I wear a lot of black t-shirts. My family makes fun of me for the fact that I pretty much wear a black t-shirt and gray shorts/khakis almost every day. I’m not sure how it started, probably about twenty years ago, but I think a black tshirt and jeans/khakis are the perfect clothing base layer.

My t-shirt drawer is half printed t-shirts and half black T-shirts. I have, right now, black shirts from three different brands in that “varsity” set of shirts. In a lower drawer there is another half drawer of the "junior varsity" shirts.

In my opinion, people who review black t-shirts tend to do it all wrong .

T-shirts should be reviewed like books, worn until they are worn in, and worn out, until the end. Making sure that they hold up and keep themselves and their collar in good shape.

I tend to find a brand that makes black shirts that I like, and then slowly acquire a half dresser drawer full of that brand until the end of that shirt. Like many things in life, all good black t-shirts come to an end.

At one point that preferred brand was J. Crew, and then they went and changed the shirts, and I didn’t like them anymore, no longer recommended. Next was a company called Pact, which also had the advantage of being environmentally conscious. Then, for some reason Pact stopped making black t-shirts altogether for some period of time. When they started selling them again, the new ones weren’t good, no longer recommended. (I still have about 8 of the good ones, but they are starting to wear out, so sad.)

Currently, Ugmonk and Western Rise are the two shirts that I have tested/worn for a length of time, and will buy more of, slowly, these things aren't cheap. The road behind me is littered with other brands that I didn’t like, or which didn’t weather well. Ugmonk are more like the Pact and JCrew ones of those salad days, and the Western Rise shirt is this awesome athletic fabric. If I'm going to wear the t-shirt under something, I usually pick an Ugmonk shirt.

I won’t throw shade at the other companies whose shirts I have tried and discarded, but there are a lot of those. I like the Supreme Tagless Tees Hanes shirts as a knock around, but wouldn’t put those in my varsity lineup. Got a shirt you think I should try? Throw me a line on Twitter, I’m @bump.