Almost every question about branded underwear eventually becomes a question about the waistband, because that is the only part anyone sees and the only part that carries the name.

How each one is made

Jacquard elastic is woven on a narrow-fabric loom with the brand built into the weave as a structure of threads. There is no ink and nothing sitting on the surface, so there is nothing to crack, lift or fade. It is set up per design, which is why it carries a tooling step and a longer first lead time.

Printed elastic takes a finished tape and prints onto it. It is fast, it reproduces fine detail and multiple colours cleanly, and it costs materially less. What it does not do is survive indefinitely: the print sits on a surface that stretches every time the garment is put on.

What each one does to your artwork

Jacquard resolves to a limited number of thread colours and a minimum stroke weight. Hairlines vanish, tight counters fill in, and gradients are not possible at all. A mark that works on a website often needs a bolder, simplified variant drawn specifically for the waistband. That variant is worth having anyway.

Print will take almost anything, including photographic colour, which makes it the right answer for a short seasonal run, a fashion drop or a design that changes every quarter.

Choosing between them

If the garment is meant to last and to be reordered in the same design, weave it. If the design is short-lived, detailed or multi-coloured, print it.

For a first order, a common approach is to print the pilot run to test the design and the size curve, then move to jacquard for the repeat once the artwork has stopped changing.