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I have three of the most expensive t-shirts that I’ve ever bought because of you, the internet. You voted and told me what shirts to buy again.
Welcome to the internet’s favorite t-shirts continued.
I downloaded all of your comments on my last t-shirt article and tallied the most mentioned brands that I didn’t include. The three super expensive ones will, of course, be on the list, but the one brand that tallied the most votes and smoked the competition is a very different brand than these three, and, to be honest, they kind of deceive you a little bit, so we do have to get into that.
First off, at the time of writing, I am 147.5 lbs, 5’9″, 36” chest, blue eyes.
Number two, the most popular comment I’ve ever received is some guy requesting that I do a nipple test on my t-shirt articles.
We have three nipple concerns in this article, and luckily, only two nipples, so one of them is automatically not bad. I could do a nipple test, no problem. I do that all the time.
Favorites Featured In This Article
Hanes
Paka
Samurai
Sunspel
Bronson
Front General Store: The Unexpected 3.5%
Price: $$ | Size: Small | Votes: 3.5% | Shrink: Width 1.2%, Length 0% | Softness: 6/10
I was very excited to see that this shirt made the list because I never would have expected it to have enough recognition, but I guess I’m wrong. 3.5% of the comments said Front General Store is the best. I might agree – this may knock the most-voted shirt off of the list.
It’s made in Japan. I’m assuming the fabric isn’t from Japan or something like that because for $38, that’s typically not what you see for that price, and you can kind of see it in the cotton. I think this is an open-ended yarn, so it is a little rougher, but they sanded it, so it has some softness to it.
If you’re looking for a Japanese-made shirt or just an upgrade to your shirts and don’t want to spend over 40 bucks, Front General Store is one of the top-rated shirts that you could possibly get.
Pro Club: The Comment Champion
Price: $ | Size: Small | Votes: 8.62% | Shrink: Width 2.78%, Length 6.86% | Softness: 4/10
Everybody was like, “Why does no one review Pro Club t-shirts?” Frankly, I never reviewed them because I had never heard of them, but I bought one, and I can see why people are so passionate about this brand. This is an old-school American shirt.
At least, that’s what it feels like. I’m 100% sure this shirt uses open-ended yarns because it’s the roughest shirt on this list, but all in all, I like everything about it. It has a high neck hole with Lycra in it that supposedly keeps its shape forever, so I really like Pro Club. Thank you for suggesting it – I never heard of it before.
Hanes: The OG Cheap Legend
Price: $ | Size: Small | Votes: 8.62% | Shrink: Width 1.45%, Length 6.73% | Softness: 7/10
Big Daddy Hanes was voted top spot on planet Earth by Esquire magazine.
Hanes is the originator of it all – I could also say Fruit of the Loom is as well, but Hanes is the center that all of the other t-shirts in the world are based on. All of the t-shirts that we’re talking about today probably have the shape of this shirt in their bloodline.
It’s much, much softer than the Pro Club and has a lighter weight as well. The fit is similar, but the arm holes are a little bit lower. This is your classic $10 great shirt.
Reigning Champ: The Nipple Alert One
Price: $$ | Size: Small | Votes: 8.62% | Shrink: Width 1.27%, Length 1.92% | Softness: 8/10
We have our first nipple alert, which is Reigning Champ’s lightweight t-shirt, so you can expect a little nipple action. You probably won’t be able to see your nipples with this lightweight t-shirt because I believe, I’m not positive, that this is a compact yarn, which I didn’t know was a term until I did some further research.
So there are open-ended yards, ring-spun, compact, which means there are even fewer strands sticking out, so you get a very, very smooth, silky feel to it. I went with lightweight just because a lot of people say they prefer lightweight, so I wanted to try it out.
