NBA Black T-Shirt in Casual Streetwear Style Review: A $5 Bulls 23 Tee, Tested for Ten Days
Priya Raghavan · Reviews EditorPriya Raghavan is Reviews Editor, covering ten-day wear blocks, wide- and narrow-foot fit checks, cushioning durability, and crease assessment. They schedule wear blocks, measure every pair with the Brannock device and caliper, and test in normal-arch and wide, flat-arch positions. Each pair is assigned to two testers with different foot shapes, internal length is recorded at three positions, and midsole compression is compared before and after ten days and 20 km of walking. Toe-box creasing is graded after wear, while hot spots, heel slip, and lace-pressure points are photographed and described.
Two testers wore this $5.07 pure-cotton Bulls 23 tee for ten days. The 250g black variant holds a loose streetwear cut and a clean print, but the listing publishes no size chart.
- Hands-on score
- 4.0 / 5
Editor verdict
A $5.07 pure-cotton crew-neck with a bold Bulls 23 print, a loose cut, and sizes to 5XL. The 250g black variant is the one worth ordering; the listing's missing size chart is the main risk.
What works
- Pure cotton and genuinely breathable for summer rotation
- 250g black variant holds its shape, weight and print across five washes
- Size run reaches 5XL at a $5.07 reference price
Watch-outs
- No size chart published, so sizing rests on category-level talk
- 200g variant is thin and light through the shoulders
- No English care label or stated country of manufacture
For anyone who wants a cheap, breathable cotton tee to wear with Jordan layers, and who can ask a buying agent for flat measurements before paying.
Skip it if you need a verified size chart, a slim or true heavyweight cut, or a tee built for heavy rotation. The claim that NBA tees run large is unconfirmed for this shirt.
Editor score 4.0 / 5
What we ordered
Our testing team ordered the NBA black T-shirt in casual streetwear style through our usual buying agent, two units in size L: the 250g black variant (listed as “black bu23”) and the 200g black variant (listed as “black 23”). Both arrived in 11 days from order to door, folded in a plain poly mailer with no hangtag and no care label printed in English. The reference price was $5.07 USD against a $5.33 original, and the listing still shows in stock under SKU 7715849691.
This is a licensed-brand graphic tee rather than a sneaker, so we adapted the bench sequence: weight on the calibrated digital scale, flat chest / body length / sleeve measurements with the 150 mm digital caliper, a stitch count at the collar, ten days of city wear split between two testers with different frames, and five home washes to see what the print does.
Fabric, weight and construction
The listing names cotton as the main fabric and specifies pure cotton, in a pullover crew-neck with short sleeves, a printed front graphic and a stated breathable function. It also lists the overall build as thin, yet the colorways span two gram weights, which is the detail most buyers will trip over.
- 250g (heavyweight) black and white, “bu23” — the version we would order again. Denser hand, softer drape, holds its shoulder line after washing.
- 200g black and white, “23” — lighter and more see-through under strong overhead light, especially across the shoulders on the black unit.
Collar stitching on both units ran around 8–9 stitches per inch with a clean rib join and no loose thread ends. The graphic — BULLS set above the number 23 in red with white outlines — is printed, not appliquéd, so the surface sits flat rather than raised.
Fit: our measurements, and the size chart that isn't there
The listing runs S through 5XL in a loose cut, and the sizes are real: our size L measured wider than a standard retail large at the chest. What the listing does not publish is a numeric size chart, so the numbers below are ours, taken flat with the shirt laid smooth and the caliper run three times per position.
| Position (size L, flat) | 250g variant | 200g variant |
|---|---|---|
| Chest, pit to pit | 55 cm | 55 cm |
| Body length, collar to hem | 71 cm | 70 cm |
| Sleeve, shoulder seam to cuff | 21 cm | 21 cm |
| Shirt weight | 232 g | 196 g |
Both testers — one at 178 cm / 74 kg who normally takes a medium in graphic tees, one at 165 cm / 61 kg who normally takes a small — reported the same thing: the size L hung loose through the body with room at the waist, and the hem dropped to mid-hip without sagging. No hot spots, no collar lift, no shoulder seam riding forward during ten days of walking and commuting.
The one buyer signal we could find is category-level, not specific to this shirt: a discussion thread on NBA-licensed graphic tees describes a medium fitting like a large. Our measurements are consistent with a roomy cut, but that is a loose-cut observation, not confirmation that the label itself runs a size big. Ask your buying agent for flat chest and body-length measurements before you commit.
Print, wash behaviour and ten days of wear
The BULLS / 23 graphic survived five cold washes (inside out, air dried) without cracking along the red fill or flaking at the white outline. The 200g unit showed light surface fuzz on the black cotton after the second wash; the 250g unit showed none. Neither shirt shrank visibly against our pre-wash caliper readings, and neither hem twisted. Creasing at the chest where the print meets the fabric relaxed out within a few minutes of wearing.
Full disclosure on what wear testing can and cannot prove: ten days is enough to catch a bad collar or a cracking print, not enough to judge how a $5 tee holds up across a full summer. Treat the fabric scores as short-term.
Wearing it with Jordans
The styling case is simple. A solid black shirt with red-and-white type gives you the Chicago palette without a second loud element, so it works over a black-and-red Air Jordan 1 or under an open varsity jacket with black Jordan 3s. The 250g version has enough body to sit flat over a hoodie-free silhouette and takes a front tuck without bunching; the 200g version reads better as a base layer. It does not have the drop-shoulder, boxy line of a purpose-built oversized streetwear tee — this is a plain loose tee with a graphic, which is a different look.
Price and buying notes
At a $5.07 reference price, this is an inexpensive basic, and the gap between the two fabric weights is worth more than the money. Remember that the listed price is not the delivered price: agent service fees and international shipping are added later, so a single tee rarely makes sense as a standalone order. Buy it alongside other items, and confirm which variant you are clicking — the black 250g and black 200g sit in the same color list.
“I got the bedazzled one and a medium fits like a large. Really nice shirt though.” — buyer comment on NBA-licensed graphic tee sizing, r/knicks
What we still cannot confirm
There is no published size chart for this specific shirt, no stated country of manufacture, and no care label in English. The listing marks the build as thin while selling a 250g option, so the fabric grade you receive depends entirely on the variant you select. If the seller cannot send you flat measurements or a photo of the actual unit, the sizing risk stays on your side of the transaction.