All of the articles returned in the search are all affiliate links.
There is an incentive to bias the suggestions on what to by based on how much the affiliate program pays.
How do find clothing to buy that gets these issues of bias?
I just want to find something that is durable, fits well, and does not look horrible.
https://i.ibb.co/QJwFW9t/IMG-3610-copy-3.jpg
But there's a wide selection at "off price" stores in the TJX and Ross category.
P.S. Nobody has bought that shirt as of last Wednesday. Location upon request. :-)
How you get durable, functional clothing is by being extremely patient, selective and most importantly getting a basic education in textiles.
Even if a brand is held in high regard the incentive is too strong for companies to use these brands to push off cheap, high-margin products. As a consumer you need to be discerning. Part of that involves a basic, but yet often undervalued sense, touch. You might not have a textbook understanding of textiles, but I promise that you can tell the difference between a durable t-shirt and one that isn't by simply touching and feeling it.
Now as to where to go to find these shirts, go to your local mall, outlet store, shopping centre, thrift store etc. Dedicate a good amount of time to walk in to places and compare their stock. It's time consuming but worth it. Eventually you'll realize that certain stores just don't meet a certain quality bar and you will subconsciously filter these out.
Another thing you'll realize is that brands don't really have a lot of signaling power. Just because a shirt is sold in a luxury store doesn't mean that it's using high quality fabrics or has durable construction. With garments you absolutely get what you pay for but not everything that's pricy is worth it. How you're able to distinguish between the two is by building the knowledge and there's sadly no royal road to that, you're just gonna have to put in the work.
Fortunately, there are thriving Reddit communities for this. Especially look at their wikis, sidebar, and pinned comments.
If you're male:
- https://old.reddit.com/r/malefashionadvice/
- https://old.reddit.com/r/frugalmalefashion/
If you're female:
[0] "Chouinard, 83, worked with his wife and two children as well as teams of company lawyers to create a structure that will allow Patagonia to continue to operate as a for-profit company whose proceeds will go to benefit environmental efforts."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/14/patagonias-b...
But would like to echo the benefit of trying on in-store. You really don’t know if it’s a good fit until you’re wearing it, and it’s way less hassle to do that in-person than with the order-return iteration loop.
I want a t-shirt to be as thin a material as possible. The whole point of a t-shirt is to either wear it as an undershirt or standalone in warm weather. Thick material that is more durable is antithetical to either use.
"Fits well" is stupid hard to find. The vast majority of t-shirts are boxy with straight lines that have zero form fit. The sleeves come down so low and have such a large circumference that they cover any muscle you might have. They are also long enough to cover most of your ass, which is overkill for tucking and looks super dorky when untucked. Of course all if this is relative to your dimensions. I am 5'11" and reasonably fit. Even if you are not fit, the standard cut looks horrible.
Another aspect of looks is color. There are always the boring generics: white/black/mottled light grey and sometimes navy. For standalone use, there are some few outfits that these colors work for. As an undershirt, these colors work more often, but I have found that there can be better color matches if the undershirt is visible (and especially if you are doing the west coast thing with an unstructured sport coat over a t-shirt).
That covers much of the (lame as hell) t-shirt market, but of course there are some standout brands with better features. If you asked me 2 years ago, I would have said True Classic as they have a more tailored cut, reasonable length and arm circumference and better selection of colors. The material is 60/40 cotton/poly and not too thick (but not very thin either). Recently, they changed the length (added 3 inches!) and ditched many of the cool colors, which I think is due to this inane fashion ideology of change it up annually and these are this year's "cool" colors.
The ultimate shirt is one that is tailored to your spec and fit. There are some online options for that, but they all cost more than buying a generic shirt and spending ~$30 to have it tailored (or DIY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeWUPBeL5XM).
If you are in the EU, Asos has some branded shirts that are a step up and reasonably priced. https://freshcleantees.com/ is a True Classic dupe, but I haven't tried them.
I ended up going with TC, despite the lack of colors I wanted because it is pretty easy to shorten the length.
Edit: also no wrinkles/ironing which is huge if you are lazy
When you get a feel for brands (how they handle sizing and materials), you can then just order online and return in store.
Most durable clothing I’ve ordered has typically been Patagonia, Prana (not Prada) and Carhartt. J Crew is good quality too, that’s about the price point after which quality/value has diminishing returns.
Arc'teryx used to sell the Anzo/Eris shirt. A mix of cotton and synthetic material, some under arm gussets, and an accent color chest pocket. I have a few of these and really like them. Probably my favorite shirt ever. Unfortunately they not sold directly any more.
They used to be as cheap as $5 each.
If you don't want to wear military surplus, I've found Uniqlo to fill a similar niche.
The 2nd oldest shirt that's still in rotation is a 12 year old Carhartt.
There are other brands but you could also try buying t-shirts blanks from different wholesalers and seeing what you like
Isn't this subjective and vague?
Personally I've started only buying print "blanks." Meaning t-shirts sold to be printed onto, and then simply not printing on them, because the quality to price ratio is competitive, and they come in extra-tall sizes, all common colors, short & long sleeve. For example "Port & Company" from Amazon is $10 for either 50/50 Cotton/Poly or 100% Cotton in all varieties. Pretty no-thrills.
But somehow I don't think that is what you're after, since there seems to be a lot of unstated requirements. As a generic recommendation, uniqlo is pretty popular, but you will have to pay for shipping.
