Youth Size Chart by Brand: Gildan vs Next Level vs Bella+Canvas

A youth medium is not one size. Across the three brands that print most school and team shirts, a youth medium measures 16¼, 17 or 18 inches across the chest laid flat — a spread of 1¾ inches, which is roughly one full size. Gildan runs the largest, Next Level and Bella+Canvas run about a size smaller at the same label. So a child who wears a Gildan youth medium will often need a youth large in Next Level.

This page puts the published measurements side by side, in the brands’ own numbers, so you can order once instead of twice.

Youth size chart by brand — chest width laid flat

These are garment measurements, not body measurements. Blank-tee makers publish the shirt measured flat from armpit to armpit, so the number is roughly half the way around. Double it and you have the shirt’s chest circumference; the child’s own chest needs to be several inches smaller than that for the shirt to hang rather than cling.

Read down a column and the sizes step up about an inch at a time. Read across a row and you see the problem: a Gildan youth small and a Next Level youth medium are both 17 inches. Same width, one size apart on the label.

Body length, same three brands

Length follows the same pattern — Gildan runs about 1½ inches longer at every size. On a child who is slim for their age, that extra length is the difference between a shirt and a nightgown.

Cross-brand conversion: what to order instead

If you know the size that fits in one brand, match the width rather than the label. These pairings come straight from the measurements above.

Bella+Canvas runs out of youth sizes soonest — its youth XL is narrower than a Gildan youth medium-to-large. For an older or broader child, check the adult small before assuming youth XL will do.

What size is a youth small, medium and large?

In numeric terms a youth small is roughly a size 6–8, a youth medium a 10–12, and a youth large a 14–16 — but the manufacturer’s own paperwork does not agree with itself on this. Two copies of Gildan’s spec sheet for the same shirt, the 5000B, publish identical garment measurements and different numeric mappings:

Every row is shifted by one step between the two versions, while the inches are identical. We are showing that rather than picking the version we like, because it is the whole lesson of this page: the letter and the number on a youth label are not reliable. The inches are. If a size chart gives you a choice between a letter and a measurement, use the measurement.

Youth XS is the size most often missing

Bella+Canvas does not make a youth XS in the 3001Y at all, and on the two brands that do, it is the size where the gap is widest — 16 inches at Gildan against 14 at Next Level, a two-inch difference on a shirt meant for the smallest children in the range. If you are buying for a 4-to-6-year-old from a team order, this is the size worth measuring for rather than guessing.

Why the same label means different things

Three separate things are going on, and they compound:

1. Fit intent. Gildan’s 5000B is described by the maker as a classic fit; Next Level’s 3310 and Bella+Canvas’s 3001Y are cut slim. That is a deliberate design choice, not a manufacturing drift, and it accounts for most of the 1¾-inch spread.
2. Measurement basis. Blank-tee brands publish chest width laid flat. Everyday clothing brands more often publish the child’s body chest. A “16-inch chest” and a “28-inch chest” can describe the same shirt — one is the garment folded, the other is the child.
3. No governing standard. US children’s apparel sizing is not regulated the way footwear or safety equipment is. Each brand grades its own range, and as the two Gildan spec sheets show, a brand can publish more than one mapping for a single product.

Stated tolerances make it slightly worse: Gildan’s sheet allows ±1 inch on both width and length. A youth medium quoted at 18 inches can legitimately arrive at 17 or 19 — which is to say it can legitimately arrive the width of the size above or below.

How to order once

Measure a shirt that already fits, not the child. For team and event orders this is faster and more reliable than body measurements, because the published numbers are garment numbers and you are comparing like with like.

1. Take a t-shirt your child wears now and likes the fit of. Lay it flat, smooth out the wrinkles.
2. Measure straight across, one inch below the armholes, seam to seam. That is the chest width.
3. Measure from the highest point of the shoulder straight down to the hem. That is the body length.
4. Find the closest width in the table above for the brand being ordered. If you fall between two, take the larger — a tee that is an inch wide still works, an inch narrow does not.

Three things worth knowing before a team order

• Order one sample first if the group is large. A single shirt costs less than reprinting thirty.
• Cotton shrinks. Pre-shrunk cotton still moves a little in a hot wash and dryer; the length goes before the width.
• Don’t mix brands inside one order. Two children both told “youth medium” will get visibly different shirts if the order is split across suppliers.

If you would rather work from your child’s own measurements, our kids and youth shirt size chart lists chest, waist and sleeve by age year, and our kids and youth pants size chart does the same for waist and inseam.

The three shirts compared on this page

These are the exact styles the measurements above come from, in case you want to order the one you have just sized for.

• Gildan Heavy Cotton youth, style G5000B — the classic-fit, widest-cut of the three. See it on Amazon (4.6 stars from 13,228 ratings)
• Next Level youth cotton crew, style 3310 — slim cut, about a size narrower than Gildan at the same label. See it on Amazon
• Bella+Canvas youth jersey, style 3001Y — slim cut, narrowest of the three and with no youth XS. See it on Amazon

Sold in packs and single colours depending on the listing — check which before ordering for a group.

Sources and verification

Every measurement on this page is transcribed from the brands’ published spec sheets, and each brand was cross-checked against two independent copies:

• Gildan 5000B — spec sheets hosted by BlankApparel and Garage Tees. Both give identical widths (16/17/18/19/20) and lengths (20½/22/23½/25/26½); they disagree on the numeric size row, and that disagreement is published above rather than resolved.
• Next Level 3310 — spec data from ShirtSpace and from the product specification reproduced by several wholesalers. Both give widths 14/15½/17/18½/20 and lengths 19/20½/22/23½/25.
• Bella+Canvas 3001Y — measurements from ShirtSpace and from the manufacturer’s own 3001Y spec document. Both give widths 15¼/16¼/17¼/18¼ and lengths 20⅞/22⅛/23⅜/24⅜, with no youth XS in the range.

We are not a testing lab and these are not measurements we took ourselves — they are the makers’ published figures, compared. Brands revise spec sheets without announcement, so check the sheet for the specific style number you are ordering before a large run.

Last verified: 27 September 2026. Spotted a number that has changed? Tell us — corrections get the chart re-checked and re-dated.

More charts: every kids size chart in one place.