What is the perfect basic white tee? It’s been hotly debated since time immemorial. There are countless Reddit threads on the topic, detailed YouTube breakdowns that garner millions of views, and even style-savvy publications (ourselves included) are yet to reach a unified consensus. But you can’t talk about white tees without at least mentioning Hanes.

This American institution has built a multi-billion-dollar business on the back of cheap, simple, reliable tees available from all good convenience stores, supermarkets, and malls. But they’re not always as cheap as you’d think, or basic. 

Saturdays NYC’s new Hanes collaboration is a shining example of a basic T-shirt that’s anything but. This is a regular Hanes tee, the type that’ll set you back less than $10 in a Walmart, reimagined through a slightly oversized cut and stitching that's only visible on the inside, producing a cleaner outer. It’s also garment-washed and pre-shrunk for added softness. A pack of two Hanes x Saturdays NYC tees, wrapped in clear plastic packaging, is $59. 

That might sound like a prestige price for Hanes’ famously affordable basics but Hanes is no stranger to these kinds of premium prices and designs. This is especially true in Japan, of course, because everything is cooler in Japan. 

Hanes’ Japanese contingent churns out collaborations en masse, all at inflated prices with upgraded construction to match. BEAUTY&YOUTH, a brand owned by Japanese retail giant  UNITED ARROWS, created a Hanes’ tee two-pack made of American cotton with an updated compact neckline; Citen, also owned by UNITED ARROWS, is a Japanese lifestyle brand shaping XXL proportions from Hanes tops; and Biotop, the tasteful retailer that regularly collaborates with artisans A. Presse and Guidi, turned Hanes’ mass-market tops into ring-spun American cotton mock-neck tops. These collaborations all released in March 2026 priced between $30 and $45.

Outside of Japan, Supreme’s long been elevating Hanes’ tees in the classic Supreme way: a box logo, albeit a tiny one. As if to prove its fashion credentials, the 125-year-old T-shirt maker recently popped up at Paris Fashion Week with some suitably high-end collaborations. No other basic tee brand is showing up at fashion weeks nor matching Hanes’ relentless collaborative output, though some are doing similarly cool stuff.

Tokyo streetwear label VAINL ARCHIVE exaggerated the proportions of Fruit of the Loom while multi-hyphenate menswear guru Keiji Kaneko turned its T-shirt cloth into double-breasted suits. Kirkland, Costco’s line of inexpensive essentials, took a different route and put its grey cotton fabric onto Nike Dunk sneakers, though that was cotton jersey of the sweatshirt variety, rather than T-shirt-style. Gildan, the other titan of plain tees, has remained notably quiet, however, and is yet to register any noteworthy collaborations like those above.

That’s especially ironic since Gildan tees are so often the blank canvas used in streetwear, like the infamous Life of Pablo merch and the early days of the equally infamous label Anti Social Social Club (allegedly). Although if you were to count all the upstart streetwear brands that've printed on Gildan blanks, the brand has been involved in countless collaborations.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.