55 T-Shirt Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Note: This was inspired by an infographic we posted in one of our older articles.

We take a lot of things for granted these days. The buildings around us, the technology we use and even the clothes on our backs. Do you know how much history there is in a simple T-shirt?

You might be surprised.

Let’s talk about that. Today, we’re going to go over some of the most interesting, obscure and downright bizarre T-shirt facts. How many of these random cool facts did you know? Comment to share how much tee trivia you knew before reading.

• Cotton, the most common T-shirt material, has been grown by humans for over 7,000 years. The first evidence of cotton use was found in the city of Mehrgarh, one of the earliest South Asian farming settlements in the world.
• China and India are currently the two largest producers of cotton in the world, creating a total combined production of 61 million bales annually. The United States is currently the largest exporter of raw cotton, with sales of $4.9 billion every year. The worldwide cotton market is estimated to total $12 billion.
• Cotton is stronger wet than dry, and this fabric can absorb more than twenty times its own weight in water.
• Textile printing has existed for far longer than the T-shirt. The oldest method of textile printing – woodblock printing – dates to 3rd century China. It relied on a relief design carved into a block of wood, dipped into ink and pressed down onto the fabric.
• Over their history, T-shirts have been made from a variety of materials, including alligator leather, cotton, yarn, polyester, gold and even human hair.
• Every year, over 2 billion T-shirts are sold worldwide.
• It’s believed that the T-shirt originated from a type of all-in-one underwear known as the “union suit,” patented in 1868 in New York. Many workers took to cutting these outfits in half to keep cool in hot weather.
• Though we don’t know who invented the T-shirt as it appears today, tees were first marketed in 1904 by the Cooper Underwear company as “bachelor undershirts.” They were considered undergarments, not something you could wear on their own.
• T-shirts weren’t considered particularly fashionable back then – they were chiefly worn for utility, such as acting as sweat absorbers for a college football team.
• T-shirts became a part of the United States Navy’s uniform in 1905, which required a buttonless, white cotton undershirt. It was also adopted into the United States Army a few years later during World War 1.
• The word “T-shirt” was first used in 1920 by author F. Scott Fitzgerald in his novel, “This Side of Paradise.” It didn’t become popular until many years later – in the 1930s, T-shirts were labeled “skivvies” and “jimshirts.”
• T-shirts were originally marketed as undershirts for bachelors who didn’t know how to sew or replace buttons.
• Shirts back in the 1930s were much lighter than today’s shirts, at only 1.5 to 2 ounces (as opposed to the five- to eight-oz. weight of the average shirt today). (Source)
• The first promotional shirt was produced in 1939 for The Wizard of Oz.
• The oldest printed shirt in the Smithsonian Institute was part of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s presidential campaign and reads “Dew-It with Dewey.”
• Plastisol was invented in 1959, and proved to be more durable and stretchable than the ink used in T-shirts up to that point. It allowed more variety and complexity in designs.
• For a long time, T-shirts were a male article of clothing, with a tight fit and wide neck designed to show off the male figure.
• Marlon Brando first wore a T-shirt unadorned in his movie, “A Street Car Named Desire.” It generated a ton of controversy and caused a nationwide spike in T-shirt sales. Brando is also credited with popularizing jeans with his role in “The Wild One.” James Dean is another celebrity credited with popularizing T-shirts as more than undershirts.
• Rumor has it that Clark Gable’s topless appearance in the movie “It Happened One Night”in 1934 caused a decline in T-shirt sales. There is no evidence to suggest this tale is true.
• Tropix Togs was the first company to decorate T-shirts with pop culture icons and slogans in the early 1950s. This ended up popularizing custom T-shirts, which are an essential part of pop culture and business branding to this day.
• Rock and Roll bands further popularized T-shirts during the ’60s, promoting their music through custom screen-printed shirts.
• In the late ’60s, tie-dye T-shirts became a central element of the hippie movement. Somewhat ironically, this was done at the behest of Rit Dye advertising mogul Don Price.
• Rit’s masterstroke was making hundreds of shirts and giving them away at Woodstock. Because of this, they became a part of the counterculture style – and Rit’s company made bank off a rebellion against corporate America.
• The ’70s was the first time T-shirts really entered into popular culture, necessitating new modes of mass production as they continued to grow in popularity during the 1980s. The ’80s also marked the birth of the wrinkle-free T-shirt, an incredible invention for slobs everywhere.
• The ’70s also marked the birth of the “I <3 New York" campaign, a T-shirt branding campaign kicked off by the Commerce department to shift the city's image from a dirty, decadent, crime-ridden hole to a bustling tourist destination. It worked - the shirt revitalized the industry and became one of the most-mimicked designs in history.
• The Salvation Army receives several million T-shirt donations every year. It auctions them off by the pound and exports them to disadvantaged third-world countries.
• T-shirt recycling keeps over five billion tons of textile waste out of landfills annually.
• T-shirts are the primary product sold by websites like Shirtpunch, which give indie designers the ability to showcase their wares. What makes Shirtpunch and its competitors unique is that each design is only sold for 24 hours before being replaced by a new one.
