Tag maker
Giant
A licensed band merchandise company founded in 1990 by Irving Azoff and Warner Bros., whose tags start in 1991.
Source: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 2008Tag styles by era
1991 to 1995
Three first tags
From 1991 Giant used three tags interchangeably: a plain black Giant tag, Giant by Tee Jays, and Giant by Anvil, 100% Cotton Extra Heavyweight, Made in U.S.A.
Source: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 20081993 to 1996
Giant by Tultex
UncertainFirst seen on a 1993 shirt and used up until 1996.
Source: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 20081996 to 1999
Made in El Salvador
A non-woven Made in El Salvador tag, the most common of the era. A Made in Mexico version came in 1997.
Source: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 20082004 to 2008
The Skull tag
Introduced in late 2004 and the main tag through 2008. Giant carried on for a few years after without a tag of its own.
Source: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 2008
Uncertain means the source hedges (a "likely", a "circa", a "some have reported"), the sources disagree, or the years come only from the source's dated photos.
From members' closets
Have a tag and a source that dates it? Send a photo of it. A person checks each one before it shows here.
Add a tag referenceWhat the signs mean
Short answers on the details people ask about, each with where it comes from.
Single and double stitch
Look at a sleeve or the bottom hem. One line of thread is single stitch; two parallel lines are double stitch.
Single stitch is usual on shirts from before the late 1990s, and factories moved to double stitch from the mid 1990s. Single stitch says little about a shirt from 2000 on.
Double stitch turns up on older shirts too, and some later shirts use single stitch, so it is one sign among several.
Source: ThriftCon: single stitch and double stitchSource: Defunkd: single stitch, and its exceptions50/50 blends
50/50 names the fabric's mix: two fibers, half each by weight, such as 50% cotton and 50% polyester. A US textile label must name each fiber with its share of the weight.
Screen Stars made both 50/50 and 100% cotton versions of its tags, so a blend does not date a shirt on its own.
Source: 15 U.S.C. 70b: what a US textile label must showSource: Defunkd: the Screen Stars tag, 1970s through 1989Union labels
A union label says a garment was made by members of a garment workers' union, such as the ILGWU.
The ILGWU launched its union label on 9 January 1959. From 1963 the design put the words "union made" first, and from 1974 to 1995 the label was red, white and blue with a line saying Made in the U.S.A.
Earlier labels came before it: the Prosanis label from 1924 to 1929, and the New Deal's blue eagle label from 1933 to 1935.
Source: Kheel Center, Cornell: the ILGWU union label timelineMade in USA, and where shirts were made
A US textile label must name the country it was made in. Imports already had to; from late 1984 the law also asked goods made in the US to say so.
Makers of band shirts and blanks moved production abroad in the 1990s: Giant from 1994, most of it abroad by 1996, and Gildan opened its first offshore sewing plant, in Honduras, in 1997.
Shirts made abroad long before that exist too, such as Brockum's Made in Canada tags from 1974 to 1987, so the country alone does not date a shirt.
Source: 15 U.S.C. 70b: what a US textile label must showSource: Defunkd: the Giant tag, with tags from 1991 to 2008Source: Gildan (founded 1984, Montreal)Source: Defunkd: the Brockum tag, 1974 to 1997RN and CA numbers
An RN is a number the FTC issues to a US business that makes, imports, distributes or sells textile, wool or fur products. It can stand in for the company's name on a label, and each company gets one.
The system has been in place since the 1940s. An RN names the company, never the year a shirt was made.
A CA number is Canada's own: the letters CA and five digits, issued by the Competition Bureau.
Source: FTC: Registered Identification Number questionsSource: FTC: Registered Identification Numbers (1997), in place since the 1940sSource: Competition Bureau Canada: the CA Identification Number