Paka: But It’s Not Really On The List
Price: $$ | Size: Small | Votes: Wool t-shirt votes not counted | Shrink: Width 2.67%, Length 4.81.% | Softness: 9/10
None of these t-shirts – these next two on their own – got enough votes to make the list, but if you put them all together, they do, and they all share something in common. A lot of people said, “Why did you not put Marino as the best t-shirt on planet Earth?” And there is a reason. I’ll tell you why after we go through all three of these.
Let’s talk about animal fibers: alpaca, Merino, whatever it may be. These animal fibers all have a very important factor that makes them in some ways better than cotton, but cotton originally, I think, was used just because it was an everyday fabric or fiber that could be treated pretty carelessly.
You could throw it in the wash; it’s tough, and you can sweat in it, but it doesn’t matter. Where Merino and alpaca, you could do that with all of them, but at the time, they didn’t have the technology that they have now, which we’ll get to in a second.
I have a shirt from Paka. They gave it to me for free, so I won’t officially include it on this list. It’s mostly a Supima, 85% Supima, and 15% royal baby alpaca fibers. This is a lot more odor-resistant than cotton, way more than synthetics in general. It’s temperature regulating, it’s moisture wicking. Cotton absorbs moisture like nobody’s business, so that’s never a good thing.
Wool & Prince: The One That Got Away
Price: $$ | Size: Small | Votes: Wool t-shirt votes not counted | Shrink: Width 2.63%, Length 0.96.% | Softness: 9/10
Next, I bought from Wool and Prince, and I will say I got the wrong one. I should have gotten the heavier weight interlock t-shirt from Wool and Prince. That one, I think, would have driven me nuts – I think I would have gone crazy over that one. It’s very light and flowy and very, very stretchy.
The reason Merino wasn’t used when cotton was is because Merino is more delicate when it’s this lightweight, that small of a micron.
But nowadays, what we can do essentially is wrap Merino with nylon, and it becomes way, way, way, way stronger. You don’t have to worry about it getting holes or tears or anything like that, and you can make it very, very fine, which is great.
That being said, the reason that I don’t think it fits in right now is because it very clearly has a different drape. It feels like something I would wear when I’m working out, not something when I’m being more casual because of how Merino looks – the luster of it, the bounce of it, and everything like that.
Samurai: The Ultimate Japanese Flex
Price: $$$ | Size: Medium | Votes: 10.34% | Shrink: Width 1.28%, Length 2.91% | Softness: 6/10
Samurai is one of the most interesting Japanese denim brands, or just Japanese brands in the world because it almost seems like they’re making fun of all the other Japanese brands by going even more extreme.
This is a Samurai Loopwheel t-shirt, and the big thing in Loopwheel culture is to say, “These machines are so slow they can only knit 1 meter of fabric per hour.” Samurai comes in and says, “1 meter? Oh my gosh, slow down! We can only do a half meter of fabric per hour!”
It’s even slower, and they take all their cotton, and they put it in a controlled environment so the cotton, since it’s compacted in bales, can open back up and be fluffy and be moist and be magical. That is what they say about this shirt. It’s a fantastic shirt. They say it feels almost moist to the touch. I didn’t really get that. It is a very light terry knit on the inside, so it’s a different knit, and I feel that. I don’t feel a sense of moisture.
That being said, 10.34% of you voted for Samurai as the greatest t-shirt brand. I do agree – I actually have an old Samurai t-shirt that I’ve worn incredibly heavily. This is just a regular t-shirt from Samurai, as far as I can tell. I don’t remember its model – it was like 90 bucks, but that being said, they are all of stunning quality.
Loop and Weft: My Secret Favorite
Price: $$ | Size: Medium | Votes: None | Shrink: Width 0%, Length 1% | Softness: 6.5/10
From the Iron Snail desk, we present to you a shirt that I really like. This shirt officially got none of the votes – I went rogue. This is just a shirt that I really liked and wanted to buy, and I used this article as an excuse. I’m glad I did. This shirt feels like right now, I am shirtless.
