Preshrunk

I already know what some of you are going to say... "$27.50 for a shirt?!" But if you look closer, you'll realize that price includes shipping. Take into consideration that a few of the places we've linked to charge $5-7 for shipping. Honestly, you're not taking that much of a reaming on this one. So quit pissing and moaning.

Besides, this one's clever and well worth the price of admission. Population density represented by Pac Man and Ghost glyphs. I'm sure there's some sort of social commentary about the American territories being represented by an insatiable glutton of a video game character, but I'm far too lazy to dig any deeper.

$27.50 | PayPal | URL

If you're an American kid who had cable in the 80's, I'll bet you spent a lot of time in front of the television during Summer vacation. Two and a half months of sitting on your ass playing video games and watching reruns was the fucking life - if you were lazy, that is.

When my dad finally got arround to shelling out for the premium channels, HBO and I became inseparable. I probably spent most of my Summers between 1987 and 1993 watching movies. One of my favorites was the John Carpenter flop, "Big Trouble In Little China". It had it all. Kung Fu, Kurt Russel hamming it up, cursing, an evil retarded wookie... I must have seen it 50 times over the course of one Summer. *sigh* Good times.

So it should go without saying that when I came across this tee for Egg Foo Yong Tours, I became way more giddy than any grown man should. Even though I can't fit my hefty frame into an extra large, you know what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like this? "What the hell."

Update: Tian says:

The Chinese characters on this shirt say "success when horse arrives". It means "achieved with ease".

Thanks for the assist!

$20.00 | PayPal | URL

Y'know, I really don't fret over trash day so much after our city gave us those handy roll away bins. They really make putting the garbage out less of a chore. The wheels really appeal to my inner and outer lazy bastard.

When I was younger, I remember having to drag three cans of yard waste and two cans of garbage to the curb. That's not too terrible, but my folks house is on a minor hill and we'd pack those cans to their bursting point. Heaven forbid one of them actually broke. You see, I am [and was] a bit of a germaphobe. Heaven forbid I'd have to pick any trash up. *shudder*

Hopefully you can see where I'm going with this, because I sure can't... Hrmph. Sorry.

$25.00 | PayPal | URL

This one from Kelly Vivanco's adoreable webcomic Patches is too cute for words. Seriously, I'm not really going to say anything more. Is that cool?

Wait, what do you mean it's not cool? What if I can't think of anything clever because my brain is baked? There's just no pleasing you people sometimes, is there? *grumbles*

$15.00 | PayPal | URL

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