Jarts Missile Game 1954 Vintage Kid’s T-Shirt

Jarts (or lawn darts) is a game from a simpler, more naive time. Sure, they could embed themselves in your little sister’s head just as easily as the lawn, but they were tons of fun and for some reason, our parents let us toss them around with little to no supervision. When dentist Lawrence Barnett invented this innovative outdoor game in his upstate New York barn in the early 1950s, he couldn’t have imagined the controversy that would erupt and surround the pastime. Manufacturing of Jarts as a commercial product began in 1954 in South Glens Falls, New York, and became an instant hit in backyards across America. The lawn game featured oversized darts made of metal and plastic that were thrown at plastic tubes laid on the ground as targets. With play similar to horseshoes, the game became a standard at picnics and barbecues in the 1960s and ‘70s. In 1971, the courts upheld a decision that the game could not be sold in toy stores or toy departments, but Jarts and knockoffs under other names lived on through much of the 1980s. After years of debate and reports of injuries, lawn darts eventually were pulled off the market by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1988 and banned from further sale.

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 Gildan 5000B tees, one of the best-wearing kid’s 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, this youth pro weight tee is perfect for every kid who wants a comfortable shirt to play, relax, or romp around in and our durable, high-quality prints will survive many adventures.

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.

*Sport Grey is 90/10 cotton/polyester and Ash Grey: 99/1 cotton/polyester. **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.