How to choose the fabric for a custom bag
Canvas, non-woven, jute, nylon or recycled PET: five substrates, what each one is good at, and the one question that decides between them.
Most bag arguments are really fabric arguments that started too late. Once artwork is approved and the price is agreed, changing the substrate means starting again. So decide the fibre first, using one question: what does this bag have to survive?
Cotton canvas, 10 to 12 oz
The default for brand merchandise and retail packaging that is meant to be kept. At 10 oz it holds a printed panel flat and takes a screen print or embroidery cleanly; at 12 oz it stands up on a shelf without a base insert. It is heavier to ship and slower to dry, and an unwashed canvas can shrink a little on first wash. If the bag is a product in its own right, start here.
Non-woven polypropylene, 80 to 100 gsm
The workhorse of supermarket and trade-show bags. Cheap, light, printable in full colour by lamination, and strong enough for a grocery load when the base is boxed and the handles are stitched rather than punched. It is not a premium object, and it will not survive a decade — but it will survive a year of weekly use, which is what a reusable carrier is usually asked to do.
Jute
The most legible eco-material on a shelf, and the least forgiving to print. Jute takes screen print well at large scale and poorly at fine detail, because the weave is coarse and the surface is hairy. It is heavy, it smells of fibre, and it is the right answer when the buyer wants the bag to look like an agricultural product rather than a branded good.
Nylon and polyester, 190T to 210T
Foldable bags live here. A 190T to 210T ripstop or taffeta folds into its own pouch, weighs almost nothing, and takes a heat transfer print that survives folding because the print sits on a smooth surface rather than in a weave. The trade-off is hand-feel: it feels like a bag you keep in a pocket, because that is what it is.
Recycled PET
Chemically the same family as polyester, sold on provenance rather than performance. A 210T RPET bag behaves like a 210T polyester bag and costs more, because the yarn carries a recycled premium. Buy it when the recycled claim is the point of the order, and state the recycled percentage on the specification so nobody has to guess later.
The one question
Ask what the bag has to survive: one shopping trip, a season of them, a washing machine, or a customer's shelf for three years. The answer picks the fibre for you, and it picks it before the artwork, which is the only time the decision is cheap.