Will You Be Immediately Outed As An American Tourist If You Wear Graphic Tees In Europe?

Planning a trip to Europe involves much more than just building the perfect itinerary. What you bring with you matters as well, particularly what you wear. Dressing for the weather is one thing, but wearing clothing that help you blend in like a local when you're exploring your destinations is important. If people can tell that you aren't a local, you could then become a target for tourist scams like fake tour guides, pushy salespeople, or pickpocketing.

Graphic tees are common clothing staples in the US. Think shirts from US-based companies, brands, or sports teams. Wearing this type of branded merchandise is not as common among Europeans, who tend to lean more toward business casual attire when out and about. Popular travel industry pros like Rick Steves follow this rule of thumb too. However, there is some debate about whether graphic tees automatically signal to European locals that you are an American tourist. The idea that Europeans dress sharply might hold true in a general sense, but perhaps tastes are changing across the continent too.

Travel guru Rick Steves has passed on his decades of travel knowledge to his son Andy Steves. Both believe graphic tees with American college or sports team logos are things you should avoid packing on a trip to Europe. This extends to all types of apparel, as Andy explained on his website. Andy opts for simple button-down shirts instead.

When replying to a blending in discussion on the Reddit group r/onebag, some Redditors expressed similar sentiments to Andy's. u/UmmQastal advised against wearing a Yankees shirt (for example) and mentioned button-downs as well. A few frequent European travelers contested this in a forum on Rick Steves' website, stating that Europeans do not dress that differently than Americans. Not all the forum contributors agreed, claiming that Europeans can still easily discern Americans from locals. However, more than logos on shirts seem to be the giveaways. Baseball caps, track suits, and brightly colored tennis shoes are indicative of tourists more so than what is on the person's shirt. The slight caveat to all these observations is age demographics, because younger Europeans do occasionally wear baseball caps and shirts with logos.

While these observations from around the globe do lack consensus, there are things you can do to narrow down your choices of attire. Do some street style internet searches for the specific cities you'll be visiting, as Europe is definitely not homogeneous in taste. Fashion in small U.S. towns is different from that of big cities, and the same is true for Europe. Keep in mind that small European towns might be less accustomed to seeing modern American fashion, even if such fashion has infiltrated larger cities. 

If any of this sounds overwhelming, perhaps err on the safe side and take Andy Steves' advice. One can rarely go wrong with wardrobe staples like plain button-down shirts. Steves and Redditors also advise against wearing light or bright colors, as Europeans tend to wear dark or neutral tones. Shorts and sneakers are stereotypically American too, but at least sneakers will not earn you any strange looks as long as they are a bit more dressy than Nike running shoes. Bring some that can pair nicely with the other clothing items Steves has mentioned.