This is the most amazing shirt on this list by far – not to compliment myself, but I knocked it out of the park. Loop and Weft has been a brand that I’ve been creeping on for a very long time. All of their knits look so stunning. I don’t think they have a big presence outside of Japan. I got this from Redcast Heritage but couldn’t find much else on them besides on Okayama Denim.
This is an incredibly slubby t-shirt, and the slub yarns are so inconsistent that where the slub is not, it is basically like a gauze of a shirt, but where there is slub, it’s closed and opaque. I’m also very into tiny collars right now – this has like a quarter-inch collar or something like that. I think that’s a great look.
There’s nothing really to say besides go on Loop and Weft’s Instagram and check out all the stuff. Not sponsored by them, never spoke to them, no benefit talking about them this much – they’re just amazing. I was so happy with this shirt that I want to share it with you.
Sunspel: The Sea Island Cotton Dream
Price: $$$$ | Size: Small | Votes: 13.79% | Shrink: Width 9%, Length 8.57% | Softness: 10/10
I’m going to do an entire article on this, but this is the Sea Island cotton t-shirt from Sunspel, getting 13.679% of the votes. A $200 shirt got almost 14% of the votes! This is by far the most luxurious shirt that I’ve ever worn.
Sea Island cotton, you may not know, is the longest staple cotton in existence, although now, in 2024, we have Pima, Supima, Egyptian cotton, Zimbabwe cotton, Belize cotton – a lot of cotton that gets very long, and a lot of the softness and feel on t-shirts is how they are processed. So you can get a shirt that might feel close to how soft this is, but it’s virtually unmatched.
You can make Sea Island cotton virtually feel like silk to the point where Queen Victoria, a queen, mistook Sea Island cotton for silk. If a regular person did that, I feel like it’s more like, “Uh, well, you probably just haven’t touched a lot of silk.” Queen Victoria was touching some very nice silk!
Sea Island cotton is supposedly also all that James Bond wears – Daniel Craig wore a Sunspel in movies. Long story short, yes, it does feel incredibly soft and beautiful. If you’re thinking, “Is it worth it? Is it really that much softer for $200?” Honestly? Yeah, kind of.
Quick note: the shrink values are so high because you’re not supposed to dry this. I dried it by accident. Don’t make my mistake. Wash it very delicately and treat it like a very fine sweater, not a t-shirt.
Warehouse 4061: The “It Factor” T-Shirt
Note: Sold out at time of publication
Price: $$$ | Size: Medium | Votes: 20.68% | Shrink: Width 3.85%, Length 4.18% | Softness: 7/10
20.68% of you voted for a Warehouse 4061 t-shirt. Frankly, it is a t-shirt that I never really looked at, but I will say they have probably the most beautiful color loopwheel t-shirts that I’ve seen.
They have a very interesting collar, which is a bound collar with reinforcement on the outside. The fabric itself is a very interesting material, and I wrote in my notes that this shirt, the Warehouse shirt, has the “it factor.”
Out of all these shirts, when you look at it, it might be the tag or the design or how it’s presented – you just think, “That’s a great shirt. I want to wear that shirt,” and that is exactly what I think with this Warehouse T-shirt.
Bronson: The People’s Champion at 25.8%
Price: $$ | Size: Medium | Votes: 25.862% | Shrink: Width 2.26%, Length 6% | Softness: 5.5/10
Now, with a staggering 25.8% of the votes, is the $30 Loopwheel t-shirt from Bronson. Anytime I do a t-shirt article, and I don’t include Bronson, I get a lot of comments saying, “Why didn’t you include Bronson? Have you heard of Bronson? Have you heard of Olderbest?” I have reviewed Bronson and I said it was one of the greatest deals in t-shirts, but there’s a catch.
The first thing we need to address is the Olderbest company. I think that’s the same company as Bronson, and I noticed that because of their description for a loopwheel t-shirt. I was like, “That’s the same description as Bronson’s,” so I think they’re the same brand.
