Monthly archives: May 2007

McDonalds Backlash T-Shirts – The New Protest T-Shirts

15May07

Here are a couple of interesting t-shirts that were recently forwarded to me. I think the I’m Fat shirt is a better executed design than the hotbins one, but I think the sentiment of both is right on. I stopped eating McDonalds on a regular basis after reading Fast Food Nation.

Im fat

I M Fat T-shirt

Img 352 01

I’m loving my heart disease T-shirt from hotbins

Personally I think there needs to be something like this for Coke, High Fructose Syrup and water is probably doing more harm in this country than smoking. Hey, I think it’s a choice but surely there are some facts out there that can help people make better decisions, so why not put them on a cool t-shirt.

Related:

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top ten star wars t-shirts

14May07

Your Empire Needs You!
your empire needs you

Probably my fav star wars t-shirt ever, the only problem is I can’t find where to buy it any more, used to be carried by Leapstore in the UK but they stopped carrying it, I’ll pay $50 to $100 for it depending on condition. Originally blogged here and a version from Chunk Design here (not as good a design IMHO although I’m not sure who’s is the first)

Boo Boo Walker from Goapeshirts

A great design from Go Ape Shirts, comes in a T-shirt or a hoodie, and i can confirm the quality is really nice.

Air Wookie – Upper Playground
air wookie from upper playground
There are not enough t-shirts in the world with Wookies on them IMHO so Air Wookie from upper playground fills an important niche.

That’s No Spoon by the imitable Tom Burns
that's no spoon
Tom Burns deserves some serious props for his designs, from the communist party to this, all his stuff just works. That’s No Spoon in particular just works on so many levels.

Metal Vader
Metal Vader

Metal Vader is actually official merchandise from starwars.com designed by Chunk Design

Surfing Stormtrooper
Surfing Stormtrooper
also from starwars.com

I’m The First Of A Clone Army
Jitcrunch 1 01
and one for the kids from squirtshirts

As a bonus on this post here are a couple more designs/ideas that should be Star Wars t-shirts.

First off, Che-Bacca,
chebacca from threadless
this got hundreds of votes on threadless, and the voting ended in December, so where the hell’s the t-shirt?

and of course this version that was posted to a forum 3+ years ago
chebacca original

why the hell isn’t this already a t-shirt? I’m just thinking of ripping it off as a public service as the world is a duller, flatter, less interesting place without this t-shirt (it was posted to boingboing as well so it’s not like people haven’t seen it)

And here’s some inspiration for a t-shirt
clone war vetran

Some honorable Mentions (from the comments)

Han Shot First from Think Geek
han shot first

The Dark Side of the Garden from Threadless
dark side of the garden

Che-Trooper
che-trooper
Another awesome Che parody, I love these.

At At Crossing and Destroyer Mobile by Bret Chambers
at at crossing

mobile star destroyers

Kooper from Domestic Apparel
kooper
The kiss troopers, awesome!

Sand Wars from Threadless – Go vote for it
sand wars

Han’s Solo from Ironic Corporation
han's solo

Darth Pez – by Tcritic

A little shameless self promotion, Darth Pez is a new shirt in my line based on a linocut from our artist friend Eric Rewitzer. It’s hand screened on an American Apparel silver t-shirt and it’s currently on sale for $18.

Filed under Geek T-Shirts, T-Shirts, Top Ten Lists| Tagged , , , | 182 Comments

The Evolution of the T-shirt from Gelf Magazine

11May07

If you only do one thing today go and read this article on the history of the T-shirt from Gelf Magazine.

Whether you choose to admit it or not, chances are a critical reserve of self-esteem rests somewhere near the middle of your T-shirt drawer. For within this darkened, hidden quarter lies dormant a secret weapon so witty, so elusively allusive, or just so damn hip it finds itself swathing your chest on only the most important occasions.

t-shirt timeline

some of my favs are:

esoteric reference

intellectually lazy

satirical

Choose Wisely!

