Loopwheeled/Vintage T-Shirts

[coleslawyum]

Rodeo Bill, thanks for another informative post. I do have a question for you. What was the purpose of those V-Notches in the center of the collar?

Toys McCoy Ringer

V-Notch

Anyone have any interesting Raglan sleeve shirts? I love the old school curvy arm holes.

Flathead

Groovers

And the always unpopular football T. Worn by douche bags and hip-hop heads alike. I have a soft spot for these because I've been wearing them since I was a kid.

UES

Denime

[LandoCal126]

What was the purpose of those V-Notches in the center of the collar?

I believe for sweat but someone (Bill), teach us!

[rodeo bill]

^^ as far as I've been told it's for stretch. Older jersey tends to be less stretchy than modern jersey is, so there'd be a section of rib (much stretchier than single jersey) in the neck, where it needs to stretch over the head. You get this on sweatshirts too. My guess is it's something that's become a bit of an appendix (like cuff buttons on a suit jacket) and it's now put on without much thought for use, even by original brands, and so also by repros. Quite often you see it's just an extra layer of the body jersey fabric stitched on top of the main panel, in which case it wouldn't help this at all...

Could well also ehlp soak up sweat I guess, or just be a reinforcement at a place where the T gets the most stress.

This is a sweatshirt, but it shows the principle... There are V gussets at the front and back, made of rib, and they're double thickness (apologies- I know BApe is anathema to some...)

[michaelscott]

anyone who has the flathead flatlock seam tee care to share some insight on it with us? how's it feel? fit? durability? fit pics would be nice too..

thanks much.

[mikecch]

Anyone have any interesting Raglan sleeve shirts? I love the old school curvy arm holes.

I just got some Cheswick sweats with Raglan sleeves - a bit more comfortable than their BR cousins for broader shoulders...

[thelion1856]

anyone who has the flathead flatlock seam tee care to share some insight on it with us? how's it feel? fit? durability? fit pics would be nice too..

thanks much.

one of the best shirts you will ever buy hands down. You just gotta wear it to believe it. until then read about it here...

http://www.selfedge.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68&products_id=596

[tvshooter]

^ i'm wearin a size L. it's way heavier than any t-shirt that i own. it feels great to wear. the flatlock stitching is neat. not sure what else to say other than i wish i could get like 5 more of them. they are a bit pricey tho. . .

[lostinthesupermarket]

Good fit tvshooter. What's your chest size?

I like the length also.

[tvshooter]

thanks man. i'm a 42. my prob is that most M size shirts are perfect on length but too tight on the chest. it'll be interesting to see how this shirt ages tho. i have cheepo tees from 15+ years ago that i still wear. the FH shirt was an impulse buy. wanted to see what the hype was. woulda sold it if i didn't think it was worth it. obviously i'm gonna keep. i'll post evo pic's in 15 years. . .

[kiya]

Loopwheeled Fabric!

I've seen a spike of interest in loopwheeled fabrics recently so i decided to dig up a few photographs i took of a machine for those that haven't seen what a loopwheeler machine looks like.

There are some serious misconceptions about this fabric.

Just because a fabric has tube construction does not make it loopwheeleed. Also, i'd say that about 50% of the fabric which i've felt and has been marked as loopwheeled was NOT actually loopwheeled, it's just tube body constructed fabric. It's insane to me that companies get away with advertising that their fabric is one thing when it's not, but i'm convinced that these companies themselves were fooled by their factories or textile suppliers into thinking that the fabric was really loopwheeled.

Kobayashi-san (president of Flat Head) is the only person in the world that owns loopwheeling machines which are capable doing a certain weight and feel of micro-ribbed fabric, the Japanese brand Loopwheeler actually buys their micro-ribbed fabric from Kobayashi. Flat Head are still the only clothing company i've ever come across which owns up to 65% of the machines which weave all their fabrics where as all other clothing lines don't actually own any machines, they lease or outsource production to factories.

[kiya]

Loopwheeled Fabric!

I've seen a spike of interest in loopwheeled fabrics recently so i decided to dig up a few photographs i took of a machine for those that haven't seen what a loopwheeler machine looks like.

There are some serious misconceptions about this fabric.

