Strip Tees is a recurring series in which I write about t-shirts I like
Happy Taylor Swift Weekend to all who are celebrating.
The global megastar’s much anticipated 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl dropped on Friday, October 3, becoming the most-streamed album in a single day of 2025 with over 300 million plays in less than 11 hours.
How did she — and we — get here?
Our story begins in earnest on October 24, 2006, when a 16 year-old country singer/songwriter from suburban Nashville (by way of suburban Reading, Pennsylvania) with a precocious pop sensibility and emergent cross-over potential released her eponymous debut record to instant acclaim.
Now let’s jump ahead to November 11, 2008, when the barely legal starlet dropped her second studio album, and a star was born. Fearless debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling nearly 600,000 copies in its first week en route to becoming America’s best selling album of 2009, taking home Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys, and catapulting Taylor Swift to the top of Pop Star Mountain… where she’s comfortably remained ever since.
Now let’s back up just a bit to the spring and summer of 2008. Swift is still in her “Supporting Act” era but staying true to her surname, having rapidly expanded her fan base on the strength of relentless gigging and high-profile exposure earned from assuming opener duties for country stars Rascal Flatts, George Strait, Brad Paisley, and in a gorgeous twist of fate, her hit-making muse Tim McGraw and his wife Faith Hill for select dates of their Soul2Soul II Tour.
If Malcolm Gladwell were to train his gimlet eye on the career of Taylor Swift, he would point to 2008 as her “tipping point,” the year that set her up to become the cultural juggernaut she is today and one of the most influential and commercially dominant pop stars of all time.
This was the year that saw her place the keystone in the bridge that carried her from country curiosity to Top 40 sensation, that linked the final radio singles from her debut record (“Picture to Burn” and “Should’ve Said No”) to the first smash singles of her sophomore effort (“Love Story” and “White Horse”), that took her from sharing the bill with Big & Rich and Cowboy Troy at the KISS Country Chili Cook-Off in Pembroke Pines, FL (January 27, 2008) to sharing the stage with Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, and B.B. King at the GRAMMY Nominations concert in downtown Los Angeles (December 3, 2008)
That pivotal year is represented here in this exceptional shirt specimen": a “First Edition / First Printing” of Taylor’s 2008 official tour merch. Printed on the front of this flattering canary yellow, 100% cotton Gildan garment is the smiling, curly-haired songstress clutching her pearl-inlaid, custom Taylor-brand guitar — on point! On the reverse are her concert locations, beginning with her February 15 appearance at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach, SC and notably ending with a phantom Scottsdale, AZ date (no evidence exists of Taylor Swift ever performing in Scottsdale in 2008, leading me to conclude the show had been scheduled at the time of printing but canceled in the interim).
Over the last few years I have been quietly amassing a stockpile of what I would call “RC” and “XRC” shirts of 21st Century pop icons like Taylor, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, One Direction, and the Jonas Brothers. Borrowing from familiar sports card terminology “Rookie Card” (RC) and “Extended Rookie Card” (XRC, or a player’s first appearance on a card when included in an update or traded set, usually released the year prior to their official RC in a standard issue set), I have designated shirts from what would be considered the artist’s first solo headlining tour as their RCs, and shirts from their earlier promo or non-headlining tours as their XRCs.
Therefore, this Taylor tee would fall into that coveted XRC category, but with a delicious twist…
I have tracked down three variations of this shirt, each sporting the same obverse graphic and but featuring a different assortment of dates on the back. After spending far too much time sequestered in deep research, it is my expert opinion that the subject of today’s “Strip Tees” is the first version of the shirt, with subsequent printings made to reflect additions (or as in the case of Scottsdale, subtractions) to her tour dates while replenishing her stock at the merch tables following what can only assumed to be a swift sellout of the initial print run.
I own this shirt in two sizes: an XL that stays with me and this Small (18” x 25.5”) that I’m listing at quizdaddys.com to commemorate Taylor’s transition into her Showgirl era. If you’re looking to impress your fellow Swifties, or if you’re a keen investor looking for an alternative (and wearable!) asset class, take this one off your Wi$h Li$t and add it to your collection today.