Gildan 5000 vs Gildan 64000: Which to Default To
Gildan 5000 vs Gildan 64000: heavy classic vs soft fitted. Real specs, the price gap, and which Gildan tee fits your audience and margin.
Same brand, two tees that feel nothing alike. The Gildan 5000 vs Gildan 64000 decision comes down to weight and softness: the 5000 (Heavy Cotton) is the heavier, boxier, ultra-durable workhorse, while the 64000 (Softstyle) is lighter, ring-spun soft, and more fitted. One is built for bulk and longevity; the other to feel like a fashion tee on a budget.
Quick verdict
Pick the Gildan 5000 if you want the cheapest possible durable cotton tee and a classic, roomy fit — it’s the default for giveaways, teams, events, and value-first POD lines. Pick the Gildan 64000 if you want a softer, more fitted shirt that reads closer to a Bella, and you’ll accept paying roughly $1.50 more per blank for it.
Gildan 5000 vs Gildan 64000 specs
| Spec | Gildan 5000 (Heavy Cotton) | Gildan 64000 (Softstyle) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 5.3 oz / 180 g/m² | 4.5 oz / 153 g/m² |
| Material | 100% cotton, open-end yarn | 100% ring-spun cotton, 30 singles |
| Heather blend | Heathers 50/50 cotton/poly | Most heathers 65/35 poly/cotton; Sport Grey 90/10 |
| Feel | Substantial, heavier handfeel | Soft, lightweight |
| Fit | Classic / boxy | Semi-fitted |
| Construction | Tubular, taped neck & shoulders | Tubular body, taped neck & shoulders |
| Sizes | XS–5XL | XS–3XL |
| Colors | 40+ | ~40 |
| Price band | ~$4.99 base | ~$6.50 ($5.49–$7.50) |
| Best for | Bulk, durability, value lines | Soft/fitted budget fashion |
The decision is right there in the top two rows: nearly a full ounce of weight separates them, and only the 64000 is ring-spun.
When Gildan 5000 is the better pick
The Gildan 5000 is the most-stocked blank tee in North America, and the cheapest entry point in this comparison.
- Lowest cost. It sits in the budget tier at roughly $4.99 base — the floor for a durable 100% cotton tee. On high-volume runs that base price is hard to beat.
- Heavier, more substantial feel. At 5.3 oz it has real body. Corporate giveaways, sports teams, event tees, and working-audience brands tend to want that weight; a lighter tee can feel “cheap” to those buyers even when it costs more.
- Durability. The heavier open-end weave holds up to repeated washing and handles screen printing (plastisol) well, with less show-through on lights.
- Stock reliability and size range. Gildan rarely runs out of the 5000, and it goes from XS up to 5XL.
The trade-off: it’s the least soft of Gildan’s tees and the fit is boxy. Out of the bag it feels coarser than a ring-spun shirt.
When Gildan 64000 is the better pick
The Gildan 64000 is Gildan’s answer to “I want a Bella feel without the Bella price.”
- Ring-spun softness. This is the headline. The 64000 is genuinely soft to the touch, where the 5000 is not.
- More fitted cut. Semi-fitted rather than boxy, so it photographs and wears more like a modern retail tee. Better for fashion-leaning and younger audiences.
- Lighter drape. At 4.5 oz it hangs more like a fashion blank — less bulk, more shape.
- Cleaner DTG on detail. The tighter 30-singles ring-spun knit gives a smoother, higher-stitch-density surface that takes high-detail and saturated prints a touch better than the 5000’s coarser open-end weave.
The trade-off: roughly $1.50 more per blank than the 5000, no side seams, and it stops at 3XL.
How they actually differ in hand and on press
Weight and feel. This is the whole story. The 5000’s 5.3 oz open-end cotton is spun from coarser, shorter-staple yarn — it feels sturdy and a little stiff new. The 64000’s 4.5 oz, 30-singles ring-spun yarn is twisted finer and feels soft right away. After a few washes both improve, but the 64000 stays clearly softer; the 5000 mellows without ever reaching ring-spun softness.
Fit. The 5000 is classic/boxy — wider body, straight cut, true to standard North American sizing. The 64000 is semi-fitted, narrower through the body. If your mockups lean fashion, the 64000 looks the part; if your audience wants a roomy, no-fuss tee, the 5000 wins. Both are pre-shrunk and lose only about 2–3% on a hot wash, so neither needs a size-up disclaimer — but the cut, not the shrinkage, is what your size chart needs to communicate.
Print on solids. On whites and lights, both print cleanly with DTG, DTF, and screen. The 5000’s heavier weave is the safer bet for screen printing and dark-on-light coverage. The 64000’s finer surface edges ahead on high-detail DTG and saturated designs. Neither is a sublimation tee — both are cotton.
Print on heathers. Here the blends diverge in a way that matters for DTG sellers. The 5000’s heathers are 50/50 cotton/poly. The 64000’s heathers are poly-heavy — most run 65/35 polyester/cotton, with Sport Grey around 90/10. Higher polyester content means water-based DTG ink has less cotton to bond to, so heather prints can come out duller and are more prone to dye migration unless pretreatment and cure are tuned. Counterintuitively, the cheaper 5000 is sometimes the safer DTG heather on solid coverage because its blend is more cotton-forward. For plastisol screen printing with a proper underbase, both handle heathers fine.
Wash longevity. Both are 100% cotton bodies built to survive repeat washing — relevant if you sell to teams or repeat buyers who launder often. The 5000’s heavier weave resists thinning a bit longer over many cycles; the 64000 trades a little of that bulk for softness, but still holds shape well thanks to its pre-shrunk, taped-shoulder construction.
If you’re trying to figure out which suppliers carry each at the best base price, compare them live in our supplier directory.
What the price gap means for margin
The 64000 carries roughly a $1.50 base premium over the 5000 — small per shirt, but it’s a fixed cost on every unit. Across our directory’s suppliers the 5000 holds near a $4.99 floor while the 64000 bands about $5.49–$7.50. On a high-volume value line where the audience just wants a durable tee with a print on it, defaulting to the 5000 keeps that ~$1.50 in margin on every sale; over hundreds of units a month that adds up faster than the softness upgrade earns back. The 64000 pays for itself only when softness or a fitted cut is part of what the customer is buying — fashion-leaning niches, premium positioning, or anywhere a coarse handfeel would drive returns. Many sellers run both: the 5000 as the workhorse, the 64000 as the upgrade tier.
Common questions
Does the Gildan 64000 shrink more than the 5000?
No — both are pre-shrunk and lose roughly 2–3% after a hot wash and high-heat dry. Neither needs aggressive size-up advice. The bigger fit difference is the cut: the 5000 is boxy, the 64000 is fitted.
Is the Gildan 5000 too rough for retail apparel brands?
It depends on positioning. The 5000’s open-end cotton is noticeably coarser than ring-spun out of the bag and softens only partway with washing. For value, bulk, and event tees that’s fine and often expected. For a fashion or premium brand, the 64000 (or a Bella 3001) reads better to the customer.
Which prints better with DTG, the 5000 or 64000?
On solid colors the 64000’s smoother 30-singles surface has a slight edge for fine detail. On heathers it can flip: the 64000’s poly-heavy heather blends are more prone to dull, migration-prone DTG results than the 5000’s 50/50 heathers. Test your specific heather colors before standardizing.
The bottom line
Default to the Gildan 5000 for the cheapest durable tee and value/bulk niches; reach for the Gildan 64000 when softness and a fitted cut matter and you can absorb ~$1.50 more per shirt. Compare current supplier prices for both in our product catalog, and browse the full supplier directory to see who stocks them cheapest.
