Garment Construction
Tear-Away Label
A tear-away label is a neck or side-seam tag stitched along a single perforated line so it pulls out cleanly by hand for private labeling.
Grab the tag at the back of a wholesale blank and give it a gentle pull — if it's a tear-away label, it comes free along a single perforated line, with no thread ends or fabric scar left behind. It's sewn into the same seam as a standard tag but scored at that one point so it separates cleanly by hand, no scissors required.
The whole reason blank suppliers build tear-away labels into private-label staples like the Gildan 2000 or Next Level 3600 is so a brand can remove the manufacturer's tag and drop in its own woven or heat-transfer label instead. We've seen orders ship with a competitor's brand name still sitting inside the neck because that step got skipped — it undercuts a private-label run no matter how sharp the front print looks.
Before committing to a full case, pros pull a few tags from a sample order to confirm the tear-away label actually tears clean — some so-called tear-away tags leave a visible hole or a loose thread end that needs a quick trim before the relabeled garment looks finished.
The mistake buyers make most is assuming "tear-away" means the tag falls out on its own with normal handling. It doesn't — it takes a deliberate pull, and treating removal as automatic is how whole runs end up shipping with the original label still sewn in.