The History Of T-Shirts And Their Importance (Still) To The American Economy (And A Little Trivia)

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And You Thought T-Shirts Were Not An Important Part Of American History Nine-one percent of Americans claim they own a "favorite T-Shirt".
That, of course is no big deal...
I have a favorite pair of socks, shoes, even salad fork.
But there's more to the T-Shirt than meets the eye.
There's important history and economics.
The first promotional tshirt for a movie was printed in 1939.
That movie was "The Wizard Of Oz".
Like the movie, the tee did quite well.
We make our own version of a Wizard Of Oz tee, I imagine a bit different than that first image, which shows a cartoon of the gang walking down the yellow brick road and Toto is lifting a hind leg.
The caption reads, "How the yellow brick road got it's name.
"But I digress.
T-Shirts account for important American economics.
Cotton is still a huge industry in this country, particularly in the southern states.
It takes six miles of yarn to make one T-shirt.
An acre of cotton is enough to produce 1200 tees.
Ever wonder if the T-Shirt business is a viable one?How about this for a statistic? About two billion tees are sold annually worldwide.
The Salvation Army takes in millions of T-shirt donations annually which later auctioned off by the pound to third world countries.
If one likes T-shirt history, the Smithsonian showcases the oldest printed tee on record which simply states, "Dew-It With Dewey".
Dew what I wonder? Hmm.
In the 1950 play "A Streetcar Named Desire" Brando's T-shirt and jeans were tailored to be form fitting to fully showcase his physique.
However, the word T-shirt did not been become an official word until the 1920's when it was included in Webster's Dictionary.
In 1977 more than 8 million dollars worth of Farrah Fawcett T-Shirts were sold when she appeared on Charlie's Angels.
And speaking of sexy Tees, ever wonder what prompted the "wet T-shirt contest?" It started after Jacqueline Bisset's appearance in the film "The Deep" in which she is swimming underwater, then surfacing, wearing a white T-Shirt and topless bikini.
The most popular form of designer tees today are silk-screened.
But digital reproductions are becoming very popular and blend into the fabric and, to me, have more of a "real" look than a decal ironed-on look, but of course, it is a matter of taste.
I decided to manufacture both, as different folks like different looks.
Americans love our tee shirts.
A survey done several years ago show that more than 62% of the U.
S(all ages) own at least 10 tees and 18-24 demographic group owned over 10 T-shirts and 19% owned over 30 tees.
So it doesn't appear they are going out of style anytime soon.
Source...
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