PIAT Blanks is a small business in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. We import heavyweight blank T-shirts direct from the mill in Uzbekistan, keep them on our own shelves, and send them out to printers, brands and businesses across the UK.
What we did before
For twenty years we ran factories and moved freight for a living: ports, rail terminals, container ships, a petrochemical plant. The kind of work where a mistake costs six figures and somebody has to stand there and explain it.
More recently we've been moving bulk cargo out of Central Asia: vessel loads from the plants, by rail to the ports, onto ships bound for South America and Africa. Eleven trips out to the region in two and a half years, sat across the table from factory owners and hauliers, sorting out other people's supply chains.
Then a simpler idea: do the same thing with something lighter. Buy good cotton tees direct from the mill that makes them, bring them into a warehouse here in Yorkshire, and sell them to people who need blanks they can rely on.
Why we like boring
Because in this trade, exciting is bad.
Exciting is the batch that turned up a different shade. Exciting is the size that went out of stock the week of your launch. Exciting is the courier losing forty parcels and nobody answering.
We've spent our working lives making sure nothing exciting happens to other people's cargo. This is the same job in a smaller box. That's why our stock levels are live on the homepage: when it says none, it means none.
About Uzbek cotton, plainly
There was an international boycott of Uzbek cotton for over a decade. In March 2022 the International Labour Organization reported that the 2021 harvest was free of systemic forced and child labour, and the Cotton Campaign coalition ended its call for a boycott.
- ILO: Uzbek cotton is free from systemic child labour and forced labour
- Cotton Campaign ends its call for a global boycott of cotton from Uzbekistan
We've been out there many times and we know the mill we buy from. If you want to talk about it, ask. We'd rather have the conversation than have you wondering.
Come and see
We're in Barnsley, a few minutes off the M1. If you're thinking of giving us a big order, come and look at the stock on the shelf and feel the cloth before you commit. Visits are by arrangement: email us and we'll send the address and put the kettle on.