Heather Gray Roundup

So, if you care about the whole gray undershirt thing, here's what I've found recently:

J. Crew has plain undershirts in white, gray, or black. They were originally $18.50 each, but have been in the clearance section for a while at $10 each. Periodically they offer additional discounts on sale items; last week it was 30%, which would have made the shirts $7 each, through tomorrow there's an additional 20% off. But it's getting to where sizes and colors are limited. Sizing is the same as J. Crew's other knits and tops, so if you wear a large in their button-front shirts, sweaters, or graphic T-shirts then you'd want large in the undershirts. I have this info directly from a customer-service rep; since clearance items are final sale, I wanted to know with some certainty before placing an order. Of course, in the interim the extra-large gray shirts that I wanted have sold out, so I suspect these aren't going to be around much longer.

Teen outfitter Aeropostale has very similar shirts, originally $12.50 each, currently 50% off that price. In addition to the colors mentioned above, these also come in a nice deep blue. I have no idea how their tops fit, but if I had to guess I'd say the same as J. Crew. (Size charts here.)

American Apparel offers discounted three-packs of some of its basic items. Three gray undershirts are $39, which is about a 25% savings over the single-item price of $17 each. What you get for that premium price is exceptionally soft fabric and a product that is made in the USA. As for sizing, I wear a large in most brands' undershirts, like Hanes, but in AA I need an XL. One other advantage to buying AA is that they offer their shirts in lots of different colors, and in addition to black, white, gray, and asphalt, you can get three-packs of three assorted colors, if that's your thing.

I was surprised to find that Gap offers two-packs of gray shirts, just like Old Navy used to. They are $19.50 for two, which is no bargain, but through tomorrow they are offering 30% off everything if you use this printable coupon, so that brings the cost down to a bit under $7 per shirt. I had planned on going to Gap today to buy some of these, but our plans changed and I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I also happen to have a $10 reward coupon from Gap, so my final per-shirt cost will be even less, depending on how many I decide to buy.

BTW, all of these shirts are 100% cotton (at least, according to the info on their web sites).

As a side note to this whole thing, I wrote to Hanes about my disappointment with the 75/25 shirts I bought a while back at Kmart. I was contacted by someone from the company who wanted more information about my purchase, then told a few days later that they were refunding my purchase price because they wanted me to be completely satisfied. That was not my motivation for contacting them, so I was rather surprised, in a good way. The check arrived yesterday.