This is the best shirt out of several brands of work shirts I have tried. I tried stocking up on Duluth Trading Long-Tail t-shirts because they had extra room called a 'tradesman fit' that's the opposite of a slim-fit shirt, that and they are a few inches longer on the bottom to prevent plumber's crack. The problem I ran into, price. Duluth Trading stuff is really nice, I mean REALLY NICE, but it's too expensive. From underwear to shirts to pants, I love their stuff to death but I went broke just buying 2-3 days worth of clothing.
So began my search for alternatives. For a few days I wrapped my mind around all normal shirts being too short for me. One, I do not like plumbers crack and I bend down and kneel down a lot. Two, I conceal carry. Long shirts do 80-90% of the concealment for you if you have one, otherwise you have to dig a holster inside your pants and dig into your hip hard. Extra-tall sized shirts is a cheap alternative to the semi-custom size of the Duluth Longtail t-shirts. Next criteria I needed, price. Well pretty much everything is cheaper than Duluth, except maybe UnderArmour. But UnderArmour stuff is generally tight-fitting, so they lose that competition. These are shirts I bought in Tall size to supplement my existing longer Longtail t-shirts:
Fruit-of-the-Loom (FOTL) cotton t-shirt from Wal-Mart: Average fit around my body, feels like advertized size. Thin material. Cost $8 in Wal-Mart, cheap but it's not a quality shirt at all and doesn't compete with the rest. It's just a grade lower. It's a cheap shirt but I would still gladly wear this if I didn't have my other work-shirts.
Hane's Beefy-T's 6.10z t-shirt: Cheap, less than half price of Duluth. Material is too thin for me for a work-shirt. Yes, even in summer I like thick material as it wicks more sweat away. The material was too thin for a work shirt, same thickness as the FOTL shirt. Slightly trim fitting, after break-in they are what I consider 'normal' for their advertised size, slightly more trim than the FOTL. $10 with Prime.
Dickie's Big-tall heavyweight crew neck short-sleeve: thicker than the Beefy-T, but just barely. Same price as Beefy-T. Very trim fitting for advertised size, I would consider these as a 'trim fit' for very lean individuals to be comfortable in. Even if I was in the same shape as I was at 21, these would still be tight fitting.
Duluth Long-Tail t-shirt (did not order as tall, ordered at normal height): Thick material, comfortable in summer by wicking moisture better and comfortable in winter since it's thicker. Two or three inches taller than other standard-sized shirts which spoiled me and now I order tall shirts from all other companies. I consider them nearly perfect shirts year-round but the price, I only have 3 because after shipping they run over $20 a piece from Duluth, and no Duluth does not have Amazon Prime shipping. Nice, very nice, but expensive to build a wardrobe with.
Carhartt Big-Tall Work Wear Short-Sleeve t-shirt: Material is as thick as Duluth shirt. I ordered this in tall, and is 1 inch longer than the standard-length Longtail-T from Duluth as a result. Not quite as generous fitting as the Duluth shirt, but it's a good bit larger girth than the other brand shirts. Material is slightly rougher feeling than the Duluth but still comfortable even when bending non-stop. Costs $15 with Amazon Prime, 50% more than the Hane's and Dickie's but at least $5 cheaper than a Duluth shirt.
My summary is the Carhartt wins overall. Thick enough, long enough, and I tested mine in 100 degree heat recently. Like the Duluth shirt, the thicker material worked to help wick sweat away longer than thinner shirts will. But I live in a very humid area a few miles from the Mississippi river. Very humid Mid-Spring to Fall. Lots of people might not need to fight humidity this much. I can stock 4 Carhartt shirts for a buck or two cheaper than 3 Duluth shirts, and anyone who works outside often knows you can often go through two shirts or maybe even three on a hot work-day in order to keep dry. So that means I can stock up on 12 shirts instead of 9 going Carhartt to carry me through a whole week without running out of shirts, even when a certain family member (you know who you are in each family) hides them in a clothes pile somewhere for a few days. The savings is enough to make a big difference for anyone buying a few shirts.
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