There’s actually a bit of a crazy revelation here because there are two t-shirts on Olderbest. One of them I didn’t see, and the one I didn’t see was the special one. They use the Tompkins knitting machine, which is supposedly even rarer than a loopwheel machine to the point where that’s what Loop and Weft used to use, and apparently, now they have no one in Japan to operate the one machine they have to do this knit, but Olderbest does.
Let’s gauge this t-shirt. For $30, the weight of this t-shirt is fantastic. It feels combed, it feels ring-spun, and the collar is very beefy. I still have the Bronson shirt that I reviewed almost 2 years ago, and I’ve worn it very heavily. It fits me really well, and it’s going to be my shirt for a very, very long time. I love that shirt.
However, the only thing that I am not a fan of is that Bronson says it is a loopwheel t-shirt, but by definition, it is not a loopwheel t-shirt.
The problem is we don’t have a solid definition of what loopwheel is, and Bronson is basically saying, “Well, since we don’t have that definition, this is just like a newer, faster loopwheel,” which is just kind of a traditionally knit t-shirt. That’s a bit confusing. I wish they hadn’t put loopwheel anywhere on the actual website. They don’t put it on the shirt, but I wish they didn’t put it on the site, either.
While Tompkins knitting machines are cool, they are not loopwheel by definition. There is no tension on the knit when you’re knitting with loopwheel.
The picture that Olderbest has shows the knit under tension, so it’s definitely not loopwheel, and that does kind of call into question if they’re actually using very old machines to make these shirts or if they’re using a new Tompkins knitting machine.
There is a bunch of stuff I don’t have information on, but I definitely can confirm, not loopwheel, and then, you know, use your judgment on the rest with price and stuff like that.
Overview of Internet-Famous Tees Pt. 2
| Product | Shrink Percentage | Softness | Price | Key Features | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front General Store | Width: 1.2%, Length: 0% |
6/10 | $38 | Made in Japan, sanded open-ended yarn for softness |
Affordable Japanese-made t-shirt offering moderate softness and minimal shrinkage. |
| Pro Club | Width: 2.78%, Length: 6.86% |
4/10 | Varies | High neck with Lycra, durable |
Rough but durable, old-school American style shirt with a high collar. |
| Hanes | Width: 1.45%, Length: 6.73% |
7/10 | $10 | Lightweight, iconic fit | Classic, soft, and lightweight t-shirt at an affordable price. |
| Reigning Champ | Width: 1.27%, Length: 1.92% |
8/10 | Varies | Lightweight, compact yarn for silky smooth feel |
High-quality lightweight shirt, slightly transparent, with a soft, smooth feel. |
| Samurai | Width: 1.28%, Length: 2.91% |
6/10 | $90 | Loopwheel t-shirt with unique fabric texture |
Premium Japanese t-shirt with high-quality craftsmanship and unique texture. |
| Loop and Weft | Width: 0%, Length: 1% |
6.5/10 | Varies | Inconsistent slub yarn for breathable feel |
Ultra-light, breathable t-shirt with unique slub texture and minimal shrinkage. |
| Sunspel | Width: 9%, Length: 8.57% |
10/10 | $200 | Sea Island cotton for unmatched softness |
Luxurious high-end t-shirt with premium material and exceptional softness. |
| Warehouse 4061 | Width: 3.85%, Length: 4.18% |
7/10 | Varies | Slubby material, unique design |
Stylish t-shirt with unique slubby texture and “it factor” appeal. |
| Bronson | Width: 2.26%, Length: 6% |
5.5/10 | $30 | High weight, sturdy collar |
Affordable t-shirt with great fit, though Loopwheel claims are disputed. |
Watch This Review
Wrapping It Up
Bronson’s rival for this article and a brand I think you should really check out is the Front General Store. They get the title for today. Anyway, thank you for reading. I will see you all soon!
This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here.
The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.
