Festina lente

Something happened with the quality of Levi's t-shirts.

Over ten years ago I bought two, grey Levi's t-shirts with cool Grateful dead art (not fan of their music but love that design of skeleton holding roses). I have used those shirts all that time. Washed them countless times. Used them in sports. Used them with deodorant and antiperspirants. And they are still good to use. My kid is using them as pajamas sometimes. The fabric is thinner of course, but no holes and the print is clearly visible.

Here is one of them now.

I saw that old ad of those 19th century Levi's jeans excavated out from some field. Even buried in mud, they are good to go after a century. Or something like that, anyway. I thought that was neat. These are some durable clothes. When I bought those two shirts, as a pragmatist, I thought, that maybe that same quality carries over to their t-shirts as well. And it did, I thought. I was happy.

Nowadays durability is also a component of sustainable design. Clothing, that lasts year after year of hard use lives up to the standards of planetary boundaries respecting limits. And this was a component of my next purchase decision as well.

So, I went to the Levi's brand store in Finland, Helsinki, and bought a pair of nice grey t-shirts to finally replace those two. The print wasn't as cool as the skeleton, but I liked the shirts, nevertheless.

(Here is one of them.)

Until they both got several holes in the armpits.

In a year these new shirts have endured less wear and tear than those two in a decade. Seriously, what happened, Levi's?