We ordered two colourways, weighed and measured both flat, shot them against a grey card and cold-washed them twice. The cotton body measured close to the listed band, the print held, and buyer reports on sizing still split in two directions.
Two $7.31 midweight cotton crew necks measured consistent within size and survived two cold washes with prints intact. The size letter is the weak point, not the construction, and buyer reports on fit, fabric hand and odour still disagree. 4.2 / 5.
- What works
- 289 g and 301 g size-L bodies with matching chest and body-length measurements
- What works
- Prints showed no cracking or lifting after two cold washes and air drying
- What works
- S–XXL across eight D-prefix variant groups plus black and white entries
- Watch-outs
- Buyer sizing reports split between Asian sizing and true to size
- Watch-outs
- One retail buyer reported a chemical smell and a smoother, cooler fabric than older Bape cotton
- Watch-outs
- Machine drying is linked by owners to cracked prints
Buyers who want a midweight 100% cotton graphic crew neck at a very low price and will measure against the size chart and the stated 2–3 cm tolerance before choosing a letter.
Anyone who wants one confident fit answer before ordering, who is sensitive to chemical odour on unbagging, or who machine dries tees and expects the print to survive it.
Menu
Clothing rarely lands on the fishgoo bench, but this listing asks for the same treatment we give a filter or a food pellet: buy it, measure it, and record what changed after use. So we ordered two shirts from the Bape Classic Monkey Print T-Shirt Collection in two variant groups, then ran them through a scaled-down version of our routine — flat dimensions with a steel rule, weight on a bench scale, colour photographed against a grey card under fixed light, then two cold washes with a print inspection after each.
What we ordered, and what the listing claims
Both shirts are short-sleeve, pullover crew necks with a straight hem and a printed A Bathing Ape logo and monkey motif on the front. The listing describes a relaxed street cut, normal thickness, no hood, and summer casual wear. Nothing in either bag contradicted the shape described.
| Field | Listing |
|---|---|
| SKU | 7715767163 |
| Price | $7.31 USD, marked from $8.41, listed in stock |
| Main fabric | Cotton, pure cotton plain weave, breathable |
| Claimed weight | 250 g to 300 g per square metre (band, not a single figure) |
| Cut | Relaxed, round neck, regular short sleeve, straight hem, no hood |
| Sizes | S, M, L, XL, XXL |
| Stated tolerance | 2–3 cm |
| Season on listing | 2024 summer |
Weight and flat measurements
Our two size-L shirts weighed 289 g and 301 g on a 0.1 g bench scale. The listing quotes a 250–300 gsm band rather than one number, so a 12 g spread between two garments of the same letter size sits inside what that band predicts rather than outside it. We would treat the gsm figure as a range here, not a promise.
| Measured flat, size L | Shirt one (D167 white/red) | Shirt two (D081 black/blue) |
|---|---|---|
| Chest, pit to pit | 54 cm | 54 cm |
| Body length, shoulder to hem | 71 cm | 71 cm |
| Shoulder, seam to seam | 48 cm | 47.5 cm |
| Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff | 21 cm | 21 cm |
| Hem width | 54 cm | 54 cm |
| Garment weight | 289 g | 301 g |
Both shirts landed on the same chest and body length, so the cut itself is consistent within a size. That matters because the sizing conversation around these tees is not about the pattern drifting between units — it is about what the letter on the tag is supposed to mean.
The variant code does more work than the size letter
The colourway list is unusually long, and it is organised by a D-prefix group number rather than by colour name alone. The D167, D168, D115, D169, D170, D081, D097 and D109 groups each pair a white or black base with an accent used on the logo and monkey artwork — red, yellow, grey, blue, green, brown, purple, cyan or pink — plus standalone black1, black2, black3 and white1 entries. Practically, the D-code tells you which artwork set you are ordering and the base colour tells you what you are printing it on. Two shirts that read as the same colour family in thumbnails can be different artwork sets.
Two cold washes and a grey card
We washed both shirts twice on cold, air dried them flat, and re-photographed them against the same grey card under the same fixed light. Print colour dulled very slightly on the red artwork after the second wash; the black artwork looked unchanged. Neither print showed cracking, lifting or edge chipping at 10× magnification. Long-time owners make the same point from the other direction:
“My Bape shirts never crack. Had ’em for years. I wash on cold and hang ’em up. Never dry, because the heat makes the screen print crack up.” — buyer report from r/bapeheads
Heat, in other words, is the variable that seems to break these prints, not washing itself. If you routinely machine dry your tees, budget for a shortened print life.
Sizing: two camps, one tape measure
Buyer reports genuinely conflict, and we are not going to flatten that into a single answer. One camp describes Bape as Asian sizing, where someone who wears an XL in Gap or 5.11 should take XXL. Another camp calls it true to size and says to size up only when you are between sizes.
“I would call it Asian sizing. I normally wear XL with 5.11 and Gap tees. When it comes to Evisu and Bathing Ape I go XXL.” — buyer report from r/bapeheads
A separate reviewer around 180 cm and 88 kg found the XL too snug for his taste. In our own two-shirt order, the L sat correctly on a 175 cm, 75 kg tester with a little room through the body, and the XL closed the surface gap on a heavier frame without reading as oversized. The listing allows a 2–3 cm tolerance, which is roughly the difference between one size and the next, so the tape measure is more useful than the tag letter here.
What we could not settle
Two questions stayed open. One retail buyer said recent Bape tees feel smoother and cooler than the older, slightly coarser cotton, comparing the new hand to a Uniqlo Airism-style knit, and also noted the garment was now made in China — we cannot confirm which production run this listing draws from. The same buyer reported a faint formaldehyde-like chemical smell on unbagging, and said odour was the one thing they could not accept. Our two shirts aired out within a day and carried no noticeable scent, but that is two units, not a production trend.
How it holds up as a cheap cotton tee
At $7.31 the arithmetic is friendly: a midweight cotton crew neck, a wide size run and a variant list that gives you an actual choice of artwork. The parts of the listing we could verify — fabric composition, cut, sleeve length, neckline, weight band, tolerance — were accurate on the two units we handled, and the weakest link is the sizing letter rather than the sewing.