When I heard recently that Costco was carrying Pima Cotton V-Neck undershirts, I got really curious, really fast.
This is the email an interested reader sent to my inbox:
Hey Tug,
I was wondering if you had any experience with Jockey Slim Fit undershirts from JCP and/or Kirkland Pima V-Neck undershirts from Costco?
I’ve been wearing the Jockey Slim Fit for several months now and they have been great.
They retain their shape throughout the day and only shrunk minimally after washing.
They come in packaging similar to the JKY ones from Target and are slightly heavier and definitely more form fitting compared to those.
I have not tried the Kirkland Pima undershirts from Costco yet but all the reviews on their website (costco.com) are positive.
Best, Brian
It’s kinda funny.
Brian was telling me about the Jockey Slim Fit, but I somehow focused on the Costco Pima V-Neck undershirt.
This new Pima undershirt offering captured my interest in spades.
In order to satiate my curiosity, I made a special trip over to Costco and wound up picking up a 4-pack of their Kirkland brand Pima V-Neck undershirts ($16.00), as well as a 6-pack of their Kirkland brand Crew Neck 100% cotton undershirts/t-shirts ($19.00).
The retailer offered both items in sizes S-2XL. (I still don’t know why companies call undershirts t-shirts. It’s so f**king confusing)
Boy, am I glad I made the trip!
To illustrate my excitement, have a look at the product details:
Kirkland Men’s Pima Cotton V-Neck Undershirt Product Info
- Buy at: (Amazon)
- Price: $16.99 4-pack ($4.24 each, wow)
- Color: White
- Style: V-Neck Only
- Fabric: 100% Pima Cotton
- Sizes: S-2XL
- Product of Bangladesh
- Description: Be comfortable any time of day with the Kirkland Signature™ V-neck tee. Dress it up as an undershirt, or wear it by itself to stay casual. Made of 100% Pima cotton, clingy shirts, and itchy tags are a problem of the past.
Product Photos
In addition to reading the review, have a look at this pics that speak for themselves:
The Good Stuff About These V-Neck Undershirts
The price.
For just under $4.25 per undershirt, you get tons of value.
The feel.
Oh my goodness. This V-neck undershirt is really smooth and soft. Has to be the softest $4 undershirt I have ever worn — ever.
The weight.
Light and cool wearing. MUCH lighter than their Crew Neck (thick) t-shirts/undershirt. Thin, without being too transparent.
Length.
At 29.5″ long, at size Medium, it’s sufficiently long to stay tucked. This is pre-wash length, so we’ll see if it shrinks up at all.
V-Neck Depth.
It’s about 6.5″ deep, so if you’re wearing your outer shirt with one button undone, the v-neck undershirt won’t show.
Sleeve Length.
7.5″ is about right. I tried on two of my short sleeve button up shirts with this V-neck undershirt on, and the sleeves did not poke out — though they were close.
And – The Not So Good Stuff
Fit.
I prefer a closer fitting undershirt, and this size medium is a little loose on me, even for a slim cut undershirt.
I suspect it’s a good cut to allow you to wear the undershirt as a t-shirt, but I’m looking at it primarily as an undershirt.
I’d probably buy a small size in this undershirt to have it fit me more closely
Side Shoulder/Shoulder Strap.
About 1.5″ too long for my shoulder with.
This pushes the shoulder seam (where it connects to the sleeve of the undershirt) over onto my deltoid.
When the side shoulder is too long, it basically makes it appear that the sleeves are too long.
If the combination of the side shoulder and sleeve length is too long, you’ll get sleeve sprouts (where your undershirt pokes out from under your short sleeve shirt)
V-Neck Depth.
If you want to wear two buttons undone on your outer shirt, this V-neck undershirt will show.
Costco.
To purchase this item, you must before have/purchase a Costco Membership. Even if you don’t have a Costco in your area, you can try to buy them online — but you still need a membership to purchase them.
