Labels and Packaging for Bulk T-Shirts
By The Velocity Wear Team
Bulk t-shirts can be finished with custom woven neck labels, tear-out labels, swing tags and branded packaging, all on the same 50-piece minimum as the garments themselves. None of it changes how the shirt wears. All of it changes how the shirt is read, which is why a tee with the maker label removed sits in a different price bracket from one that still has it.
What are the label options?
A woven neck label is stitched into the collar and is the most permanent option, giving the collar a finished feel and carrying your name where a customer expects to find it. A tear-out label does the same job but is designed to be removed by the wearer, which suits anyone who dislikes a label against the neck. A printed inside-neck mark replaces a label entirely and leaves nothing to scratch. Swing tags hang from the garment and carry price, story or care information. All four are listed with the rest of the private label work alongside our wholesale t-shirts range, and quantities follow the tiers on the pricing page.
Why remove the manufacturer label at all?
Because a customer checks the collar. A shirt with a blank manufacturer label reads as a printed blank, and it prices like one, however good the graphic on the front is. Replacing it is the lowest-effort upgrade available to anyone selling rather than issuing, and it costs nothing in production time because it happens as part of the same run. For staff uniform it matters less, though hotels and restaurants often do it anyway so the shirt reads as part of the property rather than as workwear. Buying tees for resale goes into what that does to margin.
What should go on a swing tag?
Less than you think. A name, a size, a price if it is going on a shelf, and a care line. The temptation is to write the brand story on the back, and almost nobody reads it while holding a garment in a shop. What does earn its space is anything that helps the shirt survive: a wash temperature, a note about drying, and the fabric composition. A tag in a heavier card stock with a decent string does more for perceived value than any amount of copy on it.
How do the pieces actually arrive?
Folded, bagged and boxed by size unless you ask for something else. Individual poly bags are the default for anything going to retail or to a fulfilment partner, because it protects the garment and makes picking straightforward. Bulk bagging by size suits uniform orders where the shirts are being distributed by hand and the bags would only be thrown away. Say which you want before production, because it is a packing instruction rather than a change that can be made later. Delivery and transit covers what happens after the boxes are sealed.
Does private label change the minimum or the lead time?
Not the minimum. Labels are applied inside the same run of 50 pieces per design and do not create a second minimum of their own. Lead time can be affected if woven labels need to be produced first, so raise private label at the quoting stage rather than after artwork approval, when the 10 to 15 working day production window has already begun. A sample at £150, credited against the bulk order, is the reliable way to see a neck label in place before the full run.
What about size and composition labels?
They are separate from the branded neck label and easy to forget. A size marker has to be readable after the maker label is gone, which usually means printing it into the inside-neck mark or carrying it on a small side seam label. Fabric composition and care belong there too, or on the swing tag if the shirt is being sold. For retail this is not optional dressing: a customer who cannot find a size on a folded shirt puts it back down. Decide where both live at the quoting stage, because they are applied during the same run as everything else.
