Looking great with printed T-shirts not only adds style to your look, but also, depending on the number of printed T-shirts, offers great uniqueness. But have you ever stopped to think where it all started and how long have people been printing t-shirts?

The modern screen printing process was first patented in Manchester by Samuel Simon in 1907.

A few years earlier, also in Manchester, the first T-shirts began to emerge from the poverty-stricken slums that surrounded the textile factories that were the region’s main employers. The jersey was quickly adapted by street gangs known as scuttlers who regularly terrorized the local community.

It was these scuttlers who as soldiers wore their shirts under their uniforms in the trenches of northern France. This was quickly adapted by American troops, leading to the jersey becoming a universal garment. Images of Hollywood stars like James Dean and Marlon Brando in white t-shirts have turned the simple t-shirt into a global fashion item found in wardrobes around the world.

Although T-shirts and screen printing originated around the same time in the same area, printed T-shirts did not become popular until the invention of plasticol inks and the youth movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Smithsonian museum displays ‘the oldest printed T-shirt’ in record in its collection. It’s a campaign shirt for the governor of New York. Thomas Dewey’s presidential campaign in 1948,

T-shirt printing quickly became a vehicle for political protest and soon became part of social demonstrations protesting the Vietnam War, civil rights movements, and the campaign for nuclear disarmament.

In the 1970s, the music industry soon learned that t-shirt marketing was a very lucrative addition to ticket prices and album sales. As the Stones and Pink Floyd hit the world tour, iconic t-shirts like Warhol’s lips, and the prism of The Dark Side Of The Moon became multi-million dollar sale items. This also paved the way for a multi-million pound “smuggling” industry that sold copies of official jerseys outside of concert halls for a fraction of the price.

The demand for blank t-shirts to print created global businesses like Fruit Of The Loom and Gildan. Fruit Of The Loom has 23,000 employees and annual sales of $ 500 million.

As the cost of t-shirt printing machinery goes down, it is easier to get started in the industry and with internet auction sites like eBay, selling small quantities of t-shirts becomes quite easy and cheap to set up in business.