It is a form of running or weight lifting singlet.  I wear a running singlet over my thong when cycling to and from the beach.  Mostly the arm holes are not that deep, coming only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down.

These are the types of shirts I wear to the gym 4-5x a week.  They are great for working out in and really show off (without being obnoxious about it).  My personal favorites are the "stretch fit string tank top" made by a company called bestforminc. (http://www.bestforminc.com/best-form.cfm).  I have one in every color and match my workout shorts.   The girls at the gym love them and I always get very nice comments

stanpuppy: Seen those men's racer back tanks and yes they do make you stand out at the gym without actually taking your shirt off.

Wore similar one for the first time at the gym and true women are fond of them. Don't know if it was me in it or how i looked but many women seemed to notice and smile looking in a good way for a change. Maybe females like racer style tanks on themselves and just like seeing them worn doesn't matter on who. Wore it very tight fitted stretchy polyester fabric and few smiles went my way. Also worn  it on the beach and got complimented by critical female who told me i was attired nicely even commenting that other females looking my way smiling with my back to them.

So i suppose showing bit of skin goes better then totally shirtless for some reason. Think it's subconscious way of woman liking the racer back style for themselves but find it attractive on a man as much as for them.Could be wrong but that's opinion i would like to share.
Trying to find other racer back tanks in poly/spandex compression fit with narrow back in colors other then black. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 I have always seen these muscleheads wearing these extreme tanktops, odd I have always thought, but they are popular, or at least they were, especially combined with a fanny pack and colorful pajama-type pants, ...and a headwrap. I now see more often the body armor lycra shirts, very snug. Compression/support I believe, while the tanktop is for venting, I think. Gym policy forces members to have something on their backs, even if it were a handkerchief. It is an unusual fashion place, the gym that is, what people wear to workout and been seen working out (I don't know what the headwrap is for, but I hope it's for something purposeful). I have seen these extreme workout tanktops for sale at the local gym's shop. And at the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Maybe in a meathead mag like Flex? ...and wear 'em proudly, I see dudes walking down in them in West Hollywood and Hillcrest all the time.

 Quote: "If anyone else has links to similar shirts for sale on the web, or knows what to call this type shirt for that matter, please post them information here!"

I've found some luck searching for "cutoff shirt", "cutoff tank", and "cutoff tanktop".

In fact, Urban Outfitters sells a number of tanks in this style. You might find something that you like here: ( http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?id=M_APP_BASICS_TANKS )

I hope that you find what you're looking for!

 I wonder if what Ms. ITHONGIT is talking about is not the standard off-the-shelf tank top or even the more extreme tank tops with very narrow backs, but different style that has a standard t-shirt neck (unlike a tank top that has an opened neck) but unlike a the t-shirt, or even a "wife beater" t-shirt, has the arms missing and the arm holes opened to the waist area.  I see more and more of these (mostly) on men.  Most appear to be home-made when the wearer takes a standard t-shirt complete with the hemmed neck and cuts off the sleeves in their entirety, and everything below the sleeve down to the waist or very near the waist.  Every shirt I see like this has been "home made" except for a vendor who was selling St. Patrick Day shirts which were Hanes t-shirts that someone (perhaps the vendor, perhaps Hanes) cut the arms off in the same manner.  Last week I was at Ceaser's creek and a large group of younger people came down from the parking lot.  There were 5 guys and 7 girls.  All but one of the guys wore this "home made" fashion, and one of the girls had one over her bikini top.  I see these being worn by guys in stores, but never sold in stores.  Guys wear these most any time they could get away with a tank top like doing yard work, hiking, and practically everywhere else -- even in restaurants and banks.  From the sides the opened up arms show a lot of the man's chest and back, but from directly in front or from directly the back, only a little bit of skin on the sides of the mans chest/back are visible.  When the man leans forward, the material covering the chest billows our.  When it is windy, the shirts billow in the wind.  Usually, the front and back are cut out about the same width.  Usually the material is at least wide enough to cover the man's nipples, but occasionally, you see men wearing a width narrow enough to show off their nipples.  In the mid-west part of the USA they seem quite common and I see these every day.  Some of the guys at the college I go to wear these to classes.

The bottom two pictures on the website
http://www.suziee.com/2010/05/diy-how-to-make-your-own-muscle-tank.html
show what I see people around here wearing -- except they the guys don't put knots at the waist as shown.  Each year I see more and more kids in these shirts.  It just amazes me that nobody is selling these in the stores -- I think they would be flying off the shelves!

 I notice a lot of the linked tank tops have full front and back coverage and wide shoulder straps, Like T-shirts without arms.  I much prefer the old style running singlets with wide neck and arm holes, leaving narrow shoulder straps and sometimes narrow racer backs. You can wear them tight but to cover up the top of a thong a larger size worn lose works for me.

The older styles of running singlets had deep neck and arm holes, with just a skinny shoulder straps. 

Some of the light weight mesh ones, (technical fabrics), are partly transparent. I have some old 'Tinley' tops which also have split at the bottom of the sides, like split sided shorts, and the back side is an inch or two longer, which makes it an excellent top to wear over a thong.