Just because a fabric has tube construction does not make it loopwheeleed. Also, i'd say that about 50% of the fabric which i've felt and has been marked as loopwheeled was NOT actually loopwheeled, it's just tube body constructed fabric. It's insane to me that companies get away with advertising that their fabric is one thing when it's not, but i'm convinced that these companies themselves were fooled by their factories or textile suppliers into thinking that the fabric was really loopwheeled.

Kobayashi-san (president of Flat Head) is the only person in the world that owns loopwheeling machines which are capable doing a certain weight and feel of micro-ribbed fabric, the Japanese brand Loopwheeler actually buys their micro-ribbed fabric from Kobayashi. Flat Head are still the only clothing company i've ever come across which owns up to 65% of the machines which weave all their fabrics where as all other clothing lines don't actually own any machines, they lease or outsource production to factories.

[rnrswitch]

Holy shit. That is one fucking machine. How far back does loopwheeling go?

[rnrswitch]

Holy shit. That is one fucking machine. How far back does loopwheeling go?

[lance]

Here is an indigo dyed UMII sweatshirt from 45RPM

And here is what the reverse side looks like

I thought this was loopwheel but maybe not? Kiya, chime in

[lance]

Here is an indigo dyed UMII sweatshirt from 45RPM

And here is what the reverse side looks like

I thought this was loopwheel but maybe not? Kiya, chime in

[mctaran]

when i was at the Flat-Head's place, Kobayashi-san showed this machine. And he was very proud of it! The process of making a fabric looks amazing and works very well.

They are also making some very nice flatlock sweats, but sadly i did not saw them anywhere outside of Japan.

[mctaran]

when i was at the Flat-Head's place, Kobayashi-san showed this machine. And he was very proud of it! The process of making a fabric looks amazing and works very well.

They are also making some very nice flatlock sweats, but sadly i did not saw them anywhere outside of Japan.

[thelion1856]

kiya, is there any tale tell signs to tell if a shirt is truly loopwheeled or not? I would think that there is but i have not yet seen or heard of any definitive signs to call a shirt loopwheeled other than the brand advertising it as "loopwheeled". thanks man!

[coleslawyum]

Thanks Kiya for posting that awesome machine. The only other brands I know that doesn't outsource other than Flathead are The Real McCoys (Everything from the jeans, boots to the leather jackets a truly breathtaking operation), Post Overalls and my man from Kojima, K&T Workers. There are more, but these were the first ones that popped in my head.

I think the smaller brands have more of a chance to do things in-house, but the volume that Flathead and Real McCoys do is very impressive.

[lowrider]

i really wanna check out googies when i'm in jp next year...

[thelion1856]

i think both shirts r loopwheeled, both are made very similar in stitching & feel like they could both be the same company.

Free Rage shirt

Warehouse shirt

edit:

uno mas...

Eternal shirt...

front

back

[GBOB]

Buco/Real McCoys Loopwheel T-shirt. Washed once by hand, then my GF washed it in the machine, which stopped me being a pussy about it. Machine washed ever since, no-problems.

[thelion1856]

yeah i machine wash all my shits as well

[GBOB]

yeah i machine wash all my shits as well

I generally put my shits down the toilet, but hey, whatever floats your boat!

[HoustonChris]

yeah i machine wash all my shits as well

Gentle cycle? Just don't put them in the dryer, that always goes badly.

[jstavrin]

Are you kidding? They're just t-shirts, man.

[coleslawyum]

I've been throwing T-shirts in the dryer for over 20 years. Seems to be working fine.

[thelion1856]

yeah i wash em in the washer and dryer. they seem to be fine. their just t-shirts man. they still look alright as you can see from the pics. im sure they'll start to look a lil more used over the years but hey thats just me.

[tmadd]

Are you kidding? They're just t-shirts, man.

Looks like someone doesn't know a goddamned thing about laundering t-shirts! If you're not hand-dripping reverse-osmosis filtered water at temperatures between 5 and 10 C, at a rate of no more than 100ml a minute, and then sun drying the shirt on a day with temperatures between 65 and 73 F, you are ruining the integrity of your t-shirts, and you might as well just pick up some fruit of the looms. If you are in a hurry, you can air dry the tshirts by attaching them to the radio antenna of a classic american muscle car and tearing down the interstate.

[lostinthesupermarket]

...and after all we're all here because we hate our clothes to look worn. Am I right?