Preshrunk

Whenever I make it down to Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade I always manage to make two stops: The Apple Store and Kid Robot. Now, while Kid Robot deals mostly in urban vinyl toys, they've still got a few choice tees squirreled away on a very unassuming rack.

Last time we were there, the girlfriend fell in love with their stenciled logo tee and had to have one. In the month and a half that she's had it, it has become one of her favorite tees - and that's saying a lot for someone who doesn't normally wear t-shirts.

Still, be forewarned... The design is really stenciled onto the shirt. We're not talking about a pseudo stenciled silkscreening job. Also, the person in charge of stenciling shirts is a bit loose with where the stencil is placed and how much paint is used. So while every one is unique, none of them will turn out exactly like the one at left. Some may have a bit of bleed while others will suffer from underspray.

At least you'll never run the risk of showing up to a party sporting the same shirt as someone else...

$19.95 | Credit | URL

The fine people at 70six inform us that Hiragino Kaku Gothic is the Helvetica of Japan. I'll have to take their word for it though. Hell, most of the Japanese language and culture that I know comes from anime.

I know, I know... Baka gaijin.

So even though I couldn't tell you what the shirt actually says, it still looks really cool. I'll probably get a smack on the back of the hand from Hanzi Smatter for saying that, but fuck it.

Update: Speaking of Hanzi Smatter, Tian had this to say:

I would like to confirm that the Japanese Katakana on the t-shirt says "Hiragino Kaku Shitusku" with translates as "Hiragino Kaku Gothic". It is a very basic Japanese font.

So now you know... And knowing is half the battle.

Update 2: For the definitive translation we go to Chudo from 70six:

The shirt says "Hiragino Kaku Goshikku," so Tian was almost there; he missed the "go" and read the small "tsu" as a full-sized one. (Small tsus are silent "sokuons" which are glottal stops, kind of like hiccups.) Probably more than you wanted to know.

He should know seeing as how he designed the shirt and all. Thanks to everyone who sent in that little clarification.

$17.00 | Credit | URL

+ In lieu of real content, here are some designs we love that are currently scoring over at Threadless:

• What A Catch
• Tricks Are For Payback
• Cross War
• Mysterious Golf Circles
• Tameless

+ Chris Mitchell's got a nice bit on bootleg t-shirts in Asia.

+ It looks like T-Shirt Hell has grown up a smidge and removed their "Worse Than Hell" section:

I started this web site on my terms and will continue to run it as I see fit. Removing shirts that affect many people in a negative way is just not exciting to me anymore and that doesn’t make me lame or a sell out. It would only be a sell out if I sold shirts that I no longer agreed with just to make a profit. It would be lame to let someone else tell me how to run my business.

We totally respect the folks at T-Shirt Hell for stepping back and realizing they've been a bit too juvenile. Believe me, we know exactly where they're coming from.

+ Several readers pointed out that we could run yesterday's Japanese site through an online translator. Since those services are almost always return such wonky translations, we didn't feel right suggesting other people buy something from a site that we couldn't at least offer a decent walkthrough for. Thanks anyway!

+ Rob Ferrier writes:

I'm unfortunately reporting a problem with Proletarian Threads, and thought you should let readers know.

I paid for an Angela Davis t-shirt after following the link on your site. A month later, I got a mea culpa from the company and a promise that the t-shirt was forthcoming. A month after that and they won't respond to repeated emails. It's a bummer because I really liked the shirt. Oh well.

Crap. It really upsets us when a site we suggest pulls this sort of thing with a customer. Even if it only has happened once...

+ Herr Kottke points to the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the booming online t-shirt market.

+ Man... If I could comprehended Japanese, I'd do a proper post for this Jewish Star Wars riff in a fucking nanosecond. But I don't, so I won't. [via]

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
> open mailbox
Opening the mailbox reveals a package.
> take package
Taken.
> examine package
The package appears to be from Jinx, an online shop that deals in apparel and stickers.
> open package
You open the package and notice a blue t-shirt with an Infocom logo inside. It is getting very dark outside.
> wear t-shirt
As you start to put the shirt on, you are eaten by a grue. At least you died wearing a nice shirt.

$14.95 | PayPal | URL

Yeah, another squid shirt. I really like squid, alright?

Besides, this design is rather nice. You see, I'm as much of a sucker for line art as I am for shirts with squids on them. I'm not so wild about the Gama-Go logomark, but the extra crisp line art and lovely detail is enough for me to overlook it.

But if squid aren't your thing - and I can understand if they aren't - they've got plenty of other things for both the guys and gals to pursue.

$24.00 | Credit | URL

Normally I dislike the sort of shirts that are so ironic that it hurts - but there's something about this tee that sort of makes me smile.

Sure, it's an ape on the 36 year old "Virginia Is For Lovers" slogan. And yeah, there are dozens of tees that do that sort of thing at Urban Outfitters. But I don't care about them... Seriously, fuck Urban Outfitters.

Is this one is done well enough that I'm willing to forgive all of those bastard designs? Sho `nuff.

$18.00 | PayPal | URL

+ Thought the iPod shuffle shirt looked wonky? Well, TuneWear looks much, much worse. [via]

+ Hey, budding designers... Friends of the High Line are having a t-shirt design contest.

+ We may not agree with their business practices, but American Apparel has some nifty softcore porn. You know, if you're into that sort of thing... And by "that thing" we mean really thin people in their underwear.

Update: Samuel Brewczynski writes...

Here's an update to the whole American Apparel union busting ordeal. It seems that they have changed their ways since the UNITE union called them on their more nefarious conducts. Hopefully this means that they can be in our good graces again.

Hey, that's good news. Thanks for the heads up, Sam!

+ Remember that Creative Commies shirt we posted four months ago? Well, the kids at Giant Robot Printing have since put the logo on a black shirt and a hoodie. They've also added a slogan tee to the mix. [via]

The folks at DISTRO.Y sent in a nice little letter asking us to check out their site - and I'm glad they did. While some of their designs are just okay, they really seem to shine when they play to people's nostalgia.

Take their Commodore 64 shirt for example... Anyone in their 20's and 30's who spent some time playing on a C64 is probably melting into a puddle as a wave of nostalgia overtakes them. Memories of hours spent playing and programming all come flooding back and bring a smile to my face.

It's enough to break the old girl out of storage [or download an emulator] and mess around a little bit on a lazy Sunday. Man, I'm such a sucker for nostalgia...

$20.00 | Credit | URL