The History of Graphic Tees

Although t-shirts have been around since the late 1800s, the graphic tee didn’t get its start until WWII. The U.S. military issued plain white t-shirts to soldiers, who soon began using the long-held military practice of marking things with paint and stencils to decorate their t-shirts with custom lettering and designs representing their units, bases, or ships. Then on July 13, 1942, the cover of LIFE magazine featured a soldier wearing a custom-decorated white undershirt and catapulted the graphic tee into the public consciousness. However, military graphic tees were typically hand-made or created in very small batches, so they didn’t immediately become a fashion trend. However, they did become popular advertising tools during political campaigns, with 1948’s presidential candidate Thomas Dewy being the first to use graphic tees as part of his campaign; the shirts featured an image of his face and the words “Dew-it-with-Dewey.” In the late 1950s, as part of one of the earliest commercial licensing agreements for printed clothing, a Miami-based company called Tropix Togs made a deal with Walt Disney to print t-shirts featuring Mickey Mouse. Screen printing became increasingly more accessible throughout the 1950s and schools began creating graphic tees printed with their logos and sports team names. Professional sports teams and athletic clubs quickly followed suit. Plastisol Ink was invented in 1959 and made mass-producing graphic tees much more viable. Underground and counterculture groups were among the first to take advantage of this new technology. In 1962, Andy Warhol developed a method for making photographs into screen prints. This was applied to t-shirts and his cultural influence quickly popularized graphic tees among fans of fashion and music. In the 1960s, The Beatles launched the band tee, which remains a key way of supporting musical acts to this day. In 1969, Michael Vasilatone invented the dual rotating printing press, allowing artists to quickly and affordably produce band tees. Counterculture and social justice groups also embraced graphic tees in the 1960s and beyond. In the 1980s, brands like Coca-Cola and Budweiser began selling graphic tees to cash in on the trend. Tourist t-shirts also cropped up around the same time. High fashion brands didn’t start producing t-shirts printed with their logos until the late 1980s and early 1990s. By the end of the 1990s, mall retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, and The Gap had also begun selling graphic tees. Notably, inkjet printing was invented in the mid-1990s and surf and skate brands were among the first to embrace the technology. Today, graphic tees remain immensely popular and provide a way for the wearer to easily express themselves.