I'm going to have to agree with the people that think they have crappy QA. Maybe it's simply because they do such a large volume of shirts that some bad ones get by, but I find this hard to believe.

I worked as a quality assurance inspector at the Abercrombie & Fitch distribution center for over a year so I know what a good shirt should look like. I own probably about five or six t-shirts from American Apparel of various styles and two of them have major issues. They do feel nice, I love the fit, and I'm all about buying American made stuff, but not at the cost of quality, especially when the cost is higher than average. I don't think this applies as much to their stuff that's been printed on though. If a shirt has printing on it and is from a clothing manufacturer or retailer it will probably go through some kind of quality check at least twice if not three times instead of just once.

For all you guys complaining about shrinking, everything doesn't go on hot. If you don't want a shirt to shrink, then always wash it on cold. If you want some shrinkage then go with warm. On hot you're taking a chance (the label probably says warm anyway). In my experience shrinkage occurs in the length of a shirt too, not the width, which is something to keep in mind. This means when and if it shrinks the most significant change will be in the length of the body and sleeves. This only applies to 100% cotton t-shirts.