A goal for 2024 is to create the best luxury blanks brand that I can bring to you on demand. I have seen a small gap in the market for luxury, accessible blanks and I am determined to fill that gap.
With every new business, it is important to plan. I recently posted a 2 part series on how to write a business plan which you can watch here. Within a business plan, there is a chapter titled Market Research and within the market research chapter, there is a section called competitor analysis.
In this series of blogs, I want to document my competitor analysis with you, looking into notable brands within the garments blanks space. We are starting with Gildan.
History of Gildan
Before there was Gildan, there was a children's apparel manufacturing company called Harley Inc. Harley Inc. was founded in 1942 by Joseph Chamandy in Montreal, Canada. In 1982, Josephs grandsons took over the company. They acquired a knitting mill and became a knitting manufacturing business called Gildan Textiles. The reason why they acquired the knitting mill was because they wanted to produce their textiles to reduce production costs.
They began to overproduce fabric, so with this excess fabric, they decided to bulk-produce t-shirts for printing and eventually became a leader in manufacturing quality basic apparel. Harley Inc. closed in 1992.
Fast forward to the present day, Gildan has factories in Honduras which allows them to have super low-priced T-shirts. You can get a Gildan T-shirt for as little as £2.
Gildan has 6 main collections
Softstyle
Hammer
Dry Blend
Heavy Cotton
Ultra Cotton
Heavy Blend
Distribution-wise Gildan has worldwide distribution and you have to find a stockist to get your hands on a Gildan product typically. There are plenty of stockists online including buytshirtonline. Gildan retail has additional styles that it seems you can only get from Amazon.
Now with the blank brand I want to start, I will be focusing on the following products.
T-shirts: 100% ringspun cotton: 300gsm
Hoodies: 100% French terry cotton: 450gsm
Crewnecks: 100% French terry cotton: 450gsm
Sweatpants: 100% French terry cotton: 450gsm
I wanted to see if there are any comparable products from Gildan. This is so that I can look at their price point and their offerings.
Let's start with the T-shirt, the closest spec I could find was the Gildan Hammer. Here is the spec below:
Weight: 203gsm
Material: 100% ringspun cotton
Size range: Small to 4XL
13+ Colours
Price for a single: £4.62
Hoodie-wise, I had to pick between fabric composition and weight. It seems like Gildan doesn't have hoodies in 100% cotton or French terry. So I settled on the Gildan DryBlend which is 50% cotton and 50% polyester.
Weight: 305gsm
Material: 50% cotton, 50% polyester
Size range: Small to 2XL
14 Colours
Price for a single: £17.28
Let's take a look at the crewnecks, the closest spec I could find was also the Gildan DryBlend, part of the same collection of the hoodie I selected. Here is the spec below:
Weight: 305gsm
Material: 50% cotton, 50% polyester
Size range: Small to 2XL
9 Colours
Price for a single: £12.36
It doesn't seem like Gildan has sweatpants that are readily available on stockists' websites.
With every competitor analysis, we have to take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Gildan when compared to the blank brand I want to start.
Strengths | Weaknesses |
Low prices | Limited maximum weight for T-shirts and Hoodies |
Great range of products and weights | No 100% cotton hoodies in French terry |
Great range of colours | Negative connotations with using Gildan blanks |
On-demand delivery | Prices seem too low |
Plenty of stockists | Outdated cuts |
All the information in this blog is to the best of my knowledge from research carried out online.