As outlined in our Vintage T-Shirts 101 guide, the single best way to determine if a shirt is truly vintage is by checking its label. Since most of these vintage lines are no longer in production or have updated their branding, inspecting a vintage shirt tag can tell you a lot about an item’s authenticity and the era in which it was produced.

The 1970s

Identifying a vintage shirt from the 1970s is quite simple. At that time, companies that were producing shirts for screen printing hadn't started branding themselves yet. Many of these labels will appear fairly generic and not have any obvious link to a specific company. It wasn’t until the late ‘70s that the big T-shirt players and stronger branding images started to emerge.

The 1980s

In the ‘80s, names such as Screen Stars, Hanes and Sportswear were some of the most frequent T-shirt manufacturers. Each of these vintage brands went through different phases of label designs which can easily be linked to a particular period.

 Many other popular brands (pictured above) emerged in this decade. Some focused on producing a variety of colors, while others specialized in making different styles of shirts, including ringers, jerseys and V-necks.

Some vintage lines (not pictured) also began developing items for sports-related clothing. Labels such as Logo7, Artex, Champion and Trench made many of the best t-shirts, jerseys and sweatshirts featuring popular athletic names, teams and styles in the 1980s.

The 1990s

While many new big-name players emerged in the ‘90s, just as many faded away. Some companies merged together – for example, Screen Stars became Fruit of the Loom. As countless musical acts topped the mainstream charts, a few of the top clothing producers – including Brockum, Giant and Gem – got smart and created brands dedicated to music and concert-related merchandise.

The Bottom-Line

Remember: just because you don't see a brand listed here, that doesn't mean the item in question isn't vintage. There are just too many companies from these decades to mention them all. We have streamlined our guide to present the most commonly occurring brands in their various forms. Our vintage brand tips are meant to compliment our original guide which offers additional information on the subject of buying a vintage T-shirt.

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