copy a care symbol set off another garment because it looked about right. The instruction has to be one the garment can actually survive.
In practice, ask your supplier for the recommended care for the specific fabric and decoration, and use that. A screen print, a DTF transfer and an embroidery on the same blank do not necessarily want the same wash and dry treatment, and the decoration is usually what fails first.
How this affects a production order
- Label content has to be finalised at artwork stage, alongside the print files, because labels are made during production rather than after it.
- Woven labels give the most premium result and take the longest to make; printed labels and heat transfers are quicker and sit flatter, which some buyers prefer for next-to-skin garments.
- Care content can share a label with fibre content and origin, or sit on a separate side seam label. Either is fine legally; the side seam version keeps the neck cleaner.
- If you are selling the same garment into the UK, EU or Canada, the requirements differ — Canada in particular requires bilingual fibre content — so a brand selling into several markets often runs one label that satisfies all of them.
Send us the label wording with your design and it is produced as part of the run. That is the entire process, and it is the reason to sort the wording out early rather than at the end.
