Placket Shirts I Embroidery Project

The placket shirt is without a doubt the most pervasive garment choice of the embroidery industry. Plackets have withstood the test of time, with very little change in the basic design since they took the world by storm in the early 70’s when an apparel company sewed a small alligator on the left chest and started a fashion craze.

Over the years, the placket shirt has sported a variety of faces, including polo shirt, golf shirt, staff shirt, and tennis shirt. Each style has specific differences, but all are similar in construction. The polo shirt features a soft collar, 2-3 button placket, banded sleeves, and a split tail. The tennis shirt is the same as the polo shirt, but differentiates itself by having a split tail, with the rear section being longer than the front. (This was because tennis Players had a strict dress code which required the tail to be tucked in. When they went up for a serve, the back of the tail tended to pull out. Thus, a longer length was created for the tennis version of the placket shirt family.)

Meanwhile, the golf shirt features a tailored collar, 3-5 button placket, hemmed sleeves, and is typically a jersey type of knit using blended fabrics. Finally, the staff shirt has no specific design and is really just a generic catch-all term for a placket shirt.

Despite these unique characteristics, all three styles have blended and evolved so much that they are no longer treated as different entities. The terms sennis shirt and staff shirt are pretty much extinct, with golf shirt and polo shirt being the reigning rulers of the marketplace.

Regardless of how you describe and categorize placket shirts, there is no doubt that they are an integral part of what you do. But after all the hundreds of shirts that you have sewn, do you do anything different? If you are like most shops, then you typically put all of your embroidery in the same location, day in and day out. By far the most common logo placement is the left/right chest location. It took several years, but sleeve placement has become quite popular as well.

Less common but coming on strong is the upper back region. I remember pushing this location on customers 15 years ago, but met with a lot of resistance because it was pretty much unheard of at the time. My reasoning was simple; people spend a lot of time waiting in lines, and the natural place that their eyes rest is on the back of the person in front of them. Large jacket-back size logos weren’t appropriate, but certainly a logo ranging in the size of a left chest design would fit nicely. Today, that location has become quite popular. (Not because of anything I did!)

Another location of interest is the shirt tail. Designers such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren noticed a trend towards wearing the placket shirt with the tail out and decided to try something different by putting their icons on this previously unexposed section of the shirt. Abercrombie and Fitch also capitalized on this by sewing their trademark AF monogram on tails.

All of these designers and manufacturers have an influence on what you do. As such concepts gain popularity in the retail marketplace, they invariably spill over into the imprinted sportswear industry, so it makes sense to pay attention to what is happening in the department stores. Yet this industry tends to resist such trends as long as possible. Why is this? Stay tuned for more.