Category: Brands

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #19: Royal First Class Circulation: One-hit-wonder Era: 1980s Information: Officially trademarked in 1986 this tag quickly caught on with the the music industry and then strangely vanished by the 1990s. Royal is the first of many one decade, one tag design, one-hit-wonders we’re going to feature. The trademark was once owned by Delta Apparel Inc, but those rights expired in 2007. If you have any info on Royal please comment below. Have a photo of a tag design we missed? Please share it by clicking on ... Read more

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #18: Touch of Gold Circulation: Fairly Common Era: 1980s-1990s Information: Another mysterious defunct brand with no information available. The only thing we can ascertain is that the brand was bought out and became a brand extension of Spring Ford in the early 1990s. At that point the small icon typically found above the logo was dropped from the tag. If you have any info on Touch of Gold please comment below. Have a photo of a tag design we missed? Please share it by clicking on ... Read more

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #17: Signal Circulation: Fairly Common Era: 1916-present Information: In its formative years Signal Knitwear Co. was a manufacturer of textiles and eventually focused on underwear for men and boys. In the 1970s their blank tees caught on with screen printers and by the 1980s were commonly used by the music industry. Signal offered basic, ringer and sleeveless tees but was better known as one of the two most popular makers of rock jersey (the other most notable being The Knits.) In 1991 Signal merged with another ... Read more

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #16: Great Southern Company Circulation: Fairly Common Era: 1970s-1992 Information: The GSC emerged out of Macon Georgia in the early 1970s as one of the world’s first entertainment merchandising companies. By the 1980s the tag was found on many band tees (most commonly Bon Jovi, Motley Crue and ZZ Top) as well as movie t-shirts. In 1992 the company was bought out by Polygram Records. GSC may have used a generic unbranded tag prior to the 1980s because we have yet to see anything other than ... Read more

A comprehensive resource of defunct t-shirt labels manufactured prior to the year 2000. Brand #15: Russell Athletic Circulation: Common Era: 1902-current Information: Incorporated in 1902 with a small quantity of knitting and sewing machines – Russells first product was a ladies undershirt. Shortly after they added long underwear, sweaters and athletic shirts to their manufacturing mix. The company experienced massive growth over the decades – in 1983 they created a brand extension called JERZEES which was a line of sportswear and basic tees. By the late 90s they were ranked 5th among apparel companies by Fortune 500 magazine. In recent ... Read more