Boat neck

Where a crew or V collar curves down toward the sternum, the boat neck (also called a bateau neckline) stays almost level, tracking close to the shoulder seams with only a slight dip in the center front — typically an inch or two of drop, far less than a scoop's 4 to 6 inches. The wide opening is usually finished with a narrow self-fabric or rib binding rather than a deep collar band, since there's little vertical curve to bind.

On fashion tees and cropped styles that use this cut, the wide shoulder-to-shoulder line leaves less vertical room above the bust for a design, so a chest graphic sized for a crew reads as sitting too high once it's on a boat neck — closer to the collarbone than intended. We've had boat-neck runs come back from approval because the customer's logo, unchanged from a crew proof, looked like it was crowding the neckline instead of centered on the chest.

Because the neckline itself takes up more of the upper chest visually, pros favor placements set a full inch or two lower than a standard crew spec and keep designs narrower than the shoulder width so the graphic doesn't compete with the wide neckline for attention.

Buyers often assume "boat neck" and "wide scoop" are interchangeable, but the boat neck's straight shoulder line and shallow center dip behave differently under print than a scoop's rounded curve — treating them the same during art layout is the mistake that produces off-looking proofs.