Both of these hoodies show up constantly in print on demand catalogs, and sellers often assume the choice comes down to color options or whatever their provider defaults to. It doesn't. The Gildan 18500 and the Independent Trading IND4000 are built to different weights and different price tiers on purpose, and picking between them is really a question about where your hoodie listings sit on price.
We make mockup software, not hoodies, so we have nothing to sell you here either way.
The short answer
The Gildan 18500 and Independent Trading IND4000 aren't direct substitutes: one is a budget classic, the other is a premium heavyweight. The 18500 is 8 oz, 50/50 cotton/polyester, and built for volume. The IND4000 is 10 oz, 70/30 cotton/polyester with a 100% cotton face, and built to feel like a streetwear staple.
For most print-on-demand sellers, choose the Gildan 18500 for everyday hoodie listings where cost and availability matter most; pick the Independent Trading IND4000 instead when you're pricing hoodies at $50 or more and need the fabric to visibly earn that price.
Specs, side by side
| Gildan 18500 | Independent Trading IND4000 | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 8 oz/yd² | 10 oz/yd² |
| Fabric | 50% cotton, 50% polyester (Heather Sport: 60/40) | 70% cotton, 30% polyester, 3-end fleece with 100% cotton 32-singles face yarn (Heather colors: 52/48) |
| Fit | Classic, relaxed unisex fit | Generous, structured fit |
| Hood | Double-lined | Fleece lined |
| Drawcord | Color-matched, standard | Heavy gauge round drawcord with nickel eyelets |
| Cuffs/waistband | 1x1 ribbed with spandex | 1x1 ribbing |
| Pouch (kangaroo) pocket | Pouch (kangaroo) pocket | |
| Relative cost | Lower | Higher |
Is the Gildan 18500 good for print on demand?
Yes, and it's the most-ordered hoodie in the industry for a reason. The Gildan 18500 is an 8 oz per square yard, 50% cotton, 50% polyester Heavy Blend fleece with pill-resistant air jet yarn, a double-lined hood, a pouch pocket, and 1x1 ribbed cuffs and waistband with spandex for stretch. It's preshrunk, double-needle stitched at the stress points, and stocked deep across nearly every print on demand provider in a wide color range.
None of that is exciting, and that's the point. The 18500 is the hoodie equivalent of the Bella Canvas 3001 in the tee world: the default blank that everyone knows, everyone stocks, and nobody gets surprised by. If you're new to selling hoodies, or your listings compete mostly on price, this is the safe first choice.
Is the Independent Trading IND4000 good for print on demand?
Yes, and it's the blank sellers reach for specifically because it doesn't feel like a catalog default. The Independent Trading IND4000 is a 10 oz cotton/polyester blend 3-end fleece, ring spun. Solid and houndstooth colors run 70% cotton, 30% polyester with a 100% cotton 32-singles face yarn for print and embroidery; heather colors shift to 52% cotton, 48% polyester. It has a fleece lined hood, a heavy gauge round drawcord with nickel eyelets, and 1x1 ribbing at the cuffs and waistband, in a generous, structured fit.
That 32-singles face yarn is worth pausing on. It's the same general yarn fineness you'd find on a premium fitted tee, applied to a heavyweight fleece, which is why the IND4000's printable surface feels smoother and more refined than a typical sweatshirt fleece despite the extra weight.
Fabric weight: a real, feelable gap
The IND4000 is 10 oz/yd², a full 25% heavier than the Gildan 18500's 8 oz/yd². That's not a marginal spec difference the way 8.0 oz versus 8.2 oz would be between two similar blanks. Pick up both hoodies and the IND4000 reads immediately as the denser, more substantial garment. The 18500 feels lighter and softer for its price bracket, which is exactly what a budget-friendly heavyweight blend should feel like.
Neither weight is objectively better. A thinner, lighter hoodie layers more easily and costs less to ship in bulk. A heavier hoodie reads as a considered, premium product the moment a customer picks it up out of the package. The right choice depends entirely on what your listing is promising.
