Vintage T-Shirt Forum & Community Authentication Appraisals

Appreciate any info on year, "name" of tee, and value of this Nirvana t-shirt. This one has some fading marks, but interested to know value if not faded as well as faded. By Wild Oats. Thanks.

its prob mid to late 90s. hmmm tough one. def. not the most common print but not sure its going to be among the higher fetching nirvana tees. But at the moment they are in demand - so an auction wouldnt be a bad idea. Might end up with 50 to 100 on it. But I haven't ever noticed one sell so I could be wrong. i dont think the marks will have any substantial effect.

jimmyj wrote:its prob mid to late 90s. hmmm tough one. def. not the most common print but not sure its going to be among the higher fetching nirvana tees. But at the moment they are in demand - so an auction wouldnt be a bad idea. Might end up with 50 to 100 on it. But I haven't ever noticed one sell so I could be wrong. i dont think the marks will have any substantial effect.

Hi guys, I just signed up here, partially due to this t-shirt. I used to work for Wild Oats, and left a few years before this tee was printed. The copyright looks like it says 1997, which is a good guide. That would be the oldest it was, though a popular design could be printed for years. Oats closed in 1999, so it would have only been printed between 1997 and 1999.

That's good to know! Thanks! Very rare we get an official word on a defunct tag. When did the tag start? And did Wild Oats manufacture their own tees too?

Thanks JJ and Brett! Did this t-shirt have a "name" and/or was it affiliated with a particular tour or album?

That is, if I were to list it, how should I title it? (besides Nirvana, date and Wild Oats). Thanks!

OATS was using the neck tag when I started in 1989. I believe they just had them sewn into tees they bought wholesale, rather than manufacturing their own tees. The company I work for now, JSR Merchandising, did that for a few years in the early 2000's.

The tee looks like it was for retail rather than tour. If I were going to list it, I'd put something like "NIRVANA vintage Smiley Logo t-shirt 1997 Wild Oats". I'd also see what the highest selling Nirvana tee went for, and see if I could use some of the keywords from it, as well as listing it in the same category.

I'll see if I can get any more information from a friend who worked at OATS til the end. Good luck!