The Comfort Colors 1717 and Gildan 5000 are two of the most popular T-shirt blanks in custom apparel, showing up everywhere from college merch and local fundraisers to company apparel and retail brands. If you’ve ordered shirts for a fundraiser, a company event, or a small brand, there’s a good chance you’ve already worn one of these two.
At first glance, both are heavyweight cotton tees with straight cuts and seem very similar, but once you compare them side by side, you’ll notice differences in the fabric, fit, dyeing process, and overall look that make each shirt a better fit for different types of projects.
At a Glance: Comfort Colors 1717 vs. Gildan 5000
| Comfort Colors 1717 | Gildan 5000 | |
| Fabric weight | 6.1 oz., heavyweight | 5.3 oz., midweight |
| Material | 100% ring-spun cotton | 100% cotton (heather colors are of varied cotton-poly blends) |
| Dye process | Garment-dyed (pigment dye) | Piece-dyed (standard) |
| Fit | Boxy, tubular | Classic fit, tubular |
| Sizes* | Adult S-4XL, kids YXS-YXL | Adult S-5XL, kids YXS-YXL |
| Color range | 67 colors | 66 colors |
| Price** | $13.70 per shirt | $7.60 per shirt |
| Best for | Vintage look, premium feel, retail-style merch | Budget-friendly bulk orders, everyday team or event gear |
*Size availability varies by color
**When ordering 50 shirts with one color screen printed
The Basics
Comfort Colors is best known for its garment-dyed T-shirts with a soft, broken-in feel. The brand has built its reputation around vintage-inspired apparel, and the 1717 has become a favorite for college merch, breweries, coffee shops, and retail brands where the look and feel of the shirt are part of the finished product.
Today, Comfort Colors is part of the larger Gildan family of brands, but it maintains the distinctive identity the brand has been known for over the years.
Gildan is one of the largest manufacturers of blank apparel in the world. The 5000 has been an industry staple for decades thanks to its reliable quality, affordable price, broad size range, and easy availability. It’s a popular choice for schools, businesses, sports teams, fundraisers, and just about any project where you need a dependable blank.
In a nutshell, you could say that the Comfort Colors 1717 is designed for a premium, garment-dyed look and feel, while the Gildan 5000 is built around consistency, versatility, and value.
A Quick Word on Dyeing Method
This is one of the main differences between these two shirts, so it’s worth addressing briefly.
The Comfort Colors 1717, like most of the Comfort Colors brand, is garment dyed. That means the shirt gets sewn together first, and then the whole finished garment goes through the dye process. This softens the fabric further and creates small, natural variations in shade from shirt to shirt, which is where the signature washed, lived-in look comes from.
The Gildan 5000 is piece dyed, meaning the fabric is dyed before it’s cut and sewn into a shirt. This gives you a cleaner, more uniform color from one shirt to the next, which matters a lot if you’re trying to match a specific brand color or team color across a big order. If you’re running multiple repeat orders across time, this also ensures that the base color is consistent each time.
Fabric Weight and Feel
Another one of the noticeable differences when comparing these two shirts is the hand feel and weight. Both fall into the heavyweight, relaxed T-shirt category, but they each come with their own distinctive fabric character.
- The Comfort Colors 1717 is made from 6.1 oz., 100% ring-spun cotton. Ring-spun cotton is made from longer, finer fibers that are twisted together, creating a smoother, softer surface than standard cotton. This, combined with the garment dyeing process, is what gives the fabric its signature soft, lived-in feel. The result is a heavyweight T-shirt that feels broken in from the moment you take it out of the bag.
- The Gildan 5000 is made from a 5.3 oz. 100% cotton (with some color variations having a 50/50, 90/10, or 99/1 cotton-poly blend). Although it’s slightly lighter than the Comfort Colors 1717, it still falls within the heavyweight category. Open-end cotton has a more traditional T-shirt feel, with a slightly coarser texture and a firmer hand than ring-spun cotton.
The difference is easy to notice when the shirts are side by side. The 1717 feels softer, denser, and more relaxed, while the 5000 has the familiar feel of a classic cotton tee that holds its shape well.
Fit and Silhouette
Both the Comfort Colors 1717 and Gildan 5000 use a tubular construction with a straight body silhouette. Neither is designed to be slim or fitted, although the silhouette of each is slightly different from the other.
The Comfort Colors 1717 is known for its boxy silhouette and vintage-inspired look. Compared with the Gildan 5000, the body is slightly shorter while the sleeves have a roomier feel, giving the shirt a more relaxed shape.
