Where Can I Find Cotton Spandex T-Shirts In An Assortment of Colors?

From: The Underwear Excpert

For those of you who love the sleek look of a nicely fitted (body conforming) t-shirt, but don’t want to sacrifice comfort, your best bet is to find one that has a little or lot of stretch to it.

Fabric stretch can be achieved in several ways, but the most commonly used approach in many of today’s fitted garments is when manufacturers create fabric blends using elastane (rubber-like yarns), which is also commercially known as Spandex.

While there are a vast majority of Spandex-including blends, one of the most commonly available blends is 95/5 Cotton/Spandex. In other words, the shirt is made from 95% Cotton and 5% Spandex.

For us guys, it’s sometimes hard for us to find a company that offers stretch t-shirts in a large assortment of colors.

This reader wrote in asking for some guidance on where to find colored 95/5 t-shirts:

Hi – just found your site. Amazed. There are others like me that care this much about this topic. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised!

I read on your site about the classic Merona 95 cotton / 5 spandex crew neck T-shirt from Target, which is my favorite t-shirt. And of course I can’t find them, either. So I am so thankful for the wealth of info you provide.

I’m sure I’ll be able to find something in both black and white that will work. I generally get something fairly tight to wear underneath button downs and sometimes polos. So they need to be form fitting and stretch a bit, and have to be crew neck. And 100% cotton doesn’t cut it, as you know.

My main question is, where can I find the same 95/5 blend in other colors?

Underneath a button-down sometimes something other than white or black works – grey, maroon, red, navy, whatever.

I’ve never been able to find a 95/5 cotton/spandex crewneck in anything other than black or white. Possible? Thanks!

Where To Find Cotton/Spandex T-Shirt in Multiple Colors?

My response:

heya eric,

good to hear from you buddy. thanks for stopping by my site and sending in your question!

it’s pretty amazing how many people loved that merona cotton/spandex “t-shirt” from target. it’s even more surprising just how many people actually wore them as undershirts instead of outer-shirts.

tbh, my background and expertise is mostly in undershirts, and you certainly won’t easily find a 95/5 “undershirt” in different colors other than white, grey, or black.

that said, if you want more colors, you need to look at/google search for t-shirts made from that blend. once you focus on locating t-shirts (versus undershirts), you’ll find a much larger variety of colors. keep in mind that because they are t-shirts, some may be quite a bit heavier than undershirts. the main differences between undershirts and t-shirts are fabric weight and shirt length. generally speaking, t-shirts will be heavier/thicker/less see though and shorter, compared to undershirts which will be lighter weight and longer.

off the top of my head, i know banana republic makes a blend similar to 95/5 in a t-shirt and lots of guys wear them as undershirts. same goes for h&m.

i also wouldn’t be surprised if someone like urban outfitters has something like that too. of course, there’s also american apparel which likely has some cotton/spandex or similar blend, and you can get them in pretty much any color you want.

here’s one other crew neck option you might want to look at.

another reader wrote me and speaks very highly of them, though they are not exactly a 95/5 blend. in addition to white, black and grey, they come in two different color blues.

one other thought — find a white 95/5 that you really love — buy a bunch — and dye them any color you want at home with rit dye. you can pick up rit dye at nearly every supermarket and drug store. i suspect you could also find a wide selection of rit dye colors on their website or amazon.com too.

hope the above information helps! keep me posted.