Category: Tees

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, (June 14, 2022) Award-winning vintage authority Defunkd and U.S. apparel company Citees have announced the launch of Legiteem8, a new vintage t-shirt authentication, and appraisal app. The app is the first of its kind to harness the power of a global community of experts to verify and value vintage tees. Users have free access to a social-based experience that invites other vintage enthusiasts and experts to vote and comment on an item’s legitimacy and price. “Legiteem8 educates and evolves the process, so anyone can feel confident about the authenticity and worth of their items while also having ... Read more

1967-1969 Champion Products was incorporated in 1967 after the company made its initial public offering. The company used a generic Champion Products placeholder tag until about 1969. All tags predating 1967 used the previous company name “Champion Knitwear.” Photos courtesy of Tags and Threads 1969-1981 The Champion script logo was introduced to T-shirt tags in 1969. While both blue and red variations exist, the “blue bar” version is far more common. Why they also used the red version remains an unsolved vintage mystery. The earliest tags from this era have no care instructions printed on the reverse side, just the ... Read more

My Vintage T-Shirt is a section written by our readers. Thanks to Shawn Keeler for sharing these shirts and a wonderful story about a legendary artist and dad. If you have a rare vintage t-shirt and a great story please contact us. My father Ira Keeler worked for Lucasfilm, also referred to as Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) from 1981 to 2001. During his 21-year career, he worked on many films. Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Indiana Jones trilogy, E.T., and Roger Rabbit, just to name a few. Ira collected many letters, photos, ... Read more

In preparation for the launch of our forthcoming vintage t-shirt authentication app, Legiteem8, we set out to determine authentication knowledge among the community. So we devised a quiz with 22 authenticity-related questions to put the community’s knowhow to the test. We also wanted to reward those who performed well with a badge bump, or two, within the app once it launches. Legiteem8 features a badge system that rates members’ performance over time, but we wanted to hit the ground running at launch – and pre-populate the app with users who are already savvy authenticators. 310 people participated. No one scored ... Read more

For over 15 years Defunkd has been devoted to powering up the community’s authentication knowledge to collectively stamp out fakes. Having said that, we’re not divulging every single method we use or what equipment we use. Yes, we’re gatekeeping certain authentication techniques – but we’re doing so to stay several steps ahead of counterfeiters who will inevitably read this. That said, sometimes you may need to use an expert vintage t-shirt authenticator, to get the answers you need, but this guide will give you a great skill set in authentication techniques. The History of counterfeit vintage t-shirts When the vintage ... Read more