American Apparel T-shirt Review
Review by Nick Burka
- Product:
- American Apparel T-shirt Review (company site)
- What's Good:
- Nice seams, quality fabric, simple cut.
- What's Bad:
- A tad expensive.
I'm usually not one to talk about the latest fashion, and I've probably spent less than a hundred dollars in the last year on clothes, but I'm happy enough with my new American Apparel t-shirt that I'm willing to spend the time writing this review. I discovered their store on a recent trip to New York and bought two specimens of what appear to be quite plain (and maybe even boring) shirts, but that fit so well (and look okay too, I think) that I've been wearing them whenever they're clean every since.
Even the tag is well designed.
American Apparel is a funky store. I guess it's hard to differentiate it too much for the feeling one gets in the GAP or other such stores, but to me anyway, the sales people seemed more 'normal' and I didn't feel like I was shopping on the set of a video shoot. All of their merchandise is deceivingly simple - not many fancy patterns or whacky flares - but that's definitely alright with me. Everything is subtle. The t-shirts look like, well... just t-shirts, and not some over-designed artwork that screams for attention. I settled on a simple dark gray job and a slightly more lively duo-tone affair.
Nicely doubled seams. That's some sweet stitching.
I guess the reason I care enough to write this is that the shirts feel really great to wear and look better than a fruit-of-the-loom tee. The fabric feels silky smooth against my skin, the seams are actually well sewn (and even I can tell this despite my lack of sewing experience), and there seems to be an attention to detail that a t-shirt doesn't normally seem to warrant.
They're just t-shirts, I know that. But they're really, really nice shirts.
Comments
Lea - April 25, 2004 4:07 pm
I have several American Apparel t-shirts--largely because they're the t-shirt designer's choice of apparel to design on! Threadless.com and stolenshirts.com all use American Apparel. It's hard to find well-fitting t-shirts these days, but since American Apparel is sweatshop free and everything is made in well, America, the quality is much higher than the rest.
Ken - April 26, 2004 5:15 am
FYI, according to their website, Threadless.com seems to print on Fruit of the Loom, not AA... (assuming their website is correct, that is ;)
"Tees are printed on Fruit of the Loom tee shirts."
http://www.threadless.com/help.php?sid=7&aid=44
Ken - April 26, 2004 5:20 am
whoops, here's that link.
Lea - April 27, 2004 5:10 pm
Um, actually, they print on both. On the website somewhere, it says they try various vendors, which includes AA and Fruit of the Loom. All the women's shirts I've bought on Threadless use American Apparel. My boyfriend has a Fruit of the Loom tee. So perhaps their women's wear are AA and men's Fruit of the Loom?
Paul - May 1, 2004 7:39 pm
American Apparel is a very cool company that seems to be popping up more and more over the past couple of years. I have bought blank tees from American Apparel for a few of my own shirt printing projects after a friend with a clothing line recommended them. They always have cool colors, do lots of interesting fits and cuts for womens tees in particular, and just have a great attitude about business. I've heard that the founder, Dov Charney is a character -- very energetic, wild and really enjoys his business. I also heard that early on, when fitting the tees, Dov would get attractive women from the area near his downtown L.A. factory (some have said strippers?) to fit the tees because garment models were too expensive and all the same size (therefore not representative of women "in the wild"). Glad you discovered the good stuff.
Ed - September 1, 2004 12:35 pm
I just emailed Threadless about non-sweatshop shirts this morning. Don't expect to see any AA shirts there aside from the womens styles.
====================
Ed,
We used to print all our designs on AA tee's but received so many complaints about them. Sorry.
Have a wonderful day!
Craig Shimala
Threadless Customer Service
Thank you for shopping at Threadless.com!
-----Original Message-----
Received Sep 01, 2004 08:05:11 am
Hi, I've bought a bunch of shirts over the past couple of years and I'd like to buy more. However, I'm trying to support vendors who use non-sweatshop apparel. Please consider using American Apparel or another vendor such as No Sweat (http://nosweatapparel.com/) for your clothing. I'd be willing to pay more and I'm sure others would as well if you advertise your shirts as sweatshop-free.
