Vintage t-shirt iron-on Blog
Whose Year Is It? Reading Copyright Dates on Licensed Transfers
Posted by Jon on
Two of our sheets carry a 1966 copyright line — the earliest we hold. But on licensed art, the printed year belongs to the studio, not the printer. Why we won't call them 1966 transfers.
Reading the Ad Pages: The Copywriters Nobody Knew Were There
Posted by Jon on
Avis, Paul Masson, Budweiser, Olympia, Skoal. The transfer houses employed copywriters who watched national advertising and answered it — fast enough to still be current.
Triumph in 1968, Kawasaki by 1970: An Industry Collapsing on T-Shirts
Posted by Jon on
Triumph and BSA in 1968–69, Kawasaki in 1970, Suzuki in 1973, Harley in 1973. The realignment of the motorcycle market, printed on t-shirts as it happened.
Eighty-Six Christmas Wreaths: The Seasonal Line Nobody Talks About
Posted by Jon on
Our four deepest holdings are all Christmas designs — one of them 86 copies deep. That's not collecting, that's ordering. The transfer trade ran a normal seasonal business.
The Beer Wall: Five Kinds of Drinking Joke, 1972–1980
Posted by Jon on
Seventy drinking sheets, sorted: real brands, puns, badges, domestic jokes and cocktails. Five tiers, built to sell to everyone who walked in on a Friday.