Next Level 3600 vs Gildan 64000: Soft Tee Pick

If you want a soft tee for POD without paying Bella Canvas money, you’re usually choosing between the Next Level 3600 and the Gildan 64000 Softstyle. Both are lightweight ringspun shirts that feel a tier above basic. The 3600 is the boutique-soft option with a more fitted cut; the 64000 is the cheapest genuinely-soft tee you can print on. Here’s how Next Level 3600 vs Gildan 64000 actually shakes out on specs, fit, and real supplier pricing.

Quick verdict

If you…	Pick
Want the softest hand and a more fitted look	Next Level 3600
Want the lowest base cost on a soft tee	Gildan 64000
Sell to a fashion/boutique audience	Next Level 3600
Run high volume and squeeze every cent of margin	Gildan 64000
Want a slightly heavier, more durable shirt	Gildan 64000

Short version: the 3600 feels more premium and cuts closer to the body. The 64000 costs less and runs a touch heavier. Most sellers pick on price.

Side-by-side specs

Spec	Next Level 3600	Gildan 64000
Weight	4.3 oz / 146 g/m²	4.5 oz / 153 g/m²
Material	100% combed ringspun cotton (heathers blended)	100% ringspun cotton (heathers/antiques blended)
Yarn	32 singles	30 singles
Fit	Fitted / premium cut	Semi-fitted / modern classic
Sizes	XS–3XL	XS–3XL
Colors (in our data)	~43	~42
Price band (our data)	$8.98–$16.91 (avg ~$12.76)	$6.65–$9.90 (avg ~$9.13)
Best for	Boutique/fashion sellers	Budget/volume sellers

The specs are close. The 3600’s finer 32-singles yarn gives it a smoother, softer hand; the 64000 is slightly heavier at 4.5 oz, which reads as a bit more substantial. Neither is a heavyweight — both sit in the lightweight retail-tee class.

Why pick the Next Level 3600?

It’s the softer of the two. The 32-singles combed ringspun cotton has a smoother, more “expensive” hand than the 64000. If your buyers handle the shirt before they decide it’s worth the price, the 3600 makes a better first impression.

The cut is more fitted. Next Level markets the 3600 as a premium fitted tee, and it shows — it sits closer through the chest and shoulders than the looser-modern Gildan. For fashion, streetwear-lite, and brand-driven stores where silhouette matters, that’s the right call.

Tear-away label. The 3600 ships with a tear-away neck label, so you can re-label cleanly for a private-label brand. The 64000 has a printed/woven neck label that’s more work to remove.

At its floor it is close to Gildan money. In our Next Level 3600 listings the cheapest supplier is Teelaunch at $8.98. That is $2.33 above the 64000’s floor of $6.65 at CustomCat — but it undercuts the 64000 as sold by Gooten ($9.90) and Printify ($9.88), so a softer, more fitted shirt for less than a Gildan is possible if you are willing to move supplier.

Why pick the Gildan 64000?

It’s cheaper at every supplier that carries both. The 64000 is built to be the affordable soft tee, and the pricing reflects it. In our data it runs $6.65 to $9.90 (avg ~$9.13) depending on supplier, against $8.98 to $16.91 for the 3600 — a tighter band as well as a lower one. The catch is that its floor sits at one supplier: CustomCat at $6.65, with the other four clustered between $9.59 and $9.90.

Slightly heavier and more durable-feeling. At 4.5 oz the 64000 has a touch more body than the 4.3 oz 3600. For buyers who associate “thicker” with “better quality,” the extra weight helps, and it holds shape a little better through repeated washes.

Massive supplier availability. Gildan is the most widely stocked blank brand in POD. Nearly every print provider carries the 64000, which means you’re rarely locked to one supplier or stuck waiting on stock. Browse our supplier directory to see how many carry it.

Lower risk on big runs. For a 1,000+ unit store, Gildan’s scale and consistency make it the safer high-volume choice. The shirt prints reliably and there’s always inventory.

What both shirts share

These two overlap a lot:

• Both are lightweight (4.2–4.5 oz class), 100% ringspun cotton on solids
• Both use blends on heather and antique colors (check the specific color before promising “100% cotton”)
• Both are side-seamed and pre-shrunk
• Both cap at 3XL — neither covers the plus-size range that Bella’s 3001 does up to 5XL
• Both take DTG, DTF, and screen printing well; soft ringspun cotton is ideal for DTG

If you blind-handled both in the same color, you’d notice the 3600 is a hair softer and slimmer, and the 64000 a hair heavier. That’s the whole difference in feel.

Print quality differences

Functionally similar. Both are smooth ringspun surfaces that DTG and DTF love — ink lays down cleanly and colors stay saturated. The 3600’s finer yarn gives marginally crisper fine-line detail, while the 64000’s slightly heavier knit can hide minor print texture. In practice, print houses treat them as interchangeable for quality. The bigger print decision is color: confirm whether your chosen shade is a 100% cotton solid or a blend, since blends shift how DTG whites and lights show up.

When the price gap actually matters

Four suppliers carry both, and the 64000 is cheaper at all four — by $1.00 at Gooten, $1.75 at Printify, $5.77 at Gelato and $7.28 at Printful. On 1,000 units a year that is $1,000–$7,280, so which supplier you print at matters more than which shirt you pick:

• Staying with one supplier, the 64000 is the cheaper soft tee every time. At Printful the gap is $7.28 a unit, which no spec difference offsets.
• Willing to move supplier, the 3600 at Teelaunch ($8.98) undercuts the 64000 everywhere except CustomCat ($6.65) — a softer, more fitted shirt for less than four of the five Gildan prices.

So the honest answer depends on whether your fulfilment is fixed. Check current numbers in our product catalog before you standardize.

The bottom line

The Next Level 3600 is the boutique-soft, fitted, tear-away-label tee that feels more premium than it costs. The Gildan 64000 is the heavier, widely-stocked, budget soft tee that wins on raw availability and, supplier for supplier, on price.

If feel and fit drive your sales, go 3600 — and print it at Teelaunch, where its $8.98 beats most Gildan prices. If you are optimizing for the lowest cost at scale, go 64000 at CustomCat’s $6.65, the cheapest soft tee in our data. For the brand-wide picture beyond these two tees, see Gildan vs Next Level. Compare both side by side in our product catalog, or filter by base price in the supplier directory.

Prices above are the cost of one printed unit in size L, pulled from each supplier’s own API, most recently verified 18 September 2026. See how we source prices.