Brand History - Salem Sportswear

If you were around in the 80s and 90s and followed the NBA, or even any other US sports league, you could not avoid the iconic caricatures of Salem Sportswear. With their light-hearted and humorous approach, the revolutionized sports merchandising. By using the era's most famous athletes and portraying them in an exaggerated way, they made the stars more relatable for the fans.

Founded in 1980 by Keith Kennelly and Kyle Nagel, the company basically started with a simple weekend course in screen printing. First, called Salem Screen Printers, the company initially focused on band and music shirts before venturing into the sports scene.

This was until they were approached by electrician Bill Fickett who wanted to expand his own T-Shirt business. He was already putting caricatures on shirts, one of the first ones being the Larry Bird caricature "Massachusetts State Bird".

After they had teamed up, licensing contracts with every major sports league followed shortly after and the Salem Sportswear was born. Naturally, due to its high marketability, the NBA stuff was the most successful - especially the championship tees were a must-have for all fans.

Time was always of the essence as the company tried to produce the championship tees as quickly as possible, so they set up screen printing shops in various locations and started printing the championship tees as soon as the winner was certain. Check out these old-school ads featuring John Paxson and Bill Cartwright of the Chicago Bulls after each win of the first three-peat.

In 1993, Salem Sportswear was acquired by Fruit of the Loom and integrated into the sports branch "Pro Player Apparel", and even though Salem Sportswear does not exist anymore today, back then, they changed the merchandise business drastically.

If you are interested in vintage tees from Salem Sportswear or similar brands, check out our rare items section for a selection of coveted pieces!