Category: Shirts

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

“My name is Mark Killington and always been a big music fan. By luck in early 1986 I got a job as a general gofer for the late great Rupert Neve (most famous audio equipment designer for studios) and what was then his new company Focusrite after he’d sold his Neve company. The first job he was doing was a sub-mixer for Air Montserrat (George Martin). Rupert was persuaded to go back into big console manufacturing and had a huge list of big studios wanting to leave a deposit to be one of the first recipients of one of his ... Read more

The 1980s was the golden age of wrestling, ipso facto the golden age of vintage wrestling t-shirts. The WWF was still called the WWF. Hulkamania was running wild. Storylines were playful and still kid-friendly. I miss those days. Sadly, 5 out of 8 of these squared circle legends have left this earth. But true legends never die, and thankfully they can be celebrated via t-shirts from their heydays. The Ultimate Warrior Finishing Move: Gorilla press drop followed by a running splash. WWF Accolades: Intercontinental (2), Champion (1) The Warrior made a name for himself with his theatrics, physique, and brute ... 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

I took a break for a couple of years from the VTU (vintage tee universe) and all hell broke loose. Marketplace platforms like Grailed and Depop (sold to Etsy!) exploded while a ton of transactions started happening through Instagram DMs. Then the early days of the pandemic ushered in live auctions on IG courtesy of 1980 Something Co. At one point last week five IG accounts I follow were hosting t-shirt auctions at the SAME time. It’s live insanitee. Vintage t-shirt auctions on eBay were huge in the early aughts, people got caught up in the excitement of bidding and ... Read more