Poor Online Selection.
When I checked online, I couldn’t order the more popular sizes like Medium or Large. I had to go to the physical store to find them.
Final Thoughts
To begin with, these Pima undershirts are so soft, super smooth, lightweight and have a respectable overall cut/design.
Second, for $4.25 per undershirt you absolutely, positively cannot go wrong by owning some of these undershirts.
At the same time, they are such a tremendous value, they completely deserve a place on my Favorite Undershirts list.
Therefore, if you have a Costco Membership, stop what you’re doing right now (reading this) and go out (or online) immediately to buy one or more 4-packs of these Kirkland Pima V-Neck undershirts!
You’ll be thanking me later.
You never know how long they’ll be carrying this item. Stock up asap.
Updates
Finally, here is some new information coming in from my shopping quests:
1/2015 Update
No longer available?
3/2015 Update
Looks like they’re back, but it’s a product of a Philippine manufacturer. (Not sure they will fit/feel the same as the ones made in Bangladesh).
I love the Costco V-Neck undershirts. I haven’t seen them for a year or two at least. Can anyone recommend a product that has the same “hand” / softness and smoothness as well as thin-ness? Many other t-shirt brands are nowhere near as smooth.
heya chris! sorry to say, i’ve not yet come across any undershirt as smooth/soft as the kirkland pima v-neck undershirt, in the same price range.
if you want something just as smooth, you’ll likely have to go to a more premium priced undershirt.
outside of that, if you really want to find something in the same price range that is equally as soft, you may have to experiment buying some lightweight t-shirt blanks or find some wholesale sites to buy from.
here’s a list of wholesale/blank manufacturers, though it hasn’t been updated in a while:
https://undershirtguy.com/t-shirt-blanks-wholesalers-screen-printers/
Are the Costco shirts a little stretchy or just straightforward ol’ cotton T-shirts?
heya ted!
the costco kirkland pima cotton v-neck undershirts were pretty stretchy. i’m not sure they’re available for purchase any longer, though you may be able to find some on amazon or ebay.
the costco kirkland regular t-shirts, which people wear as undershirts sometimes, are much thicker & heavier. they are a bit stretchy as well, but not nearly as stretchy as the lighter weight pima cotton v-neck undershirts.
Stumbled upon your website because I’m researching to find a new undershirt as the Kirkland shirts have gone WAY down hill over the past few years. Figured I’d report why as well.
I like a heavy snug feeling shirt with a tight but not exactly turtle neck like collar.
I absolutely despise when the collar starts to sag or look like bacon. These ones from Costco fit the bill to a T.
I have worn size medium Kirkland crew neck white undershirts under my clothing just about everyday for close to the last 15 years.
That tight feel that came from putting on a new one after its first shrink felt like a million bucks. I probably bought a new 6 pack every 6 months or so for the first long while.
Now I find myself buying them more frequently as the quality has gone down tremendously… Each new 6 pack now contains 6 different fitting shirts.
It started when they switched the tag from the black/red to all gray. They would get saggy, inward rolling and/or baconed collars after 2 or 3 wears and washes.
However, with the last couple packs I’ve bought, some of the collars are like that before I even wear them…
Pretty disappointing. Hoping I can find a brand that fits like the Kirks used to…
heya justin,
that’s pretty unfortunate to hear that the kirkland tight neck t-shirt collars are not holding their shape as long as they used to.
i wish i could say i have found a good tight neck t-shirt alternative, but so far we’ve not found anything that truly stands out.
here are some articles you should checkout out (read the comments too):
http://www.undershirtguy.com/who-makes-the-best-tight-neck-t-shirts/
http://www.undershirtguy.com/thick-tight-collared-t-shirts/
http://www.undershirtguy.com/ask-tug-tight-collar-undershirts-that-dont-sag-or-stretch-out/
http://www.undershirtguy.com/tight-collar-high-collar-undershirts/
http://www.undershirtguy.com/ask-tug-update-undershirts-with-high-tight-collar-that-dont-stretch-out-or-sag/
hopefully you find some alternative tight neck t-shirts or high collar undershirts to try out that will hold up better than the kirkland t-shirts you’ve been buying recently.
