honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, October 24, 2002

Hanes is taking underwear T-shirts into the tagless realm

By Maria Puente
USA Today

Hanes is switching to heat-transfer labels to replace those scratchy shirt tags.

hanes.com

In this time of looming war and swooning economy, it might come as a surprise to learn what "really" vexes American consumers: those infernal, uncomfortable tags in the back of underwear T-shirts.

So Hanes, the nation's leading manufacturer of men's underwear T's (100 million per year, or about one-third of the market), has come up with a plan that could distract us from our troubles. They're introducing — ta-da! — the tagless T-shirt.

Instead of that scratchy piece of synthetic material at the back of the neck, the new T's will have all the label, fabric and care information heat-transferred on the inside of the shirt's back. By law, information on clothing sold in packages must be visible to consumers at purchase.

Hanes spent big bucks on consumer surveys. Among their findings: Two out of three men who wear underwear T-shirts say they loathe those tags, and nearly half rip them out.

Now Hanes has spent more big bucks — they won't say how much — retrofitting their factories for the new world order in underwear. Eventually, Hanes will take boys' underwear T's tagless, too.

Retailers will start rolling out the new shirts this week. Will other underwear makers follow suit? Fruit of the Loom, second in sales, declined to comment.