Free worldwide shipping · Any two tees, $10 off with code PAIR · 15% off your first order with code WELCOME15 · Printed to order, ships in 2 to 5 days · Free worldwide shipping · Any two tees, $10 off with code PAIR · 15% off your first order with code WELCOME15 · Printed to order, ships in 2 to 5 days · Free worldwide shipping · Any two tees, $10 off with code PAIR · 15% off your first order with code WELCOME15 · Printed to order, ships in 2 to 5 days ·
Our Garments
PILOTS.GIFT · OUR GARMENTS
Our Garments
The design is half of what you are buying. This is the other half.
01 · The choice
We chose our shirt and stayed with it
There are cheaper shirts. We have held them, washed them, and put them down again. What we print on instead is the Comfort Colors® 1717, a heavyweight tee of garment-dyed cotton, chosen because it behaves the same way in your hands and in your wardrobe from the first day to the hundredth wash. A store that changes its blank every season is asking you to gamble each time. We would rather you learn a garment and trust it, and when it is a gift, know exactly what the person opening the box will hold.
02 · Garment-dyed
Dyed after it is sewn, which changes everything
Most clothes are made from cloth that was dyed on the roll and then cut up. Ours are sewn first, as plain undyed garments, and dyed afterwards — whole, in the dye bath, seams and all. It costs more and it takes longer, and it is the reason these feel the way they do. The color settles into the cotton rather than sitting on the surface of it. The garment comes out already relaxed, with the softness a favorite shirt usually takes two summers to earn. And because every piece takes the dye slightly differently, no two are exactly alike. Yours will not be quite the same as the one in the photograph, and that is not a defect in the process — it is the process.
The color lives in the cotton, not on top of it.
Our Garments
Sewn first. Dyed second. Softer for it.
Garment-dyed, every piece
03 · The tee
Comfort Colors 1717, the shirt we print on
The 1717 is 6.1 oz — 207 g/m² — of 100% ring-spun cotton, which is a substantial, dense cloth rather than the thin jersey that has become normal. The collar is ribbed and topstitched so it does not go slack. Twill tape runs shoulder to shoulder, which is the small piece of construction that keeps a shirt square after fifty washes. The cut is relaxed: it hangs rather than clings, and it is meant to. It is built to be worn for years rather than a season, and that is the whole reason we print on it.
The Tee
- Style
- Comfort Colors 1717
- Weight
- 6.1 oz · 207 g/m²
- Cloth
- 100% ring-spun cotton, 20 singles
- Dye
- Garment-dyed
- Details
- Ribbed topstitched collar, shoulder-to-shoulder twill tape
- Fit
- Relaxed
- Sizes
- S–4XL
Four hundred lives, held in one quiet voice
For the controllers, who guide them down
04 · Color
Colors with names, because they were mixed and not picked
Our colors are not hex values chosen on a screen. They are dye-bath colors with names, and we use the names: Ivory, Butter, Chambray, Lagoon Blue, Chalky Mint, Blossom, Orchid, Island Reef, Bay, Mustard, Blue Jean, Graphite, Navy and more. Most of them are pigment-dyed, which is what gives them their depth and their faintly uneven, sun-washed surface — the look of a shirt that has already had a good summer. A few are reactive-dyed for a truer, more even shade where the design needs one. Each design is made in the colors that suit it, rather than squeezed onto whatever color was in stock.
IvoryButterChambrayLagoon BlueChalky MintBlossomOrchidIsland ReefBayMustardBlue JeanGraphiteNavy
05 · Fit and sizing
Cut to hang, not to cling
The 1717 is cut relaxed and runs generously through the body — it is made to hang, not to cling. For a closer fit, take one size down; for the roomy look it was designed for, take your usual size. Because it is garment-dyed, it has already done most of its shrinking before it reaches you, so expect very little movement after the first wash.
The measurements below are the garment laid flat: body length is taken from the highest point of the shoulder straight down, and chest width is measured across the chest one inch below the armhole — double it for the full circumference. Allow ±1.25″ on length and ±1″ on chest. Buying for someone else? Their favorite tee, laid flat and measured the same way, is the surest guide.
| Size | Body length | Chest width (flat) |
|---|---|---|
| S | 26.6″ | 18.25″ |
| M | 28″ | 20.25″ |
| L | 29.4″ | 22″ |
| XL | 30.75″ | 24″ |
| 2XL | 31.6″ | 26″ |
| 3XL | 32.5″ | 27.75″ |
| 4XL | 33.5″ | 29.75″ |
06 · How it wears in
It will change. That is what you are paying for
A pigment-dyed garment is not finished when it reaches you. Over the first few washes it will lighten a little and then settle, and where it settles is its own — slightly different from every other one of the same color in the world. We would rather tell you that now than have you discover it and think something went wrong. Wash it cold and inside out, with like colors, tumble dry low, skip the bleach, and skip the fabric softener in particular: softener coats the cotton and works directly against the hand you paid for. Do that and the shirt will be better in three years than it is on the day it arrives, which is not something that can be said of most clothes.
It fades the way a good summer fades. Slowly, and into something you like more.
Our Garments
Better in the third year than in the first
Soft from day one
07 · Printed for you
Nothing is made until you order it
We do not hold a warehouse of shirts hoping someone wants them. Every tee is printed after you order it, in the color and size you chose, by our print partner in the United States, and it leaves within two to five business days. Nothing is overproduced, discounted and destroyed at the end of a season. Shipping is free, worldwide, with no minimum. If what arrives is damaged or misprinted, tell us within thirty days of delivery and we reprint it free or refund you in full, your choice, with nothing to send back.
Printed to orderFree worldwide shipping30-day reprint guaranteeSecure checkout
08 · Who we make them for
For the people who fly, and the people who love them
Our designs are drawn for the whole world of aviation: the crews, the mechanics, the spotters at the fence and the families waiting at arrivals. The shirt underneath them is chosen to last as long as the stories.
PILOTS.GIFT
Upgraded to First Class
A good shirt is one you forget you chose
Comfort Colors 1717 · garment-dyed · printed to order