Arkaik

admin    T-Shirts     Arkaik, art shirts, graphic tees, urban tees

Originally started by young entrepreneur Alex Mitchell, Arkaik was acquired by fellow t-shirt guy Jordan Abidor, and the tradition of strong concepts and a highly skilled pool of artists remains to this day. Social networking got the label to where it is today, as well as strong ties with the music industry and more recently involvement in the music festival scene.

They have a whole heap of great tees on offer but these 3 tees really caught my eye. Just $20 each and superb graphics!

King of Sea (Reprint) Tee

Great to see a reprint of Arkaik’s signature tee King of Sea. Only 20 printed from their ‘vault’ at $20 each – sizes left are XS-L.

Nar-kaik Tee

My fave of the lot, shipping now in sizes S-L for $25 each. Only 30 printed so snap ‘em up, all the XL’s are sold out :0

Dinobama Tee

I know, we’re all sick to the death of Obama gear, but hey, dinosaurs are cool right? If this is a T-Rex then the Republicans will no doubt front a Velociraptor as their candidate :p Only L sizes left, one for me then heh.

All the tees come with a custom printed inner label and top notch printing. Well worth a visit… here.

Dephect

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Dephect, UK t-shirts, designer, graff t-shirts, graphic tees, hip-hop t-shirts, indie tees, urban tees

I’ve been meaning to get around to reviewing UK label Dephect for ages, I have no excuses bar the fact they’re so well known I wasn’t sure what I could “add to the mix”, but seeing as I’ve already reviewed their mates over at Sutsu it seems only fair! If you haven’t come across Dephect before (where have you been?) then you’re in for a treat. As for all those more familiar with the label I’ve lined up a few of their delectable screen printed tees from their latest Spring / Summer 2011 Collection. So it’s all good ;)

Dephect was borne from the mutual love of skater culture, the 90′s hip hop scene, and the passion of four friends in London for underground art and design. All this and more was to collide in a symphony of creative energy that eventually developed into a signature urban Brit fashion label with fans across the world. The site is as slick as the tees, and this latest collection pulls out all the stops when it comes to street savvy style with a London bad ass attitude that takes no prisoners.

In addition to their classic graphic tees Dephect have released a selection of high-end progressive cut and sew pieces, heightening the quality and experimentation for this unique brand all the more. Original design is abound at their store, created by hand picked artistic talent from around the world, each with their own cool biography page. Men’s tees are RRP. £24.99 but with the sale on there are plenty up at just £14.99 and for the girls £22.99 RRP and just £9.99 for the sale items!

Scrawl Tee

Damn, nice style! Designed by UK graff artist Dan Kitchener, this takes me back to the good old days, 2000 AD, Alan Moore knows the score. Sweet. (Also available in white).

Face Tee

This one’s by El Niño de las Pinturas (The Boy of Paintings) who’s something of a cult hero in the streets of Granada. A dreamy graffiti style tee that’s available in a selection of colours and cuts.

London Black Book Tee

This limited edition shirt, designed by old school London graf artist Met, to accompany the London Black Book which features rare and unseen sketches and characters from over 200 of London’s top graffiti artists including Elk, Zomby, Drax, Mode 2, Cazbee, Goldie, Teach, Coma, Vibes, Neas and Met plus many more. Also available in white. Funny thing is the book is cheaper :0

Skull ‘N’ Mics Tee

The ultimate pirate tee, if you’re gonna’ rip that beat do it in style ;) Also available for guys in heather.

Finally a couple of real bargains from the sale section…

Mr Vinyl Tee

Love it, vinyl nostalgia, the best there is. Get this one in heather and charcoal for the guys and olive for the girls.

Staying on the vinyl theme here’s another total bargain from the sale…

Remixomatic Tee

Ver..ver..ver.v..v..v..very funky with a nice set of colours to match you can get this at £9.99 for girls and £14.99 for guys. Loving the gold version to bits, or should that be bytes?

There’s plenty more on offer including sweats, hoodies and prints, plus videos and tunes when you’re brassic. Unleash your dephectiveness at www.Dephect.com.

Youneek Clothing

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     London t-shirts, UK tees, Youneek, Youneek Clothing, urban tees

To keep it brief Youneek is for the urban geek, if you’ve got style and brains there are few places to find fashion, but this label has three sweet tees to satisfy your mental needs and style requirements. Not that you need to be a genius to sport their clobber (although it would probably help), this cool London based label follows the adventures of William Whiz Kid, cast out of everyday society due to his highly superior intelligence and vision. If you’re a geek (or ‘neek’) and have a love of cartoon characters, urban art and intellectual prowess then try out their togs. Two of the tees are on sale at £16 each and one is reduced right now to just £12, and there’s a hoodie for £23 too, all printed on Continental. You can also grab yourself a winter bundle which includes any tee and a hoodie for £35, saving you a cool 4 quid. There are a few nice little details too including a screen printed tag.

Youneek Classic Tee

Both are available in sizes S-XL in red and grey, their signature tee offers a smart slick toon/street art style logo featuring the Whiz Kid himself in both red and grey.

Brain Freeze Tee

If you love ice cream and rely on higher brain functions, then take your time or suffer the inevitable brain freeze aptly demonstrated in this fun t-shirt in sizes S-XL.

