7 Rare and Valuable T-Shirts Worth Thousands
Rolling Stones Knebworth tour crew t-shirt
1976
$9,235
photo credit: Red Bull
On August 21, 1976, the iconic Rock band The Rolling Stones played their last show of the year on the grounds of Knebworth in England. It was a famous day in Rock History because Lynard Skynard played the same day at the same venue. A small number of shirts were printed out and given to the Stones’ friends and crew members who worked on the show. The t-shirt shows a character from the famous French comic series Asterix, who is carrying a large stone that reads “stones at Knebworth 76”. Because of the rarity of the shirt today they are worth more than $9,000. Even copies of the shirt have gone for around $900. This is why it’s good to never throw out your old concert shirts in case they become valuable.
Led Zeppelin Knebworth Backstage Pass t-shirt
1979
$10,000
photo credit: Music Feeds
In 1979, Led Zeppelin played two shows at Knebworth. They hadn’t played in the UK since 1975 so the Brits were quite excited. Zeppelin played for record breaking crowds at the venue. The grounds were suppose to only hold about 109,000 people but at one of the shows around 200,000 fans showed up. The price of admission was 7.50 pounds. The band printed a limited amount of a special concert shirt that also doubled as a backstage pass for those shows. In 2010, one of those rare vintage shirts sold for 10k on eBay.
Run DMC Adidas t-shirt
1980
$13,000
photo credit: rainbowlaundrysj.com
The 1980’s hip hop group, Run DMC collaborated with shoe maker Adidas to produce a line of their concert shirts. Before they were famous the members of Run DMC only wore Adidas and even wrote a song about the brand. This got them a sweet sponsorship deal with Adidas. After their album Raising Hell in 1986 the group signed a 1.2 million dollar contract with the shoe company. They printed 30 Run-DMC/Adidas concert shirts and today they are a hot commodity, especially in the sneaker collector community. They are valued at $13,000.
John Lennon’s Home t-shirt
Early 1970’s
$16,400
photo credit: 8ball T-Shirts
In the early 1970’s, John Lennon, lead singer for the Beatles, opened up a restaurant called Home. Many celebrities and influencers at the time would hang out there, eat and listen to live music. It was located on 91st Street and Second Ave in New York City. A friend of John’s designed and produced some Home shirts for John and some of his employees. John would wear it to multiple shows to promote his restaurant. It especially became famous after he wore it in an iconic photo he took with Yoko Ono. At that time the shirt had become infamous among die hard Lennon fans and many tried to purchase the shirt off of him. Eventually, one of the Home shirts went for $16,400 at auction.
UNICEF 1996 Olympics t-shirt
1996
$42,000
photo credit: Lazy Penguins
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, now known as just the United Nations Children’s Fund, collaborated with Hanes to produce and sell shirts during the 1996 Olympics. Their goal is to raise money to ease child poverty around the world. The shirt was 100% cotton and plain black. The charity made about 1 million dollars a day during their campaign. Nowadays, one of these shirts can be very valuable to collectors. One collector paid 42,000 dollars in an auction to claim the shirt.
UNICEF Cargo Flight t-shirt
$300,000
photo credit: CBS News
The UNICEF Cargo Flight T-Shirt was made to raise funds to transport relief goods to Kenya. These shirts cost anywhere from 18-1,000 dollars, depending on what the buyer wants to spend. On the front there is a graphic of a green cargo plane dropping supply boxes representing the purpose of the shirt. The color choice of green was chosen to represent that a “greener” world is a better world. One buyer was feeling extremely generous and paid $300,000 for the shirt. It was the most amount of money one of UNICEF’s shirts had sold for and is one of the most expensive shirts ever purchased in human history.
Superlative Luxury t-shirt
$400,000
photo credit: Luxuo
The world’s most expensive T-shirt is priced at $400,000. It was designed in London UK, by the brand Superlative Luxury. This T-Shirt is manufactured with 100% green energy. No CO2 was released in the process of making this shirt. It has a circular design on the front that represents the sun. Also, 16 diamonds are sewn into the design because if you’re gonna ask that much for a shirt it better have freaking diamonds on it. However, no one has purchased this shirt yet and it’s been available since 2012. Maybe they need to drop the price a little.
