I'm more intrigued by this t-shirt:
It says it's from 1997 on the description.
Perhaps there was an album on the horizon back then and things were rolling, so merch was being prepared?
This was available from rockabilla for while a while around this time.. It was a very quiet time in the GNR world
Yeah it didn't mean anything as far as a new album or something going on with the band. New merchandise was always being sold by places like rockabillia,concert express,and all those other mail order catalogs. It's kind of like how they sold new Misfits shirts during a time period when there was no Misfits.