Blank long-sleeve tees: buyer's guide

A long-sleeve tee can be a fall retail drop, a youth league jersey, a camp shirt for a summer on the water, or a uniform for a crew that works outside all day. Each of those jobs needs a different shirt, so pick the fiber first: 100% cotton, 100% polyester performance, or a cotton/poly blend. Fiber decides which decoration methods work and whether the shirt gives UPF sun protection. Weight and fit come second.

Which styles are on this list?

Twelve styles: five cotton, two blends, and five polyester, in adult and youth sizing.

Cotton

• Comfort Colors 6014: 6.1 oz, 100% ringspun cotton, relaxed fit, garment-dyed. Best for retail lines decorated with DTG, screen print, discharge, or embroidery.
• Comfort Colors 4410: the same 6.1 oz garment-dyed cotton in a relaxed fit, with a chest pocket. Best for retail and pocket-area embroidery.
• Lane Seven LS15009: 5.6 oz, 100% ringspun cotton. Best for DTG, screen print, and discharge.
• Gildan 5700: 5.3 oz, 100% cotton, classic fit, raglan three-quarter sleeve. Best for screen print, discharge, and DTF.
• Colortone 2000: 5.3 oz, 100% cotton, classic fit, tie-dyed, pre-shrunk. Best for screen print and DTF on tie-dye.

Blends

• Next Level 6211: 4.3 oz, 60/40 cotton/poly CVC, ringspun and combed, classic fit. Best for a blend that still takes DTG.
• Gildan 8400: 5.5 oz, 50/50 cotton/poly, classic fit. Best for screen print, embroidery, and HTV.

Polyester

• AllPro 48400: 4 oz, 100% polyester interlock jersey, UPF 50+. Best for sublimation, HTV, and light embroidery.
• AllPro 48400Y: the youth version of the 48400, same 4 oz poly and UPF 50+. Best for youth teams and camps.
• Paragon 210 Long Islander: 3.5 oz, 100% polyester, UPF 50+. Best for sublimation and HTV.
• Paragon 220 Bahama: 3.5 oz, 100% polyester, hooded, UPF 50+. Best for sun programs that want a hood.
• Team 365 TT11L: men's cut, 3.5 oz, 100% polyester interlock, UPF 40+. Best for sublimation and HTV.

Cotton, polyester, or a blend?

Match the fiber to your decoration method. Each fiber takes a different set:

• Cotton: all five styles are 100% cotton, so screen print, discharge, and DTF all go down cleanly. Three of them take DTG just as well. None are sublimation shirts.
• Polyester: the five poly styles are 100% polyester, so sublimation comes out bright and HTV bonds well. They aren't suited to DTG or discharge.
• Blend: the two blends sit between. The Gildan 8400 at 50/50 sublimates with softer color, but it isn't a DTG shirt. The Next Level 6211 has more cotton, so it takes DTG well and only sublimates faintly.

If your shop runs mostly cotton, the premium tee guide walks through the short-sleeve side of the same choice. Already running a 50/50 tee? The core value tee guide shows its short-sleeve partners.

Which shirts work for outdoor and sun programs?

Choose polyester, because every poly style here has UPF sun protection. The AllPro pair and both Paragons are UPF 50+. The Team 365 TT11L is UPF 40+.

Two of them do something extra. The Paragon 220 adds a hood, which shades the neck on a boat or a field. The AllPro 48400 comes in adult and youth, so a camp can dress kids and staff in the same shirt.

How heavy should the shirt be?

Go light for a hot day outside and heavier for a cold-weather retail shirt. Weight runs from 3.5 oz to 6.1 oz here, and you can feel the gap. The 3.5 oz poly shirts weigh a little over half what the 6.1 oz Comfort Colors do.

Weight also matters if you're stitching. Thin fabric can pucker under stitches, so keep embroidery light on the 3.5 oz poly styles. The 4 oz AllPro has a little more body, so it holds stitches better. For a left-chest logo on a performance shirt, it's the safer choice.

Can you print on the sleeves?

Yes, and that's the extra real estate a long sleeve gives you. The body decorates like any tee of the same fiber. The sleeve has room for a print down the arm or a hit at the cuff. Sleeve prints run on a sleeve platen, and a narrow, tall design reads best.

Will the dye bleed into a screen print?

On polyester, plan for it. The Team 365 TT11L is the most likely to bleed, especially on dark colors. The other poly styles and both blends can bleed too, because they all contain polyester. As a general rule, a low-cure ink or a bleed blocker helps on darker poly colors.

Cotton is the easy case here. All five cotton styles are 100% cotton, so there's no polyester dye to bleed into the ink.

Will it shrink?

The Comfort Colors 6014 and 4410 are the styles most likely to shrink, because they're garment-dyed. Before you lock sizes on a run, wash and dry one sample and measure it. If sizes must hold, the Colortone 2000 is pre-shrunk.

Which style fits your job?

• Retail line, heavy cotton: Comfort Colors 6014, or the 4410 if you want a pocket.
• Retail DTG on cotton: Lane Seven LS15009.
• Event or team run, screen printed: Gildan 5700 or Gildan 8400.
• Tie-dye merch: Colortone 2000.
• Blend that still takes DTG: Next Level 6211. Matching a short-sleeve run? See blank tees that do the same job as the Bella+Canvas 3001.
• Sun program with a hood: Paragon 220.
• Lightweight sublimated outdoor shirt: Paragon 210 or Team 365 TT11L.
• Youth camp or league: AllPro 48400Y.

Our pick for an outdoor program

The AllPro 48400 is UPF 50+, and because it's 100% polyester, sublimation comes out bright. At 4 oz it also holds embroidery better than the 3.5 oz poly shirts. The 48400Y lets you match it in youth sizes.