It's a question that's been bugging me since "Stranger Things" became a sensation in the summer of 2016.

How did Dustin — the lovable curly-haired character played by Gaten Matarazzo — get to have a T-shirt that reads "Waupaca, Wis." in his wardrobe?

The green tee shows up in the fifth episode ("The Flea and the Acrobat") of the beloved show's first season. And it's not just a quick flash — Dustin spends a good 25 seconds walking and talking with Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas tight in the frame and the city's name is hard to miss.

Back in 2016, I'd sent a few emails to Netflix in an attempt to contact somebody working with the costumes to find out more about the shirt. I didn't make much progress and, before long, the attention of the television-devouring masses moved on to other things. (The shirt would resurface later in 2016 in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch where host Lin-Manuel Miranda wore one for a "Stranger Things" spoof.)

On a whim, I tried again last week and, to my surprise, things were far less strange. I tracked down costume designer Kimberly Adams, who worked on the first season, and asked how a shirt repping the city of about 6,000 people in central Wisconsin made its way onto the back of a demon-hunting tween in 1983 Hawkins, Indiana.

After more than two years, a second season having come and gone, and Gaten growing up to the point he's able to drive a car, I found my answer.

"We tried loads of vintage T-shirts on Gaten and the ones that felt right for his character went to legal for clearance, and from there we built him a closet of T-shirts," Adams explained. "There was no question that his character had to be the graphic T-shirt-wearing kid.

"We had to do multiples for all the boys to create closets that had multiples for dirt or stunts and photo doubles, and also for growth over the months of shooting. We took the original artwork and scanned it and had it printed on multiple T-shirts and then aged accordingly.

"Because they lived in Indiana, it felt right that he could have visited up there with his family and gotten the T-shirt. The artwork was so good we had to use it."

So there it is. There wasn't some native of Waupaca working his or her hometown into the "Stranger Things" universe. It was just part of a vintage T-shirt collection and was chosen for its Midwestern location and snazzy design featuring a jumping whitetail deer. (The look was a big enough hit that replicas of the T-shirt — perfect for those putting together a Dustin costume for Halloween — have been available to purchase for years.)

The third season of "Stranger Things" lands on Netflix on July 4.

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