I'm not sure why, but the inflation estimate felt off and inflation calculators get less accurate the further back you go, so I looked up some figures for the 1930s. Turns out that $18 is a decent estimate.

You can absolutely make a thick, hard-wearing shirt for $18 - I am sure someone does indeed make this shirt; most people just want different things. Today's consumer wants clothes that fit nicely, something in fashion, with soft materials and trendy colors and comforting advertising.

I can't point you to a $18 hard-wearing work shirt, but I can point you to something even better: regular Wrangler Rustler jeans from Walmart, $13.98. 100% cotton, thick solid denim, and they look and fit the same as $100 Levis. Even better, for the denim nerds there is a raw denim version, only available online in a boot cut; select the color "rigid" [3].

In another category of heavyweight cloth objects, I can also recommend the "Rothco" canvas duffle bag, $30 [4]. Brand in quotation marks because it seems to be generic Indian military surplus sold under other names as well. The stitching is a bit on the weak side for extreme use but it generally holds up well. If anyone here knows of an even sturdier alternative I would love to hear it.

My checklist: 1) material - must be all natural fiber, 2) weight of material, 3) strength of stitching, 4) type of stitch, 5) reviews that mention serious long-term use. One review by a mechanic/firefighter/etc is worth ten million generic reviews.

Anyone else have tips on quality, long-lasting clothes?

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I used this very useful site [0] to find a paper discussing household income in 1930 [1] which estimates the mean at around $2900/yr and the median around $2500/yr per "family." 2023 household income is 114.5k/year mean and 80.6k/year median. That is, household income has increased by a factor of 32.2x.

That said, household size has declined from 4.1 to 2.5 from 1930 to 2025, so that is 0.61x the size in 1930, so median individual income is really up by 19.6x. So your $0.79 shirt is today $15 (by median individual income) or $24 (by mean individual income.)