News

The Great Vintage Tee Depression?

Published on May 19, 2014

According to Google and its handy search trends graph, we are indeed in the toughest times vintage tees have seen in the last decade. While the numbers are quite telling, I don’t think it’s as scary as it initially looks. The internet and how people search it has changed dramatically over the last decade. In 2004, Google dominated the web. There was no Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, or Instagram. Facebook launched in 2004 – but unless you were in college or university at the time, you’d probably never heard of it. When people fired-up their browsers, most times a Google property was their first stop. Then, as we became more savvy searchers, we started cutting out the middle-man by going directly to eBay to search for vintage t-shirts. And now, in more modern times – Defunkd (wink!). These days people get their fix on various platforms.

This strategy becomes evident when we chart vintage t-shirts alongside another collectable: comic books.

The two niches have seen a very similar downward trend over the last ten years. But, comics – largely due to the hype by movies in recent years – have had several significant upswings. Not surprisingly they appear to be undergoing another one right now. Sadly, our vintage t-shirt niche appears to have flat-lined around the end of 2013. And despite the U.S. economy’s slow rebound from the 2008 recession, there’s been no rebound in our charts. Premium vintage tees are definitely a luxury item that took a hit when the recession did. I definitely felt it for a few years.

The good news is fashion trends are cyclical and we’re long overdue to make a comeback. More good news: even during our lowest lows, the market remains alive and well – supported by collectors, nostalgia nuts, those who are good to the environment and those who don’t follow fickle fashion trends.

One thing’s for certain: vintage t-shirts peaked in popularity in 2004. We’ve always cited “That ’70s Show” as a catalyst. The series did for 1970s and ’80s vintage fashion what Mad Men has done for men’s 1960s fashion in recent years.

Will The Goldbergs get us out of our rut?

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8 Comments

thebrokenzipper

May 20, 2014 at 10:26 pm

Yikes! The chart is slightly less terrifying if you replace the dash with a space, but not really.
defunkd

May 20, 2014 at 11:26 pm

Ha, that’s interesting. Typically they view “-” and a space as the same thing. What ever you do don’t search with “vintage tees” because it’s even more terrifying!
Matt Robinson

May 23, 2014 at 8:17 pm

It might be a depression. I view it as an opportunity. I’m investing hard in quality product and while it may bite me in the ass, I guess I just don’t care. I’m in this business for good. I feel things will definitely turn around and that quality will always sell. Things might not be fetching top dollar now, but for savvy buyers, the market is great. Just my two cents.
stage1dave

May 24, 2014 at 10:45 am

I’m with Matt on this…I remember something Roy Joudrey said decades ago: “buy when things are blackest”. (Mind you, he also said his business advice was worth exactly what it was costing you; nothing…hahaha)

I’m also of the opinion that people are always going to try & buy back a piece of their childhood. That ‘3 decade’ rule seems to hold for all generations. I’ve seen this cyclical up-down movement in many hobbies I’ve been involved with over the last 30 some years & that’s a constant as well.

After 35 years in business, the most important thing I’ve learned is to truly enjoy what you’re doing work-wise or hobby-wise. That mitigates the downturns because I’d be doing a few of these things (for fun or business) whether they were hot or not. Might be spending a bit less money on a few of them, however!

All that being said, I’ve noticed myself buying a lot of early 2K lately. IMHO, the prints are twice the quality of 70’s-80’s stuff, the artwork is better, (or the depictions are, because of four-colour process printing) & I’m noticing people are tossing this stuff out as quick as they did with their 80’s stuff. Plus it’s dirt cheap…

(I had a tshirt artwork/printing business in the early 90’s, & I remember how much hassle & expense was involved in getting good artwork onto a shirt)

I should add that I didn’t even know this hobby was here until: A) my wife reminded me that I don’t ever throw anything out, and B) I noticed about a dozen of my cherished 80’s tour t’s had disappeared & had to replace them.

So now the wife & I fight over pole space in the closet. I got her into this a bit, because she never bought concert shirts in the 80’s…no money! So we’ve replaced her “childhood” & most of mine, & added a few. Plus, coming out of the car hobby, these t’s require a lot less maintenance & upkeep!

I’d be interested in hearing a few more opinions from other collectors about what they are (or are not) buying and/or collecting. Like all collectors, I’ve wound up having to sell some to feed the addiction!

Cheers, Dave
hermosa_vintage

May 26, 2014 at 3:38 am

Part of it has to be the commoditization of “vintage retro” style t-shirts. You can get vintage repros at just about any retail clothing chain for about $12-$20. H&M, target, urban outfitters, even lululemon sell “band tees” and “rock tees”. This leaves only some few niche collectors willing to shell out $100+ for the rarest of the rare that will probably never be reproduced.
Kevin

June 22, 2014 at 9:29 pm

haha…the early 2000s were pretty awesome!…that’s pretty much when I jumped on the bandwagon…My heros were Smith and Pooter, I paid attention and once I added the keywords “emo” and “skinny” even the crappiest of t-shirts were consistantly bringing $40-$60!…but like anything else, when the price got sooo high, it took the fun for the collector, and the average buyer could no longer participate in the community that they created …for me, the big $$$ only invited dishonest buyers, and once the overseas buyers knew that Tracking on overseas shipping was pretty much unreliable, they were eager to take advantage and that was pretty much when I backed off of international shipping…lately (old habits die hard) I cant sell an “above average” 80’s tee to save my ass, but I have noticed a resurgance in the really rare stuff…Thanks in most part that most of the bigger overseas dealers are now using Private Shipping Services based in the US (I feel much better about that)…Still it ain’t what it used to be, at one time I was buying Vintage Tees on average about 30-40 a week, now maybe one or two (but one or two good ones)…your graph could be the same story as the Nike Dunk Air Jordan craze and Vintage Skateboards…so, what’s the next “big thing”? Kevin aka junkpalace
defunkd

June 22, 2014 at 11:46 pm

Haha “EMO” love it. Every title also had “PUNK” in it for some reason as well as “tee”, “tshirt” too as eBay hadn’t treated them as “t-shirt” just yet. Smith & Pooter cleaned up in that era – it was 100% auctions then and you’re right – every t-shirt seemed to rake in big bucks no matter what it was. Pure insanity – I remember thinking I was going to be very wealthy. They also had the one dude (was it S or P?!) who sort of looked like Hyde from that 70s show.

I just checked their account for old times sake – only 4 auctions the rest is fixed price. A sign of the times! They’re going on 27K feedback. Whoa.

S&P along with Vintage Vantage did great jobs with branding to really set them apart from what ever else what out there. But back then the supply was no where near as high – now it seems like everyone sells vintage. It’s on every pickers list now. There’s way more of it available for sale and not as many people buying.

The 90s throwback is is the new 80s revival.
Kevin

June 23, 2014 at 6:26 am

Vintage Vantage…there’s a blast…they had that cool 70s Bedsheet Backround…