Stumbled on your website after an undershirt websearch. Great info…but I’m looking for some undershirts that have pretty short sleeves. I wear a lot of Banana Republic polos and the sleeves on those batboys are SHORT! I really want an undershirt, not just a tank top…any suggestions? Short, short sleeve undershirts…..GO! ;)
Thanks!
Phillip
Amazon now sells these!
sweet! thanks joe!
while i find the the costco shirts comfortable .i have a problem with their quality.within a year many of the shirts developed holes. i should have returned them but i have been using them as soft cloth rags.
hey herbert, thanks for stopping by and posting your comments and feedback on the costco pima cotton v-neck undershirts!
you know, i just heard that very same thing from another reader/regular visitor. this is what he just wrote me a couple days ago:
i’ll refer him here to this article to see if he has any other thoughts he’d like to share about them.
it’s too bad the pima undershirts develop holes — so i guess i’ll have to give them a demerit or two for not lasting too long. again, thanks for sharing this feedback – i know it will be helpful to others curious about these undershirts.
What are the results after shrink.. I’ve tried both sized Small and Medium and I agree being Medium size small fits perfectly.. but want to know how much it will shrink and it will help me to determine to keep the right size.
Hey Nomee, The best advice I could give you on the shrinkage problem is wash in cold water, then take the Kirklands out of the washer and put on a hanger to air dry naturally. This has been my best method to date as to avoid any shrinkage at all. I have done this with my kirkland pima cotton undershirts and have yet to notice any shrinkage whatsoever. I usually do this with all my undershirts regardless of the brand and it works very well, and in no time, while on a hanger, they are dry and ready to be worn again.
I was wondering how are the neck line of these shirts after a cold wash and hung dry? Do they get stretched out much with the water still in the fabric? Been a Hanes guy for years and may convert.
Hey Jeff, i have not had any issues with the neck line on these at all. I had noticed a little shrinkage in the length though, but that was when I had been drying them on low heat setting. The ones I did dry by just hanging up, no shrinkage have I noticed. These are awesome undershirts for the money.
I have to give the Kirkland Pima cotton v necks 5 stars myself, as I am wearing one while I am typing this review. When I first put it on, I thought wow, this thing feels real good. I wear a large and the fit on me was close to perfection. I have to say that for the price of these pima cottons, the value is most surely there.
The way I read about Pima is it has longer fibers and smoother, and lasts quite a bit longer than regular cotton will. I will be putting these to the test for sure, but I also noticed besides feeling smoother against the skin, they seem to me at least to breathe a bit better than regular cotton does. This is also a plus. 5 stars so far from me, Mr C.
thanks chris for sharing your thoughts of the costco pima cotton v-neck undershirt! i agree with you, it’s a winner, especially for the price.
for your reference, pima cotton is considered either “long staple cotton” or “extra-long staple cotton” (els). meaning, longer smoother fibers. i’m not exactly sure how you could confirm if a garment had els cotton, with one exception. if the garment says it’s made with supima cotton (super pima), it’s verified extra-long staple cotton that was grown in the united states.
check out this other comment on my site if you want to learn a little more about egyptian cotton, some of which is els cotton.
Kirkland pima coton v necks were 5 stars! Loved them!
Sadly, as of the last 6 months or so, my Costco, CT, stopped carrying them. They also used to carry slim fit dress shirts which were on par with shirts that cost 3 times the money…they stopped carrying them too! Now I only see the dress shirts that are super full cut for the tubby guys. :(
What’s up Costco?
heya chris — thanks for those deets. i’m planning to visit costco this week, so i’ll take a look and see if they are still carrying those pima cotton v-neck undershirts and report back here.