The perfect white tee is a myth. At least, this is what big shirt would have you believe, but it won’t stop me, nor every other style-obsessed guy who saw some photo of James Dean or Marlon Brando at a fragile seminal moment, from trying to track one down.
Part of what makes the hunt so difficult is unavoidable — there’s the obvious factor of every person being different, along with wide-ranging preferences on heft, length, seam-age and tuckabilty — but there’s also the matter of the metaphorical “good stuff” being hard to find.
As production has ramped up to a global scale and manufacturing has fled the United States, quality product — the sturdy joints you’re used to seeing on old Hollywood royalty — have become a rarity.
To Make This T-Shirt, Buck Mason Bought a 150-Year-Old Factory
We chatted with Kyle Fitzgibbons, the brand’s chief creative officer, about their 100% American-made teesSome of the closest products to the grailed shirts of old have come from an InsideHook favorite, Buck Mason. Along with becoming a staple brand for guys looking for elevated basics and new-age Americana, the menswear purveyor, founded in California in 2013, has been hard at work perfecting a variety of tee fits over the course of a decade.
American-Made Aspirations
It’s not just the cuts and materials that Buck Mason has been dialing; along with sourcing cotton from farms across Georgia and the Carolinas, the brand has fully committed to, as they put it, “preserving the legacy of American manufacturing,” recently purchasing a historic Eastern Pennsylvania knitting mill to produce t-shirts, front-to-back, the old-school way.
Now, Buck Mason is releasing the closest tee yet to the gold standard of yore. The brand’s just-launched Toughknit Tubular Tee is a love letter to tees of old, with a fit yanked straight from the archives and unique construction made right here in the U.S.A.
What Is a Tubular Tee?
What makes these new shirts so special? Unlike most standard tees, Buck Mason’s newest offering relies on a tubular design, a common t-shirt construction method popular throughout much of the 20th century.
Utilizing a specialized knitting machine, tubular tees feature a shirt body that’s made from a single, seamless piece of fabric, creating a uniform boxy fit and a weave less susceptible to splits or damage. In layman’s terms, that means a tubular tee lacks modern side body seams, resulting in an old-school fit and a product that’s designed for durability.
Utilizing this traditional tubular technique, the new Toughknit Tubular Tee is crafted from American-sourced, 5-ounce Toughknit cotton. The fabric is lightly textured and reminiscent of the brand’s other slub offerings, but the fit is all its own, emulating classic ’40s and ’50s tubular designs for an undershirt-like fit that’s both flattering and substantial. Notably, the shirt runs long, making it an excellent summertime option for tucking into jeans or as a proper base layer.
The new Buck Mason Toughknit Tubular Tee is available now in both black and white at the brand’s webstore. The shirts are sold in a two-pack for $88, making them one of Buck’s most affordable styles to date, and a budget option among similar offerings from artisan sellers like Lady White Co. and Whitesville. (As a bonus, they also feature some very excellent ’50s-inspired packaging.)
Is this new release the perfect tee for you? That remains to be seen. What’s clear, however, is that fans of American-made craftsmanship are in for a treat.
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