An evolving Fruit of the Loom t shirt clothing tag label history by year.
How I came up with the years for the tags:
The date on a graphic tee doesn't necessarily mean that was the date the shirt was produced. The copyright dates are the date the image itself was copyrighted and not necessarily when the shirt was printed. Sorry but that Snoopy tee was most likely not made in 1965. A dated event graphic like the 1984 World Series or a 1979 Annual Chili Cook Off is more likely to represent the true vintage age of the shirt. Unless it was a graphic popular enough to be reprinted, there is no reason a t-shirt with an event date would be printed in a later year than it states. Of course, any event shirt could always have been printed on an older blank shirt that the shirt printing business had in stock which is why you might see different tags for the same year. Unless we get a tag history directly from the shirt companies, this can never be an exact science.
The years for the tags below were taken from shirts that had years for events that the shirt design was featuring and not from copyright dates. Beware of other websites that don't state how they came up with their dates as they might be getting them from copyright dates. This blog is evolving and will be updated as I collect more examples. This is a tool for me that I am providing to you.
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Fruit Of The Loom - Best Fruit Of The Loom - Lofteez - Heavy Cotton - Made In USA:
1980s:
1989
1990s:
1991
1992
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
The first one is probably a case of an older stock blank shirt printed in 1998:
1999
2004
