How to tell an unofficial shirt
These are signs, not proof. Plenty of real shirts break one rule, and careful copies pass most of them. Look at several together.
Print quality
Official prints from a tour's run tend to have clean edges and even ink. Blurry edges, a grainy photo look, or colors that sit on top of the fabric like a sticker can mean the art was copied from a picture rather than printed from the original screens.
Dates on tour backs
Tour dates should match the tour. Look up a few dates and cities. Misspelled cities, dates that fall on the wrong day of the week, or a list copied from another leg of the tour are common on unofficial shirts.
Copyright lines
Many official shirts carry a copyright line with a year and the rights holder's name. A missing line is not proof on its own, and a line can be copied, but a year later than the shirt's claimed age is a strong sign it was printed later.
Licensed-by lines
Official merch often names the company that held the license, near the print or on the tag. A licensing company that did not exist yet, or one that never worked with the band, is a strong sign of a reprint.
Known reprint signs
A modern tag cut out and a vintage one sewn in, a print that is too bright for its age, perfect cracking that repeats, or a blank that is softer and thinner than shirts from its time.
On MerchVice
Members can mark their own item Unofficial. We show unofficial items and never sell them. If you hold the rights to something shown here, use our takedown page.