The T-Shirt Machine

admin    T-Shirt News     Facebook, MySpace, political tees, social networking, t-shirt machine, t-shirt widget, web toy

Here’s a rather hilarious widget that seems to be causing a stir at a lot of social networking sites. I’m not sure about the designs, and I don’t know if I’d ever buy one but the widget sure is fun. It’s amazing what people can do with a little Web 2.0 know-how these days (myself not included – lol). Unfortunately you don’t seem to be able to see the final product right now, but well worth a try if you’re thinking of venturing into widgets yourself!

Take The Last Exit to Nowhere!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     2001, 2001 tees, Hollywood tees, Jim Carrey, John Malkovich, Kubrick, Pink Floyd, T-Shirts, movie t-shirts, movie tees, sci-fi, t-shirt film

This has to be one of the most original concepts for a t-shirt store I’ve come across so far. If you’re a movie buff like me you’ll find their collection absolutely hilarious. Last Exit to Nowhere offers a glimpse into a possible parallel reality where the silver screen has come to life and events, characters and places depicted in the movies sit side-by-side with the everyday.

There are plenty of places (such as tacky beach shops and theme parks) that will sell you a “…and all I got was this lousy” t-shirt, but imagine if you were forced into the nightmare world of say The Terminator or spent a night at The Overlook Hotel in The Shining. If you did survive your ordeal, you’re most likely going to want some proof to dispel the doubts of friends and family (and possibly a few psychiatrists at the local loony bin). read more

Fluc You – I’m off To Fluc.com!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     bad taste t-shirts, branded t-shirts, fluc, fluc media, fluc mobile, fluc.com, funny tees, funny tshirts, new designs, offensive t-shirts

A big thanks has to go out to one of our readers, Frederick Thompson, who gave us as big tip yesterday, and I think you’ll be as glad he did when you discover the wonders of Fluc.com’s t-shirt store. Fred was so charged up about the site I had to go and see myself (at about 2am this morning), and even I, a cynical burnt out old t-shirt reviewer has to admit their collection rocks. read more

Save The World For a Free T-Shirt

admin    T-Shirt News     Al Gore, Beijing, China, Ecology, Russia, cars, driving, environment, fat Americans, food, free t-shirts, hydrogen cell, hypocracy, recycle, sailing, we can solve it, wecansolveit.org

Now I know how much Buy Tees readers love a freebie, however this one’s for a rather more worthy cause, i.e saving the world!

If you have twenty friends in the world you qualify, that’s it. You simply let Al Gore and his mates at WeCanSolveIt.org email your compadres and if they all sign up for a free membership you get a freebie tee. It seems (as usual) that this is yet another offer that ignores most of the world, i.e non-Americans, which kind of sucks actually.

Perhaps they’re worried about their carbon footprint, or maybe Europe, Asia, Australia, and the rest just don’t count. I can see their point, America is still the dirtiest country in the world (ecologically speaking), but it wouldn’t do any harm to use Al Gore’s clout to help set up a few international offices and actually save the world, instead of a ‘bit of it’. read more

Hypercolor Psychedelic Sweaty T-Shirts Are Back!

admin    T-Shirt News     Ibiza, New Rave, South America, heat sensitive tees, hypercolor, hypercolor t shirts, hypercolor tees, hypercolor tshirts, nu rave, ravers

Hypercolor Psychedelic Sweaty T-Shirts Are Back!

OMG, I couldn’t stand these the first time around, they were big in the early nineties for the Brits, especially amongst the late 80’s and early 90’s Ravers, expect most baggage bound for Ibiza at the time to be packed with these dodgy old t-shirts (amongst other things). The great thing about them was that heat would make them change colour, the terrible thing is they’d totally change colour whenever you sweat.

It’s a tad off-putting to the opposite sex, consider yourself tearing up the dance-floor, dropping all your best moves, spinning the smoothest lines, or throwing them a killer smile, whilst all they can focus on are your armpits. Sweat stains, no matter the colour, are never an attractive prospect, you’d think that a touch of psychedelia would be an improvement on dank grey or crusty brown, but if anything, it’s worse.

I think most people would prefer a self deodorising tee rather than one that loudly exclaims, ‘hey everyone! this guy has got some terrible bio problems!’. If you want to blame anyone for the resurgence, it has to be the New Rave movement, hey I can remember the original scene, and it wasn’t that good then either. Take a butchers at this report from Current.com… read more

ZeroBoutique.com – From Zeroes to Heroes…

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Che Grovera, Che Guevara, Death, Face Magazine, Kate Moss, Model, Muppets, Pete Docherty, Sesame Street, art shirts, boutique, electro, euthanasia, retro tees, zero boutique, zeroboutique.com

Zero Boutique needs a CSS redesign – drop the html frames, remove the delayed redirect to the blog, move the shop to the home page and you’re set to go. I do understand the desire for a minimalist layout, but the product images could be a tad larger, although I do appreciate the extra modelled photos, especially the cute babes (lol).

