One of the largest collections of vintage-style tees I know of is at t-shirts.com. Their vintage and 80’s sections include more than 400 vintage designs, which is really a staggering figure. Some designs are faux vintage all the way, with fading and aging crafted into the design. Others appear to use new print, just with retro subject matter.

Sometimes it’s for a band (Allman Bros ‘73 Tour, anyone?) and others for a product or beverage that’s no longer made or has since changed logos. Cartoon characters and classic television seem to be popular subjects as well. Even if vintage isn’t usually your thing, it’s worth checking out their tee collection. You may just come across something you like. You may recognize a few, particularly the Guinness tees as having been featured here before.

Most tees are $20, and the ones on sale are usually $10, which is an absolute steal. Be sure to check them out at t-shirts.com.

There are an awful lot of tees that seem to be tagged “vintage” these days that probably shouldn’t be. Some are reprints of actual old designs, and some are completely new designs using fabrics and printing methods to emulate a vintage look and feel. There’s nothing wrong with faux vintage per se, but you can’t always take these kinds of shirts at face value. There are a ton of clever fakes out there, and that just doesn’t jive with the purist in a lot of people.

To get the real deal, you’ve usually got to scour the racks at Goodwill and the Salvation Army. You’ve got to know what you’re looking for. You’ve got to get up on a Saturday morning and comb through a lot of crap clothing in the hopes that you may find a gem or two. Thankfully, Defunkd takes all the work out of it. I first read about Defunkd on TshirtReview.com about a month ago. Defunkd is an all-eBay t-shirt store specializing in REAL vintage t-shirts.

Defunkd has taken the time out to write up a few guides to help you identify and locate vintage t-shirts. There’s all kinds of background information that you could only gather yourself after years of trial and error, sifting through thousands of tees. You’ll be spotting fakes left and right after reading this. You’ll learn which brands were popular when and find out how to use the tag to make sure you’re getting an authentic tee.

Aside from the guides though, Defunkd sells a ton of t-shirts right there on ebay, many starting at just a penny. You can check out the Defunkd store here.

I’m sure many of the regular readers here also read Hide Your Arms. In case you don’t though, I wanted to point out the exhaustive list of t-shirt blogs recently posted there. The original list was 133 (!!!) and has since grown to 149 through reader submissions.

The list must have taken forever to compile, and a round of applause is certainly due to Andy for his efforts. I was happy to see that this site was included, despite the recent lack of updates.

Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

I’ve been meaning to write about Retro Campaigns since before my break, and Christine over there has been super cool about the whole deal. Retro Campaigns makes some coolest new-old shirts I’ve come across. Their prints are all made to look like campaign t-shirts from presidential races of bygone days.

In an interesting twist though, you’ll see t-shirts from FAILED campaigns. I think that’s pretty sweet. These shirts get bonus points in a Dewey Defeats Truman sort of way. Nobody usually remembers the guy that didn’t win unless you pull a Dukakis and have an absolutely ridiculous photo of yourself floating around.

Retro Campaigns is one of the few places out there that can pull off politically-themed t-shirts without being…well, political about it. This isn’t about left or right, conservative or liberal, nothing like that. It’s about a whole lot of t-shirt love, right?

Those of you old enough might date yourselves wearing one of their tees, I have to admit. If it’s someone you voted for, then that’s excellent, more power to you! Thankfully though, I was born during the Reagan Administration, so I can wear these tees purely for their cool factor. Does that make me a poser? It might, but at least not in a Vanilla Ice sort of way.

The first tee Retro Campaigns sent me was lost somehow in transit, but Christine was cool enough to send another. When I opened the package, I’ve got to admit that it wasn’t the shirt that first grabbed my eye, but the rest of the material included.

There was a beautifully designed one-pager on the candidate’s history, career and political beliefs. There was also a gorgeous glossy flyer, business card and a note (on RC stationary, no less). I’ve got no idea if the note and business card are part of every shipment or just mine because I’m a reviewer, but it’s all very impressive nonetheless. I’ll try to get a picture of the materials to post back here.

The shirt itself is a classic ringer, printed on a super-soft American Apparel tee. The water-based inks and faded design really contribute to the vintage look and feel. I get the impression that most, if not all of these designs are from the actual campaign materials, which is sweet since I’m a geek for historical accuracy. If any are the original creation of Retro Campaigns, I’m doubly impressed.

It’s really neat to see some of these shirts purely because it reminds you of a time when the things that were important to the American public were much different than they are now. Values were different, and the price of oil wasn’t even a blip on the radar. People were worried about civil rights, the Russians, Vietnam..all things that have since become background scenery for films.

Since I first spoke with RC they’ve added a bunch of new designs as well. It’s really an impressive collection, definitely check it out. Here’s a hats off to Christine and the team at Retro Campaigns, and thanks again for the shirt.

The shirt I’m wearing is Willkie - Wings for America and it’s $19.99.

Check out Retro Campaigns to see the above shirt and many others. As t-shirt company websites go, it’s very well done.

I’ve been meaning to do a few theme weeks for a while now. This week I want to focus on vintage and vintage-styled t-shirts. Whether it’s for the nostalgia value, the looks you’ll get or that super-soft feel, there’s something about an old t-shirt (or an old t-shirt wannabe) that’s got a little bit of something for everyone.

