A science experiment brought to you by shirt.woot.
I received my The Rustic yesterday, and my Capture of the Puffaluffs today, and I decided to do some serious research into the sizing dilemma. To do this, the puffaluffs had to be sacrificed, so I threw them into the wash indiscriminately. While in the wash, since I was unable to photograph myself, I took this photograph of The Rustic on top of a "regular" mens XL shirt.
As you can see, the sizes are not TOO dissimilar, though there's a distinct difference in the shoulder/upper chest, and an obvious length difference. A couple hours later, the puffs came out of the dryer, and I compared the shrunken shirt to my precious, now-irreplaceable rustic.
Again, it's not too far off, with most of the shrinkage at the shoulders and a lot of length lost, but still reasonably close as it tapers to the bottom.
Both shirts look great. The spots on the Rustic photo are from the camera or lighting (the shirt itself is flawless). And yes, the puffaluff faces are completely visible on the actual shirt... they're just a bit small to see from the distance and angle I was photographing at. My only comment is that the inks are a little thin in places, and the shirt colour bleeds through a bit, but by and large, I love how they look.
As for the fit? Well, both shirts are men's XLs. I'm 5'8", 200, and the weight is a gut, not muscles. Unwashed, the woots feel amazing. I love the material, and they fit well. They're not as loose as my shirts normally are, but they don't hug me either... this is to say, it's more form fitting definitely, but there's enough room to breathe and it refrains from accentuating my body's negative aspects. Washed and dried callously, it's really not much snugger, and still looks fine to me. It's incentive to tone up a bit, but it still looks good as I am. I can't wholeheartedly recommend the XL to everyone who normally wears XLs, but I'd say most people will be fine with it. I would definitely, however, say that anyone with broad shoulders for their frame should probably go a step up.
