I have not gotten the official word from Hanes yet, but this reader wrote in asking for a recommendation to replace is former favorite Hanes Perfect-T undershirts that he believes to be discontinued.
The Question
Hey Tug,
Love the site – so much great information here about undershirts.
I’m looking for a recommendation I’m hoping you can help me out on.
I was a big fan of Hanes Perfect-T, the first run, both the white v-necks and the black crew.
Then the black changed, and it’s fit was horrible and length noticeably shorter. Now, obviously, they’ve been discontinued.
I’m trying to move on to something else, but I don’t want to go out and buy dozens until I get the right fit.
What I’m looking for is something that has a little bit of thickness too it.
So many of these undershirts are virtually see through.
And for the v-necks, something with a little bit of length to help the shirt from perpetually coming untucked would be great as well.
Any suggestions?
Best,
-mc
My response:
hey mc,
good to hear from you!
thanks for stopping by my site and sending in your question.
you know, i’m going to have to dig into a bit and get back to you.
i hadn’t heard that the perfect-t got discontinued.
in fact, mrs. tug and i were at target recently and i could have sworn i saw the perfect-ts there.
i’ve sent an email to my contacts over at hanes to see what’s happening with the perfect-t.
as for recommendations, well the ones i can think of off the top of my head that have a little bit of thickness to them would and a bit longer would be the kirkland undershirts/t-shirts from costco, some of the tactical 3.11 utili-t shirts, the long tails from sierratradingpost.com, gap undershirts, and also the 100% cotton undershirts from campbellsville apparel.
of course, there are other heavier t-shirts like the ones local screen printers use for printing t-shirts.
if you take a look at theundershirt.com, you’ll get an idea of what i’m talking about.
i’m in the process of pulling out all my undershirts, taking measurements, and hanging them all up so i have easy access to them.
if i come across any others that might fit the bill, i’ll be sure to email you back!
plus, i plan to get to the store again soon and i’ll take a look around to see if anything catches my eye.
will keep you posted and publish an article about this exchange to see if any one else has any recommendations!
hope the above helps. keep me posted on what you decide to buy.
Confirming Perfect-T Was Discontinued
Well, although I didn’t hear back from my contacts at Hanes, after a little googling, it’s pretty evident that Hanes has in fact discontinued the Perfect-T.
On Hanes.com, I found the Perfect-T in their clearance section, but no longer for sale.
I also found another website (was on basicsbymail.com) that shows the product as discontinued, but still has some of the Perfect-T’s in-stock (white, black, grey).
This is what their site says:
Please note that Hanes has discontinued this popular style!
Once this inventory is gone, that’s it.
So order while you can
The main/only reason a product line would get discontinued would be because of poor sales and I’m pretty surprised that the Perfect-T line came and went so quickly.
Although I can joke and say it must not have been that much of a “Perfect-T”, I can only imagine how much revenue a Hanes product line has to generate for them to consider keeping it.
Considering the company generates roughly $4.3 Billion per year (12/2010), a line has to perform for it to be worth their time to continue making it.
Let’s not forget the rising cotton costs too because that could factor into this equation as well.
In the last year alone, cotton prices have gone up from roughly $0.80 per pound to 213 cents ($2.13) per pound – a shocking 2.6x increase in just the last 12 months!
When costs are higher and sales are lower, a pragmatic, financially responsible company will have to make tough decisions and cut their losses on under performing lines.
Now, I’m totally speculating on the reasoning here, but it’s just food for thought.
I think I’m going to have to create a Techcrunch-like “Deadpool” for undershirts now, considering how many keep getting discontinued.
Maybe Hanes should hire Charlie Sheen back and have him wear the Perfect-T in all his video rants (which I love btw – the guy is a genius).
Did they briefly have “ComfortSoft” on the Perfect T packages? I spotted one on ebay that is both ComfortSoft and Perfect T, like they temporarily used the cheaper, thinner material on the otherwise same design before switching to an all new branding/make.
hey reticuli — yup, they sure did have “comfortsoft” on the perfect-t packages.
tbh – it’s a little hard to figure out what hanes is/was doing with the “comfort” messaging. <- check out that article and you'll see what i mean.
