Textile materials: which fabric to choose for your merch?

Textile materials: which fabric to choose for your merch?

Cotton is the most versatile material in merch: at tknp.io, it makes a 140 g/m² tote bag as well as a 350 g/m² sweatshirt, printed or, on thick fabrics, embroidered. Polyester and polyamide take over for sportswear and jackets.

Key points:

• Cotton, on its own or blended with polyester, covers sweatshirts, polos and tote bags: 13 of the first 24 sweatshirts shown in our range are 80% cotton and 20% polyester.
• Polyester dresses sportswear, softshells, fleeces and some puffer jackets, polyamide (nylon) other puffer jackets and gilets; on the softshells, puffer jackets and windbreakers checked on 5 November, softshell printing and embroidery can be ordered online, and on the three fleeces we read, embroidery only.
• Organic or recycled does not change how a garment is decorated: an organic cotton sweatshirt and a cotton and polyester one list the same techniques online.
• Viscose and wool remain rare in merch: in the ranges checked on 5 November 2026, they only appear in blends, and no linen garment is listed.

On a composition label, the names follow one another: combed cotton, recycled polyester, elastane, viscose. For merch, nobody needs to know every fibre in the world. What matters is which one goes on which garment, how heavy the fabric is, how it copes with washing, and above all which decoration it takes, because that fabric will carry your logo for years.

This comparison reviews, material by material, the fabrics of the five garments of a typical collection: the t-shirt, the sweatshirt, the polo, the jacket and the tote bag. The t-shirt only appears in broad strokes: here we compare the materials of a whole collection. The fabric weights and techniques mentioned come from the tknp.io ranges and product pages, checked on 5 November 2026.

What are the main families of textile materials?

Textile fibres fall into three families: natural (cotton, linen, wool), man-made cellulosic, drawn from wood cellulose (viscose, modal, lyocell), and synthetic, produced by chemistry (polyester, polyamide, elastane, acrylic). What sets them apart is detailed in our guide to synthetic, natural and man-made fibres.

Organic and recycled are not families. They are two ways of producing a fibre that remains cotton or polyester: cotton grown under organic farming, polyester melted down from plastic that already exists. In merch, the first family dominates, cotton first, as the table below shows.

The comparison of merch textile materials

Here are the materials you come across on merch garments, with what our ranges show on 5 November 2026.

Two lessons stand out from the table. Cotton and its blends cover almost all everyday merch, polos included: 10 of the first 20 polos shown in our range are 100% cotton, and our guide to the company polo details its knits and blends. Next, it is the type of garment, more than the fibre alone, that decides the decoration: the same polyester is screen printed on a sports t-shirt and embroidered on a fleece.

Cotton, organic cotton or recycled cotton: which one for merch?

Conventional cotton, organic cotton and recycled cotton are decorated the same way: at the same thickness, they take screen printing, DTF transfer and, on a thick fabric, embroidery online. What sets them apart is how the fibre is produced, the softness its spinning gives it, and the price.

Spinning matters as much as origin. Combed cotton, cleared of its short fibres, gives a smoother fabric. At Stanley/Stella, you find it in an organic version on the Creator 2.0 t-shirt as well as on the Changer 2.0 sweatshirt. Our article on combed and ring-spun cotton explains what these two words change to the feel.

Organic cotton costs more for reasons of farming and certification, which our article on the price of organic cotton details. The Cruiser 2.0 and the Changer 2.0, two Stanley/Stella sweatshirts, are 100% organic cotton, at 350 g/m².

Among our models, recycled cotton is found mostly in bags, where it gives a thick canvas. The Shopping Bag 2.0 (Stanley/Stella), all in recycled cotton, reaches 400 g/m²; at Newgen, the Classic Heavy Tote Bag pairs recycled cotton (60%) with cotton (40%). Where these fibres come from and why they are blended: our article on recycled cotton and its blends answers. For a tote bag, cotton canvas never goes below 110 g/m² in our range and goes up to 400 g/m² and more on thick canvases like the Shopping Bag 2.0. On the thinnest canvases, a product page such as that of Newgen's LS125 even advises against screen printing; our article on tote bag weight and size helps you choose.

Why are most sweatshirts made of cotton and polyester?

Because the blend brings together the comfort of cotton and the wash resistance of polyester, and our range bears it out: on 5 November 2026, 13 of the first 24 sweatshirts shown in our range were 80% cotton and 20% polyester, conventional or recycled, from 280 to 350 g/m².

The others are split between 100% organic cotton (five Stanley/Stella models, from 300 to 350 g/m²) and other ratios: 85/15, 70/30, 60/40, and even 50/50 on B&C's Id.223 Hoodie. When to prefer one fibre or the other: that is the subject of our guide cotton or polyester to kit out a team.

On a sweatshirt, the fabric weight reads together with the material: 280 g/m² in 80/20 makes an everyday sweatshirt, 350 g/m² in organic cotton a thick one. Our article on sweatshirt fabric weight compares these two weights, and the one on fleece-backed jersey explains what hides inside, brushed or loopback (French terry).

