Pearl Snap Shirts: Why the Snap Beat the Button
Everybody loves the sound. That crisp run of snaps opening in one pull is one of the great sensory pleasures in clothing. What most people don't know is that the sound is a byproduct of a safety device.
The snap was a solution, not a style
Ranch hands and rodeo riders kept getting caught — on saddle horns, fence wire, gates, horns of the four-legged variety. A buttoned shirt holds. The rider goes with it. Somebody smart figured out that a fastener designed to fail on purpose could save a man: pull hard enough and a snap releases, the shirt opens, and you walk away. Snaps were faster to work with cold or gloved hands, too. Give the cap a glossy mother-of-pearl finish, and this ruthlessly practical fix turned out to be beautiful. That's the whole story of great workwear in one fastener.
How to buy a real one
Feel the snap. A good snap has a firm, deliberate action and re-seats crisply. Cheap ones feel loose and mushy from the first day.
Look behind it. Quality snaps are set through reinforced plackets so they don't tear out. This is where most cheap shirts fail.
Check the yokes. Pointed front and back yokes are the tell of a real western pattern rather than a costume.
Buy the fabric. Everything else is moot if the cloth is thin.
Care
Snap the shirt closed before it goes in the wash — open snaps beat each other up and snag other clothes. Wash cold, hang dry, and don't iron directly over the snaps. Do that and a good snap shirt outlives most of the closet.
What we build
Our Western SUN Washed Indigo P-Snap Shirt and BLACK Western P-Snap Shirt are built the way I want a snap shirt built — proper yokes, proper snaps, fabric worth breaking in. Browse the rest in Shirts.
— Josh