The hoodie manufacturing industry caters to a wide range of preferences, offering everything from classic pullover hoodies to zip-up styles and even those with unique lengths or designs. Hoodies have transcended their athletic origins to become a versatile fashion staple, suitable for both casual wear and making a bold style statement.
While hoodies, sweaters, and jackets may seem similar, there are key differences. Hoodies typically feature a hood and lack a zipper closure, whereas sweaters and jackets often have zippers or buttons and may not include a hood.
If you want to start your brand centered on hoodies, this article is what you need!
This article will serve as your guide to the hoodie manufacturing industry and in finding the best hoodie manufacturer to help you. Further, it provides all the information necessary for establishing your brand, from the types of hoodies to the packaging.
Understanding Hoodie Manufacturing
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The manufacturing of hoodies can be traced back to 1930 when the Champion Company added a hood to their sweatshirts. That was when hoodies began to conquer the global market.
Hoodies are typically made of cotton or a cotton-polyester blend, making them suitable for colder weather. They feature a drawstring hood for adjusting the fit.
Beyond their practicality, hoodies have become a fashion staple. They’re now used for aesthetic purposes, with many designers creating unique and stylish designs.
If you’re a brand owner aiming to add a hoodie to your collection, consider incorporating unique elements into your hoodies to make them stand out. Think about functionality, style, and how you can make your hoodies both remarkable and useful.
How Do Hoodie Manufacturers Design A Perfect Hoodie?
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A perfect hoodie comes from a perfect design. Since you aim to be a trendsetter in the market, your design must aim for something unique. You need to consider the designs that cannot be found on the market. In addition, you may associate the design of your perfect hoodie with yourself.
What are the steps hoodie manufacturers take in designing a hoodie?
People will love your hoodies if it’s unique and they’re functional. With that, here are the steps in designing a hoodie.
1. List Down Your Goals
Before you start designing your hoodie, you must establish your goals and the purpose of your hoodie. You can base it on your preferences or try to ask for the opinions of others or your hoodie manufacturer.
To give you a starting point, try to ask yourself the following questions:
- “Do I want a hoodie with a pocket or not?”
- “When can I wear the hoodie that I’ll make?”
- “Is the fabric suited for my skin condition?”
Aside from your goal, try to consider what might be the reason people will buy your hoodie.
Remember, you also need to consider your target market. You may read and research the reviews of people who have bought hoodies. Assess and monitor the demand in the market; those can be helpful tools for you to make decisions regarding your goals.
2. Be Creative
Gather your ideas and be as creative as possible. At this phase, you need to use your imagination and think about the designs that can make your hoodie remarkable.
You may ask these questions to yourself:
- “What color is suited for my skin tone?”
- “Do I want to have a minimalist design or huge graphics?”
- “Where should I put the design, at the back or on the front side of my hoodie?”
Furthermore, you can also use the designs that symbolize you.
Try to add something that resembles your personality. For instance, you love the moon and the night sky. Why not try to put a cute-shaped moon on the right chest part of your hoodie? Add black clouds to it, and you may add quotes about the moon and night.
3. Do Your Sketch
This step is important to creating the perfect design for your hoodie. Prepare the necessary materials for your sketch, including clean paper, pens, and your imagination.
Once you are done with choosing the type of hoodie you want to make,. You may now proceed to sketching, adding the designs you want, even the most silly ones. Remember that if you aim to make a hoodie that will leave an impact, your design must be unique.
After you’re done with your sketch, send it to your hoodie manufacturer or hoodie designer.
4. Selecting The Fabric
You can ask your hoodie manufacturer about what type of fabric is suited for the design. Allow yourself to have open communication with your manufacturer so you can also emphasize if you have skin conditions.
5. Decide who’s Designing Your Hoodie
After all the steps, you need to decide who will design your hoodie. If you are not yet familiar with the hoodie manufacturing industry, you need someone who can teach you how to initiate the design process.
In regards to that, here are the platforms where you can find hoodie manufacturing experts and hoodie designers:
- Fiverr
- People Per Hour
Design your hoodie with a customizable template
Customizable templates are one of the most popular methods when it comes to designing. It allows you to design wherever you are. After you gather all the ideas and put them into a customizable template, you can proceed to send it to your hoodie manufacturer.
Additionally, if you think your design needs some additional details, you can raise your concern with your hoodie manufacturer. They will surely love the idea that you fully trust them with your hoodie manufacturing journey.
Tips for designing hoodie
This article aims to give you all the information necessary for establishing your brand centered on hoodies.
