Goatmoose

A lot of people come to this site to read my review of 6 Dollar Shirts.  Many people are wary about the quality of these shirts – and rightly so.  Most places will charge $15-25 for a stupid novelty T-shirt, but these folks are dishing them out for a mere $6, or in 10 for $50 bundles.  I can’t blame people for wanting to do a bit of research on the clothing before making a purchase.  Even at a low price, wasted money is still wasted money if the quality isn’t there.

In my review, I was pretty positive about the overall experience of buying from 6 Dollar Shirts.  They weren’t paper thin, the printing was great, the colors were vibrant and they washed well.  The order shipped in a reasonable amount of time, and keeping in the back of my mind how much I paid for the shirts, I was pleased.  Sure, there are better quality T-shirts in the world, but for $6 they are better than the Kleenex-thick bullcrap most people conceive they’d be.

So here we are, 15 months after I wrote my initial review.  The shirts were all worn regularly over the past year.  Many of them have undergone dozens of washings and none have been sitting unused in a drawer.  Whether they were worn outright or underneath other shirts during the colder months for insulation, all the T-shirts have been heavily worn.

That begs the question – how well do they hold up?  A year+ later, are they still any good?

The answer is two answers – yes and no.  In some regards, they are holding up very well.  In others, not as much.

Certain shirts have naturally been worn more than others over the past 15 months (the black, blue and neutral-colored ones, primarily).  Obviously, the blacks aren’t nearly as black and the blues aren’t nearly as blue as they were when I opened the box.  This is a reality that isn’t really the fault of 6 Dollar Shirts, though.  It’s the rare T-Shirt that can be worn near weekly for over a year and still look as good as day one.  So while it’s the case, it’s to be expected.

As far as the screen printing goes, it’s held up very well.  Not a single one of the 11 shirts I ordered has had any of its printing wear off, crack or crumble.  The ones that have been worn to death are showing some fading bleeding through the print, but nothing major.  My most-worn shirts of all (Su Suss Sussudio & Kill Your Idols) still have their lettering and imagery perfectly in-tact.

Where the shirts have gone wrong for me is with shrinkage.  They’re all still the same width, they all still have the same sleeve lengths and neck hole sizes, but I’m at the point where each time I wash/dry them, they get a little bit shorter.  Many of them are now too short to wear as an out-front shirt, because every time I move I’d be showing off my sides.  They’re strictly layering shirts now.  When I do my laundry, I wash everything on cold 100% of the time, and always dry things on low/delicate.  If I used a higher heat setting, I can’t imagine how small they would have become.

Because of the above, coupled with the color loss and fading on the more-worn shirts, about half of my 6 Dollar Shirts now look pretty junky and I can’t say I’d wear them in public.   Unless perhaps to Wal-Mart at 3am, where you can be naked with a raccoon tail strung over your penis on a dental floss cord and be as acceptably dressed as everyone else in the building.

But despite half of them being junky – I did pay $50 for 10 shirts.  Having them do me solid for even a year isn’t too bad, if you ask me.

Overall, I’d still recommend 6 Dollar Shirts as great value for the money.  They won’t last forever, but they don’t cost you much.  And hell, let’s face it – half of novelty tees play into socially current humor.  After a year or two, many aren’t funny anyway.  It’s perfect timing for them to turn into faded little cotton squares you can give a 12-year old girl who likes to show off her midriff to wear to a high school football game.

Buy a box, enjoy them until they wear out, then buy another.

Tags: 6 dollar shirts