How to Date Vintage Carhartt: Logos, Labels and Tags by Year

Carhartt tags by year: the quick chart

Two cautions before you rely on any chart, this one included. Carhartt’s own history page publishes no dates for its logos, so every year you see online for a logo comes from collectors and dating references, and they do not all agree. And Carhartt used up old labels before starting new ones, so treat each line as a window, not a cut-off.

What years did Carhartt use the heart logo?

The heart with a rail car across it goes back to the company’s first customers, railroad men. Carhartt’s own archive shows a button with the train car in a heart from about 1910, and the 1904 advertisement above shows it earlier still. The dating reference Vintage Clothing Guides puts the logo from 1900 to the mid-1960s. You will see a much narrower claim repeated online, 1959 to 1962, and nothing we could find supports it. The useful rule is simple: a heart logo means the mid-1960s or earlier, and how much earlier is read from the rest of the garment.

One trap. Carhartt WIP, the European fashion line, brought back a heart logo in 2023, and the words Carhartt WIP sit inside it. That is a modern piece. An original heart label is on work clothing and never says WIP.

When did the C logo start?

The wave-shaped C is the logo on every Carhartt made today. Vintage Clothing Guides dates the current C to 1966 and notes that the labels have changed little since 1967; another published logo history says 1970, and Carhartt does not give a year. Either way, a C logo means the piece is from the second half of the 1960s or later, and it is the care tag, not the logo, that dates it from there.

How do I read the date code on a Carhartt care tag?

Later Carhartt carries a small white care tag sewn inside, often in a pocket or a side seam, with a short number printed on it. Read the last two digits as the year and the one or two digits in front as the month. 598 is May 1998. 0301 is March 2001. Care labels became a federal requirement in the early 1970s; the Federal Trade Commission issued its Care Labeling Rule in December 1971, so a piece with no care tag at all and no sign that one was cut out is usually older than that.

What does the name on the label tell you?

• Hamilton Carhartt, the founder’s full name, appears on early labels. The company was founded in Detroit in 1889 as Hamilton Carhartt and Company.
• Hamilton Carhartt Overall Co. is the company name before 1965. That year it merged with W.M. Finck and Co. and became Carhartt, Inc.
• Carhartt, Headlight and Finck on one label is the early 1960s. Carhartt bought the Crown Headlight and Finck overall companies in 1960, and Vintage Clothing Guides dates the shared label 1962 to 1964.
• Carhartt’s, with an apostrophe and an s, and plain Carhartt were both used on old script labels. Neither one dates a piece on its own.

Which Carhartt jackets came out when?

These dates set the earliest a piece can be. A hooded Active Jac cannot be from the 1950s whatever the seller says, and a Detroit jacket cannot be older than 1954. We have left double-knee pants and brown duck out of the table on purpose: published sources give different first years for both.

Does Union Made or Made in USA date a Carhartt?

Less than people think. Union Made appears on the 1904 heart logo above, and Carhartt still makes some clothing in the United States with union-represented workers, so neither phrase proves age by itself. What Made in USA does tell you is where the piece was not made: Carhartt opened its first plant in Mexico in the late 1990s, so a tag naming another country is from then or later.

Is my old Carhartt worth anything?

Age decides it. As of our 2026 read, vintage blanket-lined chore coats commonly bring $200 to $380 and never-worn Detroit Jackets from the heart-logo years $500 to $700 and up, while ordinary modern Carhartt sells as good used work clothing. The Carhartt value guide sets out the figures and what moves them. Do not wash an old piece before someone has looked; wear, fading and paint are part of what collectors want.

Where can I sell vintage Carhartt?

California Vintage Buyers buys old Carhartt from every state: chore coats, Detroit jackets, overalls and anything with the heart. Text photos to (949) 449-1255, we look at it together on a free video call, agree the price on the call, and pay through PayPal before you ship, with shipping on us. In Southern California we come to you and pay cash the same visit. Old work clothes rarely turn up alone, so photograph the Levi’s, the Lee and the rest of the workwear with it.