Here is an ebay search which will bring up a variety of running singlets
http://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_sop=15&LH_TitleDesc=1&_sacat=0&_nkw=running+singlet&_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc

 On sale here for $10:   http://www.skinzwear.com - String Tank

 On sale here, the Dearm String Tank Top from Undergear for $16:
http://www.undergear.com/P.O.V.%C2%AE-Dream-String-Tank/PE91,default,pd.html?dwvar_PE91_color=DENIM%20BLUE&start=106&cgid=ug-sale

These are the ones I wear every day at the gym
http://www.bestforminc.com/best-form.cfm

I like the stretch fit ones.  $19.95 and they are awesome.  Show everything, but not too over the top.  Both men and women love them (they tell me so).

Each year it seems I see more people wearing what I call (for lack of a better name) home made open side t-shirts.  These are traditional t-shirts on which the sleeves have been removed and the extended arm holes opened very deeply -- often to the waist.  A few companies make similar shirts, but they usually are not as revealing and most I see are obviously home made.  The "better" home made ones are very good looking -- especially on a fit body.  The "worse" homemade ones are pretty ragged and could easily be mistaken for a dust rag.

Mostly worn by guys, a few girls wear these too -- usually over another top of some type.  Acceptance seems to be greater each summer, and hardly a day goes by when I don't see several guys sporting these shirts.  While often worn by lone men, the look also seems to be communal with several men together wearing such shirts.  Last week, three out of four guys who came into a Bob Evans where I was eating wore these shirts and were shown to their tables just like any other customer.  (Randy has worn his at the same restaurant several times.)

Randy has made a few of these shirts over the years, and wore them almost exclusively this summer when shirts were required.  At stores and restaurants alike, they were accepted without as much as a second look.  We have seen them from Texas to Canada and from California to Massachusetts.  They usually are worn loose, so they flap around a bit in the breeze and the front falls away from the body when a person leans forward.  Most are cut basically the same on the front and the back, and show off the entire side of the wearer from the shoulder to the waist.  This is visible even from the front or back with most of these shirts.  Some guys make the fronts narrow so their nipples are always exposed, while others are more conservatively cut.  Even the more conservative shirts can show quite a bit of skin when the wearer bends forward or a breeze comes along.  This is skin which usually isn't shown in places like restaurants, but as I said, acceptance last summer seemed to be 100% universal.  Randy even wore one on an airplane flight, and the only comment was a TSA person who said it was obvious he wasn't hiding anything.

I find these shirts especially nice when wore as a cover-up with a thong swimsuit, and have worn them myself occasionally when I have been otherwise topfree.  But they are not all that popular in the public yet -- much like thongs -- and so the occasional sightings I have, a few a day at best, are about all I have to go on.  If 5% of the population wear this type shirt regularly and 5% wear thongs, the number of thongers who wear them besides me and Randy might be almost none.

Does anyone else wear these shirts regularly and what has the acceptance level been?
Traci
 

These types of shirts have been popular for a good number of years locally. I see both guys and gals wearing these sometimes over a swimsuit, sometimes with shorts. Occasionally I see women wearing them while otherwise top free. I only see a very few that appear to be home made.

They're very practical for summer wear, beach wear and a conventional cover up when wearing a thong, for example when going to the parking lot of the beach you just put one of these on and its perfect.I don't own one but I've always wanted one for these reasons I mentioned.Thanks Traci for the post.

 Here in Ohio, this type shirt seems to have almost surpassed T-shirts, and certainly conventional tank tops on the men.  At stores, at restaurants, movies, and just about every place else, men from about 15 up seem to favor these shirts.  We call them "open side" for lack of a better name.  There are virtually no commercially made shirts like this -- they are all home-made from old T-shirts.  To say I love the look would be under stating my opinion.  I wear these too -- usually over some type of a swimsuit top, sometimes over another shirt, but often like the guys over nothing but skin.  My acceptance has been pretty good.  Only a few times have people "suggested" that I should wear more.  Cutting off the sides from the shoulders to the waist makes them cool, and on breezy days (we get a lot of wind around here) they are blown around by the wind and often expose my nipples.  Again, no really negative comments even when my tits are showing.  They are especially good on the hottest days, but are worn by both sexes even when the temperatures are in the high 60's (18-20 degrees C).  They are so cute on the guys -- and I think this look, along with other healthy activities and diets are making many of the guys who wear them so cool looking.  I have noticed young men seem to be getting more and more buff, and between these shirts, the increase in short cut-offs and Speedos, and other trends, men are looking better and better.  I just hope that as guys start showing off more and more of their bodies, that they will start wearing more thongs and other minimal swimwear.

Mary

 I take it that missing "r" was intentional!

I remember when I was at Cedar Point 8 years ago, I saw a lot of people wearing shirts with almost no sides. I guess Ohio was ahead of the curve on this trend.

 I have a few of these that I have made over the years, and my wife likes to wear them over a G-string to the beach or alone if we are going to a nude beach for a cover-up from the car.  Only issue she has had is that sometimes after washing they shrink and a few months ago on our trip to the beach she didn't realize that the shirt had shrunk up exposing her in the front when she was walking and mostly in the back

I just bought some tiny tank tops. Wore one today. At least one nipple kept popping out. Went several places no complaints. https://smile.amazon.com/ZUEVI-Muscular-Bodybuilding-Y-Back-Yellow/dp/B06XHXVP23/ref=sr_1_190?