Custom apparels are those which are explicitly designed as per the buyers' request. The buyer gives specifications to the manufacturer, designer, or stitcher for manufacturing custom apparel, and the clothes are created according to their needs.

For example, a customer may require his or her loved one's photograph on a t-shirt. He will give the image to the designer who will prepare a t-shirt with a picture on it. Or a customer may require something written or some specific kind of stitching that is not available ready-made.

Thus, all the apparel specifically designed to fulfill a particular apparel requirement are known as custom apparel.

Custom apparel is usually required by sports teams, uniforms for schools, hospitals, etc. NGOs often use them in charity, giveaway, etc.

This is a way of promoting one's brand through such clothes. Thus, this fulfills the dual requirement of clothing and branding.

Various types of available fabrics can be used for custom clothing. Let us discuss them in brief before we move further in our discussion to the types and uses of custom apparel.

 

Types of fabrics used in creating custom apparel

Fleece

Fleece is the animal wool generally the wool shorn of a sheep and similar kind of animals. It is a soft silky fabric and is generally used to design hoodies and sweatshirts. Sweatshirt and hoodies are very trendy, mostly among youngsters and are quite a lot in demand.

They are also used as gifts, branding and promotion, sports team gear, etc. Fleece fabric is customized on a large scale. Screen printing and embroidery are trendy in customizing fleece apparel.

But make sure that if you want screen printing, then deep-pile fleece may not look very attractive, like the one you need, and you can use regular fleece for screen printing.

But yes, if you want embroidery, deep-pile fleece will be an excellent option to go for.

 

Polyester

Polyester is mostly used for creating a custom t-shirt. It is synthetic. It is more prevalent among sports clothing as it is wrinkle-free and is stain resistant. Also, due to its synthetic fabric, the shape and color of the apparels last longer.

Apparels made of polyester fabric can be screen printed or embroidered as per specific requirements.

Polyester can also be blended with cotton fabric. (I will discuss cotton fabric later in this article, so keep reading). The benefit of blending cotton with polyester is that while it remains wrinkle-free, unlike pure cotton, it becomes breathable, which gives more comfort to the wearer.

But if you choose to screen print your garment, make sure you do it on a dark-colored cloth as the dye of the polyester contaminates the ink of the fabric used for screen printing.

 

Cotton

Cotton is a breathable fabric. It can be used in pure or blended form. In pure form, the cloth gets wrinkled or shrank. It is widely used to create custom apparel.

Cotton fabric is hollow in the middle, but if you see it under a microscope, you will notice a twisted ribbon of the cotton fiber.

Cotton is blended with polyester and other fabrics to manufacture custom apparel. It is used for screen printing and direct garment printing or attractive embroidery.

 

Nylon

Nylon is made of synthetic polymers. Other fibers have a semi-synthetic texture, but nylon is entirely synthetic. It has a silky texture. It can be blended with several different fabrics like cotton, polyester, etc. 

It is widely used for creating custom apparel. It is resistant to elements and does not get any wrinkles. Also, it does not shrink, which makes it a more attractive fabric for custom-designed clothing.

If you want to screen print nylon fabric, a specific chemical is used due to its water-resistant properties.

 

Leather and Suede

Leather is a fabric made from animal skin like cow skin, goatskin, and the like animals. It is a thick material and is generally used for woolen clothes. For example, leather is used for manufacturing jackets. It is also used to create belts and shoes that bring more joy to the wearer.

Leather can easily be screen printed. But it may not be a good option if you want embroidery on your clothes. This is because of the thickness of the fabric that makes embroidery difficult.

Suede is a type of leather. It is also made of animal skin. The difference is that it is made from the flesh side of the skin. It is also used for woolen apparel. It has a soft and silky texture.

Both leather and suede fabrics are expensive but look fantastic because they remain in fashion all the time. The likelihood of leather and suede fabrics never fade away.

Leather and suede are widely used for custom clothing, mainly for company jackets.

All the fabrics mentioned above are used for creating custom apparel. You need to research before you choose a material for your garments. All these fabrics have different characteristics and different prices. So choose a material based on your requirements and budget that can most suit your needs.

 

Types of Custom Apparel

 

Custom apparel can mainly be of four types: screen printing, embroidery, digital printing, and tackle twill. Let's take an insight into these custom apparel types.

Spot color screen printing

Spot color screen printing is the most common apparel printing method. In this printing, stock colors are used, and the print is done through a stencil. This type of printing is generally made on dark-colored apparel.

This type of screen printing creates a substantial spot of ink. The thickness of the print depends on the amount of ink used for printing.

Spot color screen printing is mostly used to print logos on t-shirts. This is so because logos usually require less number of colors compared to other printings.

