Read the story of the ongoing and epic history of a powerful messaging platform: the t-shirt!
Have you ever thought about how the t-shirt, as we know it today has come to be such a fashion Icon and how it transform into the most powerful fashion apparel item available? The t-shirt was originally designed as an undergarment and named after the T shape of its body and sleeves.
The t-shirt as we know it today is a simple fabric shirt that is so deeply ingrained in the worlds culture that it’s easy to forget, how quite young the T-shirt really is just like the power we use every day.
In the early days before it was ever a t-shirt, it started off as undergarment used in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Union suit underwear which was one piece at the time was cut into separate top and bottom parts, with the top part long enough to tuck under the waistband of the pants and was adopted by stevedores and miners during the early 1900s. The t shirt concept was born and the first manufactured t-shirt was initially introduced in the United States during the time of Spanish World War. All the U.S Navy members were given the t-shirts to wear under their uniforms.
Even at that time, the term T-shirt was rarely used, but all thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald for using it in his book named as “This Side of Paradise.” The word T-shirt became part of American English by the 1920s, and was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Fitzgerald, quotes from his book “So early in September Amory,” “provided with ‘six suits summer underwear, six suits winter underwear, one sweater or T-shirt, one jersey, one overcoat, winter, etc,’ set out for New England, the land of schools.”
Even though the t-shirt was invented in the early 1900s, you never saw anyone wear them other than an undershirt. Sears the clothing company, launched their unique variety of t-shirts, popular as gob shirt, in 1938. These modern designs of T-shirts could be worn as undergarment or an outer garment. After World War II, you would see Navy men wearing them as undergarments and over time it became common to see veterans wearing their uniform pants with their t-shirts as casual clothing. By 1942, an Air Corps Gunnery School printed t-shirt appeared on the cover of Life magazine.
It didn’t take long for Hollywood to see potential in the evolving attire and demand for t-shirts rose when the public actor, Marlon Brando, wore a t-shirt in the movie called ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ that came out in the 1950s. Through these events the iconic t-shirt was officially born and was considered fashionable to wear as outerwear clothing. In the 1960s, printed T-shirts gained even more popularity but thanks to the punk movement in the’70s, t-shirts have solidified the powerful messaging platform that we know them as today.
Watch actor, Marlon Brando in the famous t-shirt scene from movie ‘A Street Car Named Desire’.
As you can see in the video t-shirts are not going anywhere anytime soon, there are staple part of our history now and the cryptocurrency / blockchain movement is the next wave to adopt the t-shirt and its full power. So support your favorite crypto projects and let’s let t-shirts do what it did for World Peace and punk movements in the’70s!
Do you have a crypto project or know of one with a message and are ready to spread the word on a t-shirt? Let us know! At The Block Gear, we print super soft custom crypto t-shirts that people love to wear and talk about, and we’d love to help you spread your message to the world.