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Winterland

Winterland Productions, founded in 1974, made licensed band shirts. The brand was retired in 2011.

Source: Winterland Productions (1974, defunct around 2011)Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008

Tag styles by era

  1. 1982 to 1988

    Winterland Productions, San Francisco

    The first Winterland tag, red, introduced in 1982, with variations used until 1988.

    Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008

  2. 1988 to 1991

    On Hanes blanks

    After MCA bought Winterland in 1988, most of its shirts until 1991 were printed on Hanes, with no Winterland tag.

    Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008

  3. 1992 to 1997

    Winterland Productions Worldwide

    A blue tag used from 1992 to 1997. The Made in Jamaica and Made in Mexico versions came in 1994.

    Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008

  4. 1997 to 2001

    The black tag

    Uncertain

    A sleeker tag with black text, the most widely used from 1997.

    Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008

  5. 2001 to 2008

    Classic Rock

    Uncertain

    Double tags that start when Dell Furano bought the company back, in 2001 by one source and early 2002 by another, used until the recession of 2008.

    Source: Defunkd: the Winterland tag, with tags from 1982 to 2008Source: Winterland Productions (1974, defunct around 2011)

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.

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What 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 exceptions

50/50 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 1989

Union 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 timeline

Made 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 1997

RN 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