Cool t shirts are a part of the modern landscape today, with everything from unicorns to quirky catchwords printed across the front. Cool t-shirts weren't always such a phenomenon, though; like every other great idea, they got off to a slower start. Men started wearing plain t-shirts as undergarments at the end of the 19th century, but it took until the middle of the 20th century for them to become fashionable. Now it seems like there are cool t-shirts for sale everywhere you turn, from the mall to the drug store. The idea of cool t shirts came about in the 1950s, when various companies in Miami began decorating their shirts with locally themed designs.

The cool t-shirts that came out of Miami had things like the names of popular resorts or popular cartoon characters. In the 1960s, the cool t-shirts for sale at all the popular stores were the ringer shirt, which became a staple for youth fashion and rock-n-roll. The 1960s also brought one of the most well-known cool t shirts of the last century, the tie-dyed shirt. These cool t-shirts were (and still are) made with a process involving tying and screen printing basic tees. It's still easy to find these cool t-shirts for sale across America and the world, and they will forever be associated with the hippie movement. Nowadays, though, the t-shirts that are considered "cool" are little les psychedelic and a little wittier, but there's no way of knowing what will be popular next.