AS Colour Apparel in Promotional Branding: What You Pay For
The AS Colour Staple tee weighs 180 grams per square metre. A lot of standard promotional blanks come in somewhere between 140 and 160 GSM. That 20 to 40 gram gap doesn't sound like much on paper, but you can feel it the second you pick both shirts up. One feels like a tee someone would actually choose to wear on a Saturday. The other feels like something that gets worn once at a fun run and then demoted to car-washing duty.
That difference is basically the whole AS Colour conversation. The brand has become the default request in Australian corporate merch briefs, and the mark-up over a standard blank is real. So is the extra cost always worth it? No. Sometimes it absolutely is, and sometimes it's money you should've spent on more units. Here's how to tell which situation you're in.
What makes AS Colour different from a standard promotional blank?
AS Colour garments are built to retail fashion specs rather than giveaway specs, which means heavier combed cotton fabrics, slimmer modern cuts, and sizing that stays consistent from one production run to the next. The label started in New Zealand in 2005 and built its name supplying blanks to streetwear labels and screen printers, so the garments were designed to be printed on and sold at retail from day one.
Three things stand out when you handle a lot of apparel orders:
- Combed cotton. The combing process removes short, rough fibres, leaving a smoother knit surface. Smoother fabric means cleaner print detail, whichever decoration method you pick.
- Fit consistency. Order 30 Staple tees this quarter and 30 more next quarter, and the size medium will fit the same way. That sounds like a low bar. It isn't. Sizing drift between restocks is one of the most common complaints we hear about generic blanks.
- A colour range people actually want. AS Colour runs a deep palette of muted, fashion-current colours, so there's usually a shade that sits comfortably next to your brand colours instead of fighting them.
None of that is magic. It's just a garment engineered to be worn repeatedly instead of engineered to hit a price point.
How does AS Colour compare with standard promotional tees?
Side by side, the two options solve different problems. A standard blank maximises how many branded shirts your budget puts into the world. AS Colour maximises how long each shirt keeps working for you after the event ends.
| Attribute | AS Colour (e.g. Staple tee) | Standard promotional blank |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric weight | Around 180 GSM combed cotton | Often 140 to 160 GSM open-end cotton or poly-cotton |
| Fit | Modern retail cut, consistent between restocks | Boxier cut, sizing can vary between production runs |
| Print surface | Smooth knit, holds fine detail well | Coarser knit, better suited to bold, simple artwork |
| Typical lifespan in the wild | Worn regularly for a year or more | A handful of wears is common |
| Per-unit cost | Higher | Lower, so the same budget covers more people |
| Best use | Staff uniforms, retail merch, gifts for clients you want to impress | Event giveaways, one-day activations, participant shirts at scale |
Notice there's no "winner" row. There isn't one. There's only the question of what the shirt is for.
Print longevity: why decorators keep specifying AS Colour
AS Colour fabric holds decoration well because the combed cotton surface is smooth and the knit is dense, which gives ink and thread a stable base to sit on. Screen printers love it because fine linework and halftones stay crisp. DTG prints come out sharper for the same reason. Embroidery sits beautifully on the heavier fleece hoodies because the fabric has enough body to support dense stitch counts without puckering.
The other half of print longevity is the garment itself. Decoration only lasts as long as the shirt it's on. A tee that survives a year of weekly washing keeps your logo in circulation for that whole year. A tee that goes baggy at the neck after five washes takes your branding out of rotation with it, no matter how well the print was done.
We see this play out constantly. Merch from a heavier garment keeps turning up in the wild months later, at gyms, school pickups, Bunnings runs. That's the return you're actually paying for.
When the AS Colour price tag makes sense
Pay the extra when the garment will be worn repeatedly by someone who represents your brand. That covers staff uniforms, trade show crew, hospitality teams, merch you're selling rather than giving away, and gifts for clients or new hires where a flimsy shirt would send exactly the wrong message.
Run the numbers on a staff tee scenario, using conservative example figures:
- Cost per decorated AS Colour tee (example): $25
- Wears per year for a staff shirt: 40
- People who see it per wear (conservative): 8
- Impressions per tee: 40 × 8 = 320
- Cost per impression: $25 ÷ 320 = about 8 cents
Eight cents per branded impression, from a shirt your team actually likes wearing. Hard to argue with.