Since the original zero website was launched in 1998, they have worked with over 90 artists and in 2002 they launched a new site- ZeroBoutique.com. Over the years, Jason (the guy pushing the buttons and pulling the levers of ZBQ) has expanded the company’s assets from one old heat press for making shirts at home, to a 4 color printing station as well as a far wider range of gadgets and inks and a larger commercial space. All of their shirts are hand screen-printed with love and perseverance in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Zero Boutique promote a great deal of independent artists. you’ll find plenty of old favourites and instant classics here, my favourite being the now almost infamous Che Grovera. An absolutely hilarious spoof of Che Guevara, a highly popular revolutionary image that must have adorned most hippie/political student bedroom walls throughout the 1960s to the current day. I’m not too keen on the white outline, but then again that could be accountable to personal taste. read more

Back to School (again)

admin    T-Shirt News     Columbine, back to school sale, school fashion, school t-shirts, school tees, t-shirt coupons, t-shirt discounts, t-shirts sale

Since my post on SpreadShirt’s latest Back to School Sale I thought I’d better mention a few other sales for the season (in the name of fairness and equality). Just to confuse matters further I’ve included Bruce P. Squirrels’ Back to School’ t-shirt which isn’t on sale and is probably already banned by a majority of schools (and parents) out there, I have a feeling it’s hinting at the ongoing fears of all concerned about school safety and security these days.

In Britain we don’t have guns, or at least not legally, but we do have knives, and in every other way our schools system is starting to mirror America’s own state school system. Some of the most infamous schools, especially those in inner city areas where serious violence has been known to flare up from time to time, new security measures have been taking over the school gates over the past few years. read more

Robit – Built by Humans – Powered by Spirits

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Death, US government, cold war, illustration, irony, nostalgia, political t-shirts, political tees, retro, robot t-shirt, robots, terror, vector

T-shirts of a tortured soul? Perhaps not quite, but going on the biography Steve Orlando of Robit Studios is not a happy man, I quote “What is a Robit? A mechanical man with an void in his middle. it’s like a robot only simpler. This particular Robit was created by a four year old. It’s fuelled by distilled spirits.”

I’d venture to say there’s a bitter-sweet theme that runs through all of Steve’s works, a quality I find both reassuringly honest and revealing, especially when put in the context of his fine collection of unique and pithy t-shirt designs. All of his tees are fair trade, 100% cotton American Apparel, hand-printed and highly original for the most part, so it’s well worth taking a gander the next time you’re passing.

Steve’s outlook on life may be on the dour side, but he still has a great sense of humour, I really think he should be British, we’re all like that over here, except the Scottish who are just dour, (I jest, we’re all miserable bleeders over here, especially since we haven’t had a Summer this year (or not one that you’d notice). Talking of the weather… read more

The Art of the Stain at Dirty Laundry

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     art of the stain, art shirts, dirty laundry, dirtydirtylaundry.com, stain printing, stain t-shirt art, stained t-shirts, stained tees, staining t-shirts, t-shirt art, t-shirt art exhibition

Dirty Laundry: The Art of the Stain in Modern T-Shirt Design. Yes it’s true, I’m not pulling your leg! Shortly after my post on t-shirt staining, Mariko Merritt of the Hawaiian Nuuanu Gallery contacted me with the aim of plugging their latest exhibition, and for all intense purposes it features dirty t-shirts. They asked designers to stain t-shirts with a medium of their choice (grass, wine, lipstick, etc.) and then design custom artworks that use the stain as an integral design element. They’ve gathered an impressive group of artists to be in the show (Mike Perry, Damien Correll, Frank Chimero, Kris Chau, April Lee, Alan Konishi, Andrew DeGraff, Christopher David Ryan, Jason Laurits, Wyeth Hansen and Ryan Dunn, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Keetra Dean Dixon, Nikolay Saveliev, Nathaniel Russell, Roanne Adams, Rosemarie Fiore, Roland Adams, Steve Kibayu, Alan Konishi, Roland Adams, Simon Ruby, Topos Graphics, Travis Stearns & Tim Gough) and they are expecting a great collection of unique limited edition t-shirts. read more

New Designs From The Past at Retro Campaigns

admin    T-Shirt News     JFK, Obama, Reagan, Thatcher, War, political t-shirts, politics tshirts, retro campaigns, retro political tee, retro t-shirts, retrocampaigns.com

RetroCampaigns.com have added new political campaign t-shirt designs to their collection, featuring ex-presidents JFK and Reagan amongst others. Retro Campaigns, Inc. is a small, Los Angeles-based company, whose aim is to recall unique characters from American politics, with style and fun. All of their designs are printed on high-quality, sweat-shop free American Apparel shirts and notably, a portion of their profits are donated to a very worthy cause at SaveDarfur.org.

Again they’re featuring some US political icons from the past, it would be nice to see them expand their horizons and venture beyond the shores of America, perhaps it’s all down to supply and demand, I know that Margaret Thatcher (ex UK PM) has had as much influence on political history as Ronald Reagan, in fact they were close allies and friends for many years, and even Ronnie remarked upon the importance of Britain’s first female Prime Minister on the world stage. Even today, at least in a majority of European political circles, the term ‘Thatcherism‘ is still widely used to describe the trend towards privatisation of most privatisation of public services and infrastructure, entrepreneurialism in a perspective of the aggregation of personal wealth and self-responsibility, be it on an economic level or one’s interaction within society and state.

I grew up through the Reagan/Thatcher years, and learned to hate that time, it was oppressive, materialistic, politically paranoid and filled with grand gesture which in the long run failed to achieve much. The Star Wars Program was one example of Reagan the actor ousting Reagan the politician, another was the Falklands War and in particular the furore surrounding the sinking of the Belgrano overridden by a cult of personality, a more sophisticated circle of political pr experts and high economic forecasts for the UK at the time. But the worst of all must have been the infamous recording of Ronald Reagan announcing the beginning of WW3 for a laugh. Prior to his weekly radio address on August 11 1984, Reagan uttered this on what he assumed was not a live microphone. “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” read more