Blank t-shirts
What are the best tear away t-shirt labels?
Oct
Quality tear out label t-shirts
Looking for a good tear away t-shirt can be difficult due to the range of options available.
Before you start your search, you want to ensure you understand what a tear away label is (also known as a tear away tag).
A good tear away label t-shirt should allow for the label to be removed easily and is attached to a quality t-shirt. Before with dig further lets look into what actually is a tear away label.
What is a tear away label?
A tear away label is a tag that can be easily removed by hand without requiring any special garment sewing machinery. Tear away labels are a preferred option for those who like no tags on their t-shirt or for those, such as private brands and screen printers, who would need to print their own custom label. Alternatively tear away labels allow for new custom tags (such as satin woven labels) to be stitched back to the t-shirt.
What to look for in a quality tear away label t-shirt
1. Tear away label material
Buying t-shirts with a tear away label you want to ensure it is made from a material that can be easily torn out and removed. We recommend using a taffeta type tear away label. The advantage here is that taffeta is similar to paper in its tear capability and can be removed without leaving parts of the label to the t-shirt neck ribbon.
Taffeta is much easier to tear out with no need to cut out our use a thread picker. Taffeta gives a much cleaner, professional result. In addition to this taffeta also gives a much faster removal of labels where in the screen printing industry of doing bulk re-labelling makes for a smoother production process.
2. Tear way label material to avoid include
Satin labels
Satin labels are not designed to be tear away. While they are comfortable to the skin and durable we find that satin labels are far too strong to be removed by hand. Here you need a professional label remove service to remove which adds additional costs.
Paper labels
While paper labels are easy to remove they generally leave pieces of the label behind and should you wish to keep a generic paper care label it will not last after washing.
3. Location of the label
The location of a tear away label is important as certain parts of a t-shirt do not have as strong stitching as the traditional rear neck location. We recommend to buy a tear away neck label that is stitched to the neck ribbon. Here the stitching is strong enough to handle a label to be removed by hand without causing damage to seam. This is why it is crucial to ensure to get a higher quality blank t-shirt to ensure the neck seam and stitching doesn’t get damaged.
4. What about tag less t-shirts?
Tag less t-shirts usually have a heat transfer vinyl or heat seal in the back collar of the t-shirt. While these are good for those who don’t like the feel of tags they are essentially useless for those who want to re brand with their own design / label branding. Heat seal labels are permanent and cannot be removed or printed over.
5. A blank t-shirt that allows just branding labels to be removed
We recommend to find a blank t-shirt that has a 2 tear away label feature. Here you should be able to remove any branding logo and leave a generic care label behind. This is a great way to reduce costs and allow for easy custom branding of t-shirts.
5. How to remove a tear away label?
To ensure a tear away tag is removed correctly you need to follow some simple steps:
- Place your thumb on the neck ribbon edge of the t-shirt where the label is stitched to.
- Hold firm with your other hand on the label
- Pull in a crisp, rip fashion
- Remove any small label fibers that may be left behind.
Do not tug or try to pull out a tear away label as you are most likely going to cause damage to the neckline stitching seams. Which will make the t-shirt unable to be customised.