I don’t remember them originally having ComfortSoft on them before, though. Am I wrong? The ComfortSoft I see in the stores now is a thinner stretchy cotton. Love the Prefect T, but some of them are starting to fall apart.
http://images.craigslist.org/3rd3K73H25Nb5rb5tcd6t1f08cff1ae611db5.jpg
Those fuckers. Now it’s the same type of crap Hanes is selling as Fruit of the Loom.
hey reticuli! you know, i still see these perfect-t undershirts from hanes at target from time to time. i really don’t know what is going on.
i’ll have to visit target again and see if they are there.
Anyone have any luck finding the next best thing to the perfect t?!
I still have (and wear) about 10 black perfect t’s from mid 2011 when they could still be found at target stores. They’re still in great shape!
I don’t want to go out and buy anything else and it end up being crappy :(. Did hanes ever come out with something similar?
heya james! you know, i still see the perfect-t at target from time to time. sometimes the selection is big, and other times not so much.
i’ve never got a straight answer out of hanes of whether or not that program is ongoing or not. hopefully one day, i’ll get the real scoop from them. stay tuned!
Every so often I still spot Perfect T’s at a deep discount chain named Factory-2-U in California. (Think of them like a Big Lots to find closeout / discontinued clothing.)
Another thing good about these Perfect T’s is to buy one size up for sleeping. I use ‘M’ to dress, ‘L’ to rest.
that’s funny questing! i do the exact same thing – size up to large for sleeping! gotta have a loose, light-weight undershirt for sleeping in for sure!
thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I just bought a pack of Perfect T shirts from Target tonight. I previously purchased ComfortSoft shirts after not finding any Perfect T shirts on Amazon, but the shirt felt thin and it didn’t have the fit I liked when wearing a Perfect T shirt. I am guessing the t shirt quality is lower because cotton prices are more expensive.
hey tim, if i recall correctly, the perfect t is more expensive than the comfortsoft. if that is the case, then it would make sense to me that you’d see a “quality” difference (improvement) in the perfect t. retail price can be a direct result of actual manufacturing costs, and it’s easy to use a lesser-quality cotton to offer a lesser-priced undershirt.
i do agree that the pefect t does feel of better quality than the comfortsoft though. hope you enjoy it.
as for the “discontinued” part of this article, i’m still not fully clear if the perfect t is a mainstream product for hanes or if they are still clearing out inventory. every time i go to target, i usually see a hodge-podge of perfect t availability vs. a complete line up. glad you picked some up though!
@chris..
from which store you buy? can u please tell us! (apparelnbags.com)
thanks for stopping by. please don’t use the comments section here to promote your site with text links. i have updated your links accordingly.
Of course .
What undershirt would you recommend that resembles the perfect t the most?
well that’s a little hard to say because it combines fit and fabric. if i gave you a little chart, would you be willing to get me the measurements of your existing perfect-t undershirt?
This is a bummer! I really like the fit better on the Perfect-T than these new ComfortSoft ones. I love the black v-necks. The Perfect-T is a bit thicker and slightly more fitted than the new ones. I put on a ComfortSoft and I was swimming in it. Not to mention the fabric is thin and cheap-feeling. I’m not sure how much they’ll shrink but I feel like I need to go a size lower than I normally do.
Thanks for the confirmation, though. Maybe I can snag some on eBay.
for what it’s worth david, i have been to target recently and still see some perfect-t undershirts in stock there.
i can’t quite figure out whether or not they’ve been fully discontinued, if they’re just selling out their existing inventory, or what? i’ve tried to reach hanes a couple times, but they don’t return my email inquires.
I’ll confirm that I was able to grab what little they had left at the Target near me. I did get the impression that was all they had left as it was in the back far corner of the store.
Thanks for the tip!!
Happy Holidays!
you can still find these at some Target stores, just picked up a two pack yesterday of white V necks yesterday
hey chris! yeah, i noticed that too, but it’s hit and miss. i’m not sure if they are just selling out of their remaining inventory, or if the product is just not getting restocked very often.
hard to say. i emailed hanes a while ago, but they never sent me a response.
glad you found it at your local target store. how do you like them?