Hi there my beloved Quarter-to-Three Hivemind Echochamber.
I am the proud owner of 4 old (really old) Hanes Comfort Soft undershirts in grey; my gf got them for me from the L’eggs Hanes Bali Playtex outlet store she worked at for many many years in high school/college. They have survived close to a decade of abuse at my careless hands, but they are finally wearing thin, with holes popping up here and there.
I’ve been trying to replace them for about 4 years now. The packages of undershirts I bought from Bass are almost all gone, falling apart terribly, except the colors I rarely wear (e.g. white). The package I got from Van Heusen fit all weird and shrunk immediately in the dryer. The new package I got from Hanes 3 months ago were noticeably lower quality than the old ones, with much thinner, rougher fabric, and one of those has already ripped badly at the armpit.
So look, I don’t mind spending some money on these shirts. But most of the spendy, fashionable brands of shirts are tailored super close-fitting, and I’m a big fat motherfucker.
So I am looking for brand of undershirt that rocks a crew collar, short sleeves, and soft cotton fabric that is also durable as fuck and sized/cut appropriately for a dude with a big ol’ goddamn gut to wear (e.g., they can’t be cut so short that I can’t tuck the undershirt into my pants, since half the reason I wear an undershirt anyway is to avoid showing grotesque flabby flesh when I lift my arms in a t-shirt). I generally prefer jersey-knit cotton (the stretchy kind) to firmer, less flexible weaves for my undershirts, if I’m being really choosey (which I am).
Hm. I wear undershirts everyday, not for any good reason, more as a kind of odd affectation from my youth. I just wear whatever the Hanes tagless ones I can buy from Target are.
I’m surprised you had issues with the fabric texture, as I’ve found that the more recent ones that I’ve bought have had a better, softer combed-cotton feel than the older stiffer cotton-rag texture I was used to. So, it’s possible that there are a couple of different weights of fabric that Hanes uses. It occurs to me that Hanes might source different products to different retailers (e.g. Walmart vs Target) with similar branding, so maybe look around to see if there’s another retailer nearby that might carry them?
I don’t really have any other experience though. In terms of a step up, a lot of places that do custom printing (e.g. for small-batch orders like company swag or internet-guy-merch) use American Apparel shirts are their base, and the ones I have that were sourced there are soft and seem fairly durable, so you could probably get a couple of those and see how you like them.
According to my gf, that is true, so it may just be that I need to stop shopping at bottom-of-the-barrell retailers.
These, at least back in the pre-acquisition days (they got bought out by Gildan) were often of that obnoxiously tight-cut design that shows my curves so unflatteringly :(
If you have access to a Costco, I’d consider giving them a try, too. Some of Costco’s textile products get rated pretty well (e.g. their towels), but I’ve never actually tried buying clothes there.
Yeah, it seems like all the major brands are just gutting their cotton weight/durability to save costs, and it sucks. LET ME PAY YOU FOR GOOD SHIRTS PLEASE
(The Stafford ones are probably still the heaviest-duty ones I’ve seen marketed thus far though)
I’m just kind of free-associating now, but try to check out Duluth Trading Company as well. I have a couple of items from them, and while kind of expensive, they do seem to be of higher quality than your big-box store value-packs.
Was also going to suggest Duluth. Haven’t bought those specifically, but love some of their other stuff (sweats, jeans, boxers, etc). It should be noted they have modest sales frequently.
Yeah, I concur on Duluth being a good choice. I don’t wear undershirts, but my t-shirts from them are much higher quality than the typical Hanes/Fruit of the Loom/etc.
