The Mystery of Hipstery (and FREE Coupon!)

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     hipstery, hipstery t-shirts, hipstery.com, mystery t-shirts, mystery tees

First off here’s a limited time discount code “buymoretees” – enter it at the checkout for 10% off from the 29/09/2009 to 15/10/2009. Right, here’s a tricky one, a t-shirt brand review that’s built its appeal on mystery, in practicality that means their customers buy blind, they have no idea what they’re about to receive through the post, and who knows it might just work. I remember life before the Internet, it was full of mystery then, or rather ignorance, it took ages to research anything, be it the library, or enquiries on the phone or via snail mail. Luckily things have moved on and by the magic of the WWW I can show you a few items that Hipstery have sold, so at least this review won’t be totally blind. However when it comes to your order, I have no idea what you’ll receive, and so to put your mind at rest, here’s something about the mindset at the mystery label Hipstery.

First off I received an email from Willem Von Tinkel (who possesses a remarkable resemblance to Sacha Baron Cohen), one of four guys behind the label who proceeded to direct me towards their manifesto. Boiling it down their mission statement essentially cites Hipstery as a group of people on a crusade to rediscover mystery and all that that entails, a leap into the dark that relies on the idea that the inevitable boredom of most consumers, faced by the same retail experience, the same hype, the same range of products will take a leap into the dark with them and let illogical passions rule the day. I can see the sense in that, and as far as I can tell Hipstery are already making waves in the t-shirt market. They’ve got a few interviews under their belt already including t-shirt review blogs Hide Your Arms and Loving This Tee, so if you want to know more about their thoughts, machinations and vision for the future they are your best bet. I’m going to take a more objective line on this, essentially I believe what I see and so I’ll be featuring what evidence I can of what to expect from their wares.

When you hand over your ‚Ǩ16 for any size t-shirt for either men or women your details are passed through a ‘fashion algorithm’ which essentially involves a series of questions when you first order from Hipstery. Those questions include an option on your fave colours (or rather an omission of your most hated), a few psychological questions like “Do you own a gun?” and even an ink blot test, basically the same kind of questioning you might receive when being considered for a mental home, no I’m joking, but some of this information might be as useful for finding recruits for a revolution as picking a t-shirt. Who knows, the Hipstery revolution may just be around the corner?

Joking asides it’s a fascinating project, circumventing the usual t-shirt brand hype and genuinely attempting to engage on a far deeper level with their customer base, I still need convincing, it would have been nice if they’d let me have a trial run, I could’ve asked the questions and they could’ve sent me a pic of the t-shirt they’d chosen, but then again that wouldn’t have been very ‘mysterious’. One thing I’ve found out is that a lot of their t-shirts are very very rare, you might not know what you’ll be getting, but if you tick the right option you can be assured that very few others will receive the same tee. Anyway here’s some concrete proof of exactly what Hipstery do… read more