• The Guinness World Record for the most T-shirts put on in one hour is 257, and this was achieved by a fellow in Sri Lanka by the name of Sanath Bandara. The shirts together weighed over 200 pounds. The most shirts worn at any given time isn’t much higher, with a total of 260 tees worn by Ted Hastings in Canada for the goal of fundraising for a school playground.
• The world’s most expensive T-shirt design costs a jaw-dropping $400,000. Although it’s made of organic cotton, it also has a set of 16 diamonds sewn into the fabric, which together amount to nine carats. Not exactly the kind of shirt you’d wear to your brother-in-law’s barbeque, is it? Learn more about other iconic tees for even more clothing trivia.
• Datta Phuge, nicknamed “The Gold Man” (for obvious reasons), owns a shirt made of more than three kilograms of solid gold. It’s worth $250,000. He also owns five cars and countless pieces of gold jewelry. Phuge employs a security guard to ensure that no one tries to nick the shirt from him.
• The world’s largest T-shirt in October 2014 was made to raise money for breast cancer and measured approximately 306 feet long and 206 feet wide when it was unveiled in Navegantes, Santa Catarina of Brazil. This record was beaten in Romania in March 2023 with dimensions of about 358 feet by 241 feet.
• There are 35,000 cotton farms in the United States. Together, they employ enough people to fill four football stadiums. Between fair labor efforts and sustainable agriculture, U.S. cotton has gotten more eco-friendly with every passing year.
• To make a full circle around the world, you’d need about 56 million medium-sized T-shirts.
• With 62% of Americans claiming to own ten or more shirts, they have enough shirts collectively to circle the globe 34 times if lined up next to one another.
• Yarn is one of the most inefficient T-shirt materials: it takes six miles to make one tee. As a comparison, it only takes one acre of cotton to make 1,200 shirts (less than one square mile).
• It takes 2700 liters of water to make a single T-shirt. That’s enough water to allow one person to drink for 900 days. For more eco-friendly choices, organic cotton tees are the usual go-to for green brands, groups or events. This material reduces water consumption by 88% and conserves 62% more energy than traditional cotton.
• The second most popular fabric for T-shirts is polyester fiber. It creates a soft, comfortable, lightweight texture when woven together with cotton.
• Proving the popularity of this garment, 91% of Americans have a favorite T-shirt in their wardrobe.
• The average T-shirt goes on a fascinating global journey over the course of its production. Take Planet Money, whose shirts go from the cotton fields of the U.S. to spinning factories in Indonesia to garment factories in Bangladesh or Colombia over the course of their lifecycle.
• In 1977, $8 million dollars worth of Farrah Fawcett T-shirts were sold.
• Coca-Cola was the first brand to ever promote itself using T-shirts.
• TShirtOS, the world’s first programmable T-shirt, has an LCD screen woven into the front. It can display everything from graphic designs to photos to status updates on social media. It’s currently still in the prototype stage and not yet available for sale.
• June 21 is International T-Shirt Day, a global celebration of what is arguably the world’s most iconic article of clothing. (Source)
• The world record for the most T-shirts folded in a single minute is 31, and it was set by David Rush of Boise, Idaho in 2022.
• The fastest anyone’s ever passed 10 shirts along a chain of 100 people is 15 minutes 0.69 seconds, set by Domestic and General at Epsom Downs Racecourse in 2014. How’s that for an obscure record?
• At least once per week, 89% of T-shirt-wearing Americans put on a T-shirt.
• T-shirts are more than just casual wear. They’re also produced by several world-renowned luxury brands, including Gucci, Chanel, D&G, Prada, Armani, Versace, Guess, Valentino and Fendi.
• A man by the name of Jason Sadler made himself a millionaire by simply wearing T-shirts for a living. Brands pay him to wear their T-shirts, and he wears a different shirt every day. His business venture has enjoyed so much success that he’s actually hired additional employees to wear shirts with him.
• In 1984, the BBC banned the song “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood for being too sexual. Record label owner Paul Morley defied the BBC by putting the song’s words on a line of T-shirts in capital letters. The “FRANKIE SAYS RELAX” tee was worn by everyone from Jennifer Anniston to Homer Simpson, and it has actually outlived the band that it was originally based on.
• The T-shirt business is apparently extremely lucrative – independent designers and salespeople on Teespring regularly make more than six figures.
• From 2009 to 2014, the T-shirt industry grew by more than 24.2%.
• There are many different printing processes for custom-designed T-shirts:
• Screen printing involves the creation of a mesh screen, which has ink pressed through it onto a blank shirt.
• Digital printing effectively uses a giant version of an inkjet printer to dye the fabric directly.
• Heat transfer irons a design from a special type of paper onto a shirt.
• Airbrushing uses a small spray gun.
• There are actually several different types of T-shirts as well, and they vary in sleeve length, embellishment and neck shape. You might be surprised to learn that tank tops are considered a sleeveless type of T-shirt.
• T-shirts are also available in more than just your standard array of sizes – you can actually get custom-tailored tees made for you at most tailoring outlets. Believe it or not, this is what Jennifer Anniston does with her T-shirts.

T-shirts have come a long way since they were first born as part of an undergarment. Today, they’re used for everything from marketing and political campaigns to business and personal statements. They’re the most common article in the world – and they really do go with anything.

Now that you’re done reading about T-shirts, why not add a few more to your wardrobe? With our Design Studio online software, you can create a custom-printed T-shirt perfect for whatever you need, whether it’s personal branding or a business venture.