Converse and three ring socks combination (1974)

THIS is how a baller rolls!

Wilt Chamberlain for Spalding (1974)

Ad copy reads:
"Full color posters of Rick Barry, Pistol Pete or Wilt himself. To get yours, buy a Spalding Autograph basketball, clip the Spalding name off the box and mail it to the address below with $2. (Each poster is a $5 value!) Every Autograph ball has Spalding's durable rubber cover for a longer lasting bounce and a more natural tacky feel than any vinyl basketball made. That's what Rick, Pete and Wilt think. Or they wouldn't put their names on them."

Grabbed not only for the classic Golden State Warriors uniform complete with matching wristbands, but also the incredible deshiki looking shirt and sansa belt slacks wilt is rocking. It almost looked like he was giving Rick Barry the finger rather than pointing at hist armpit.

KangaROOS Rippers advertisement (1984)

Ah yes, KangaROOS! My all time favorite athlete, Walter Payton, represented ROOS back in the day, so I had to get white ROOS cleats for baseball and football. What's up with that ad copy? "For men, women, kids of all kinds. For fun." Not mentioned in the copy is that back in the day, the ROOS velcro pockets were rumored to be the ideal storage spot for cocaine and it was an urban legend that wearing ROOS was an indicator to the rest of the world that you were 'holding". Such was not the case at my Catholic school's 4th grade class.

They should remake these- the hipsters of the world would eat these Rippers up!

Here's Hockey! (1953)

Ahhhh, there's a slight nip in the air here in Phoenix (we've dropped below 90 degrees a few times lately) and a young man's thoughts turn to hockey- despite the fact that the Coyotes have their bags packed for points unknown. You absolutely must drop everything and watch this short film! Great vintage hockey sweaters throughout!

thanks to Uniwatch for the heads up!
Bookmark the addictive NFB site for more fun!

vintage t-shirt tags

image from Bundlelovers

I'm a vintage t-shirt fanatic so this is like pornography to me. You would be surprised how little there is on the internet or anywhere for that matter about the history of t-shirts. Yes, there are some books out there, but they are more like coffee table books rather than what i'm looking for- a hardcore guide book for the hardcore vintage freak. My bud Jimmy at Defunk'd has put together one of the most useful guides out there.

Most of the companies that produced vintage t-shirts are long gone or have been purchased by much larger companies. Even the heavy hitters like Fruit of the Loom and Hanes have next to no records of when particular tags were used or when particular model numbers were produced. The raving vintage lunatic is left to stitch together the pieces of vintage t-shirt history through old catalogs, magazines, movies, and by sharing tips with fellow travellers. This kind of stuff really appeals to the historical archivist in me, so I've been working on putting together a cohesive history for the past year or so. Wish me luck!