You approved a sample. It felt incredible.

The bulk arrived at the same GSM you signed off on, and it feels rougher, thinner, more like a giveaway tee.

Nothing on the paperwork changed. The weight is identical. So what happened?

The yarn changed. And most brands never spec the yarn at all.

Here’s the thing almost nobody tells you when you’re sourcing blanks or building a private label:

GSM measures how heavy a fabric is, not how good it is.

Two 180 GSM jerseys can sit in completely different worlds.

One is soft and smooth and holds a crisp print.

The other is fuzzy, coarse, and pill-like after three washes. Same number. Different tee.

The lever that separates them is yarn processing, and it breaks down into four decisions made long before the fabric is ever knitted:

How the cotton is prepared (carded vs. combed).

How it’s spun (ring-spun vs. open-end).

How long the fabic is to begin with (Upland vs. Pima/Supima).

And how the finished cloth is finished.

Get those four right and you can build a tee that punches two price tiers above its weight.

Get them wrong, and no amount of GSM saves you.

This guide decodes all four. We run these choices every day on our own floor carding, combing, and knitting to spec for streetwear brands, so this isn’t a repackaged theory.

It’s the same language we use to quote a job and the same language you should be putting on a tech pack.

By the end you’ll be able to read a blank’s spec sheet, spot where a supplier is cutting corners, and write the exact line that gets you the hand-feel you actually want.

Let’s decode it, one lever at a time.

Chapter 01

Carded vs. Combed Cotton: The Softness Lever

Start here, because this is the single decision that does the most to a tee’s hand-feel and the one buyers understand the least.

Every cotton fabric that becomes yarn goes through carding.

After the cotton is ginned and cleaned, carding brushes the tangled mass into a thin, roughly aligned web called a sliver.

It opens the fabric, pulls out big trash and clumps, and lays everything loosely in the same direction. Carding is mandatory. No fabric skips it.

Combing is the optional step that comes after. This is where quality separates.

A combing machine grips a tuft of the carded sliver and drags a fine comb through it. That comb pulls out the shortest fabrics, the little knots called neps, and any leftover specks of trash.

What it removes is called noil, and it removes a lot of it: roughly 15-25% of the fabric by weight gets pulled out and sold off for lower-grade uses.

What’s left is the long stuff. Longer fabric, lying more parallel, with far fewer short ends sticking out.

Why does that change everything you can feel?

Those short protruding ends are the enemy.

They’re what makes a cheap tee feel fuzzy and slightly scratchy against the skin.

They’re the loose ends that tangle and ball up into pills after a few washes.

And they scatter light, so dye and print look duller.

Combing removes most of them. So combed cotton comes out smoother, stronger, and more resistant to pilling, and because the surface is flatter, it takes dye and print more evenly.

Some tensile tests put combed yarn well above carded at the same count.

The one-line version: carding cleans and aligns every fabric. Combing throws away the short fabrics. Softness, smoothness, and low pilling all come from throwing the short fabrics away.

Why does combed cotton cost more?

Two reasons, and they’re both obvious once you see them.

First, you’re literally paying to delete fabric. If combing removes a fifth to a quarter of your raw material as noil, you buy more cotton to end up with the same amount of usable yarn.

Second, it’s an extra machine and an extra process step, which means extra time and cost per kilo.

So combed cotton is genuinely more expensive to produce. It isn’t a marketing upcharge; the cost is real, and it’s the reason budget blanks skip it.

From our floor:

The fastest way to tell combed from carded without a lab: hold the knit up to a raking side light and look across the surface, not straight at it. The carded jersey shows a faint haze of tiny fabrics standing up off the face the “hairiness.” Combed jersey reads cleaner and flatter under the same light. Once you’ve seen the two side by side, you can’t unsee it.

One more note that trips people up: combed cotton matters most for fine yarns.

Below a certain fineness you almost need combing to spin the yarn cleanly at all.

Which brings us to the second lever, because “combed” is only half the story how the yarn is actually spun is a separate decision entirely.