Further, here are some tips that can help you create a perfect design for your hoodie:
1. Decide on the placement
Hoodie manufacturers always consider where to place the logo or design for the hoodies and you also have to do that. Selecting the proper place for your design can help you have a collection of uniquely designed hoodies.
Some hoodie manufacturers prefer to put the design or logo in the chest, sleeve, and pocket parts of the hoodies. You have to make sure to ask your hoodie manufacturer which part he thinks can highlight your design.
Remember that your design is the key factor in establishing your brand. That is why you need to have the best hoodie manufacturer or designer to help you throughout the process.
2. Pick the color for your hoodies
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Having the right colors helps to make your hoodie unique. You may go for the usual colors of hoodies, which are black, white, gray, or brown. However, if you want something new to the eye, why not try mixing the colors?
Besides, you can use your imagination to create a design that resembles your personality.
3. Add visuals and graphics
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Another thing you have to carefully think about is what your added details are for your hoodie. In that case, you can use graphics or visuals; you can also combine the two to create your desired designs.
4. Make Use of Typography
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Speak for yourself. If you want to add hoodies with typography to your hoodie collection, feel free to do that. The hoodie manufacturing industry offers the same idea of having letters and words on the hoodies to make them customizable.
If you want to add typography, you need to have a hoodie manufacturer who is knowledgeable about typography design. This will only be possible if you hire the right one and we are willing to assist you on that.
8 types of hoodies hoodie manufacturing industry offers
Hoodie manufacturing industries offer a diverse range of hoodies perfect for your taste and style. In planning, you need to know what the types of hoodies are. In that way, you can identify what hoodie you want to make that will cater to your needs and style.
You have to remember that the presence of drawstrings depends on the design of the hoodie when considering its type.
In addition, most hoodies have inseams or hidden pockets. The presence of the drawstring and pockets still depends on your design, so try to assess yourself to see if you want to have them or not.
1. Zip-Up Hoodie
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Zip-up hoodies are normally made of cotton, which provides warmth and comfort. In addition, it has zippers from the neck to the hemline, making it easy to wear.
2. Pullover Hoodie
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The pullover hoodie simply has no zippers on the front. In addition, pulls are warmer than the zip-up hoodies due to the absence of zippers.
3. Crop Hoodie
Source: Select Fashion
Want something to pair with your pants and sneakers? A cropped hoodie is the best choice!
A cropped hoodie is ideal for girls who want to show off their body figure, which means that this is perfect for streetwear attire. This hoodie has two drawstrings of equal length that are shorter than the usual length of drawstrings. Moreover, it may or may not have zippers in the front part.
4. Oversized Hoodie
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Oversized hoodies are perfect for running due to their looseness. Moreover, this can be paired with jeans or a skirt, making it perfect to use as streetwear fashion.
5. Longline Hoodie
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With its unusual length, a longline hoodie is perfect to pair with slim-fit sweatpants or fitted jeans. This hoodie also comes with drawstrings at normal length and side pockets.
6. Tie-Dye Hoodie
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If you love dyeing your clothes, you might as well go for tie-dye hoodies. This comes with different color patterns that you can add to your outfit for the day.
7. Embroidered Hoodie
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Embroidered hoodies are a special one since they have embroidered designs that can be small or large. In addition, embroidered hoodie manufacturers normally use pullover hoodies for the base.
8. Baja Hoodie
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This type of hoodie came from Mexico; it is made of rough woolen fabric, also known as “jerga.”. It has colorful lines that resemble the culture of Mexico. In addition, the Baja hoodie is similar to the others since it has a drawstring and large pockets with vents.
Anatomy Of Hoodies
The hoodie manufacturing industry follows a certain set of parts to make hoodies. Regardless of the type of hoodie, the parts are just the same. You only need to add some detailed parts if you want to do a complicated type of hoodie or a customized one.
What fabrics do hoodie manufacturers use?
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Hoodie manufacturing requires a variety of fabrics to make the different types of hoodie.
Normally, hiring a hoodie manufacturer is beneficial to your welfare since there are fabrics that could harm your skin. That is why having the best manufacturer by your side is what you need.
Further, listed below are the fabric choices the hoodie manufacturer uses to make hoodies:
1. Cotton
Any hoodie is an ideal fabric for cotton. Since it is soft and breathable, many hoodie manufacturers have opted for cotton. Additionally, cotton is perfect for when you need to make hoodies for outdoor activities, as it absorbs sweat easily.
