Defunkd

[Johnny65]

I guess that could be it. But it still seems beyond unlikely to me. This is why we need some old people in on this. Does anyone know anybody that worked in the shirt biz back in the day? In a print shop, or anything, that may be able to say whether they saw anything like this?

Just to follow up Oscar...to answer your question. Back in the day you would not see this sort of thing. Replacing garment size tags only became popular in the 90's when trademarked merchandising became a multi-million dollar business.

For example: in my collection I have an early 80's Ralph Lauren Polo sweatshirt printed on a generic Hanes 100% cotton blank. In later years of course as companies and merchandising grew a company like Ralph Lauren would have their "cut & sew" people remove the generic size tags and sew in their custom tags. But these were done professionally and at the time of manufacturing and/or printing of the garments.

Nothing like the examples shown in the photos above. Those have been sewn in recently to improve the possibility of selling the t-shirts on the vintage market.

Hope that helps clear up any confusion.

[captainsvintage]

Alright, Jimmy dragged me into this conversation, so I'll chime in with my opinion / theories.

I think that a lot of this is happening now, and I think that the people doing it know what they are doing. I never see a super crappy 90s hanes tag sewn in, its always an old shirt with an old tag sewn in. Its always sportswear, stedman, champion, etc.

There is another angle, which is when companies hire mills to make their shirts, they can do "private label" printing, which includes removing the factory label all together, sewing in the customer's tag above or below the shirt tape, either on top of the current tag, or totally private label. You see this with companies like disney, who don't have their own mill outsourcing to a company that will just sew in the disney tag.

Sometimes, I think that this is done cheaply, and that's why it looks so bad.

In addition, I think that someone is sewing in the tags, especially with copyrighted items like disney, sports teams, looney tunes, etc to add legitimacy for resale as a used item. The thinking goes like this, maybe we won't get sued if this clearly bootleg disney shirt has a wrong size tag poorly sewn into it.

One person I know had a theory that this was done by thrift stores, etc that want to sell the shirts. Another theory I heard is that it has to do with export, showing that the items were made in the USA, and that they are exporting them to mexico, africa, etc.

My personal opinion is that it is happening now. I don't think that it ruins the shirt if the shirt is awesome, but I don't think that the clearly bogus tag should be left on the shirt.

I look forward to hearing other theories, ideas, etc. Thanks!

[Johnny65]

All excellent points Captain.

I agree, for whatever the reason these tags have been sewn in recently.

Remove the bogus tag and the tee returns to it's original state. That's is of course if you don't damage the shirt removing the incorrect tag.

[oscar]

I'm just going to remove the listings, rather than the tags.

But still a counterpoint: there are crappy new shirts with tags like this too. More than we think. We don't see them because we don't bother to look closely enough. I just came home from one thrift store and just to check as I was going through their rack I found 3 tees like this. I never would've seen them before because I never would've taken a close enough look at the tag to see that it was stitched over the hem, rather than under, let alone lifting it up to see if there were any tag remnants underneath. Hell, even when I worked at Old Navy their stuff that got sent to the outlet store had the original tag removed and a new one installed in it's place. Now whenever I'm in a thrift store and I see an Old Navy tag with three stars at the top I can't help but think "Outlet". Damn you , Old Navy.

[CRAZYBUBBA]

"Another theory I heard is that it has to do with export, showing that the items were made in the USA, and that they are exporting them to mexico, africa, etc."

I sort about 80,000lbs of used clothing daily in overseas locations and I can conclusively say this is not true.

When the inspectors come we declare the goods to be of various origins (USA, China, India, Bangladesh, etc). It's not an export requirement that all the goods be made in one country.

[cottonsalvage]

Interesting thread. I come across shirts with top-sewn tags on occasion and, to oscar's point, have never seen them on anything of note. I always figured that these were from a defect pile on the factory floor and given a quick fix. If these had been sold off cheaply and used for family reunions, simple statements, "funny" tees, iron-ons, touristy crap, and the like, that would explain why they haven't popped up until now. Now they're marketable because of their vintage, wear, irony, or uniqueness, but 10-20 years ago would have just been considered dorky.

Anyway, just some thoughts not based on any real evidence. Of course, I would be suspect of big name concert tees with this type of tag as I can't really see The Who calling up a supplier and saying, "We've got a big tour coming up and we need to save a few bucks. Send us all the irregulars you've got."

[jimmyj]

Check out this recent one from Oscar of Black Market Pop...Sherry sewn in over Ched.

The truth is out there.

[Johnny65]

The mystery continues....

[cottonsalvage]

It really seems like they skipped a step.