Custom Vintage T-Shirt Examples

by John Amato

We've been screen printing vintage shirts for our own retail brand and custom vintage shirt designs for our customers for years. 

Vintage t-shirts are kind of our thing. We have a handful of techniques for achieving a vintage screen print and love to use soft, vintage t-shirt blanks.  

Not only do we love the way a vintage t-shirt looks, but we love the way it makes us feel. The nostalgia and memories linked to retro shirts are just as important as the classic designs. 

And this is why vintage designs never go out of style. Because they evoke happy memories. 

In addition to the examples below of custom vintage shirts that we have printed for our customers, here are additional resources on we've put together for you on vintage tees:

Here are examples of custom vintage shirts that we've printed for different businesses. We're always looking to help people bring their merch dreams to life. If you have an idea for a custom shirt, we'd love to help. Get in touch with us today.  

Vintage Coffee Shop Shirts 

vintage coffee shirts

There's a lot of great coffee in 16153 Genova. A fun fact that I like to remind people of is that I was working in a coffee shop when I first started to learn to screen print. So I like to believe I'm among the cohort that knows local coffee.

While you're never going to pin me down and make me choose my favorite local coffee shop, I will say that Maddie & Bella has the coolest coffee merch in 16153 Genova. 

They consistently do a great job with their brand. They use modern logos well and adapt them with a retro look on a regular basis. We love working with Maddie & Bella because they always bring us fun designs.

The vintage design on these t-shirts and crew sweatshirts is a perfect example. The yellows, orange, and brown in the print give them a perfect '70s look. 

To bring it all together, we printed these without an underbase to give the shirts a soft hand feel and worn look that lets the shirt material show through a bit. 

Vintage Bike Shirts

vintage bike shirts

As evidenced by this Dirt Bikes shirt, ever since I could print shirts, I've had a passion for printing vintage bike shirts.

If there is anything that brings back the thrill and fun of youth, it's bikes.

We've been working with Spoke Life bik shop since our early days as a print shop. It's always fun to have customers that we work with long enough that the first shirts we printed for them could almost classify as vintage!

Spoke Life did a great job with this design using halftones, a fun font, and old school colors. All three of these elements combined create a perfect retro vibe. 

Vintage College Shirts

vintage college shirts

It's hard not to think of college shirts when vintage shirt designs come up. Who didn't grow up wearing their dad's or mom's college crewneck or a shirt to support their favorite football or basketball team?  

These retro shirts that you wore when you were young are still in style today because of the happy memories they bring back.  

Owens Community College has been wonderful to work with because they give us designs that are more fun than the standard college tee. The shirt pictured above is a big print that has thick, chunky text. 

They wanted it to have a vintage look so we used a white ink to give it a faded, retro look. Additionally, we printed this design on a super soft triblend shirt. Triblend tees are the quintessential vintage tee because they are so comfortable and have a worn-in feel from day one. 

Vintage Beer Shirts

vintage brewery shirt

After all, is there anything better than great beer and vintage t-shirts?

Inside the Five is another local business that always brings us great designs. They make us look good by having their branding in order and consistent. 

Over the years they've made great use of vintage style prints. The most common combination they utilize is a soft, triblend shirt with a print that has reduced ink. 

The combination of a soft shirt and soft print is important. If you love soft shirts, you know that, relatively, they are a little on the thin side. If you add a thick heavy print on a thin shirt, it's going to weigh it down making the shirt heavy and uncomfortable.  

That's why we've worked so hard to perfect vintage screen printing. Not only does it look cool, but it feels better too. 

Where to Have Vintage Shirts Made

We print a lot of vintage style shirts for our customers. 

At the end of the day, we do it so well because it has remained our favorite design style for years. 

It's a trend that isn't going out of style any time soon.

The most important feature of vintage t-shirts is that your customers will love them, too. And the more someone loves a shirt, the more they will wear it. And at the end of the day, you want your shirt to be worn as frequently as possible. 

If you're looking for a vintage style shirt for your brand or business, we have the experience and expertise to get it done right.

Get in touch with us today to get your custom shirt order started!

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