Here’s another quote from the article from George Carlin’s “Coolest T-shirt Trap” in his 1997 volume of random musings, Brain Droppings:

There are times when you take 15 minutes to pick out which shirt to wear, because you’re going to a place where they’ll be a bunch of guys you’ve never met…and you think, ‘No one has ever seen a shirt like this. This will make them jealous’…then when you get there, no one cares at all. And all of the other guys turn out to be dorks who will wear any piece of shit that’s handed to them. Like ‘Property of Alcatraz’ and ‘Life is Beach.’ What a letdown.

via Kottke

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New Design from Jon Burgerman at Imperfect Articles

10May07

Jon Bergerman Buddies Store Detail

Cool new three color design by Jon Burgerman at Imperfect Articles, a Chicago based artists collaborative. All there stuff is hand screened all there stuff is wonderfully original.

Filed under T-Shirts| | 1 Comment

Walken Worhol – by Lucky Threadz

09May07

Walken Warhol Large

Looks like Lucky Threadz has got some new designs out and the Walken Worhol is a standout for me. I do wish i had a bigger picture with the shirt and everything though.

Everyone remember the Fat Boy Slim video Weapon of Choice with Christopher Walken in it?

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Hot Fuzz T-shirt – This Shirt Just Got Real – From Airside

09May07

Hotfuzz This Shirt Just got

What could be better than a Hot Fuzz t-shirt and the awesome quote on the back. Hot Fuzz the relatively new movie from the guys that did Shaun of the Dead. I totally loved it, just like Shaun of the Dead it was a great bit of filmmaking, and hysterical. The shirt is designed by Airside who I have written about before, they do some wonderful original designs, they’re kind of like the Tarrentino of t-shirt designers IMHO.

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Mechanical Horse T-shirts by 220V

09May07

Horse Internet 01

The Mechanical Horse T-shirt is a wonderful example of the wonderful, hand made designs coming from this little Tel Aviv design shop. All the designs they do are hand screened (see more about their process here). You can shop all their designs on their Etsy shop here.

1horse 01

Here’s a couple of others I really like:

Godzilla
Godzilla Intetnet

Bike
Bike Internet

Filed under T-Shirts| | 4 Comments

Computer Template T-Shirt New from Chop Shop

08May07

Chopshop Apple Vert

Computer Template is another cool design from the talents at the chop shop, who I am going to shamelessly pimp until they send me some frikin t-shirts :-) C’mon!

Filed under T-Shirts| | 2 Comments

Bioshock T-shirt Winner From Threadless

07May07

Bioshock 3

The Bioshock T-shirt contest is over and this is the winner. If your not familiar Bioshock is a highly anticipated game that is coming sometime in ’07. You can read more about it here at The Cult Of Rapture, the game looks amazing, this is a screenshot (click for full size):

Screenshot 07 xl 01

Filed under T-Shirts, Video Game T-Shirts| | 6 Comments

Mickey The Pirate

07May07

Pirate 01

I wonder if the creators of this Mickey Mouse Pirate T-shirt “get” how many levels this works on. Anyone that has seen Lawrence Lessig, the famed copyright crusader, speak about Disney. Let me just quote the professor here:

The story goes like this: Walt Disney was a great creator in the tradition of great creativity: his creativity was to rip, mix, and burn popular culture. Even Mickey Mouse, who was born as Steamboat Willie (released in 1928), was a rip, mix, and burn take-off on Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill (released in 1928).

But I hadn’t realized just how true that was until I opened my very cool set of Disney “Treasures” – a special DVD release of the early Black and White Mickey Mouse films that Disney is now selling (comes in a cool tin case, with a serial number pressed into the tin). The DVD is a great collection of the early cartoons, with some “bonus” features including the script for Steamboat Willie. Here’s a screen shot of the first page of the script. Notice the direction from Walt: “Orchestra starts playing opening verses of ‘Steamboat Bill.’” Try doing a cartoon take-off of one of Disney, Inc.’s latest films with an opening that copies the music, and see how far your Walt Empire gets.

I highly recommend you go and watch Proffesor Lessig’s speech at oscon, it has been called one of the 10 best presentations ever.

Now I wonder what would happen if we took a creative commons approach to t-shirt design, would there be less pissing and moaning about rip off t-shirts if “attribution” was required? Sure I think some instances of companies coming in and ripping off designers is a horrible practice, but surely there is a happy medium between trying to control where designs show up, and the concept of inspiration with attribution?

