Category: Brands

Winterland Productions was founded in 1974 by Dell Furano, his brother Dave and Bill Graham. Dell got his start working for Graham at his Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and got the idea for his company from selling Grateful Dead Merchandise at the arena. From 1976-1981 Winterland was home to such acts as The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, and REO Speedwagon. T-shirts from this era were printed on various blanks with the small Winterland print on the front. 1982-1991 The first Winterland tag was introduced in 1982, and variations of it were used until 1988. In ’88 Winterland was ... Read more

Giant Records and Merchandising was a joint venture founded in 1990 by legendary rock manager Irving Azoff and Warner Bros. Although Giant also produced merchandise for Warner Bros movies and cartoons their t-shirts quickly became synonymous with rock music. This was by design since at the time it was thought Rock fans were more loyal than others and it was hard to argue since in 1989 Brockum and Winterland combined for nearly $500 million in sales. 1991-1995 Starting in 1991 Giant used three tags interchangeably, with no reliable heuristic. While other brands like Brockum silently used FOTL for their blanks, ... Read more

The gentleman we sat down with is a veteran of the vintage clothing business with 3D Emblem vintage t-shirt expertise. He’s been collecting 3D tees for over a decade and has 250+ of them. He’s also amassed a personal collection of original art, t-shirt screens, company documents, and promotional material. He’s done extensive research on the company’s history, personnel, and is in contact with the artists who did some of the most popular designs. He runs the 3D Emblem Instagram account that meticulously documents all things 3D. And the best news is that he’s agreed to contributing ongoing updates to ... Read more

Screen Stars is the most recognizable vintage t-shirt brand from the 1980s and likely the heaviest circulated brand in that decade. It’s a property of Fruit of the Loom which used/uses the Registered Identification Number (RN) 13765. FOTL branded blanks were manufactured many decades earlier but they continued to market them as undershirts while Screen Stars was targeted at the burgeoning screen printing industry. So let’s start from the beginning with the earliest version of a t-shirt we’ve found labelled with RN 13765. The following tag may be as early as the late 1960s when the trend was 100% cotton construction. Certainly ... Read more

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #29: Generic RN: 13765 Circulation: Common Era: Mid 1970s to 1980? Information: Before tags got all fancy with colors and logos in the 1980s, there was this unbranded tag. The RN number is tied to the Union Underwear Company which operates as a subsidiary of Fruit of the Loom. FOTL introduced Screen Stars in 1980 and it appears as though this tag was the precursor to Screen Stars. The timeline lends to this idea given this tag faded out in the early 1980 and that’s when ... Read more