A hangtag is a swing ticket, not a care label. It is pulled off after purchase. It still has to survive the rail, the fitting room and the scanner. Most retail failures are mechanical: the hole tears, the barcode grades out, the string saws the board.
This note is buyer education, not legal advice. Market labelling rules change; confirm the current statute with counsel for the destination.
What the ticket is for
Three jobs often share one string:
- Brand hangtag — logo, collection, story. Thick board, foil, emboss.
- Care / composition card — extra language or a second ticket. Does not replace a sewn care tape where the law wants a permanent label.
- Price and barcode ticket — quiet design, loud scannability.
China’s consumer-information rule GB 5296.4 lists what a Chinese-market textile must tell the user (maker, name, size, fibre, care, standard, safety class, grade). Other markets have their own hangtag-versus-sewn splits. Do not copy a China eight-box layout onto a US or EU programme and call it done — but do not ship a China retail lot with a blank board either.
TrimGem University treats hangtags as identity accessories on a one-stop BOM, next to woven labels and RFID inlays. The Guangzhou catalogue will keep adding ticket constructions; the hole still has to hold.
Board and hole
White card in the 250–400 g/m² band is the B2B default: stiff, folds a useful number of times. Cotton-look speciality papers read “designer” and crush sooner. Black board is a fashion choice. PET / PVC sheet is for swim and wet outdoor where paper dies.
Engineering that prevents tears: keep the punch several millimetres from the edge (mills talk ≥3 mm as a floor; more is better). Match punch diameter to string thickness. Worn punch dies leave burrs that start the tear. A real case from trade writing: tens of thousands of kidswear tickets failed because the hole sat too close to the edge; moving it out and locally varnishing dropped the tear rate.
FSC chain-of-custody on the board is a common EU ask. It is a paper claim, not an OEKO-TEX garment claim.
Print that still scans
Foil, spot UV and emboss are decoration. The barcode must still grade (trade practice often wants grade B or better). Colour ΔE agreements belong in the print contract; they are not a trim mill’s metal-plate problem.
RFID hangtags put an inlay in this same ticket. See the RFID notes — the radio does not forgive a foil antenna-killer on top of the chip.
String, pin and plastic lock are attachment choices. A bead chain that saws a 250 g board will fail the same way a tight punch does. Kidswear strings also pick up cord-safety thinking if the ticket can become a loop — keep the ticket short and the attachment a breakaway if the brand’s kids standard asks for it.
Short runs on speciality cotton papers cost like design objects; long runs on white card cost like packaging. Do not specify both foil and deep emboss and a 0.5 mm hole margin on a 180 g sheet.
TrimGem treats hangtags as retail hardware: board, hole, string, scan. The poem on the back is the brand’s.