The History of The T-Shirt

Although the exact origin of the T-Shirt is not known, it was widely seen and noticed in 1913 when the United States adopted the crew necked T-Shirt as an undergarment to be worn under a jumper to cover a sailors chest hairs

Even then the average working man did not use the undergarment. They were still using the sleeveless under shirt called the “Singlet”. It wasn’t until the 30’s that companies like Sears Roebuck started marketing the T-Shirt. In 1938 Sears introduced it as the “Gob Shirt” (Gob meaning Sailor”) as an under or outer shirt.

During WWII T-Shirts were issued to the United States Army and the Marines. When the T-shirts were first issued it was issued as a field test to see which one the soldiers liked better the soldiers obviously chose the T-Shirt. When the T-Shirts were first introduced to the soldier the T-Shirts were in white. Soldiers soon realized that the bright white made them easy targets and started dyeing the shirts in coffee. This led to the Army issuing the famous sage green shirt we all have come to know.

When the soldiers came home they brought the shirts home with them and from then on T-Shirts have evolved to what they are today.

It is believed that in the late 50’s Walt Disney came up with the concept of printing on T-Shirts as souvenirs. At this point the T-Shirts were printed with house paint. But in 1959 everything was about to change with the advent of Plastisol Ink. Which has paved the way for all of us in the Screen Printing Industry today.