Category Archives: Choosing Weight of Fabric – Polo Shirts

Have It Your Own Way

There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing a product design and knowing it can be brought to life. We gets lots of enquiries here at Impact Trading for garments such as Pantone colour matched t-shirts or polo shirts with contrast collars and buttons. Our job is to take your ideas and basic sketches and make them into a reality.

Using the highest quality fabrics we offer options of customisation and embellishments that really reflect your brand. Our aim is to produce something truly unique and exclusive to you; and let’s face it, it’s all in the detail, the smallest thing can make the biggest difference. The button, the placket, the collar, the piping, even the little neck label with your company logo. These can all be produced in your company colours, or maybe even a contrast colour to make them really pop!

Our fabrics include all the usual cottons and poly-cottons but more wonderfully and very recently, organic cotton, a fabric choice we are very proud to offer!

All the fabrics available can be dyed to your choice of Pantone colour and receiving your little lab dip fabric swatch in the post is always an exciting moment. We specialise in the manufacture of pantone matched polo shirts and t shirts.

We do our best here to make things simple and as quick as possible for you without compromising on quality. We also manufacture in Europe and can deliver in as little of 6 weeks. We keep in touch throughout the process, so if you are looking to enhance your company image then bespoke manufacture might just be the route for you.

Pantone dyed polo shirt, Pantone dyed buttons, bespoke woven neck tape.

Lets talk about fabric weight for Polo Shirts

How do you measure the weight of a fabric?

Fabric weight is determined by how a fabric has been woven, its fibre type and how it has been finished. Looking at weight can help you decide if it will be the most suitable fabric for its end use.

GSM and OZ’s

GSM is the metric measurement meaning grams per square metre – it is how much one square metre of fabric weighs. The higher the GSM, the denser the fabric.

OZ is ounce per square yard (oz/sq2), it is the imperial measurement and is also commonly used.

 Fabric usually falls into three weight categories;
  • Lightweight – 30 – 150 gsm
  • Medium weight – 150 – 350 gsm
  • Heavy weight – 350+ gsm

Most polo shirts fall within the medium fabric weight catagory – usually between 150 gsm – 250 gsm

Fabric Thickness

Generally the heavier the fabric weight, the thicker it is, however this is not always the case. Fabrics of the same weight but with different fibres and weaves may have different thicknesses.

Heavy weight = Quality? Not always

The weight of a fabric does not always determine its quality. Some fabrics will have been woven using finer fibres and yarns that will give them a superior and more lightweight feel, but they will have high quality characteristics. For example cottons woven with longer staple fibres.

Weights of Polo Shirts

As with the weight categories, there are three main polo weights;

Lightweight – 130 – 170 gsm

The  polyester performance polos usually fall into this category. The lightness of the fabric is an integral part of their moisture wicking and quick dry properties. This makes the           customised polo shirt ideal for wearing in the gym and warm climates.

Lightweight

Medium weight – 170-200 gsm

This is our most popular category and covers the majority of the styles we offer. Our  personalised polyester or cotton polo shirts are a good all-rounder. They can be relied upon for both comfort and durability.  All fabric types can be found in this category.

Medium weight

Heavyweight – 200+ gsm

Heavyweight

Our heavyweight range of polos are a good choice for workwear. They offer hard wearing fabric that will cope with harsher conditions. The extra weight will also provide warmth. This makes them ideal for working long hours on the factory floor or outside in the elements.