The two brands solve different problems, and we print on both. Where each one wins on fabric, fit, sustainability and margin.
In this article · 4 sections
We carry both brands and print on both daily, so this is not a takedown of either. They are built for different jobs. Picking between them starts with knowing which job yours is.
What Gildan is for
Gildan is the workhorse of the industry: enormous colour ranges, deep size runs, decades of consistency, and prices that leave real margin at accessible retail. The Softstyle at 144 GSM and Heavy Cotton at 175 GSM cover most everyday merch between them, and the Heavy Blend fleece line gives you matching hoodies and crews at 257 GSM. The range also goes considerably further up than its reputation suggests, which is the part most comparisons miss: the Softstyle Midweight tee is 183 GSM of 100% ring-spun cotton, the Midweight fleece is 285 GSM with a full cotton print face, and the Hammer tee is 193 GSM of combed ring-spun cotton with a high stitch density. At the top sits Hammer Maxweight: a 245 GSM oversized, side-seamed tee with 360 GSM seamless-body hoodies and sweatshirts alongside it, which is a genuine heavyweight streetwear blank at a Gildan price. Those are the tiers that compete on feel rather than only on price.
What Stanley/Stella is for
Stanley/Stella build garments for brands rather than events: organic cotton as standard, contemporary cuts including the 200 GSM oversized silhouette streetwear runs on, and a softer, denser handle that reads premium straight out of the bag. The trade is cost. A Stanley/Stella blank can cost double its Gildan equivalent, and colours and sizes, while good, do not go as deep.
The comparison that matters
- Fabric and feel: Stanley/Stella against Gildan's entry tiers, comfortably. Against Gildan's upper tiers it is far closer, because combed ring-spun Hammer and the ring-spun Midweight narrow it to a question of preference rather than a clear step up.
- Value and range depth: Gildan, clearly. More colours, more sizes, a fraction of the cost.
- Sustainability story: closer than the labels suggest, and both are good choices. Stanley/Stella lead with organic cotton as the product itself, which is the simpler story to tell a buyer who reads care labels. Gildan's case sits in the factory rather than on the label: it owns its spinning, knitting, dyeing and sewing, runs close to 40% of its energy from biomass, holds Science Based Targets initiative-aligned 2030 emissions targets, and was named to TIME's World's Most Sustainable Companies in both 2025 and 2026 alongside five consecutive years on Corporate Knights' Best 50 Corporate Citizens. One puts the fibre on the care label, the other puts its own plants on a global index. Either is a sentence you can stand behind in a product description, so do not let this one decide it for you.
- Fit fashion: Stanley/Stella cuts follow current fashion most closely, particularly the oversized silhouette. Gildan runs classic fits across most of the range, though the Midweight line's modern classic shape is trimmer than the brand's reputation implies, and Hammer Maxweight is a proper oversized streetwear cut rather than a classic one. On streetwear specifically it comes down to the Stanley/Stella oversized at 200 GSM in organic cotton against Maxweight at 245 GSM for roughly half the cost. Both are credible drops; which is right depends entirely on your audience.
A decision shortcut
Selling under £25 to a broad audience, or kitting out an event, a team or a workforce: Gildan. Building a fashion-adjacent brand at £30 and up, or selling to an audience that reads care labels: Stanley/Stella. Streetwear where the weight is the selling point: sample Hammer Maxweight before assuming the heavyweight has to come from the premium brand, because 245 GSM in Gildan's price bracket changes the margin on a whole range. Plenty of sellers run both, Gildan for the volume lines and Stanley/Stella for the hero pieces, and that split works well precisely because made to order carries no stock penalty for offering two tiers.
Both ranges, with full fabric specs and colour charts, are in the catalogue browsable by brand. The fairest test remains ordering the same design on one of each.