 

Grayscale printing

Grayscale printing is a combination of white and black color. Only black ink is used with white to give different gray shades.

It is a cost-effective method of printing black and white photographs on lighter colored garments.

 

CMYK printing

CMYK stands for C- cyan, M- magenta, Y- yellow, and K-key (black). CMYK printing is done using these four colors. 

It is a complicated printing method. CMYK printing can be done manually, but to attain the best results, you would require a printing press.

 

Halftone printing

Halftone printing is a reprographic technique of printing apparel. In this printing, various colors can be used, but these prints are mostly done in the dots form. These dots can vary in size or space, which gives the apparel a unique view.

Halftone printing can range from reliable spot printing to the use of beautiful colors. Halftone printing is a good option when you need multicolor printing. It creates high-quality graphics.

 

Duotone printing

Duotone printing is the other name of multi-tone printing. In this type of printing, up to four colors are used. But for duotone printing, you need automated machinery, unlike CMYK, where printing can also be done manually.

 

Simulated printing process

 

The simulated printing process, usually called 'sim process,' is used for detailed imagery printing, which is heavy on gradients. This type of printing can be done on both light and dark-colored garments. You can print using as low as two colors. But generally, 6-10 colors are used for this printing.

 

Embroidery

Embroidery is when the apparels are customized through the use of needles, threads, and yarn. Other materials such as beads, squills, pearls, etc. are also used in embroidery.

Embroidery can be done through machines or hand and can be done in various forms. Explaining them all can be a little tricky. I may come up with an article on this topic in the future. But for now, I would like to name a few popular forms of embroidery. So here they are:

Brazilian embroidery
Canvas work
Counted cross stitch
Blackwork
Crazy quilting

 

Digital printing

Digital printing is a method of printing through highly designed automated machines. In this type of printing, a command is given to the machines to print that design though a computer.

Different types of digital printing are:

Inject
Laser
Digital press
Dye sublimation
Solid ink
Thermal wax
Small format digital printing.

 

Tackle Twill

Tackle twill is a method of customizing apparel wherein a polyester garment is cut or twilled in the form of letters, numbers, shapes, etc. These cuttings can be used with almost all types of garments to give them a great finished look. This type of customizing takes a little longer to complete than other customizing processes.

 

Creating Custom Apparel

 

Follow the steps below for creating your custom apparel and creating a desire for your clothes in the minds of your target customers. 

 

Identify your target audience.

Identify who will be interested in your custom clothing, what attracts them the most, how you will interact with them, and so on.

Check if you have room to promote some trendy joke or phrase that your target audience likes. Getting all these details will help you go far with your custom apparel.

 

Create a design

Create an intuitive design for your apparel. It is better to design mock garments initially and analyze the response of the customers on those apparel. Try out different colors, know what is trendy, and come up with the best design to capture the target audience.

 

Find the right platform to market your apparel.

Once you identify your audience and create a design, determine which platform is best for your specifically designed apparel. If you choose to sell your clothes online or offline or through both the platforms, decide what measures you need to get the best possible results.

For example, if you decide to sell online, determine whether you like to build your website or use the eCommerce websites like Amazon and eBay.

 

Start promoting

After you know who your customers are, start promoting your brand. You can do this both online and offline. You can schedule your posts with specific designs to let them reach the target audience at the right time. 

Creating engaging content with attractive visuals is another way to promote your custom apparel.

 

Build engagement

Engagement with the audience is critical while you promote your brand online. Participation develops a sense of relationship with the brand. 

Also, when the customers get answers and responses from the brand, they like it and tend to buy from you only.

 

Custom Apparel Uses

 

Creating awareness

Custom apparel is widely used for creating brand awareness. Several companies use t-shirt with specific printing or embroidery. Usually, companies print their logo or write something like their business tagline. This creates awareness among the target audience and the public at large for your brand.

 

Developing your brand

When you start your business, the first thing that you need to do is to build a customer base for your products. Custom apparel is an excellent option in such a case. Custom apparel that is liked by people, such as trendy jackets, will drive the audience to your brand. 

 

Cost-effective marketing

Customized apparels are a cost-effective method of marketing. This is because when you regularly design customized garments with that one unique feature in it, for example printing your logo on the clothes. This will help you create an image for your brand in customers' minds. 

 

Competition marketing

Creating customized apparel for your customers that are in line with their needs will give you an edge over your competitors.

When you create apparel with high quality whose print or embroidery, whatever you use to customize stays for an extended period along with attractive designs, you will be able to acquire more and more customers.

 

Customer loyalty

When you provide your customers apparel with your unique design and identification, they develop a sense of relationship with your brand. 

Providing your customers with unique, customized apparel will not let them move to other companies in the market.

Over a period of time, this relationship is converted into customer loyalty, giving you an edge over your rivals.