There is quite a thread on shirt.woot about the new shirts, but I wanted to know what the PWA crowd thought about them.
I don’t want to be over critical, but I am somewhat skeptical and don’t like change.
I have read that the new shirts are shorter, and being about 6’ this could be an issue.
The new ones are not made in the USA, which I dislike. There are a few reasons for this. I like to know that I am not exploiting anyone. The US is the third largest cotton producer in the world, it is inefficient to ship cotton overseas, and then ship the finished product back. Low wage workers make the rewards of complete mechanization to low to justify the large upfront cost which slows technological advancement significantly.
I have also read that these shirts are lower quality.
If anyone has any thoughts on theses shirts or my concerns, I would like to know.
Mens shirts aren’t that different. I can’t tell the difference in the shirt, although I will agree the new tags aren’t great–in general, I’m anti-tag, though. The shirt shrinks a little more, but I’m 6’1 and it’s still plenty long.
The biggest difference is in the women’s shirts. Different cut, much different sizes.
This might be a lady shirt issue in my case, but I’m wearing the adorable and new Almost Free, and it doesn’t feel shorter at all. I also washed Too Many Cooks and it shrank less than my WXL AAs, which can in some cases take a shirt from sweet and huggy flattering to ‘ohh girl, perhaps you should reconsider that’.
I’m not that tall, either, so honestly all I can say is:
YMMV. Measure it out against shirts you have, and against your own measurements And if you give it a go, let us know what you think.
And there you have it.
For the men’s you also get a bigger “neck hole” for your troubles. Quality is subjective and dissenting reports may be due to the influence of prejudice. Hard to say. I only have the one sample and it’s not a huge difference.
I order the men’s shirts and Orc and I share them (we can wear the same size easy enough for t-shirts). I ordered the Da Vinci shirt, so I should be getting that soon, and I’ll let you know what I think. I’ve actually held off ordering because the AA shirts were just barely long enough and the thought of a shorter shirt was scary. Also my kids find the shirts barely long enough because they are tall and skinny. If the men’s shirt works out I may try ordering in a kid’s size for the Versions.
Just because it’s made in the USA doesn’t mean the workers weren’t exploited… some allegations had been made against American Apparel in the past, though I don’t think anything definitive ever came out of it.
The US really shouldn’t be as big a leader in cotton production as it is; countries with a more equatorial climate are better suited for cotton production, but the US stays in the forefront because of extensive R&D which would still be expected to produce bigger yields in the better climates, if they could afford them.
And if you give it a go, let us know what you think.