Update:
Wow, I can’t believe BoingBoing posted this this afternoon, 8 hours after I posted it and I didn’t get a link back

Filed under Best T-Shirt Ever, T-Shirts| Tagged , | 9 Comments

Worlds Biggest Vending Machine – Delivers T-Shirts

04May07

Japan Uniqlo ut

UNIQLO UT, a massive Japanese T-Shirt brand has just opened an entire store which is essentially a big freaking vending machine. Set in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, the “shop” vends T-shirts in tubes, like tennis balls.

Uniqlo ut Harajuku

The big question is what are the t-shirts like? Well may I say rocking:

Uniqlo 72

Uniqlo 75
(yes this one is done by Mr Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy and father of Manga, they have a whole section dedicated to him)

Uniqlo 73

And can you believe they have 167 Pantone colors? WTF, why do I feel the US is lagging behind the Japanese in T-shirt technology, are we not taking t-shirts seriously enough here or what?

Uniqlo 74

Further Coverage
Tokyo Times

Gizmodo

Filed under T-Shirts| | 18 Comments

Amazing T-Shirt Video – Do You Know Where To Buy All These Shirts?

04May07

This video is an amazing montage of different T-Shirts in the Justice – D.A.N.C.E Video, the origin of which I’m not entirely clear on. Thanks to Christoph for letting me know about this, my only mission right now is to find out where all the t-shirts can be purchased, if you guys recognize any please post a link in the comments, much good karma will be sent your way :-)

(I had originally embedded a youtube video but replaced with this much better daily motion version recommended by t-shirt island)

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Portrait By Thomas Hawk – T-Shirt By Threadless

02May07
KarlKarl Hosted on Zooomr

The tshirt of course Funkilicious from Threadless

I had the pleasure yesterday to hang out with some very cool people yesterday, first at a Geek Dinner that included such folks as Robert Scoble, Hugh MacLeod, Mario Sundar, Jeremiah Owyang, Christopher Carfi. Then we went on to the birthday party of Kris Tate, who BTW was turning 19… did I mention he is the founder of a VC funded photo sharing site called Zooomr… pretty wild. Anyway, the photo was taken by Thomas Hawk who is the CEO of Zooomr, another cool guy, who I totally put my foot in my mouth with when he took the picture, I asked if he had a flickr account… ooops.

One other cool guy I met was Eddie Codel who is one of the video bloggers and producers behind Geek Entertainment TV and another video blog called Lunch Meet where they get together with geeks over lunch, he kindly offered to feature Tcritic in the future, i’ll keep you updated if I become internet famous.

internet famous

Some other pics from the evening:

Ben Metcalfe in his Digg T-shirt
ben metcalfe

and Meet Melisa in this off the shoulder modified threadless shirt, but i’m not sure which one
threadless shirt

Filed under Blogger T-Shirts, T-Shirts| Tagged , , | 11 Comments

HD-DVD Key On A T-Shirt from Dirty Microbe

02May07

UPDATE: It seems that Dirty Microbe has not being sending out their orders or paying their affiliate fees, buyer be very aware!

Haxor

Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg was sent a cease and desist letter because someone posted the hex key that enables you to crack the HD-DVD DRM. Digg’s initial reaction was to take down the offending post kicking off what can only be called a virtual riot on digg.

Dirty Microbe has published the key in a good looking rainbow t-shirt that says sharing is caring. I couldn’t agree more, I’m not advocating stealing things, but I am always finding my media that I’ve purchased is constantly hobbled with attempts by media companies to stop me doing something with it. I’ve stopped buying itunes music because all the DRM’d itunes music won’t play over my connect360 tool on my Mac laptop, to stream through my xbox. It’s really annoying because it is the shiznit to have all my music avalable on my xbox and playable through my home theater and with a full size visualizer running on my 42″ plasma :-)

Want to learn more about copyrighting code, check out the amazing talk from Lawrence Lessig, he’s a professor at Stanford and the formost thinker on issues of the misuse and over extension of copyright.

Filed under Geek T-Shirts, T-Shirts| Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments