Nashville Tees Locals Actually Wear: Our Top 5 Spots (No Rhinestone Guitars)
Nashville runs on music, hot chicken and a deep suspicion of anything that feels fake. That last part matters when you shop for Nashville tees. Walk down Lower Broadway and you’ll find a thousand shirts with a guitar, a cowboy boot and the words “Music City” in rhinestones. Locals don’t wear those. They wear shirts from small print shops and homegrown labels that actually know the city.
We know the difference because Crooked Monkey has a location right here in Nashville, and good tees are kind of our whole thing. So we skipped the honky-tonk gift shops and went looking for the brands Nashvillians actually rep.
Here are our five favorite spots for cool Nashville tees.
1. Friendly Arctic Printing & Design
This East Nashville print shop earned a “Best T-Shirts” nod from the Nashville Scene, and one look at their designs explains why. Think Cowboy Chicken, Raccoon Yokel, Love Y’all and a Tennessee State Parks collection packed with waterfalls and wildflowers. They screen print with water-based inks on organic and recycled blanks, so the shirts feel soft from day one and keep getting better. Playful, a little weird and 100% local.
2. Perfect Tenn
Perfect Tenn has made apparel in Nashville since 2010, and you can find their shop in East Nashville’s Fatherland District. Everything gets designed in-house as a riff on Tennessee life: possums, tomatoes, music, local sports and the kind of inside jokes you only get after a few years in town. They print in small batches, so the niche designs stay niche. If you want a shirt that makes another local nod at you in line for coffee, start here.
3. Project 615
Project 615 tees come with a mission. The brand launched in 2010 with a simple motto, “Spreading Love The Nashville Way,” and it has donated close to a million dollars to nonprofits since then. Their Nashville pride designs became a rallying point after a devastating tornado hit the city, when one shirt raised $60,000 for relief in a single day. Buy one and you get a clean, local design plus a story worth telling.
4. Grimey’s New & Preloved Music
Grimey’s has kept Nashville’s record collectors happy since 1999, and today the shop lives in a converted church on East Trinity Lane. A Grimey’s tee works like a secret handshake in this town: it says you dig through crates, catch in-store shows and care about music beyond the radio hits. Grab a record, grab the shirt and wear both with pride.
5. So Nashville
Scot and Jessica started this brand in 2012 as a line of hockey-inspired tees, then grew it into So Nashville in 2017. The designs riff on local sports, East Nashville humor and the little things only residents notice. They sell online now, which makes it easy to send a little piece of Nashville to anyone who misses it.
The Nashville Look
The best Nashville tees skip the clichés. They carry a print shop’s craft, a neighborhood’s sense of humor or a cause the city rallied behind. That’s why people keep wearing them long after the trip, and that’s exactly the standard we use for our own custom apparel. Curious how other cities stack up? Check out our guide to the coolest Kentucky tees, just up I-65.
Got a Brand in Nashville? Let’s Make Something Worth Wearing.
If your company, venue or creative team calls Nashville home, we can help you create Nashville tees and merch people actually keep. From screen printing and embroidery to custom swag kits, we design and produce custom apparel with the same bar as the shops on this list: memorable, wearable and worth a spot in the closet. Reach out and let’s build it together.
