Buying Service - things to consider

Many people say "A T-shirt is a T-shirt, ‘what is the difference'"? It can be very different. 

Just like if someone says ‘a car is a car, what is the difference'?  What would you say?

A typical cotton T-shirt has over 3,000 stitches of seams, 200 metres of sewing threads, 8,000 metres of cotton yarn, and over half a million knitting stitches.  The whole manufacturing process involves spinning the cotton fibre into yarns, knitting of the yarn into fabrics, dyeing of the fabric, finishing of the fabric, cutting of the fabric into garment panels, assembly of the garment panels by sewing, and finally the finishing and pressing of the garment.  Each of these processes has to be carefully planned and controlled.  Any variation of the processes  will produce varying products.

So, what should we be looking at?

Aesthetic requirements:       Right style?
                                           Right colour?
                                           Hand feel - soft, harsh etc
                                           Drape - firmness of fabric, clings to body or not?
                                           Fit - loose fit, tight fit?

Performance requirements:   Durability - hardwearing or not?
                                           Care of garment - easy care or not?
                                           Machine washable or dry clean only?

                                           Tumble Dried? Line Dried? Or flat dried over bathtub?
                                           Need ironing?
                                           Special treatment - anti-static?
                                           Presentation - wrinkle resistant?
                                           Fitting - comfortable to wear?
                                           Right pattern?
                                           Quality of workmanship
                                           Neat stitching? Hems straight?
                                           Enough stitch density?
                                           Seams strong enough?
                                           Threads hanging?

                                           Quality accessories? Zippers function properly?

Colourfastness Performance   Dye running in washing?
                                            Colours rubbing off?
                                            Colour fading under sunlight?
                                            Colour fading on repeated washing?

Shrinkage Performance          Gone a couple of sizes smaller?
                                            Garment distorted after wash?
                                            Prints faded or cracked?