We receive questions around the practicalities and costs of relabelling on a regular basis. The main reasons for our customers wanting to relabel their products are:
- To maintain brand consistency
- To create a more professional look for their garments
- To prevent confusion with the wholesaler’s label distracting from the printed or embroidered clothing
Our team are always happy to help our customers achieve their dream printed and embroidered clothing, whether or not they wish for them to be relabelled. However, there are times when we may recommend against it. So to explain more, below is a look at what relabelling is, how it works and the considerations you need to consider before deciding whether to relabel your garments.
What is Relabelling?
The name mostly describes the process (re-label). Relabelling is the process of removing an existing label (usually belonging to the manufacturer of the garment) and replacing it with a custom label of your own. Labels are usually sewn into the inside of the neck, but it is possible to print a label on the inside/outside of the neck instead. Having your branding printed on the outside of the neck can actually work really well, as all of your customers become walking billboards for your brand; this is a perfect solution for garments with no existing labelling in the neck area.
To go the extra mile, some people choose to add custom swing tags too, these are usually made from cardboard and they’re typically what you look at in the shop when you want to see the price of the garment.
Is Relabelling Illegal?
Relabelling clothing in the UK or ‘private label’ clothing when done correctly is perfectly legal. A variety of brands provide products without their own branding to be purchased for this very purpose. However, if you plan to remove the care labels in your chosen garment you must replace them with other legally compliant care labels. You can read more about the complexities of this here.
Why Relabel Customised Clothing?
The majority of people that choose to relabel their embroidered or printed clothing are established brands looking to make their garments appear more professional and to create a consistent brand. If you’re a small startup, relabelling may be an additional cost you just don’t need, but for established brands, relabelling can be essential.
What Are The Costs of Relabelling?
Relabelling is quite a labour intensive process, so it does cost more to add relabelling to your order. There are three elements you need to consider:
- Designing your label (if you do not already have artwork, this will need to be created)
- Producing your labels (the minimum order quantity is usually 500 labels)
- Unstitching the original labels and replacing them with your new, custom ones
This additional cost can be quite a barrier for new startups, so other options like using products with tear out tags could be considered instead. You’ll find our most popular tear out tag fashion t-shirt here & a lower priced alternative here.
External neck printing (to the nape of the neck) can also be an economical relabelling alternative and be just as effective in showing your branding. Unlike woven labels or internal neck printing, external neck printing can be done with no minimum order quantities, and ordered directly from our Online Shop when making your order.
Should I Add Relabelling to My Order?
Relabelling is a great way to take your custom clothing to the next level, creating a much higher level of professionalism. However, with other options, such as internal/external neck printing available too, there are alternatives that may provide a better balance to new businesses. You should also consider how else you could spend your money, instead of relabelling could you use it on more marketing, new artwork designs, or a photoshoot. After all, there is little point in blowing your budget on labels that no one will see. From our experience, custom labels are something to consider at a later stage of your business, particularly since many customers don’t even notice them.
Do Custom Labels Help Sales?
From our own research, having custom t-shirt labels does not help to increase sales. A big reason for this is that most businesses sell their products online, and therefore the customer is not able to see the label until the product is shipped to them. In our experience of selling clothing products, the artwork and marketing activities help to sell products much more than a neck tag.
Custom T-shirt Relabelling Options
There are a variety of options for relabelling products and these will differ depending on the product chosen. Below you’ll find our most popular options for relabelling T-shirts.
