Vintage Champion Blue Bar Muppets Animal Tee, Eau Claire

Gold and yellow Champion tee printed with Animal from the Muppets behind a drum kit, lettered Eau Claire.

The print is copyright Henson Associates, Inc. 1979. The neck label is Champion's blue bar, and the care label reads Champion Products Inc., Rochester, New York, an address the company dropped after it was sold in 1989. Made in USA, 100% cotton. Between the copyright and the address, the shirt sits inside a ten-year window.

Champion began in Rochester in 1919 as Knickerbocker Knitting Mills, the Feinbloom family's business, selling sweaters to college teams, and it spent the next seventy years as the mill that put names and numbers on American athletic clothing. Sara Lee bought it in 1989 and the Rochester address went with it. Animal, for his part, is the drummer of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the house band of The Muppet Show, which ran from 1976 to 1981.

Four things at once: a Champion blank, a dated copyright, a licensed character, and a Wisconsin town.

Worn, with the wear you would expect of a shirt this old.

Length 24.5 in. Chest 34 in. Waist 34 in. Shoulder 15 in. Sleeve 15 in.

100% cotton.

Pit to pit 17 in. Length 24.5 in. Shoulder 15 in. Sleeve 15 in.

Modern size: Fits like a modern Women's XS or Men's XS.

One of one. Sold as found.

No returns - as is.