The T-shirt is certainly a unique piece of clothing. Perhaps it is the world’s most popular piece of clothing. T-shirts came into use during the beginning of the Industrial revolution. T-shirts were worn by coal miners and others who worked in extreme conditions. During that time buttons were an optional accessory, but they weren’t widely used like they are today.
Timeline of T-shirts
Merriam-Webster dictionary added the word T-shirt into its prestigious list of words during 1920’s when T-shirts experienced their first bid at mainstream acceptance. The US military later gave T-shirts to soldiers and made them the standard undergarment, without buttons. In the year 1942, TIME magazine ran an editorial describing the t-shirt as the greatest invention of the 20th century. By the late 1950’s and early 1960’s T-shirts had already achieved widespread popularity, but they became even more popular when methods such as screen printing and tie-dying were developed. Screen printing became especially popular and was regularly used to print famous comic book characters onto shirts. It wasn’t long before characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck became cult classics.
Consumer Perception about Marijuana Shirts
Flash-forward to today, and we find that tank tops, v-necks, and muscle shirts have become popular variants of the t-shirt style. Garments with hip hop style emblems have also become widely acceptable. To say the least, in the late 1960’s things were a little different. At that time popular rock and roll bands like the Led Zepplin were all the rage, and themes with strong political figures like Che Guevera became fashionable T-shirts. Many drugs and narcotics were often depicted and printed on T-shirts. Marijuana shirts and T-shirts, however, became the favorite. Some have suggested that the popular culture at the time significantly influenced the clothing, and there are some studies which back this up. For example, it has been shown that when one has a role model, there is an inclination to mimic their habits and style. So it is not hard to believe that the habits of a role model could become fashionable. Hence, one could surmise that Marijuana shirts became trendy for those who idolized marijuana smoking celebrities, and for those who enjoyed the exotic dreams and euphoric effects rendered by the drug.
During this decade, rock bands and football teams decided to get a piece of the action. With their well established marketing channels they were able to sell massive amounts of T-shirts which meant massive amounts of profits to supplement their already strong earnings from ticket sales. This quickly became the preferred method of balancing their portfolio.
Somewhat surprisingly, the T-shirt art designs printed during 1970’s are still widely popular today. Music lovers watched as many successful pop artists with addictive lyrics emerged during the 1970’s. Youngsters, who loved this music genre shopped exclusively for marijuana shirts, and began wearing them everywhere, completely immersing themselves in the pop music culture. The most notable t-shirts of this era were the Happy Face, the I love New York T-shirts, as well as shirts with the faces of popular celebrities such as Mick Jagger.
Revolutions come Home
Milton Glaser (the creator of I love New York T-shirts) never could have imagined that his simple design would create a revolution in the US. His design was used for promoting tourism, hobbies, and later adopted by various charitable organizations. One thing Glaser did understand, though, was the advantage of printing designs on the sleeves to make the T-shirts more stylish. These sleeve designs were different from the typical back and front printing style. Plastisol ink is well formulated ink that does not spread on the fabric, dries quickly, and brings a high quality look to the fabric. T-shirt printing is normally done with this ink. Because of the multitude of colors, Marijuana shirts and t-shirts require high quality ink. Accordingly, Plastisol ink is usually the preferred choice.
About modern T-shirt Printing
Nowadays, T-shirt printing is done mostly through automated printing. Small orders are processed manually and large ones pass through digital printing warehouses, where millions of shirts are produced daily. Marijuana shirts and T-shirts are small batch varieties and mostly printed on request by clients as opposed to being mass-produced. The producers of these shirts work with the clients to understand what sort of design is required. Most of the printing companies start with base designs, and then the clients help them work towards a final product from there. The client, however, has the complete discretion to choose the most popular and selling designs from their design gallery, even if the designer disagrees.
Demand for Marijuana Shirts Today
Legalization of marijuana in the United States has spurred a few controversies, but by and far, the public response has remained mostly favorable. T-shirt printing companies launched marijuana shirts with art designs and slogans in the hopes of reaching this largely untapped market. People who attend social welfare initiatives wear marijuana shirts and participate in the events as well. Legalization of marijuana has also brought about wider acceptance of its medicinal value, especially its ability to eradicate cancer and other harmful diseases. Even not-for-profit organizations are taking notice, and are now helping cancer patients obtain these drugs. Only time will tell what the future conversation on this drug will be, but for the time being weed shirts and marijuana shirts are now more widely available than ever before.