Moreover, the most common types of cotton hoodies manufacturers use are Pima cotton, upland cotton, and organic cotton.
2. Fleece
Fleece is another good quality fabric for your hoodie. Fleece is known as a good heat insulator; it easily traps the heat, making it ideal for the cold season. Additionally, fleece is soft, like cotton. So if you want to feel warm and soft on your skin, then go for a fleece.
3. Wool
Hoodie manufacturers normally use wool for their hoodies since it has water-resistant properties and is a good heat insulator.
4. Denim
Denim fabric is unusual for hoodies, but there are still hoodie manufacturers who use this fabric due to its durability.
How to Make Patterns For Hoodies?
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The pattern is the blueprint that serves as a guide for hoodie manufacturers to make their desired hoodies. That is why it should be durable and accurate in its measurements.
What is pattern making in hoodie manufacturing?
The process of making a pattern for a hoodie might be confusing. But with the right guidelines and the help of a hoodie manufacturer, your brand can have the best trendsetter hoodies.
Further, these are the steps to pattern-making for a hoodie:
1. Sketch Your Design
In this part, you need to get some clean paper and a pencil or pen. First, think of the type of hoodie you want to make and try to consider its parts. Then, gather your design ideas and sketch them; make sure to make them as neat as possible. Further, you can add any colors that you want.
On the other hand, if you are hesitant to sketch your design, you can hire a hoodie designer for that.
2. Make Accurate Measurements
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Accurate body measurements for the hoodie are important since this serves as the foundation of the hoodie pattern. In this step, you can ask for the help of your hoodie manufacturer to accurately take your body measurements.
3. Decide How To Make The Pattern
Hoodie manufacturers use two ways to make patterns pattern drafting and draping.
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Pattern Drafting
This is a method for creating the basic blocks for the design of the hoodie. This will be based on specific body parts such as the arm circumference, chest, back, and shoulder.
4. Draping
Hoodie experts use this technique to create patterns by placing the fabric directly on the human body. It’s a 3D method that uses different fabrics to achieve effects that will add to the design of the hoodie.
5. Add Details
To make the pattern more accurate, the presence of curves and notches is important.
6. Digitize Your Pattern
To make your pattern functional, you can reproduce it online. You can add its description and even the price if you want to sell it to others.
Marking Tips for Cutting Patterns on Fabric
After the pattern-making comes the cutting process. This process involves the manual cutting of the pieces of fabric based on the pattern.
Here are the marking tips for cutting a hoodie pattern on fabric:
- Lay the chosen fabric on a plain surface.
- Put the pattern pieces above the fabric.
- Use pins to secure the pattern to prevent it from moving. If the pattern moves while tracing it, it might affect the overall draft.
- Get the pens, tailor’s chalk, or tracing wheel and trace the pattern into the fabric. Make sure to add seam allowances of 1 cm to avoid changes in the size of the hoodie.
How Do Hoodie Manufacturers Cut and Sew the Fabric Pieces?
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Hoodie manufacturers normally follow a certain way of cutting and sewing the fabric pieces. In this stage, the design and pattern are important tools for the manufacturer to cut and sew the fabrics accurately.
Hoodie manufacturing requires two ways of cutting. These are the pieces that are cut according to style.
1. Cutting The Pieces
Hoodie manufacturers use this method to separately cut the parts of the hoodie, such as the sleeve, hood, and cuffs. Further, with this method, manufacturers can have an overview of the entire hoodie by connecting the parts using pins.
2. Cut According to Style
This method considers that there are different types of hoodies, which means that they can be worn in different ways.
Sewing the fabric pieces
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Hoodie manufacturers ensure the quality of their hoodies by using high-standard sewing machines. The two most commonly used sewing machines for hoodies are the industrial sewing machine and the overlock sewing machine. These machines attach the fabric pieces to make hoodies.
What are the different types of seams for hoodies?
There are different types of seams that hoodie manufacturers use to attach the fabric prices and these are:
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Plain seam
Almost all types of clothes use plain seams. This seam is typically described as the seam that holds the two pieces of fabric together.
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Flat-felled seam
This seam is used for hoodies made up of denim and heavy wool. Further, flat felled seams are the best to use to strengthen the attachments of the fabric pieces. Manufacturers use this seam when attaching the hood of the hoodies; it will make the attachments stronger.
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Double-stitched seam
This seam gives additional strength to your fabric pieces and is also meant for thick fabrics like heavy wool.