Cotton content and face yarn: where the printability difference actually comes from
The Gildan 18500 is a 50/50 cotton/polyester blend (60/40 on Heather Sport colors), which keeps cost down but means the printable face is only half natural fiber. DTG ink needs cotton to soak into, so a 50/50 blend takes ink acceptably but not as richly as a higher-cotton fabric.
The Independent Trading IND4000 uses a 70/30 blend on solid colors, with a 100% cotton 32-singles face yarn specifically engineered for decoration. That distinction matters: even though the overall garment is 70% cotton by weight, the face yarn you're actually printing or embroidering onto is pure cotton, which is why the IND4000 has a reputation among decorators for holding fine detail and vibrant color better than a standard 50/50 fleece.
If your designs lean on fine linework, tight typography, or embroidery, the IND4000's face yarn is doing real work for you. If your designs are bold, simple graphics meant to read from across a room, the 18500's blend is more than sufficient.
Fit and construction
Both are pullover hoodies with a kangaroo pocket and 1x1 ribbed cuffs and waistband, so silhouette-wise they read as the same category of garment from a distance. The differences show up in the details: the 18500 has a double-lined hood and spandex-added ribbing for extra recovery, while the IND4000 has a fleece-lined hood and a heavier, nickel-eyelet drawcord that signals more deliberate construction up close.
The IND4000's fit is described by the manufacturer as generous and structured, and the extra fabric weight gives it more visual bulk on the body than the 18500's classic fit even before accounting for any sizing difference between the two brands. Always check each brand's own size chart before you write sizing guidance into a listing. Gildan and Independent Trading run their own grading, and "medium" on one is not guaranteed to match "medium" on the other.
Price and positioning
The Gildan 18500 is meaningfully cheaper than the Independent Trading IND4000 at most print on demand providers. That's a direct function of the extra 2 oz of fabric per garment and the higher cotton content in the IND4000's face yarn, both of which cost more to produce. Exact pricing shifts by provider and over time, so check your own provider's current catalog rather than trusting a number printed in a blog post.
What the price gap buys is positioning. The 18500 sits in the same category as the affordable, well-known hoodies people already own several of. The IND4000 sits closer to the small-batch streetwear hoodies that sell at a real premium, because the weight and face yarn make the price feel earned the moment the customer puts it on. Charging $60 for a Gildan 18500 hoodie is a hard sell against a market full of $25 to $35 Gildan hoodies. Charging $60 for an IND4000 is a much easier conversation, because the fabric in your customer's hands backs it up.
Which should you choose?
Choose the Gildan 18500 when:
- You're optimizing for cost and want the deepest color and size availability
- You're new to selling hoodies and want the safest, most-documented blank
- Your price point sits under roughly $40 retail
- You're running bulk or bundle listings where the blank is a commodity
Choose the Independent Trading IND4000 when:
- You're pricing hoodies at $50 or more and need the fabric to justify it
- Your brand sits in the streetwear or premium lane
- Your designs use fine detail or embroidery that benefits from a 100% cotton face yarn
- You're running a limited drop where the unboxing experience matters as much as the design
Show the actual hoodie
A hoodie's weight and structure are exactly the kind of detail a flat mockup template can't communicate. The way a heavyweight fleece holds its shape on a shoulder is visibly different from a lighter blend, and that's part of what a buyer is deciding to pay for.
Drop Studio generates photoreal mockups on the exact blank and color you sell, with your design printed into the fabric, following the real drape of that specific garment.
Related reading:
- T-Shirt Print Placement and Sizing: A Guide for Print on Demand Sellers
- DTG vs. Screen Printing vs. DTF: Which Should You Use for Print on Demand?
Sources: manufacturer and distributor spec sheets for the Gildan 18500 and Independent Trading Co. IND4000. Fabric content, available colors, and pricing vary by provider and season, always confirm current specs with your print provider before listing.