T-Shirt History

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The T-shirt has humble origins as an undergarment but has become a classic piece of clothing worn around the world. Originally designed as a piece of men's underwear, the T-shirt exploded in the 1960s and has since taken on a whole new meaning. The T-shirt shed its undergarment role and became the perfect forum for political and creative expression. The Tees have been worn by everyone - men and women, old and young - and through the silkscreen process have become an international, medium for every possible type of message. From the brooding image of Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire to the revolutionary call of Che Guevara, the T-Shirt has mirrored modern social history.

The T-shirt came to the USA during WWI when US soldiers noticed the light cotton undershirts European soldiers were using while the US soldiers sweat in their wool uniforms. They quickly became popular among the Americans, and because of their design they got the name T-shirt. What became the modern T-shirt was developed in 1932 when officials from the University of Southern California Trojans football team (often credited to coach Howard Jones) asked Jockey International, Inc. to develop a inexpensive undergarment to absorb sweat and prevent a football player's shoulder pads from causing chafing. This resulted in the invention of the crewneck (or crew-neck) T-shirt. The shirts proved so popular that students started stealing them from the athletes and the athletic department reacted by stenciling "Property of USC" on each shirt, inadvertently making them even more popular.

During WWII the T-shirt had become standard issue underwear in the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines. Although the T-shirt was formally underwear, soldiers often used it without a shirt covering it while doing heavy labor or while stationed in locations with a hot climate. As a result, the public was frequently exposed to pictures of members of the armed forces wearing pants and a T-shirt.

After the war T-shirts started appearing without a shirt covering it in civilian life. The 1948 presidential campaign of Thomas E. Dewey produced a "Dew It for Dewey" T-shirt, which was followed in 1952 by "I Like Ike" T-shirts in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower. John Wayne, Marlon Brando and James Dean all wore them on national TV. At first the public was shocked, but by 1955 it had become acceptable. The T-shirt became cool when James Dean wore it in the film Rebel Without a Cause. Once they were on view, T-shirts became canvasses for images and messages. In addition to basic white, they soon came in all shades; and equally important, they displayed first the emblems of schools and teams, and then every design or slogan imaginable.

The Ringer T-shirt (a T-shirt in which the shirt itself is one color, but the collar and the end of the sleeves are of a different color) was introduced in the United States in the mid-1960s and gained popularity in the late 1960s, especially among youth and the rock-and-roll subculture. Traditionally, the most common ringer colors were white with black rings. The most common form of commercial t-shirt decoration is screen-printing. In screen-printing, a design is separated into individual colors. Plastisol or water based inks are applied to the shirt through mesh screens which limits the areas where ink is deposited. In most commercial T-shirt printing, the specific colors in the design are used. To achieve a wider color spectrum with a limited number of colors, process printing (using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink) or simulated process (using only white, black, red, green, blue, and gold ink) is effective. Process printing is best suited for light colored shirts. Simulated process is best suited for dark colored shirts. Other methods of decoration used on T-shirts include airbrush, applique, embroidery, and the ironing on of either flock lettering, heat transfers, or Dye Sublimation transfers. Laser printers are capable of printing on plain paper using a special toner containing sublimation dyes which can then be permanently heat-transferred to T-shirts. In the 1980s, thermochromatic dyes were introduced, and produced T-shirts that changed color when subjected to heat. The Global Hypercolour brand of T-shirt was a common sight on the streets but has since mostly disappeared. Since the late 1980s and especially the 1990s, T-shirts with prominent brand-name logos have been popular, especially with teenagers and young adults. The story of the message tee embraces the modern phenomenon of “personal branding”, as well as a climate in which statements—political or personal—are generally preferred to be catchy than true.