Knowledge
Sportswear Manufacturing Glossary
Quick answer
Plain-English definitions of the terms you’ll meet when ordering custom sportswear from a factory. Compiled by Rockhint, a custom sportswear manufacturer in Sialkot, Pakistan.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AQL | Acceptable Quality Limit: a standard for inspecting a random sample of a batch and deciding whether the batch passes. AQL 2.5 is common in apparel. |
| Cut and sew | Making garments by cutting fabric into pattern pieces and stitching them together, rather than printing on ready-made blanks. See Cut & Sew Production. |
| CMT | Cut, make, trim: a factory service where the buyer supplies the fabric and the factory cuts, sews and finishes. |
| Dazzle | A smooth, slightly shiny polyester used on American football shoulders and yokes. |
| Double-knit | A heavy, stable fabric knitted in two layers, common in ice hockey jerseys. |
| Embroidery | Stitching a design into fabric with thread, giving a raised, textured finish. |
| Fight strap | A loop inside the back of a hockey jersey that ties to the pants so the jersey can’t be pulled off. |
| GSM | Grams per square metre: how heavy a fabric is. See the Fabric Guide. |
| Interlock | A smooth, tightly knitted fabric that prints sharply; popular for soccer and basketball jerseys. |
| Lead time | The time from order confirmation to finished goods. At Rockhint, bulk production takes 2–3 weeks after sample approval. |
| Mesh | Knitted fabric with small holes for airflow. |
| Mockup | A digital picture of your finished uniform, front and back. See Design & Mockups. |
| MOQ | Minimum order quantity: the smallest order a factory accepts. Rockhint’s MOQ is 20 pieces. |
| OEM | Original equipment manufacturer: a factory that makes products to the buyer’s own designs, sold under the buyer’s brand. |
| Pantone | A standard colour-matching system with numbered colours, used to match logo colours on fabric. |
| Placket | The opening at the neck or front of a garment, with buttons or snaps, as on baseball jerseys. |
| Private label | Products made by a factory but sold under the buyer’s brand. See Private Label. |
| Roster | The list of players with sizes, names and numbers for a team order. |
| Sample | One finished garment made before bulk production for the buyer to approve. See Sampling. |
| Screen printing | Printing ink through a mesh stencil onto the fabric surface, one colour at a time. |
| Sublimation | Printing that bonds ink inside polyester fibres, so the design can’t crack or peel. See Sublimation Printing. |
| Tackle twill | Letters and numbers cut from twill fabric and stitched onto a jersey. |
| Tech pack | A document with a garment’s drawings, measurements, materials and construction details, sent to a factory. |
| Vector file | A graphic stored as shapes, not pixels, so it stays sharp at any size. See Artwork Guidelines. |
| White label | Generic ready-made products that a seller rebrands with its own label. |
| Yoke | A panel across the shoulders of a jersey, often in a contrast colour. |
For a side-by-side comparison of decoration methods, see Sublimation vs Screen Printing vs Tackle Twill.
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