Polyester: for which merch garments?

At tknp.io, polyester dresses, among others, sports t-shirts of 130 or 140 g/m², softshells of 280 to 340 g/m², fleeces and windbreakers.

The product pages say what it brings. Just Cool's Cool T, at 140 g/m², is described as a light, textured fabric that breathes and helps sweat evaporate. Pen Duick's Nordic fleece, at 200 g/m², is labelled anti-pilling. For the detail of its strengths and limits, see our article on the pros and cons of polyester.

Recycled polyester behaves like the other kind when worn: JHK's Man Sport T-Shirt (130 g/m²) is made of it at 100%, and so is the #RESET Windbreaker, a B&C windbreaker. Where it comes from and what it changes, our article on recycled polyester tells the story.

On a light polyester, sublimation is added, on quote according to our decoration page; our article how to print on polyester says what changes compared with cotton. And against nylon, its synthetic cousin, our article polyamide or polyester compares the two fibres.

Which material for a team jacket?

For a team jacket, you choose the type of jacket first, and the fibre follows the model. Among the jackets we checked, softshells, fleeces and windbreakers are polyester; puffer jackets and quilted gilets come in nylon (Stanley Voyager 2.0, B&C's Reset Bodywarmer, Pen Duick's Pacific Men) as well as in polyester (Tee Jays' Zepelin Bodywarmer, Result's Soft Padded Jacket). Our guide softshell, fleece or puffer helps you pick the type of jacket for the team and the season.

Viscose, modal, lyocell: where do you find them in merch?

In merch, viscose and its cousin modal mostly turn up in blends, in a few specific garments: the heather colours of a t-shirt, tailored uniforms, and t-shirts and sweatshirts where modal is added to organic cotton. Lyocell, the third fibre of the family, does not appear in any of the models we checked.

SOL'S Imperial t-shirt is cotton, except for its heather colours: 15% viscose in the heather grey, 2% in the heather white. Several Clubclass tailored uniforms at 315 g/m², such as the Edgware trousers, combine 64% recycled polyester with 34% viscose; they are customised on quote from their product page.

For a front-of-house garment with a fluid drape, viscose has its strengths and limits, which our article on viscose details. Modal, softer, is found blended with organic cotton in a few t-shirts and sweatshirts, as our article on modal explains. Lyocell, finally, fixes the fragility of viscose: our article on lyocell explains how.

Wool and linen: do they belong in merch?

Hardly, and the ranges we checked show it: wool only appears in blends, at 34% with recycled polyester in Clubclass tailored uniforms at 315 g/m² such as the Islington jacket, or at 20% with acrylic in Flexfit's Classic Snapback. And no linen garment appears in the ranges checked on 5 November 2026.

Even the beanie, which people picture in wool, is acrylic on the range thumbnails that give its composition, like Beechfield's Original Cuffed Beanie (340 g/m²); our guide to types of beanies says which material to choose for a custom beanie.

Which decoration technique for which material?

The material and the way the garment is built decide which techniques are possible, and every tknp.io product page lists them in its "Available markings" line. On the t-shirts, polos and sweatshirts we read, in cotton, polyester or blends, you pick online between DTF transfer and screen printing, and embroidery is added on fabrics that hold the needle, such as the polo and the sweatshirt; on the softshells, puffer jackets and windbreakers we read, it is softshell printing and embroidery.

Our decoration page sums it up this way: "DTG prints cotton. Sublimation only lives on light polyester, where the ink enters the fibre. DTF transfer works on almost every material. Embroidery needs a fabric that holds the needle: polos, sweats, caps, jackets." On the t-shirts, polos and sweatshirts checked on 5 November, DTG printing is on quote; the jackets, fleeces, cap and tote bags we checked do not offer it. And on a thin t-shirt, we prefer printing to embroidery. To choose between these techniques for a run, our guide to textile decoration compares them.

One rule does not move, whatever the material: one garment, one technique, and never more than two decorations. In a collection that mixes materials, each garment therefore has its own technique, and the logo has to stay the same from one garment to the next.

How do you care for each material so it lasts?

To care for each material, the garment's label is what counts, with its temperature and drying: our guide to care symbols teaches you to read it. Cotton can shrink: pre-shrunk cotton limits the risk, and some product pages say so, like that of B&C's Id.223 Hoodie.

Polyester keeps its size and colour from one wash to the next, while viscose needs a gentler hand. Our guide to garments that shrink in the wash explains how to avoid bad surprises.

See the same logo on every material of the collection, before you order

A collection that brings together a cotton t-shirt, a fleece-backed sweatshirt, a polyester softshell and a canvas tote bag is not decorated in a single way. The simplest thing is to see it on screen, garment by garment.

From the product page of each of these garments, one click on "Customise online" puts you in the designer, set to that model. You drop in the same logo file, then decide its placement, real size and technique; the screen then displays the decoration in its place, at its size. Garment after garment, you pick a technique among those the product page offers and check that the logo keeps the same place and the same size across the whole collection, before you order. The account costs nothing; you pay at checkout only, for 10 units or more per model.