Name: Lou
Message: Hi. I recently bought a black cotton t-shirt. It is a really sharp-looking shirt, but I noticed that it STINKS. It is apparently the dye. I have washed the shirt several times, and it still smells bad. It has a sulphur-like odor...something akin to a wet dog smell. I have tried washing, adding scented fabric softeners, and nothing seems to kill the odor. I cannot stand to wear it.

Is it indeed likely to be the dye, and is there anything I can do about this?

Yes, there is one thing you can do, and you should do it right away: return it to whomever you bought it from, and request a refund or replacement!

When someone sells something, there is an implicit warranty that the item will be usable for the purpose for which it is sold. In this case, that your shirt will be suitable for wearing. Obviously, your shirt cannot be worn, even once, and thus you are due either a refund or a replacement. (It is up to the person who sold you the shirt to determine which. All you want is a wearable shirt, though, so either should work.)

Is it likely to be the dye? Not if the garment was dyed correctly. I don't see any way you could distinguish bad smelling dye from bad smelling sizing or other fabric treatments, however. Black shirts are commonly dyed with a type of dye that is called sulfur dye, but there is not normally a lingering odor, at least after the first washing. Either the dye was bad, or something else in the shirt's manufacturing was bad. It doesn't really matter which, from your perspective, though it is an issue for whoever made the mistake and needs to avoid repeating it in the future.

If you bought the shirt at a flea market or some other source you cannot locate again, the best thing to do would probably be to just throw the shirt away. It is not even suitable for use as rags. Who needs horrible-smelling rags?