Ernest Holmes Company 1916 Vintage Men’s T-Shirt

Ernest Holmes Sr. was a mechanic in Chattanooga, Tennessee who is credited with inventing the tow truck in 1916. After helping a friend recover his car using three poles, a pulley and a chain hooked to the chassis of his 1913 sedan, Holmes realized that his contraption could be useful beyond just this one need. After refining his invention, Holmes began manufacturing what we now know as the traditional tow truck or wrecker, receiving a patent on his design in 1918. Holmes sold both turn key tow trucks and the wrecker body as a bolt on unit to auto shops, racetracks, and garages, and went on to design a multitude of tow truck offerings, covering just about every recovery need. Several Holmes wreckers were sold to the United States Government at the tail end of World War I, to be outfitted for military use. They would be used in full force during the second World War when Holmes supplied the Allies with 6 to 7 thousand heavy-duty military grade wreckers.

 

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Like all our designs, this one is treated with our signature ‘relic-ing’ process which includes our own secret recipe of hand-painted chipping, cracking, fading, and just the right touch of yellowing to ensure that it looks the part of a true vintage imprint.** We lay these works of art down on premium Bella+Canvas 3001 Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tees, one of the softest, best-wearing t-shirts available today, via state of the art direct to garment (DTG) printing which allows us to create a vintage effect that simply can’t be accomplished with other printing methods. In short, these shirts are everything you’ve dreamed of and more – it feels soft and lightweight with just the right amount of stretch making it comfortable and flattering for both men and women.

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Not sure what size is your best fit? We recommend taking one of your current t-shirts, laying it flat and measuring it. The measurements in the chart below are taken with the shirt laying on a flat surface. To get the length, measure from the high shoulder point down to the bottom of the shirt. To get the width, measure approximately 1-inch below the armhole, across the chest, from seam to seam. While our tees are all made using premium, pre-shrunk, ring-spun cotton, there can be some shrinkage depending on your personal wash and dry cycles. With that said, if you’re on the fence, we always suggest going up a size.

 

 

All sizes are provided in inches!

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*Heather colors are 52% combed and ring-spun cotton/48% polyester. Athletic and Black Heather is 90% combed and ring-spun cotton/10% polyester. Ash color is 99% Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton and 1% poly. **Due to the nature of the printing process and different sizes of shirts offered, imprint position and scale may vary slightly from the product images, but we do our best to be as accurate as possible.