Front view of a cream Lightning Bolt short-sleeve polo with black floral and landscape artwork and rainbow-colored accents across the chest and sleeves.
Back view of a cream Lightning Bolt short-sleeve polo with a plain body and floral artwork visible on one sleeve.
Close-up of black floral line artwork, rainbow-colored accents, and Lightning Bolt script printed on cream fabric.
Close-up of a Lightning Bolt A Pure Source woven label marked size Small inside a cream polo shirt.
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Front view of a cream Lightning Bolt short-sleeve polo with black floral and landscape artwork and rainbow-colored accents across the chest and sleeves.
Back view of a cream Lightning Bolt short-sleeve polo with a plain body and floral artwork visible on one sleeve.
Close-up of black floral line artwork, rainbow-colored accents, and Lightning Bolt script printed on cream fabric.
Close-up of a Lightning Bolt A Pure Source woven label marked size Small inside a cream polo shirt.

Lightning Bolt 1970s Polo Shirt - Small - Cream with Flowers - USA

$125.00
$125.00
Save $-125.00 Sold out

The softer side of 1970s surf culture: a cream Lightning Bolt polo with hand-drawn florals, loose rainbow color, and the easy, slightly offbeat look that made early surfwear feel like something you actually discovered at the beach.
Description

Before surfwear became a formula, it could be this strange and beautiful.

This 1970s Lightning Bolt polo starts with a soft cream ground and an easy open-collar shape, then sends the artwork wandering across the chest and sleeves: loose brown line drawings of oversized flowers, a rocky landscape, and bands of red, yellow, green, and blue that feel almost sketched on with pastel.

It has that particular California-by-way-of-Hawaii mood we love—sun, salt, color, and a little bit of psychedelia without turning into costume. The print feels more like something pulled from a surfer’s sketchbook than a conventional sportswear graphic.

The 50/50 cotton-poly blend gives it the light, easy hand typical of the period, and the short sleeves and straight body make it the kind of shirt that wants faded jeans, old cords, cutoffs, or a pair of trunks and nothing more complicated than that.

It’s relaxed, graphic, and just unusual enough—the kind of vintage surf piece that makes an outfit without looking like you built one around it.

Measurements taken laid flat:
Pit to pit: 17.5"
Length: 24"
Across hem: 17"
Shoulder Width: 16"

Material: 50% Cotton 50% Polyester
Specifications

Brand: Lightning Bolt
Era: 1970s
Style: Short-sleeve surf polo
Color: Cream with black linework and rainbow accents
Graphic: Floral and landscape artwork with Lightning Bolt script
Material: 50% cotton / 50% polyester
Collar: Open polo collar
Closure: Two-button placket
Sleeves: Short
Country of manufacture: USA
Tagged size: Small
Condition: Good vintage condition

Measurements

Measurements taken laid flat:
Pit to pit: 17.5"
Length: 24"
Across hem: 17"
Shoulder width: 16"

Please compare measurements with a shirt you already own for best fit.
Fabric + Care

50% cotton / 50% polyester.

Hand wash cold using a mild detergent.
Wash gently and only when needed; do not soak, scrub, or wring.
Reshape while damp and lay flat or hang to dry away from direct sunlight.
Do not bleach.
Do not tumble dry.
If ironing is necessary, use low heat from the reverse side and avoid direct heat on the printed artwork.

Vintage fabric and original printing become more delicate with age, so the gentlest possible care is recommended.
Found + Chosen

Lightning Bolt began with Gerry Lopez and Jack Shipley in Hawaii at the start of the 1970s, when surfboards were getting shorter, faster, and more radical. The Bolt became one of the defining symbols of that change—seen under some of the best surfers in the world at Pipeline and throughout the surf magazines and films that carried Hawaiian surfing across the Pacific. By the middle of the decade, Lightning Bolt had moved into clothing, taking that same surf-world identity off the board and onto the street. 

That history matters to us because California surf style grew out of the same exchange. Hawaii supplied the proving ground and much of the mythology; California absorbed it, mixed it with its own beach towns, music, cars, skating, and casual clothes, and sent it back out into the world.

This shirt catches a particularly good piece of that moment. Not a big logo tee, not technical surf gear—just a wonderfully odd 1970s polo covered in flowers, rainbow color, and the kind of loose artwork that could only have come from a time when surf companies were still figuring out what “surfwear” might be.