Back to Basics: The Major Differences between a Dress Shirt and a Sport Shirt

by Shawn Deny Internet Marketing Manager

Often when buying men’s cotton t-shirts, it’s very easy to get confused between a dress shirt and a sports shirt. This in turn makes it very difficult for men to buy situation specific apparel, as they don’t know how to differentiate between a men’s performance t-shirt and a dress shirt.

In truth, there are some very major differences between the two that are as follows:

Style

The easiest way to tell the difference between a performance t-shirt – be it for men or women – and a dress shirt is by their style and coloring. Dress shirts are more conservatively styled and colored as opposed to men’s performance cotton t-shirts and tend to have stiffer collars.

Men’s cotton t-shirts and performance t-shirts come in a lot of different patterns that are bigger, bolder and come in varying colors. Moreover, a men’s performance shirt comes with pockets, epaulets, buttons and decorative stitching, button down collars etc.

Sizing

If you go to a store to buy dress shirts off the rack, you will get only two measurements on the tag i.e. sleeve and neck length. An example of this is: looking for a dress shirt that has a 15’’ neck size and 32/33 sleeve length. There’s also an alternative measurement; the European sizing that comes in 36, 38, and 40 and so on.

Women cotton and men’s performance t-shirts on the other hand come in sized Small, Medium, Large and so on. Have trouble getting the right sized shirt online? Take help from this size conversion chart!

Fabrics

Usually cottons of finer weaves are used to make dress shirts that typically have a higher thread count. In turn, there are different ways and weaves used to make a dress shirt such as twill, broadcloth, pinpoint oxford etc. When out browsing for shirts, know that the ones having a slight sheen are dress shirts without a doubt.

When it comes to men’s performance shirts, even if a simple men’s cotton t-shirt is traditionally made for sport it is made by rugged weaves such as flannel, plain oxford or even much lighter weaves such as chambray and linen. As compared to dress shirts, performance t-shirts for both men and women come in a variety of colors and patterns too.

What Is The Bottom Line?

Generally speaking, a men’s performance cotton t-shirt is meant to be more casual in style as well as fabric. If you are able to spot just this difference when out shopping, buying a situation appropriate shirt and the right one won’t be as hard.

Or better yet, visit Nautical Apparel and browse through the largest collection of men’s performance t-shirts as well as boating t-shirts, hunting t-shirts and men’s cotton t-shirts. You can also buy women performance t-shirts here!