Although it’s often associated with an oversized streetwear style, many customers find that the 1717 runs a little smaller than expected, particularly in body length. If you’re after a loose, oversized fit, sizing up one size is usually the better choice.
The Gildan 5000 also has a straight, tubular fit, but the overall silhouette is more traditional. It fits true to size with a longer body than the 1717, making it a familiar choice for schools, events, workwear, and everyday T-shirts.
If you’re looking for a classic fit that doesn’t require much guesswork, the Gildan 5000 is likely to feel more familiar straight out of the package.
Printing and Embroidery
This is where the two shirts perform quite similarly. Both the Comfort Colors 1717 and the Gildan 5000 make excellent surfaces for screen printing, whether it’s a simple one-color design or something more detailed and multi-color.
And both benefit from being heavyweight fabrics when it comes to embroidery. That extra weight gives stitched designs more support, which helps reduce puckering and gives the final embroidery a cleaner look than you’d get on a lighter shirt.
The one real difference comes back to that dyeing process. Because the 1717 is garment dyed, there’s a small amount of natural variation in the base color from shirt to shirt. It doesn’t affect how well it prints, but it does add to that vintage character of the final overall look Comfort Colors is known for.
The 5000 gives you a more consistent base color across the whole order, which some people may prefer for a cleaner look.
One exception is direct-to-garment (DTG) printing. Because the Comfort Colors 1717 is garment dyed using pigment dyes, the print can appear less vibrant and less consistent than it would on a standard piece-dyed shirt. For that reason, the 1717 is generally not recommended for DTG printing. The Gildan 5000, with its piece-dyed cotton fabric, provides a more predictable surface and is the better choice for DTG.
Color Range and Size Availability
Color Selection
- The Comfort Colors 1717 comes in 67 colors
- The Gildan 5000 comes in 66 colors
At 67 colors for the Comfort Colors 1717 and 66 colors for the Gildan 5000, both shirts come with an extensive choice of color options. Both have a selection of basic colors, muted earthy tones, soft pastel tones, and bright, saturated colors.
While the Comfort Colors 1717 is made of 100% cotton across all colors, a handful of the Gildan 5000 color options, especially the heather tones, are a blend of cotton and polyester, ranging from 50/50, 90/10, and 99/1.
Sizes
- The Comfort Colors 1717 comes in adult S – 4XL and kids YXS – YXL (select colors only)
- The Gildan 5000 comes in adult S – 5XL and kids YXS – YXL (select colors only)
Both shirts include youth and adult sizing, making it easy to outfit groups of mixed ages in the same style. The Gildan 5000 offers a slightly wider size range with an additional 5XL option.
Important: Size availability varies by color options and some color options don’t come in kids sizes. Always be sure to check on our product page for availability or contact us directly to be sure before finalizing the order.
Price
Price is a huge differentiator when choosing between these two shirts. The Comfort Colors 1717 is $13.70 per shirt (in an order of 50 shirts with one color screen print), and the Gildan 5000 is $7.60. The price difference is significant, with the Comfort Colors 1717 costing nearly twice as much as the Gildan 5000.
The price per shirt is based on quantity and decoration method, and you can get an instant quote for each shirt using our Quickprice Tool on each product page.
If budget is the deciding factor and the design works fine on a classic-fit cotton tee, the 5000 is probably your best choice. If the soft premium feel and the vintage look are part of what you’re looking for in the shirt, the 1717’s price difference is well justified.
The Bottom Line
Both of these shirts are bestsellers for a reason, and neither one is the “upgrade” version of the other. They’re built for different jobs.
Choose the Comfort Colors 1717 If:
- You want a shirt that already feels soft and broken-in, right out of the package
- You’re after the oversized, vintage look that’s become a go-to for street fashion and retail-style apparel
- The concept calls for the distinctive garment-dyed look
- Shirt character, feel, and aesthetic are a higher priority over price per shirt
Choose the Gildan 5000 If:
- You’re working with a tighter budget or a larger order where per-shirt cost is important
- You need youth sizing, plus sizing past 4XL, or both in the same order
- You need bold, accurate color matching for a brand or team color, with consistent results across every shirt
- You want a classic, no-frills fit that works for just about everyone.
If you’re still on the fence, think about how the shirt will be used after the event is over. A heavier, garment-dyed tee may get worn longer and kept around as a favorite, while a classic cotton tee is a reasonable choice when you’re outfitting a big group without overspending on the blank itself.
Either way, both are proven, well-reviewed options that our customers reorder again and again.