FOIAWEAR — CONCEALED COMPASS / OSS Cufflink Compass Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 036 — CONCEALED COMPASS

Concealment was a discipline in its own right: an intelligence device was only useful if carrying it did not make its owner suspicious. So OSS officers heading into harm's way were issued compasses hidden in the least suspicious objects they could wear — cufflinks and uniform buttons, each of which could hold a small, even miniature, compass.

A compass is escape and evasion equipment. It is the one instrument that still works when you are alone, behind the lines, with no map, no guide and no one to ask — the difference between moving toward safety and walking in a circle.

The artwork is a stylised technical illustration — an exploded macro cutaway of a concealed-compass cufflink, with the miniature compass card and needle shown inside. It was drawn with reference to the CIA Museum's photograph of the artifact, but it is an interpretation, not a scale or engineering drawing, and it carries no callouts or dimensions.

Offered in twelve garment colours: the artwork carries light typography on dark garments (Black, Navy, Graphite, Pepper, Espresso, Sapphire) and dark typography on light garments (Moss, Chambray, Mustard, Butter, Light Green, White).

The QR code on the front opens the CIA Museum's artifact page for the Concealed Compass, the source for everything above: https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/concealed-compass/

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States government, or any other government or agency.