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jimmyj
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The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by jimmyj »

Yoddles;

So a few people have brought to my attention that t-shirts with various sewn-in vintage tags are popping up quite frequently.

It's quite a strange phenomenon given in most of these cases the t-shirts the vintage tags land on aren't in the least bit valuable. So someone is going through quite a bit of trouble for nothing? What's the explanation?

As you can see in the photos below - a portion of the original tag is still where it should be - sewn between the fabric during manufacture.

What do you guys think?

Update 2021: I have changed my thoughts on this and feel there are legit reasons for tags to be sewn-in like this, aftermarket. For example, certain licensee brands did not manufacture their own shirts. They used common blanks like FOTL and had their tag sewn in at the time of manufacture. Sometimes though, they, for whatever reason, would print on another available blank, but still wanted to include their own branding.

That said, because they can be legit, counterfeiters have leveraged this for their gain too.
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Jimmy J

oscar
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by oscar »

Well, shucks, I'll jump in here.

Although there's been debate about tags like this before (Nike tee with a rayon blend Sportswear tag? To quote Elaine [and for the second Seinfeld quote on the board today]: "Fake, fake, fake, fake".), I whole-heartedly believe that this kind of tagging was done more often and more innocently than we thought. There are a few things that lead me to believe this:

1. I have several of these. All (except one on my Jake the Snake tee) are on shirts for which I charge 10-12 bucks. Jimmy and I talked about this already and I know he got a bunch of pictures from someone else who also had shirts tagged like this, also on "cheapies". The Mayo Spruce tag pictured up there is from this tee: http://www.defunkd.com/product/OS132551 ... -shirt-m-l. The picture up there of the Sport T tag on the orange shirt is from this tee: http://www.defunkd.com/product/OS132819 ... d-thin-m-l. I refuse to believe that anyone is bootlegging an old empolyee shirt or tourist trap tee. Like the "Nike rayons", if this was on an old Iron Maiden tee, or a Woodstock tee ;) I would run the other way, but in my mind this would be like trying to bootleg a Walmart item with a Target tag.

2. I got these shirts from different places and different times. Since the dude who emailed Jimmy probably doesn't live in my state, this would mean that several people, across the country, all came up with the same worst money making scheme in the history of bootlegging.

3. Since (mine) are primarily on tees that someone would want printed up cheap, and sold cheap (or even given away to their employees), it makes me think they might have been sold off cheap by the companies as "irregular", which would be explain why there are so many and so geographically spread out. It could also explain why the shirt companies wouldn't have used these crappy tees for the higher paying companies ordering in bulk, like tour promotions, or sports teams....... I don't know, just a theory.

Maybe someone who worked in the industry with a good memory for seemingly unimportant details can shed some light on it? Maybe Otis? I'm also going to ask some other sellers that grab most any vintage tee they come across to look through their collections and see if they have any low value tees with similar tags. I'm going to remove my listings that do have tags like this, because Jimmy is the boss, applesauce. But I left them up for now to link them so if you want to look at them, do it while you still can.

Here are a couple more:
http://www.defunkd.com/product/OS132729 ... nd-thin-xl
http://www.defunkd.com/product/OS42599/ ... er-t-shirt

oscar
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by oscar »

And thinking further about this, even though I think what I have is harmless and totally legit, we do need to keep these off the site. I do think it should be policy so that none of those Nikes with questionable tags or anything like that come up here. I will leave those listings up for a couple of days so people can click the link, but then I'll take them down.

And I still want to Sherlock Holmes this and see if I, or anyone else, can find anything out about this.

Johnny65
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Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by Johnny65 »

Altered originals for whatever the reason is not something I would feel comfortable having in my collection or selling.

Regardless of the dollar value involved, it suggests the seller is trying to pass the t-shirt off as something it's not.

Levi denim collectors would laugh at someone who sewed a 501 patch onto a pair of Wranglers. Same dynamic at work with the t-shirt tags shown above.

Any true vintage collector would not find this acceptable.
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collective [kəˈlɛktɪv]
http://worn75.blogspot.com/

oscar
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by oscar »

I would agree- if I thought that this was something that some one had recently altered. But I still believe that this was done, for whatever reason, by the manufacturer. You can currently go into outlet stores and find all sorts of weird stitching on garments that would keep them out of the regular stores or the brand catalog. I can't think of any reason why anyone would do this on such random valueless shirts, Let alone many people, and then donate them to thrift stores.

oscar
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by oscar »

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?

jimmyj
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Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by jimmyj »

Johnny65 is your man, man! Sorry Johnny not sayin' you're old! He was a screen printer.

I'll bug Otis Link for his thoughts too.

Notice how all the thread going across in each of these cases seems so tight and pristine - and the t-shirts in most cases don't show a lot of wear - to coincide with the label wear?

There's also some pretty serious legal issues that could arise with a manufacturer switching brand/labels. And wouldn't customers be like...ummmm why is the tag like this?

I hear ya, but my theory seems a smidgen less beyond reasonable than yours. But this whole thing will likely be made in to a Hardy Boys novel, "The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag"
Jimmy J

oscar
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:31 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by oscar »

Haha! I notice how ONE of the shirts was in pristine condition with a worn tag. ;) But, no, the Spruce tee tag is good and the "Dive" shirt definitely "shows it's age without any flaws". Can we be these Hardy Boys?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardy_Boyz
Now I'm scrounging ebay and etsy and dammit, I should be working!

Johnny65
Posts: 255
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Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by Johnny65 »

I think Jimmy was talking about these Hardy Boys

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardy_Boys :lol:

We've been having some fun on the forum tonight!

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collective [kəˈlɛktɪv]
http://worn75.blogspot.com/

jimmyj
Site Admin
Posts: 2970
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:26 pm

Re: The Mysterious Occurrence Of The Sewn in Tag

Post by jimmyj »

Ha. Dude don't stress it - they're getting circulated out there somehow. I messaged Otis and The Captain - see what they have to say. Definitely something to keep an eye on - thanks for all the info.
Jimmy J

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