Colour Matching in Custom Apparel: Pantone, Dye & Print Consistency
By The Velocity Wear Team
Few things frustrate a brand more than a custom garment that arrives the “wrong” colour. Usually nothing went wrong — colour simply behaves differently on a glowing screen, a printed ink and a dyed fabric. Here is how to control it.
Why colour drifts
Your screen emits light, so colours look brighter and more saturated than any physical object can. Ink sits on a surface; dye soaks into fibre; and the same colour reads differently on cotton, polyester, a dark garment or a light one. So the hex code that looks perfect on your monitor is only a starting point, not a guarantee.
Speak in Pantone, not screen colours
Pantone is the shared physical language of colour. For apparel, the key sets are TCX/TPX (the fabric and textile colours) and the C/U inks for printing. Specify a Pantone reference for your fabric and your print, rather than a hex value, so everyone is matching the same physical swatch.
Dyed fabric vs printed colour
There are two different colour problems: the colour of the garment itself (achieved by dyeing the fabric) and the colour of your logo or print on top of it. Each is matched separately, and a print colour can shift depending on the garment colour underneath — so confirm both against the actual fabric.
Approve on a physical sample
No screen proof can confirm colour. For anything where colour is critical — a brand identity, a sports kit, a corporate palette — approve a physical strike-off or sample under good light before the full run. It is the only reliable sign-off.
“Approve colour on the fabric, in daylight — never on a screen. The screen is where colour goes to lie to you.”
Keeping colour consistent across batches
Dye lots can vary subtly between production runs. If colour consistency across reorders matters, agree a tolerance and a reference standard up front, and have your manufacturer match each batch back to the approved swatch rather than to the previous batch.
Velocity Wear matches to Pantone for both fabric and print, proofs colour on physical samples, and holds batches to your approved reference so your brand colours stay true. Share your Pantone references for an accurate quote.