People are only just realising what tiny pockets on the back of shirts are for

A curious detail on some shirts has sparked a discussion online, with many people only just noticing the tiny pocket at the back. The feature, often overlooked, has left shoppers puzzled about its purpose.

One individual took their query to Reddit's 'What Is This Thing' forum, asking: "What is this tiny pocket on the back of my shirt?" They added: "A small pocket on the back side of a shirt. Too small for anything more than keys! ? Is this a common design feature? What is it for! ?".

The answer, however, may be more practical than fashionable. It's been suggested that this small addition helps companies dodge certain tariffs when exporting clothes.

A user explained: "It's a vestigial device deliberately installed into a great number of imported shirts so that they classify as a specific article of clothing which avoids a tariff."

This tactic isn't limited to shirts. For instance, it was pointed out that shoes with fuzzy bottoms can be classified as slippers, benefiting from lower tariffs, reports the Mirror.

One person commented: "Wow, so basically, having the soles be more than 50% felt, it can be reclassified as a slipper. This is a loophole due to slippers having lower tariffs than shoes,".

Some individuals have shared tales of how companies exploited loopholes to dodge elevated tariffs, with one person noting, "Back in the 80's and 90's Japanese SUVs had tariffs on them, but they were just shipped into the US without a back seat so that classified them as a Van or something and they just installed the seats here."

A response came from a Redditor highlighting an ongoing tariff: "Fun fact: that tariff is still in effect. It's known as the 'Chicken Tax', and it was put into effect because, in the 1960s, post-war Europe put a tariff on US chickens to prop up their domestic chicken industry and domestic farms. The US retaliated with a 25% tariff on a variety of things, including light trucks."

They further explained, "The tariff targeted European, especially VW and light truck exports, and also affected Japanese exports to the US. This resulted in the kind of thing you're talking about where vans would get imported to the US with seats and windows, so it was a passenger vehicle."

Continuing the history, they added, "The seats and windows would be removed, and the window holes would get welded over. It also led to amusing light trucks like the Subaru BRAT that had two flimsy backwards-facing seats in the truck bed. The chicken tax is why Toyota builds their trucks for the US market in North America."

As highlighted by Marketplace, there are even shirts "intentionally designed with tiny pockets near the waistline, which lowers the cost of importing them".