Gildan color chart

How many colors does Gildan make?

It depends on the blank. When we read Gildan's store on 6 November 2026, the 5000 came in 70 colors, the 64000 Softstyle in 60, the 2000 in 53, the 18500 hoodie in 43 and the 18000 sweatshirt in 36. Together that makes 105different colors, and no blank has all of them. Gildan's USA 2025 guide prints slightly higher counts for most styles and adds that not all sizes come in all colors, so a distributor may carry a shade missing here. What this chart will not do is show a color the store leaves off that blank's list.

G500, 5000 and the other style names

The G500 and the 5000 are one shirt. Gildan's store codes it G5000 and its guide says 5000, while many sellers use G500: Blankstyle lists the 5000 as "also known as the Gildan G500" and The Park Wholesale calls them "the same identical shirt" (blankstyle.com and theparkwholesale.com, November 2026). We found no Gildan page explaining how the codes relate, so we cannot tell you which came first.

The everyday names map the same way. Gildan Softstyle usually means the 64000, the Gildan sweatshirt or crewneck is the 18000 Heavy Blend, and the Gildan hoodie is the 18500 Heavy Blend. For fit, measurements are on our Gildan size chart.

Where the swatch colors come from

Gildan prints a Pantone and a color code for each shade in its style guide, and we copy both as they appear there. It calls the Pantone "the closest available match for printing reference" (Gildan's USA 2025 Style & Color Guide, November 2026). It publishes no HEX or RGB, so those numbers are ours, not Gildan's: 89 were sampled from the fabric swatch in the guide and 16from that color's photo on the store, used where a swatch was missing or clearly disagreed with the shirt. Neon Blue is the plain example: the guide's swatch looks close to navy, while the store's photo shows a bright blue. The panel above says which source each color uses.

Read every swatch as an approximation. A scan and a photo both shift a color, your monitor shifts it again, and a heather is a mix of fibers that no flat square can copy. When the exact shade matters, buy a single shirt and look at it in daylight.

The fabric can change with the color

On one blank, the color can decide what the shirt is made of. Sport Grey on the 5000 is not fully cotton, and heathers on the 64000 are mostly polyester (retail.gildan.com, November 2026). If you print direct to garment or sublimate, ask your printer how they handle the blend before you settle on a heather.

• 5000: Solid colors are 100% US cotton. Sport Grey is 90% cotton and 10% polyester, Ash Grey 99% cotton and 1% polyester, and heathers and safety colors are 50% cotton and 50% polyester.
• 64000: Solid colors are 100% ring spun cotton. Sport Grey and the antique heather shades are 90% cotton and 10% polyester, and heather shades are 65% polyester and 35% cotton.
• 2000: Solid colors are 100% US cotton. Antique colors and Sport Grey are 90% cotton and 10% polyester, and heather and safety colors are 50% cotton and 50% polyester.
• 18000: Solid colors are 50% US cotton and 50% polyester. Heather colors are 40% cotton and 60% polyester.
• 18500: Solid colors are 50% US cotton and 50% polyester. Heather colors are 40% cotton and 60% polyester.

Which Gildan color should you start with?

We have no sales figures per color, so what follows is a judgement, not a ranking. The best signal we have is what leading designs are shown on. When we counted 1,000 best sellers on 2 November 2026, black was the shirt in the listing photo for 70% on TeePublic, 69% on Amazon US and 63% on Redbubble. Etsy went its own way, with ivory or white ahead of solid black. That count records what each listing photo shows, which is not the same as what sold; the method and its limits are in best selling t-shirt colors.

So a sensible first set on a Gildan blank is Black and White, plus one soft neutral such as Sand or Natural if your niche leans that way. Add a brighter shade when a design asks for it, not to fill out a listing. Check your print provider first too: each one stocks its own selection of a blank's colors. If you want washed, vintage shades instead, compare the Comfort Colors color chart.

Selling one design as both a tee and a hoodie narrows the choice. 20 colors appear on all five blanks: Black, Carolina Blue, Charcoal, Dark Chocolate, Dark Heather, Forest Green, Gold, Heliconia, Irish Green, Light Blue, Maroon, Military Green, Navy, Orange, Purple, Red, Royal, Sand, Sapphire and White. The fabric still differs between a cotton tee and a 50/50 fleece, so expect the same color name to look a little different on each.

Black or white ink on a Gildan shirt?

Click a color and the panel prints both inks on it with a contrast ratio. At 4.5 to 1 and above, type stays easy to read; below 3 to 1 it begins to fade. Black ink on Natural (#EFE5CB) scores 15.1 to 1, and white ink scores 16.2 to 1 on Navy and 17.6 to 1 on Black. These figures come from our sampled swatches, so read them as a guide. On the 5000, 3 colors fall short of 4.5 to 1 with either ink: Heather Red, T. Orange and Turf Green. Those shirts need a bolder ink color or a thick outline around the art. To see a finished design on a shirt, try the free mockup generator.