The word "T-shirt" was added to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary in 1920 being defined as "a collarless short-sleeved or sleeveless usually cotton undershirt." 100 years later in 2020, Stoop Logic launched our first line of T-shirts.
Originally the t-shirt dates back to the late 19th century, when laborers would cut their jumpsuits in half to keep cool in warmer months during the year. Around that same time, sailors in the Royal Navy formed their own version from heavily woolen sleevless undergarments, not unlike tank tops.
Invented for manufacturing after the Spanish-American War in 1898, the first ad for manufactured t-shirts came from the Cooper Underwear Company in 1904 and was marketed as the "Bachelor Shirt." The ad was aimed at people without sewing skills, using the slogan of "No Safety Pins, No Needle, No Thread, No Buttons."
T-shirts were commonly used among sailors after being issued by the U.S. Navy as undershirts in 1913 and spread as a popular choice amongst laborers in various industries. The T-shirts at this time were still considered strictly undergarments, until they were used by young men because they were inexpensive, as well as being easily fitted and cleaned.
One of the first printed T-shirts was used in a 1942 issue of Life magazine by the Air Corps Gunnery School seen here:
Later popularized in the 1960's, printed T-shirts are still a phenominal form of self-expression as well as marketing, protests, and souvenirs. With our own dye-sublimation technique becoming popular around 2012, T-shirt styles and printing methods are still evolving to this day.
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