| Looking cool in printed t-shirts not only adds style to | | | | T-shirt' on record in their collection. It is a campaign |
| your look it also, depending on the amount of t-shirts | | | | shirt for New York Gov. Thomas Dewey's 1948 |
| printed offers a great deal of uniqueness. But have | | | | presidential campaign, |
| you ever stopped to think where it all started and | | | | T-shirt printing quickly became a vehicle for political |
| how long have people been printing t-shirts. | | | | protest and soon became a part of social |
| The modern screen printing process was first | | | | demonstrations protesting against the Vietnam war, |
| patented in Manchester by Samuel Simon in 1907. | | | | civil rights movements, and the campaign for nuclear |
| A few years earlier also in Manchester the first | | | | disarmament. |
| t-shirts began to emerge from the poverty ridden | | | | In the 1970s the music industry soon learnt that |
| slums surrounding the textiles mills that were the | | | | t-shirt merchandising was a very lucrative addition to |
| main employers in the region. The t-shirt was quickly | | | | ticket prices and album sales. As the likes of the |
| adapted by street gangs known as scuttlers who | | | | Stones and Pink Floyd headed out on world tour |
| regularly terrorised the local community. | | | | iconic t-shirts like Warhol's lips, and The Dark Side Of |
| It was these scuttlers who as soldiers wore their | | | | The Moon prism became multi million selling items. This |
| t-shirts under their uniforms in the trenches of | | | | also paved the way for a multi million pound "bootleg" |
| northern France. This was quickly adapted by | | | | industry that sold copies of official t-shirts outside |
| American troops which lead to the t-shirt becoming a | | | | concert venues for a fraction of the price. |
| universal item of clothing. The images of Hollywood | | | | The demand for blank t-shirts to print on as created |
| stars such as James Dean and Marlon Brando wearing | | | | global businesses such as Fruit Of The Loom, and |
| white t-shirts has made the simple t-shirt a global | | | | Gildan. Fruit Of The Loom as 23000 employees and |
| fashion item found in wardrobes all over the world. | | | | annual sales of 500 million dollars. |
| Although t-shirts and screen printing originated around | | | | As the cost of t-shirt printing machinery drops it as |
| the same time in the same area printed t-shirts didn't | | | | become easier to start up in the industry and with |
| become popular until the invention of plasticol inks | | | | internet auction sites such as eBay, selling small |
| and the youth movements of the 1950s and 1960s. | | | | amounts of t-shirts as become quite easy and cheap |
| The Smithsonian museum displays 'the oldest printed | | | | to set up in business. |