Old Navy misprints founding year on UI athletic tees

IOWA CITY – At least four styles of college athletic women's tee shirts from major clothing retailer Old Navy were misprinted in production, including one designed for the University of Iowa.

According to its Web site, four of the 29 national university women's tees, printed with the school's name, mascot, and founding year, are incorrect. This includes the UI tee, which has the year 1820 printed on it. The correct year is 1847.

UI Trademark Licensing Director Dale Arens said Old Navy is a retailer that buys from Tee University, a division of Iowa-based Tailgate Clothing, which is a licensed UI vendor.

Arens noted the mistake is unusual for Tailgate Clothing, a company he said does great work for the UI. According to Arens, his team had corrected the design and approved it to proceed, but somehow the mistake slipped through to production.

The other universities with the disparities are the University of Kansas, the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado – Boulder.

Some consumer review comments indicated that many have noticed the misinformation, including one reviewer who said she thought the UI tee was cute, but was turned off from purchasing it because of the discrepancy.

“Actually, I find it kind of funny,” Arens said. “It's a testament to the Hawkeye fans out there that caught it.”

The men's college athletic tees appeared not to have the founding years printed on them except for one, which was correct.

Old Navy stores in Cedar Rapids and Coralville said the tees hadn't been brought to their attention, and that particular style was not available in those stores, just on the Web site.