Chapter 02

Ring-Spun vs. Open-End Yarn: The Construction Lever

This is the term people mix up the most, so let’s kill the confusion first.

Combed vs. carded is about preparing the fabric. Ring-spun vs. open-end is about spinning it into yarn.

They are two different stages. A yarn can be any combination of the two.

That single misunderstanding is behind half the sourcing mistakes we see.

Ring spinning: the slow, premium method

Ring spinning is the traditional way.

The fabric is drawn out thinner and thinner and given a continuous, tight twist, wrapping the strands tightly around one another.

The fabrics end up long, parallel, and packed densely along the length of the yarn.

That structure does two things. The tight twist traps most of the short fabric ends inside the yarn instead of leaving them poking out so the surface is smooth.

And the parallel, continuous fabrics give the yarn real tensile strength.

The trade-off is speed: ring spinning is slow and labor-intensive, so it costs more.

Open-end spinning is the fast, cheap method:

Open-end spinning (also called rotor spinning) was built for speed.

Instead of a spindle and ring, fabrics are fed into a rotor spinning at enormous speed and thrown outward by centrifugal force, twisting into yarn as they go.

It runs many times faster than ring spinning and costs far less to operate. 

The catch is in the structure. The fabrics end up less aligned and less tightly bound, with more short ends exposed on the surface.

So open-end yarn is bulkier, coarser, and weaker at the same fineness.

People describe the hand as “beefy” or workwear-adjacent which isn’t wrong and isn’t always bad.

The strength gap is measurable: ring-spun yarn typically tests roughly 10–30% stronger than open-end yarn of the same count.

That difference shows up directly in how a tee survives repeated washing and wear.

Now put the two levers together:

Here’s where the vocabulary finally clicks. Real-world tees usually pair the stages like this:

Yarn description Fabric prep Spinning Typical tee
Open-end / carded Carded Open-end Budget blanks, promo, giveaway
Ring-spun (carded) Carded Ring-spun Mid-tier, softer than OE, not premium
Combed ring-spun Combed Ring-spun Premium retail, soft-hand streetwear
ELS combed ring-spun Combed (Pima/Supima) Ring-spun Top-tier, elevated basics

Notice that “combed” and “ring-spun” are independent, but the good stuff almost always travels together, because there’s no point combing fabric only to spin it cheaply, and no point ring-spinning fabric you didn’t bother to comb.

When a blank says “100% combed ring-spun cotton,” that’s both levers pulled toward quality.

And open-end isn’t a villain. For heavyweight workwear tees, promotional runs, or anything getting a dense all-over print, an open-end carded blank is the sensible, cost-right choice.

The mistake is shipping open-end on a tee you’re positioning and pricing as premium.

Chapter 04

This is the chapter brands skip and then regret. Your fabric choice isn’t just about how the blank feels; it decides how sharp your graphics come out.

The logic is simple once you connect it to the last three chapters.

A smoother yarn, made from combed fabric, ring-spun, and ideally from longer staple, knits into a flatter, smoother fabric face with fewer fabrics standing up off the surface.

Ink lands on a flat surface and stays put.

A fuzzy, hairy surface does the opposite. All those short protruding fabric ends on a carded, open-end tee scatter and lift the ink.

Fine lines feather. Small text loses its edges. Halftones and gradients go muddy.

The print looks slightly soft even when the artwork was razor-sharp.

The rule: the smoother the fabric face, the finer the detail it can hold. Combed ring-spun gives you a crisp print surface. Carded open-end gives you a forgiving one for bold, chunky graphics, punishing for fine detail.

It hits DTG hardest:

Direct-to-garment printing is the most surface-sensitive method there is, because the ink is sprayed straight onto the fabric with no screen to force it down.

DTG on a smooth combed ring-spun tee lands crisp and saturated.

DTG on a fuzzy open-end blank fights the surface the whole way, with softer edges, patchier fills, and more visible fabric texture through the print.

Screen printing is more forgiving because the squeegee pushes ink into the cloth, but the same principle holds: fine-line registration and small type sit cleaner on a smooth face.