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Zigzag stitch
This is a kind of seam that you can use on the raw edge of the seam; it will help to secure the hemline of your hoodie.
What are the measurement points for hoodies?
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Taking accurate measurements for the hoodie is important. You have to be mindful of the measurement points since this will serve as the foundation of the pattern.
In regards to that, these are the main measurement points for hoodies:
- Neck Circumference
- Chest Width
- The desired length for your hoodie
- Arm circumference
- Sleeve
- Back width
Further, hoodie manufacturers are experts when it comes to this job; they know the ins and outs of body measurements. This is why having a hoodie manufacturer is vital for you to have a hoodie that perfectly fits you.
The Art of Printing For Hoodie Manufacturing
To become a trendsetter in the market, you have to gather all the techniques in designing, even the printing process. It is important to elevate the design to make it unique and remarkable.
Hence, the following are the printing techniques for your hoodie:
1. Computer Embroidery
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The computer embroidery technique uses a specialized embroidery machine that can create embroidery from the designs on the computer. This technique is typically used for embroidered hoodies.
2. Screen Printing
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The screen printing technique is the most common way of printing. It uses ink, a mesh screen, and a rubber blade to transfer the color and designs into the fabric.
3. Dye Sublimation
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The dye sublimation technique is all about using dye colors, water, and tying techniques to distribute the colors. The tie-dye hoodie is an example of this.
4. Direct To Garment Printing (DTG)
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The most convenient technique for transferring the design onto the fabric is direct-to-garment printing. It’s only about using a digitized printing machine for clothes. By using the DTG, you can ensure that every detail of the designs can be input into the fabric.
What are the different types of garment washing for hoodies?
Taking care of the hoodies is essential for them to last a long time. With that, here are the two ways to wash the hoodies:
1. Normal Wash
This technique uses water and detergent. This can be performed manually using your hands or through the use of washing machines. Further, normal washing is the most common way people take care of their hoodies.
2. Pigment Wash
The pigment wash technique is meant for tie-dye hoodies. It uses dye to add color to the hoodie. Once the hoodie undergoes the normal wash, the die will be put into it to secure and maintain its color.
Fabric Dyeing Technique For Hoodies
There are three techniques to dye the fabric for hoodies, and these are:
1. Tie-dye
This technique needs water, dye colors, and rubber bands. It is all about using the rubber bands to create patterns in the fabric. Once done with the tying process, the dye must be added to the fabric and half-dry. After that, put it into the water and let the dye spread.
2. Ice dye
Ice dye is quite similar to tie-dye; the only difference is that this technique uses ice. To do this technique, you have to put the ice on the hoodie and add the colored dyes. Let the ice melt to spread the colors.
3. Shibori
Another unique technique of dyeing is shibori. It involves the use of Japanese patterns and dye. The patterns will make way for the spread of the colors. Typically, shibori is also used for tie-dye hoodies.
Quality Control Measures
To conquer the market, you have to ensure that your hoodie has a high standard of quality. To ensure its quality, it is better to let it undergo the processes of textile testing, design analysis, seam inspections, and fitting and sizing tests.
Sizing and Fitting
These tests aim to determine if the hoodie follows the pattern as well as the measurements. It aims to ensure that the hoodie has the right size and is fitted to your chosen type of hoodie.
Packaging And Branding
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After making sure that the hoodie has the standard quality, it is now time to think about your packaging and branding.
- Labeling: Your label must be eye-catching and interesting. You can try to put your name on it or just use a rare name for your brand.
- Tags: The tags of your brand must be durable and not too large.
- Packaging: In terms of packaging, think of something convenient to carry, like a paper bag. Try to think outside the box when creating your packaging. You can add designs to it, like printed graphics, or try to put motivational quotes on it. Further, make sure that your packaging is durable and water-resistant.
The hoodie manufacturing industry is a vital sector within the manufacturing world. It’s not an easy feat, but partnering with the right hoodie manufacturer can propel your brand to success in this thriving industry.
In Conclusion
The hoodie manufacturing industry plays a vital role in providing comfortable and stylish hoodies. Today, hoodies have become a versatile fashion staple, pairing effortlessly with everything from pants to skirts.
If you’re looking to establish your brand in this market, understanding the hoodie manufacturing process is crucial. This includes assessing your capabilities, budget, tools, and skills.
While starting a brand can be daunting, the right manufacturer can make all the difference. They’ll guide you through the process, ensuring a smooth and successful launch.
Are you ready to take the next step? Contact us today, and we’ll help you bring your brand vision to life.
