Comfort Colors size chart

How to read the Comfort Colors chart

Comfort Colors gives three numbers per size: a width, a length and a sleeve. The width is measured straight across the chest with the shirt laid flat, so the chest all the way around is twice that: a 20.25 inch width is a 40.5 inch garment chest. Comfort Colors does not say where length starts; the usual convention is the high point of the shoulder, where the shoulder seam meets the collar, down to the hem. The sleeve is labelled “center back”, from the center back of the neck to the end of the sleeve, so it reads longer than a sleeve measured from the shoulder seam.

The surest way to choose is to measure a shirt that already fits the way you like, laid flat, and find the size with the closest chest width. The box under the chart does that for you.

Does the Comfort Colors 1717 run big?

Not in width. Next to the Gildan 5000, the tee most print-on-demand catalogues start from, the 1717 is the same width or a quarter inch wider from S to 2XL (a quarter inch narrower at 3XL and 4XL), and it is shorter at every size, by a quarter inch to almost an inch and a half. That shorter body is a large part of the boxy look people describe.

The fabric is the other difference: the 1717 is 6.1 oz garment-dyed ring-spun cotton, heavier than the 5.3 oz Gildan 5000, and Comfort Colors describes its garment-dyed styles as having almost no shrinkage at home. A buyer who wants a looser fit usually sizes up; one who wants it to match a Gildan or Bella+Canvas tee of the same letter gets the same chest and a slightly shorter shirt. The full Gildan chart is on our Gildan size chart.

Comfort Colors youth sizes run narrower

The 9018 youth tee is cut slimmer than a Gildan youth tee of the same letter, so ordering by letter alone can leave a child in a tight shirt:

A youth S is 14.5 inches across in the 9018 and 17 in the Gildan 5000B. The 9018 chart also jumps 3.25 inches in length from L to XL (22.75 to 26), which is how Comfort Colors publishes it. The chart lists an XXS, but the size picker on the 9018 page sells XS to XL.

The 1566 crewneck, the 1567 hoodie and the 6014 long sleeve

The 1566 crewneck and the 1567 hooded sweatshirt share one chart, S to 3XL: a medium is 23 inches across and 28.5 long, almost three inches wider than a medium 1717, which is the room a sweatshirt needs to go over a tee. Both are 9.5 oz fleece, 80% ring-spun cotton and 20% polyester. The 6014 long sleeve has the same body as the 1717, size for size, with a long sleeve; the 9360 tank is three quarters of an inch to an inch narrower than the 1717 and the same length, and it is the only adult style here that comes in XS.

Putting the chart in your listing

On Etsy the description is plain text, so a chart has to be lines, not a table: Copy for Etsy gives one line per size with the chest and the length in the unit you picked. Most sellers also add the chart as one of the listing photos, which Download image makes for you as a plain white PNG without a logo. On Shopify, paste the HTML table into the product description's HTML view. Use the chart of the exact blank your supplier prints on: a Printful or Printify product page names the style, such as Comfort Colors 1717, and a different blank means a different chart.

A size chart answers the buyer's question. Which design to print is the seller's, and it decides whether the shirt sells. Trendlytic, the research tool we build, reads Etsy, Redbubble, TeePublic and Amazon Merch in one search and shows which designs are Rising and how crowded each niche is. Plans start at $19.99 a month after a 3-day trial. To pick the shirt color, the Comfort Colors color chart lists every color with its HEX and Pantone, and the free mockup generator puts the design on a t-shirt photo for the listing.

Measurements from each style's Sizing panel on comfortcolors.com, read in November 2026and checked against S&S Activewear. Comfort Colors publishes inches and gives no tolerance; centimetres are converted.