The finishing trick most brands don’t know about:

If a print needs to be surgically sharp, there’s a fabric-side move:

The surface fuzz can be reduced before printing through processes like bio-polishing (an enzyme wash that eats away micro-fibrils) or singeing (passing the fabric over a controlled flame to burn off surface hairs).

Both flatten the face and make it a better canvas. This is a finishing decision, and it’s worth specifying when detail matters.

From our floor:

We settle this argument with a test print, not a debate. The same artwork with a fine line, small text, and a halftone gradient pulled on a carded open-end blank and on a combed ring-spun blank, side by side. The difference in edge quality is obvious at arm’s length. If a client is precious about their logo, this is the five-minute test that ends the conversation.

So print quality and fabric quality aren’t separate line items; they’re the same decision seen twice.

Which is why your decoration method should be chosen alongside your blank, not after it.

Chapter 05

Slub & Textured Yarns: Character or Defect?

Everything so far has been a march toward “smoother is better.”

This chapter is the exception that proves you understand the rules because sometimes irregularity is the whole point.

Slub yarn is yarn deliberately spun with thick-and-thin variations along its length, with little raised bumps called slubs.

Knit it up and you get that textured, lived-in, vintage look:

A subtle uneven surface with visible character, often with a heathered feel.

It’s a staple of streetwear precisely because it reads as intentional and hand-made rather than sleek and corporate.

Here’s the trap:

A slub is a controlled thick spot. A nap, a random little knot of tangled fabric, is an uncontrolled one.

And to an untrained eye, a photo of good slub yarn and a photo of badly spun, neppy, defective yarn can look almost identical.

The difference isn’t the presence of irregularity.

It’s whether the irregularity was engineered and consistent or whether it’s just a symptom of cheap fabric and sloppy spinning.

The distinction that matters: intentional slub is designed, the thick/thin pattern is specified, and it repeats within a controlled range across the whole run. Random lumps from poor-quality carded yarn are a defect. Same visual feature. Opposite meaning. The control is everything.

How to make sure you get character, not flaws?

You spec it. If you want a slub, you name it on the tech pack as a slub yarn with a defined character, not “some texture is fine.”

If you don’t want it, you spec a clean yarn and set a tolerance for neps and thick/thin faults, so lumpiness becomes a rejectable defect rather than a shrug.

The same logic covers other deliberate yarn effects: marled and heathered yarns (fabrics of different colors spun together), space-dyed yarns, and other textured constructions.

All of them are legitimate design tools when chosen and all of them look like mistakes when they show up unplanned.

Straight talk from the floor

On our side, the tell is consistency. Real slub yarn repeats its character predictably down every meter.

A neppy defect is a random lump here, a thin patch there, and no pattern.

When we build slub into a run, it’s a deliberate yarn spec; when we catch random neps in what’s supposed to be a clean tee, that’s a quality reject, not a design feature.

If your supplier can’t tell you which one you’re getting, that’s the answer.

Texture, in other words, is a choice and like every other choice in this guide, it belongs on the spec, not left to chance.

Chapter 06

Cost vs. Quality: Where the Spend Is Worth It?

Every lever in this guide costs money as it climbs.

The skill isn’t buying the best of everything; it’s knowing which upgrade your specific tee will actually feel and which is invisible spend.

The quality ladder, from cheapest to dearest:

Tier Spec Feels like Right for
Entry Open-end, carded Upland Coarse, beefy, stiff at first Promo, giveaway, workwear
Mid Ring-spun carded Upland Noticeably softer, still basic Value retail, heavy prints
Premium Combed ring-spun Upland Smooth, soft, holds detail Most soft-hand streetwear
Top ELS (Pima/Supima) combed ring-spun Silky, lustrous, luxe Elevated basics, no-print

Where the spend is worth it?

Pay up when the customer’s skin or eye will register the difference.

That means next-to-skin softness on a plain tee where the fabric is the product; print-critical work where a smooth face protects your fine detail; premium positioning where a coarse blank contradicts your price; and longevity, since combed ring-spun survives washing better and pills less, which protects your brand after the sale.

Where can you save without anyone noticing?

Save when the upgrade is invisible.

A dense, all-over print covers the fabric surface, so a smoother face buys you little; a mid-tier blank is fine.

Promotional and giveaway tees don’t need to survive fifty washes.

And for genuinely budget lines, open-end carding is honest and appropriate; it only becomes a problem when it’s dressed up as something it isn’t.

The two mistakes are mirror images of each other: paying for Supima on a promo tee (spending nobody feels) and shipping open-end on a $60 retail tee (a corner your customer feels immediately). Match the tier to the job.

Straight talk from the floor

When a brand asks us to hit a landed cost, we don’t just drop GSM; that’s the lazy move, and it makes the tee feel cheap and thin.

We look at the yarn levers first. Often you can hold the weight, step the yarn from combed to a good carded ring-spun, and lose far less in hand-feel than you’d lose by thinning the fabric.

The yarn is where the smart savings and the smart splurges actually live.

Chapter 07

How to Spec Cotton Quality: Exact Tech-Pack Language

Everything above is useless if it never makes it onto paper. “Soft, high-quality cotton tee” is not a spec; it’s a wish.

Here’s the language that actually pins a supplier down.

The fields that belong on every tee tech pack:

Fabric content. “100% cotton,” or the exact blend ratio (e.g., 60/40 cotton/poly). Spell it out.

Fabric / staple type. Upland, Pima, or Supima. If you want ELS, name it and if you want a verifiable claim, ask for Supima specifically, not “Pima-quality.”

Fabric preparation. Combed or carded. This is the softness lever from Chapter 1. Don’t leave it blank, because “unspecified” defaults to carded (the cheaper option) at most mills.

Spinning method. Ring-spun or open-end. Same logic silence gets you open-ended.

Yarn count. Written as Ne, e.g., “Ne 30/1” (spoken “30s single”)

A higher number means a finer yarn; 40s is finer and typically more premium than 20s.

The “/1” means single-ply; “/2” means two-ply (stronger, often for collars and heavier builds).

Combing is effectively required once you go finer than about Ne 40.

Fabric weight (GSM). Still spec, just know from Chapter 8 that it’s one field among several, not the quality verdict.

Knit construction. Single jersey, interlock, etc. A single jersey is the standard tee build.

Finishing. Enzyme/bio-wash, silicone softener, bio-polish, or anything else that suits your hand and print surface. This is a real lever, not an afterthought.

A spec line that actually works:

Instead of “premium soft cotton,” write something a mill can quote and be held to:

100% combed ring-spun cotton · Ne 30/1 · single jersey · 180 GSM · bio-polished · silicone-softened

That one line resolves four of the levers in this guide.

A supplier reading it knows exactly what to make, and you know exactly what to inspect against.

Then ask for the paperwork:

For anything premium, request the yarn test report: count, tensile strength, evenness (Uster CV%), and hairiness.

A serious spinner has these. A supplier who can’t produce them is telling you something.

And if you specified Supima, ask for the certification. The whole point of Supima is that the claim is verifiable, so verify it.

from the floor

Half the “the bulk didn’t match the sample” disputes we see would never happen if the original tech pack had named the yarn.

If the sample was combed ring-spun and the tech pack just said “100% cotton, 180 GSM,” a mill can legally hand you open-end carded at the same weight and same fabric content, and technically they met the spec.

Name the yarn, and that whole category of dispute disappears.

Chapter 08

Same GSM, Different Feel: The Whole Thing Explained

Back to where we started.

Two tees, both 180 GSM, and they feel like they came from different planets.

Now you have every piece to explain exactly why.

GSM measures grams per square meter, or weight per area. That’s all it measures.

It tells you nothing about the fabric length, nothing about whether it was combed, nothing about how it was spun, and nothing about how it was finished.

It’s a real and useful number. It just isn’t a quality score, and it was never meant to be one.

Every way two 180 GSM tees can diverge:

Fabric prep. One is combed (short fabrics removed, smooth). One is carded (short fabrics left in, fuzzy). Same weight, different surface.

Spinning. One is ring-spun (smooth, strong). One is open-end (coarse, beefy). Same weight, different hand.

Staple length. One is ELS (silky, lustrous). One is standard Upland (perfectly fine, but not silky). Same weight, different luxury.

Yarn count and knit tightness. This is the sneaky one.

A finer yarn knitted tighter can weigh exactly the same per square meter as a coarser yarn knitted looser.

Same GSM, but the fine-and-tight version feels dense, smooth, and premium, while the coarse-and-loose version feels flimsy and cheap. Weight identical, feel opposite.

Finishing. One got an enzyme wash and a silicone softener. One got nothing. Same weight, wildly different hand straight out of the bag.

The insight finally landed: GSM is necessary but not sufficient. It’s one input. The yarn story prep, spinning, staple, count, and finish is the hidden lever that actually decides whether a tee at any given weight feels cheap or expensive.

So the next time a supplier answers, “How good is this tee?” with a GSM number, you’ll know they’ve answered a different question.

Ask about the yarn. Weight tells you how heavy it is. The yarn tells you how good it is.

Frequently asked questions

No, and this is the most common mix-up. “Combed vs. carded” describes how the fabric is prepared (combing removes the short fabrics).

Ring-spun vs. open-end describes how it’s spun into yarn. They’re two separate stages, and a yarn can be any combination.

The premium standard, “combed ring-spun,” simply means both levers were pulled toward quality.

No. GSM measures weight per area, not quality.

Two tees at the same GSM can feel completely different depending on fabric prep, spinning method, staple length, yarn count, knit tightness, and finishing.

A heavier tee isn’t automatically better; a well-made lighter tee can easily out-feel a coarse, heavier one. Spec the yarn, not just the weight.

Usually only for elevated basics plain, no-print tees where the fabric is the product and softness is the whole pitch.

Supima is extra-long-staple, trademarked, and traceable, which makes it genuinely luxurious but also genuinely expensive.

If your design is a heavy front or all-over print on a mid-tier blank, you won’t feel the upgrade, and the spend is better used elsewhere.

Combed, ring-spun, from long-staple cotton (ELS/Pima/Supima if budget allows), at a fine yarn count, then finished with an enzyme/bio wash and a softener.

In one line: something like “100% combed ring-spun cotton, Ne 30/1 or finer, single jersey, bio-polished, silicone-softened.

“Softness comes from the yarn and the finish far more than from the weight.

Combed ring-spun cotton. Its smoother, flatter fabric face has fewer fabrics standing up off the surface, so ink sits cleanly and holds fine lines, small text, and halftones.

Carded open-end cotton has a fuzzier surface that scatters ink and softens detail fine for bold, chunky graphics, but it is a liability for precise artwork, especially with DTG.

Open-end (rotor) spinning binds the fabrics more loosely and leaves more short fabric ends exposed on the yarn’s surface, producing a bulkier, coarser, “beefier” hand.

Ring spinning twists the fabrics tightly and traps most of those ends inside the yarn, so the surface stays smooth. Ring-spun is also typically 10–30% stronger at the same count, so it wears and washes better too.

From the T-shirt manual

This is one chapter of The Complete T-Shirt Manufacturing Guides:

These chapters cover taking a T-shirt brand from idea to shipped units, costing, sourcing, tech packs, QC, freight, and launch comparisons. All written from the Sialkot factory floor of Gibben Clothing.

Open The Full T-Shirt Guides

On the floor · Sialkot

Written by

Faizan Ahmad

Chief Apparel Technologist & Head of Manufacturing, Gibben Clothing · Sialkot, Pakistan

Faizan leads production at Gibben Clothing, a cut-and-sew streetwear manufacturer in Sialkot, with 8+ years turning raw yarn into retail-ready hoodies, tees, bottoms, jackets, tracksuits, and headwear. He doesn’t just write about clothing; he works the floor, so every guide here is grounded in real fabric behavior, QC standards, and production data from live runs.