Jockey Classic A-Shirt / Wifebeater

The "A-Shirt" is a style of shirt commonly referred to by the slang term "wifebeater".

It is an unkind designation, based on the stereotype that men who wear this kind of shirt beat up their wives.

It is also completely undeserved. It is simply a shirt that shows off a lot of arm and shoulder muscles.

An example of this is the Jockey Classic A-Shirt, shown on the right here, in black (which is the colour I chose when I purchased 3 such shirts in a 3-pack about 2 weeks ago).

And leaves you exposed to high doses of cosmic UV radiation if you are out in the sun too long - as I was last weekend - so you may get some hefty sunburns on your shoulders and neck while wearing this shirt - like I did.

The Jockey Classic, as a brand, is fairly good however and its not the shirt's fault I didn't think to wear sunscreen. (In my defense it was partly cloudy and I didn't think I needed sunscreen!)

I also have some other shirts by a different brand (Calvin Klein), same style, but white. See photo below.

Now when I first got the Calvin Klein shirts it was pretty nice to wear - but in the first 3 - 4 washes it stretched like crazy and had almost no elasticity. The reason? It is 95 per cent cotton and 5 per cent elastane. And I think the elastane is only used for the collar, cuffs, etc. The rest of the shirt stretches like crazy. I can't even wear that shirt in public because it stretches too much.

And the white also stains easily. Which is why when I was buying new shirts in the same style I opted for black instead. I figure if it is going to get dirty and possibly stained I should get black shirts instead.

No amount of washing with bleach / etc seems to get the Calvin Klein shirts back to their original white colour. Very annoying. Maybe I am not using the right cleaning liquid and stain removing spray - but I shall keep trying. That will make a worthy future review on stain removal products.

Another thing I like about the Jockey shirts is that they are made with a ribbed knit (whereas the Calvin Klein shirts are just thin cotton fabric). The ribbed knit is warmer to wear, which means I will be baking in the hot sun if I wear it outside on a hot day, but ribbed knit also retains it shape better, so that even if it stretches a little it should still keep its shape.

However!

The Jockey shirts are also more expensive. With tax from Sears they were $32.77 for the 3 pack. Roughly $10.92 per shirt.

If I recall correctly the Calvin Klein shirts were roughly $19.99 or $24.99 for a 3 pack from Sears. Add in tax and it would be roughly $22.59 to $28.24... so obviously about $5 to $10 cheaper.

But frankly, if they stain so easily, they're not ribbed, the elastane isn't doing its job, then it clearly becomes more obvious that the more expensive shirts from Jockey are the smarter buy.