I’ve got some neat things lined up this week, but I can’t keep my eyes on everything…so let me know about anything vintage on your radar! Hit “Submit a Shirt” in the upper-right corner of the site or email me: reviews at tshirtreviewblog dot com. Send me a photo of you wearing your favorite vintage t-shirt…tell me about your t-shirt company’s vintage designs… tell me where you get your REAL (old!) vintage t-shirts.

You’ll still see some non-retro content throughout the week as I play catch-up after my break, but I’ll be filing all the vintage things into a special category anyways. Let’s get it on!

Hey all! Thanks for sticking around, I’ve been MIA for quite a while now. There’s been a lot happening in the t-shirt world, and I’ve spent the better part of an afternoon (or more) catching up on all the sweet designs and tee companies that have sprung up since the last time I wrote.

Those of you that have emailed me, I’m working through responses to everyone right now. I’ll get caught up with you soon enough though, your patience is appreciated! Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Hey everyone, I hope all is well. I just wanted to thank you all for continuing to stop by during my absence and let you know I’m still alive. Things have been pretty crazy offline as spring goes, but I’ll be back in the saddle with some new t-shirt content in the next few days hopefully.

Those of you that are new here, take a look around! There’s a ton of sweet tees in the archives and stuff for you to check out while I get my butt in gear.

A special thanks also goes out to all the new RSS subscribers, you guys are awesome. I’ll catch up with you all very soon!

There have been a bunch of pretty schweet tees brought to my attention lately, so here’s a handful of them plus some extra stuff that cropped up around the shirtosphere in the last week.

Fantastic Bonanza designed the t-shirt for ROFLCon 2008 and had a booth set up. They’ve got some neat photos and a rundown of the conference. Well done!

Andy at Hide Your Arms posted a couple items that caught my eye. The first is a t-shirt giveaway at tenbills.com. Spend $30, tell them your favorite animal in the comments section and get a free t-shirt with your order. Supplies are limited, so check them out.

Hide Your Arms also featured a tee called Gasmasks from We Are Industry that sort of reminds me of Toxic by VanRockn (review, t-shirt). By remind, I mean they both have people in gasmasks. Pretty cool t-shirt.

Shirtlog posted another cool tee with a message. Vince Lombardi would be proud of this one.

Karl at tcritic posted some photos from Mission Indie Mart. That’s some t-shirt related goodness for sure. Check it out.

TeeLovers posted about another Helvetica shirt. You can check out the Graniph Helvetica shirt I wrote about a while back to compare. I’m starting to wonder how long before there’s a store full of nothing but typography tees!

tshirtreview.com (again, not to be confused with this site) posted a little rant about some of the latest tees at Threadless. I do have to admit I didn’t see anything too remarkable on the shirts he mentioned, but the people have spoken I suppose.

I Love Your T-shirt wrote about a few clothing lines that caught my eye. Their post on Ucon Acrobatics has some awesome photos to promote their new threads. I’m not terribly interested in the clothes themselves, but the pictures are definitely worth seeing. Here’s a taste:

I Love Your T-shirt also dropped a post yesterday about a new label called Bloodgold. They’ve got a handful of pretty neat designs, worth looking into.

T-Shirt Island posted about Urban Humanity, a nature-themed clothing label. Before you go all tree-hugger on me, check them out. They’ve actually got some pretty interesting designs that snagged my attention.

The Daily Tee featured this really neat shirt using text to build an image. It’s a pun, you remember “We Built This City (On Rock and Roll)” don’t you? There are the names of a bunch of classic rock and metal bands, and I think it’s executed well.

That’s all for this week big list o’ links, enjoy!

Design By Humans has just reprinted 9 of their most popular tees. This includes three that have been featured here at T-Shirt Review Blog in the past. Run over and grab them quick, they’re sure to sell out in no time. Here they are:

Blackbirds Attackin’ $19 (review - 2nd tee)

Bad Pet $19 (review)

Revelations $19 (review)

Interlocking Lives $19

The Source $24

The Control Room $24

After The Rain Comes A Rainbow $19

Poppy $19

Neptune’s Realm $19

There are a handful of sweet new tees at Threadless, so I wanted to mention a couple that caught my eye. We know from Track and Field in school that you need to lean as you cross the finish line. The lean can make the difference between winning by a head or losing.

You don’t have to worry so much when you’re a giraffe, however. An Outstanding Win pits one rider on a giraffe against a handful of others on horses to cleverly show that it isn’t always the fastest one that wins.

An Outstanding Win is $20 at Threadless.

Every animal has its Achilles’ Heel, and that apparently includes balloon and origami creatures. In battle it is certainly wise to consider your opponent’s weaknesses, and this tee demonstrates that. So is this baby blue tee a lesson in warfare techniques or just a funny shirt with a couple crafty dogs?

You can pick up Dog Fight from Threadless for $17.

This is a reprint that’s back in stock this week. While metaphor tees are always fun, what really attracted me to this shirt was the level of detail. Your glass is always half full or half empty, but before you decide how you feel today, you might want to see what’s awaiting you on each side on the coin. The details are awesome, and it was done with very few colors. Really sweet.

Pessimistic or Optimistic? is $15 at Threadless.