What your shirt is actually made of.

Garment dyeing means the shirt is sewn first and dyed after, as a finished piece. Most tees are made the other way around — the fabric is dyed on the roll, then cut and sewn. Dyeing the assembled garment puts it through a hot wet process that relaxes the cotton and softens the hand before it ever reaches you. That is why a garment-dyed tee feels broken in on the first wear.

It also explains the price, the color depth, and the small variations between shirts. All three come from the same step.

Two of our four blanks are garment-dyed, both from Comfort Colors: the 1717 tee and the 1566 crewneck. The Gildan 64000 and Bella + Canvas 3001 are conventionally dyed.

Fiber content on the Gildan 64000 can vary by color — heather colors carry some polyester. The exact split is on the product page, and every product page names the blank that piece is printed on.

Ring-spun means the cotton fibers are twisted and thinned before knitting, which produces a finer, stronger, softer yarn than open-end cotton. Airlume is the Bella + Canvas version, combed to pull out shorter fibers and impurities before spinning.

Weight and process, mostly.

A $20 graphic tee is usually printed on a 4.0 to 4.5 oz open-end cotton blank that was piece-dyed on the roll. The 1717 is 6.1 oz ring-spun cotton that went through a full garment-dye cycle after assembly. That is roughly 45% more cotton by weight plus an extra wet-processing step, and both show up in what the blank costs before anyone prints on it.

You are also not paying for a warehouse. Every piece is printed after you order it, which is why the catalog can stay wide without dead stock — and why it takes a few extra days. The full timeline is on Shipping & Returns.

Because it is garment-dyed, and garment dyeing produces variation by design.

Each dye lot is a separate batch. Cotton takes color slightly differently depending on the batch, the wash, and where the shirt sat in the machine. Two Pepper tees ordered six months apart can land a shade or two off from each other. Photography adds another layer — screens are calibrated differently and no two show the same Blue Jean.

This is the finish, not a defect. It is the same reason two pairs of raw denim from the same run break in differently. If the shade is far enough off that it looks like the wrong colorway shipped, email us and we will sort it out.

The 1566 crewneck varies the same way and for the same reason. Conventionally dyed blanks — the Gildan 64000 and Bella + Canvas 3001 — hold color much more consistently between orders.

Garment-dyed color softens over time. That is what it is supposed to do. The 1717 tee and the 1566 crewneck are both made to look progressively more worn-in, and most people who buy them are buying that specific quality.

What you control is how fast:

• Wash cold and inside out
• Dry low or hang
• No bleach
• Wash with similar colors, especially the first few times

Cold water and low heat slow it down considerably. High dryer heat is what strips color fastest.

The Gildan 64000 and Bella + Canvas 3001 fade much less. If you want a shirt to stay the color it arrived, those are the ones.

Direct-to-garment and direct-to-film, depending on the piece. The Yellowstone crewneck is embroidered rather than printed — the 1566 carries a 100% cotton face over its fleece interior, which gives the stitching a smooth, tight surface to sit on.

DTG lays ink into the fibers rather than sitting a thick plastisol layer on top, so the print stays soft and moves with the fabric instead of forming a stiff panel that cracks when it flexes. That is the failure mode people are asking about when they ask this question — a heavy screen print on a cheap blank, folded at the same crease a hundred times.

What actually shortens print life: high dryer heat, ironing directly on the artwork, and bleach. Wash cold and inside out, dry low, iron around the print, and it holds.

• Machine wash cold, max 30°C / 90°F, with similar colors
• Wash inside out
• Tumble dry low
• Do not bleach
• Do not iron the print
• Do not dry clean