Hey guys, first time in this thread.
I wanted to add to my Dude apparel collection (I have a Westerly, purple V-neck and a couple of different pairs of the pants) and was looking at the Kaoru Betto baseball shirt. I've seen several replicas listed in various places and a few featured here but to my eyes none of them are accurate.
For one, they all seem to be off-white or cream with brown sleeves but to me the screen-used shirt doesn't look brown at all. Another thing I noticed is that the print on most replicas is way too big or the writing is too bold and the shirts are the wrong style. The real shirt is a 3/4 sleeve raglan rather than a full long sleeve shirt.
While the shirt is definitely off-white / tan / or just dyed to look very dirty, the sleeves look very purple or like bleached Navy Blue to me rather than the brown I always see in replicas.
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I found a 3/4 raglan baseball shirt in heather white and vintage purple that I thought looked very close but I couldn't find anyone who could screen print the image on without it being a huge run of shirts.
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In my search, I saw that Jeff Bridges wore the "same" shirt in at least two other movies before Lebowski but I do not think it's the exact same shirt.
Here it is the first time he's seen wearing this type of shirt. To me it looks Navy Blue (compared to his black hat) and white. The print is larger, bolder, and lower down with more blank space between the top of the letters and the neck line.
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Then here in the second movie he wears this shirt in (this might be the exact same shirt as the one above)
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Also appears to be Navy Blue and white (or MAYBE black and white. it's harder to tell since the sleeves are covered up) but the print is larger and lower like it is in the first movie.
Then finally in The Big Lebowski, the shirt was maybe bleached so that the Navy Blue is more purple? Or maybe it was dyed to be off white, making it look very old? But the print is smaller as a whole and sits much higher up on his chest than in the previous two movies, making me think it's the same TYPE of shirt but not the same exact one. There is an interview where Jeff says he got it out of his own closet so who knows.
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I finally settled on this one from TeePublic because it not only came in the correct 3/4 raglan, and came in Navy Blue and White, but the print is closer to the right size and position as the Lebowski version. I asked them about getting it on a customized shirt but they didn't respond. So I'll probably be experimenting with bleach to maybe turn it purple, and then washing it in some tea or coffee to darken the white and fade the print.
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