Neckband

Every crew or v-neck tee needs its raw neck edge finished, and on knit garments that's almost always a neckband: a strip of 1x1 rib knit, cut slightly smaller than the neck opening and stretched on during sewing so it sits snug against the body. That built-in tension keeps the collar from gaping — cut the band too generously and the neckline sags within a few washes. Standard widths run about 3/4 inch to 1 inch, and the rib's stretch percentage is chosen to match the body fabric so the two don't fight each other.

This is the part of a tee buyers touch first when judging quality, even without naming it. Gildan's 5000 uses a lighter rib band that's fine for the price point but loses recovery faster than the heavier band on a Bella+Canvas 3001 or Next Level 3600. We've seen reorders shift to a different blank purely because a first run came back with necklines that looked stretched out of the box after one wash, even though nothing about the print was wrong.

When spec'ing a shirt for heavy embroidery or heat transfer near the collar, factor in the band's rib content — poly-heavy bands recover better under heat than all-cotton ones. For screen printing, the neckband rarely interacts with the design unless you're running a neck label print, but check that the band color matches or intentionally contrasts with the body.

Buyers sometimes call any neck finish a "neckband," including bound necklines that use a flat strip instead of ribbed knit. They're not the same: a true neckband is ribbed and relies on stretch recovery, while a bound neckline is cut flat with no give. Mixing them up means ordering the wrong replacement blank when a customer asks for "the same tighter collar."