Thanks,
Ed
Bruce Wendell - November 13, 2004 5:52 pm
The election results are in...
George Bush 51% -All others 49%..
I think it's safe to say, America... 51% Morons.
This shirt says it all, yo:
http://zoltron.com/store/shirt-morons.shtml
Erik Otto - December 8, 2004 7:35 am
New Leaf Clothing is also printed on American Apparel shirts!!!
Erik Otto - December 20, 2004 12:27 am
Regarding Threadless garments...
I've heard complaints about American Apparel as well, but we should voice to them these complaints and hopefully have them pick up the slack.
We should never compromise in our ethical business practices by going the immoral route of supporting sweatshops. Please reconsider that decision.
Ben - March 14, 2005 11:30 am
At the new American Apparel store in Ottawa the staff aren't quite what I'd call normal. It feels like someone went out of their way to hire an edgier anti-GAP staff so they ended up with a staff with too much died hair, too many piercings and too many tattoos for me to consider them normal. They're trying too hard to be edgy.
Sarah - July 8, 2005 9:48 pm
Milquetoastpress.com uses American Apparel and I love their shirts. I would highly recommend American Apparel and Milquetoast Press. They have awesome shirts that are original. I hate wearing the same shirt as everyone else.
Kari - November 15, 2005 5:12 pm
American Apparel Stores are ok but ordering online sucks. I ordered a skirt in a color that wasn't available in the store I frequent and when I received it, it was literally coming apart at the seams. There were holes in the side seams and when I called they said they would send out a replacement. I waited about a month and called again when it did not arrive. They said they would send out a replacement again and 2 months later,...nothing. I called again 3 times today and though nobody actually helped me, they did a great job of transferring me to other departments where I was met by an answering machine. Quite disappointing.
JC - December 4, 2005 9:34 pm
I am a Canadian citizen and I tried placing an order at Outfitterz Store. However, the UPS Standard to Canada option appears as N/A, and the international shipping is over $40. Every time I chose the Canadian shipping option, it gave me a message “the shipping method you specified is not available to your address”. Can anyone help me out? Is there an email address for Outfitterz Store?
Beezo - December 29, 2005 7:02 pm
We've always been hesitant to use AA, since we aren't big fans of 100% cotton. Now that AA is making 50/50 poly-cotton tees, we plan to give 'em a try. We'll post the results as soon as we can.
KD - February 21, 2006 5:14 pm
Is it me or is that http://www.internetoutfitterz.com/ a total rip fo the A&F website?
Frank - March 21, 2006 4:57 am
I am trying to buy this shirt. Is it the same as they have at this site? http://www.blankshirtstore.com/tshirts/shortsleeve/americanapparel/20010/ Seems like a good price if it is as nice as you say. My girlfriends has been hinting (you could say strongly suggesting) I need to upgrade my look. Let me know if you think this is the same t-shirt. A lot cheaper than that outfitter store.
Matt - June 8, 2006 7:05 am
Hi, we are considering getting some AA shirts for printing some of our designs. Can anyone suggest the best place to go for an order of say around 100?
We'll be using them for samples to retailers mainly for the time being I think.
Thanks in advance.
Matt
John - August 14, 2006 3:47 am
Just do a google search for American apparel .
Miss Meka - February 8, 2007 12:10 pm
I am thinking about buying some shirts from <a href="blankshirtstore.com">blankshirtstore.com</a> but there are no reviews about that website, so does anyone know anything about them?
Steven - February 26, 2007 5:32 pm
AA shirts are AMAZING.
Matt - May 23, 2007 6:15 pm
I bought a shirt from a new store I found at www.jm-ink.com. Their designs are great and they use AA shirts so NO SWEATSHOPS!!! Anyway you should all check it out...
Me - June 11, 2007 2:52 pm
One thing to consider is AA union busting activities. Do a google search. Why is it so hard to find a decent company to print some damn shirts?