When a standard blank is the smarter call
Choose a standard blank when the job is reach on a fixed budget, and the shirt only needs to work hard for a short window. Participant tees for a community fun run, volunteer shirts for a one-day festival, giveaway tees fired into a crowd. In those cases the extra dollars per unit buy you nothing the moment matters.
Same maths, other side of the ledger:
- Cost per decorated standard tee (example): $14
- Wears per tee (realistic for a giveaway): 5
- People who see it per wear: 8
- Impressions per tee: 5 × 8 = 40
- Cost per impression: $14 ÷ 40 = $0.35
Thirty-five cents versus eight cents makes AS Colour look like the obvious pick, but hold on. On a fixed $1,400 budget you get 100 standard tees on backs at your event, versus 56 AS Colour tees. If the campaign is the event itself, and you need every attendee in a shirt on the day, the cheaper blank wins on upfront cost per impression and on sheer coverage. The durable garment only pulls ahead over time, because it keeps earning impressions long after the marquees come down. It's a budget-timing question, not a quality ranking.
The honest rule of thumb: short campaign, big crowd, standard blank. Long horizon, repeat wearers, AS Colour.
Mistakes we see on apparel orders every week
The most expensive apparel mistakes have nothing to do with garment choice. A few patterns come up over and over:
- Skipping the size run. AS Colour cuts sit slimmer than classic promo blanks. Teams that order the same size spread they used on boxy blanks end up with half the crew in shirts a size too snug. Order a size run sample first, or at minimum size up on the fence-sitters.
- No spares. Staff come and go. Ordering exactly 22 shirts for 22 people means a mismatched uniform the day employee 23 starts. Build a small buffer into the run.
- White for event crew. It looks sharp at 8am and looks like a crime scene by 2pm. Darker shades hide a long day.
- Mixing garment brands in one uniform. A "black" tee from one supplier and a "black" hoodie from another are rarely the same black. Keeping the whole kit within one range keeps the colours matched.
Decoration minimums also catch people off guard. Custom apparel runs have minimum quantities because every job carries setup work, screens burned, artwork digitised, colours matched and checked, and that setup has to be spread across enough garments to make the print quality worth doing properly. If you're near a minimum, don't shrink the vision. Think about who else could wear or receive the shirts: new starter kits, client gifts, giveaway prizes for your socials. Extra branded garments never go to waste.
Common questions about AS Colour promotional apparel
What GSM is the AS Colour Staple tee?
The AS Colour Staple tee is a 180 GSM mid-weight tee made from combed cotton. That's noticeably heavier than many standard promotional blanks, which often sit between 140 and 160 GSM.
Can AS Colour garments be screen printed and embroidered?
Yes. AS Colour garments take screen printing, DTG and embroidery well. The smooth combed cotton suits detailed prints, and the heavier hoodies carry dense embroidery without puckering.
Is AS Colour an Australian brand?
AS Colour was founded in New Zealand in 2005 and is now one of the most requested apparel ranges for branded merchandise across Australia and New Zealand.
Does AS Colour run true to size?
AS Colour uses a modern retail fit that sits slimmer than traditional boxy promotional blanks. If your team is used to older-style promo tees, order a size run sample before committing to the full order.
Is AS Colour worth it for one-off event giveaways?
Usually not. For a one-day event where reach matters most, a standard blank puts more branded shirts into the crowd for the same budget. Save AS Colour for garments that will be worn repeatedly, like uniforms and retail merch.
Which AS Colour garments work best for corporate merchandise?
The Staple tee is the workhorse for branded tees, and the heavier fleece hoodies are popular for staff winter kits and merch drops. Polos and crew jumpers from the range round out most uniform programs.
Get your brand on the good stuff
If your next apparel order is a uniform, a merch drop or anything people will wear more than a handful of times, AS Colour is worth the conversation. Promo Punks handles the lot: garment selection, artwork setup, decoration and delivery, so you deal with one crew instead of three. Send us your logo and a rough headcount, and we'll come back with garment options, decoration recommendations and pricing for your run. Your team is going to wear this stuff every week. Make it something they'd wear anyway.
