Ask Tug Update: Looking for Ribbed White Cotton Undershirts

Back about a month ago, a reader wrote in desperately looking for a good ribbed white cotton undershirt. Here’s what he had to say:

Hey Undershirtguy, maybe you can answer my question!

I used to live in Switzerland (1998), and I bought a bunch of Jockey ribbed white cotton undershirts over there. They’re T-shirt style, with a much bigger, rounder neck than American style crew necks, so they don’t show so much under a dress shirt with the collar unbuttoned. You could say they’re like a wife-beater tank with sleeves. They’re also quite form-fitting and long down the waist…

…Do you know if such undershirts are available in the USA anywhere?
[see the rest of the article here]

Well, he was kind enough to write back to update me on his progress:

Well, I got the Danish shirt and it’s not bad, but the collar is still too tight around the neck. Nice quality, on the tight & sheer side.

Then I ordered some shirts from RibbedTee and those have the collar I was looking for. I think I found what I needed!

Thanks, M

I emailed him back and asked for a little bit more detail on his experience with both the undershirts:

Let’s see; the Danish shirt is a tight, quality knit, elastic and smooth as if it were some kind of synthetic fiber, but it’s 100% cotton. The collar hem is a ¼” narrow ‘bead’ of stitching, which is what I like, as opposed to the ½” wide traditional knit of folded hems that can sometimes get floppy and worn before the rest of the shirt is toast. However, the collar is still too tight for me and they don’t seem to offer anything larger.

I ordered 3 different packs of RibbedTee shirts to test sizing – medium and large. Everything arrived promptly. I’m going with the Large Classic fit. The others were close enough, so I’ll keep those and wear them too. The collar is the size I wanted (finally!) and I like the ribbed cotton. The length is great for me, as I’m 6’3”. Only minor issue was that the packages weren’t marked as to exact sizing variations (Classic vs. Relaxed), so I had to email them to figure out which pack was which for ordering more of the right ones.

I’m glad to have finally found something satisfactory!

Thanks for the information M! I really appreciate you writing back in to share your experience.