The Most Popular Hoodies & Sweater Blanks | Videos

Browse Video Categories

Today we’re taking a look at the top hoodie and sweatshirt trends for apparel printers and clothing brands. From sweatshirt styles to brands, print placements and inks, we’ll be covering the popular trends we’ve seen emerge this year, along with how you can match the look!

Hey Friends, Dave here with Transfer Express! Now, we originally set out to create a video about hoodie trends, but with the rise of the crewneck sweatshirts in the past couple years, we HAD to include it too! So let’s get started and dive into these popular looks! We wont be covering too much into printing hoodies- we’ve got a detailed in-depth video for printing hoodies right here, and linked in the description below.

Trending Styles

The first thing we’ll cover in this video is going to be some styles and popular garment manufacturers who have the blanks so you can create some swag of your own.

So, we have to start here with...

Crewneck Sweatshirts

Like I mentioned earlier, we have to cover the resurgence of this popular style. Not only is it very comfortable, but very in-style right now. Able to be worn by itself or even layered under jackets- you wont have a problem selling this style.

Gildan 18000 - $4-5 range / Port and Company PC90 - $7 range / Comfort Colors 1566 $20 range

Athleisure

Mostly polyester hoodies for sportswear, workout gear or fashion fit garments. These have risen to popularity with the athleisure trend. If you’re unfamiliar with athleisure, it’s basically wearing clothing designed for workout activities just as regular comfy, clothes. You’ll find a lot of fitted or tighter fitting garments in this category.

SportTek F244 $23ish / Ladies SportTek LST298 Triblend Crop $20 range / Sport Tek posicharge ST225 with the raglan cut $29 range

Crop Styles

Carrying over from athleisure, crop style sweatshirts and hoodies have made a big comeback. These aren’t your 90’s crop tops, they’re designed to fit well with the high-waisted pants style. There are quite a few options: both crewneck and hoodie versions here too.

Bella Canvas 7502 $22 range / champion RW01W $40 range / District DT1105 Crop Crewneck $14 range

T-Shirt Hoodies

Another one from the athleisure trend here is the long-sleeve hooded t-shirts. While these are more just long sleeve t-shirt shirts with a hood, many cotton or triblend versions are now available for a lightweight, useful and comfy hooded style without the pocket.

Comfort Colors 4900 $14 range / SportTek Tri-blend ST406 $13 range / District DM139 $8 range

Tie Dye / Bleached

You may have seen this DIY trend already, but its more popular than ever- so much so, that garment manufacturers are creating colorways for tie dye and bleached out garments. Typically this result has been achieved by spraying a bleach mixture on garments outside and allowing the color to be removed from the fabric in an organic or splatter pattern.

Port and Company PC144 Crystal Dye & PC146 $20 range / Champion Weave TDS101 $50 range

As a spotlight here at the end of our styles section, we’re going to have to mention Champion. A subsidiary of Hanes since the early 90’s, champion has seen a HUGE resurgence in popularity lately. From influencers to collaborations with huge brands and fashion partnerships, this once athletic-only brand has positioned itself to the mainstream of streetwear and everyday wear! They’ve seen double digit growth in the past two years, heavily driven by the newer, affordable, fashion-forward options.

With tons of options that are still within budget, you’ll see us mention some of mentions of champion’s branding a little bit when we talk about print placements and designs.

Trending Print Placements

Hoodies and sweatshirts are definitely great, but we’re apparel decorators here, so lets talk about print locations. There’s been a huge trend in more minimalistic and smaller imprints - especially on hoodies. Small text, simple colors and small details are driving a lot of this seasons styles - let’s take a look at a few popular spots to park your graphics for that perfect look.

Of course, center chest, right on the front will always be the top spot. Just like t-shirts, that front and center placement puts your design in the most visible spot.

Next, we’ll mention the left chest spot- perfect for placement on zip hoodies and pullovers, the left chest is timeless. You’ll notice looking on Etsy or other apparel marketplaces that the prints are becoming smaller and more minimalized, mimicking the champion or even Nike imprints you’ll see on those branded blanks. One emerging trend is vertical left chest artwork that runs up and down the front side. This is trending because of the athletic and sportswear styles being pushed by major league sports like the NFL and NBA.

Of course, if you’ve got long sleeves, they’re perfect for printing. From small embellishments near the cuff (again, similar to Champion and Nike) to full length sleeve prints that come from the traditional streetwear aesthetic, you’ll find the rise of popularity of this print location somewhat new for the mainstream. If you’re a custom print shop, you may have noticed some of your clients requesting them- It’s a great way to add bold (or subtle) messaging- This skyrocketed in use after Carhartt printed the logo real nice and big down the left sleeve of their hoodies. If you’re running your own clothing brand, that small print on or near the bottom of the sleeve is a great opportunity for some of your own branding too, just like this example.

These small prints are awesome, because with our screen printed transfers you can fit tons of them on one sheet, bringing the print cost of each print down to just cents!

Our last location making a big comeback is the pocket print. A little trickier to print, this is perfect for small branding details or athletic numbers. If you’re going to be heat pressing any type of transfer onto them, it’s a good idea to raise the print area - we’ve found mousepads work great to slip in the pocket before printing.

Trending Designs & Effects

To wrap this video up, let’s talk about some artwork and effects. If you haven't noticed, puff ink is making a big comeback. It’s an awesome effect that creates a raised print - and while heavy ink-covered areas can feel thick on say, a regular t-shirt, on sweatshirts and hoodies it doesn’t add any feel to the wearer. Graphic design trends have moved to bold or outlined text, absolutely perfect for this special-effect ink.

Of course, regular plastisol screen prints are always in-style, bringing that timeless, limited, one or two color print to your favorite blank hoodie. Perfect for those small prints or text-only designs.

For many brands, the subtle print locations and artwork makes the garment unique and able to be mixed and matched with a variety of different clothing- making them very popular with the more layers we throw on as the weather gets cooler.

If you think we missed anything, let us know. We’re pushing out new videos every week on the Transfer Express YouTube channel, so if you’re not already subscribed what are you waiting for?!

As always, we’re happy to help in anyway we can for the apparel decorating community. If you need to reach us, you can always call or email.