You don’t have to sign up to vote but AUB will need an email addy, of course they say it’s to make sure there’s only one vote per person but:-

If you had a 100 different emails you could probably cheat.
I.P address tracking is a far better way of preventing cheating.
It’s a sneaky way of building up their mailing list, still can’t blame them I suppose.

Anyway it’s a great chance for your favourite t-shirt brand to get a heap load of exposure, well I say that but looking at AUB’s traffic statistics right now they’d all get around ten times more with a review on our blog but hey, the more the merrier. (Yes I’m not being as kind as I could but I had a rough night last night hah).

So here are the rules:- By voting in the Brand Battle, you are opting into the AlwaysUrban.com email list. Expect results and a pile of other emails to boot in your inbox?

Vote For Your Favourite Brand
You must enter a valid email
You only get to vote once
Voting ends 03 / 16 / 09

So let’s take a look at the tees AUB featured to entice you to vote…

Starlet at Bad As Hell Clothing by a.mar.illo

Wow, wow, wow, arooga. I feel like a wolf from an old Tex Avery toon, this tee is hot to trot, totally fine retro work, very very slick illustration, I’d be gutted if I found out this was ripped from an old book plate, it really is very very well conceived. I can’t read the slogan but I’m sure it’s either in Latin, Italian, or something sexy like that. If it isn’t, if it says something lame, well then I’ll have to retract my prior statement. Still very very hot! Nice tones too. You can buy Starlet by a.mar.illo here. A.mar.illo has done a few tees already, you may know this one called Surabaya Johnny which is a very strange kettle of fish, based on the city of the artist and looking like something out of an old war comic on acid, this guy definitely has a future! BTW he says it’s based on an old Kurt Weill song.

Column Tee (Women’s) at Breathe On Apparel

Erm, right. Yep the image is a little small so I’d work on making the store a little more accessible first. Most of the tees featured by BOA at AUB aren’t available anymore this was the only one I could find – Column Tee. I should really hand this part of the review over to Chris (but she’s not here right now), so hmm. Well it’s light blue, smothered in logo graphics, and essentially is a walking advert for the brand. I never get why t-shirt designers think that people want to wear this kind of thing, I mean, you know when you see guys walking along the road wearing a sandwich board advertising a sale on at a local store, or cheap food at Greasy Joes, I mean they get paid to do that right? If this was a free tee it would be a great idea, the sort you get thrown at you on a corporate training weekend, or when your manager is having a stockroom clear out. But really, I get it, the company is called Breathe On Apparel, and there it is all over the shirt. Hmm. Anyway if you’d like to provide some free advertising space to this label and pay for the honour, click here.

Pee Tee by Someone Clothing

OMG this shirt rules, it’s like a Banksy in the making. If you’re going to include your logo, this is the way to do it. Conceptually this is a winner, although I don’t know if I’d have the guts to wear it. I really think they need a women’s version, she could be squatting in a skirt just to make it tasteful hah, still, amazing. It’s available in a selection of colours like banana and blue, cream and brown, black and white, but all the pics on the site are in b/w – arty but not too helpful. I can’t slate these guys though, their site is simple as it gets but yet they’ve managed to make it a total head trip to visit, I mean you know, weird, and I love weird. Duh. Of course I do, most of the tees I lavish praise on are for weirdos, but this one must be the king of bizarro world, I mean, calling it pee, the pee tee, that has to be some kind of twisted genius. Graffiti tees, that’s what I’d have called the label, but yes that’s too literal, still, it’s like wearing a stencil from the an NYC Subway carriage door. Cool, cooler than cool. Frozen.

Model Chick at Syditty Clothing

Well, I am sure they have some amazing tees for girls at Syditty Clothing, BUT, what is up with women’s tee designers? Are they all using the same photographer? This image and all their store images are so small that I am starting to think that either:
a) Women have far better eyesight than men.
b) It’s some kind of “tasteful presentation” thing that eludes me, completely.
If you’ve spent all that time and effort proving your genius at vector design, let the world know about it! Slap up some enormous photos of your t-shirts, I even looked up Syditty on Flickr but nothing, nowt, nada, zip. Damn. Anyway I think, but I am not sure, but I think that this label has some rocking tees for women, but I really can’t tell.

So there you have it, a completely biased round-up. Essentially I’d like Someone Clothing to win. Why?

There work is challenging and way out there. Plus, even though Bad As Hell Clothing has some sexy tees, they are more of a platform for designers (who hardly even acknowledge my efforts at raising awareness of their label). Someone Clothing need a boost. I am sure that once I’ve raved about Someone Clothing until I’m frothing at the mouth they’ll appreciate it, and maybe even link back here, hey I have to promote this blog somehow. Anyway, Someone Clothing is my first choice, then BAHC, then Syditty, and at the bottom of the pile BOA. But will I actually vote? Well, no, I’m not handing out my email address to another mailing list, my inbox is clogged up as it is hah. Okay I need food, a bath, a kip, and yes I promise the next post will be much less grisly lol.