Smart Kids Tee

You can get this one for just £12 right now, if you take a large size. Not sure how true the message is, let’s see… ?htym nabru na ti si ro sdrawkcab dear ot hguone trams uoy erA

Keep up to date with all things Youneek at www.youneekclothing.com, share their love of geeky toons, games and gadgets at their blog and hook up with them at Facebook and Twitter.

The London Vandal

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     London, The London Vandal, graffiti t-shirts, graffiti tees, street art tees, urban tees

First off I must declare an interest, or at least an enormous bias, I lived in London for years and have always been a big ol’ fan of street/urban/graffiti art, so as far as I am concerned The London Vandal (urban art blog and collective) could print a poop on a t-shirt and it would still be worth reviewing. What The London Vandal are doing is exactly what I’ve always hoped for the future of the indie t-shirt industry. As soon as street artists began screen printing limited editions of their work to fund those daredevil jaunts around the world I knew it wouldn’t be long before they began to stray into the t-shirt market, especially as they use exactly the same gear to print them up and here’s the proof.

The London Vandal fund their superb urban art showcase site at www.thelondonvandal.com and all their personal exploits on the streets of London with the sales from their unique tees, which have just about all the street cred you could ask for. Damn, Fairey is such a sell out these days we need something other than ripped Banksy’s for our beloved tee collection. Asides the enormous kudos the designs are top-notch, I wouldn’t expect any less from these guys. There are only 3 tees on offer right now, one is designed by the legendary toon tripping Dutch illustrator that is Rick Berkelman. Ironically enough the other two are by French artist Reack, so none are actually by a Londoner (hey I’m an urban artist and I’m in was born London… hint hint lol).

Anyway check ‘em out, they are gorge, and on offer at £17 each in all sizes right now.

The Original Tee (by Rick Berkelmen)

This one is limited to just 150 so I doubt I will be getting a freebie lol. Love it, love Berkelmen’s work, a really nice composition and cute too – which is a rarity for me to say positively – but yes damn it, it’s cute all right? J

Don’t Get Caught Tee (by Reack)

Lovely piece of graffiti inspired illustration from French artist Reack, there’s another one for you in a ‘mo. Good advice too!

Benny Gold

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Benny Gold, Pez, SF, hip hop tees, hiphop t-shirts, urban tees

All that glisters is not gold, unless that is, you’re Benny Gold. Benny Gold has a mantra “Stay Gold” which, for him at the very least, is a reminder that all the ideas and experiences we hold dear are the “real gold” inside each of us. Based in San Francisco Gold’s one man empire began with a lowly sticker and has now branched out to a massive list of design clients including big names like Nike, Adidas, Huf, Wired Magazine, Real Skateboards and tons more. Cool retailers across the planet sell his gear, America is totally covered alongside a few in Europe (including one shop in Britain in Gravesend (of all places!), a few in Canada and a whole shed load in Asia.

Still, if there isn’t a store near you don’t worry Benny Gold has his own online store featuring some very cool tees, tops, jackets, hoodies, hats and stickers. His tees are superb, not particularly on any conceptual level as such, the guy just has an eye and flair to boot. The print quality is mint, plus the house style is a few notches above the usual urban hip-hop iconography you’ve come to expect. What BG has is something almost unobtainable in the market, at least not without a ton of brand recognition strategy and that is a buzz around the label – not for the name or the logo, but the quality. There are some collaborations with some cool artists too including Barcelona born street artist Pez. My fave has to be the Mariachi tee tee which awesomely enough was created by a chance event that placed Benny and his photographer pal Bryan Derballa slap bang in front of a Mariachi player with one of BG’s stickers on his guitar. The rest is history…

No celebrities needed to rank this label in the public Zeitgeist, he has built it, they will come…

Mariachi Tee

Chance is a beautiful thing. Hecho in Frisco detailing with metallic gold accents. $30 in all sizes – colours black, white and green.

Tried & True Tee

Solid as a rock an anvil. $30 in all sizes – colours black, red and navy.

Freemasons Tee

Don’t forget the secret handshake. $30 in all sizes – colours black on black, white and royal blue.

Hold Fast Tee

Time is slipping away. Have fun whilst your young because it’s too much bother at my age :/ $30 in all sizes – colours black, grey and red.

Benny Gold, the beauty of it is, they’re just tees you know you’re going to wear…

Dirty Dudes

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Dirty Dudes, Dirty Dudes Apparel, logo tees, street, urban tees

Dirty Dudes are launching their collection on November 1st, I say collection but there are only 4 items on offer (including a hoodie) and they’re rather self-promotional i.e covered with logos. I’ve written about holding back on brand logo tees when you’re just starting up a label, unless you have a massive marketing budget and a TV campaign in the running. The truth is logo t-shirts aren’t my favourite kind, although DD do a good job with a couple of tattoo style designs and quite a fun fat font tee too. The shirts are available for pre-order right now in all sizes at their Storenvy store, which has been spruced up quite nicely.

I get what they’re about, urban, street style tees for young savvy lads – although they’re aiming for the female market too I think the name might hinder most girls from snapping them up. Anyway, I might be proved wrong, maybe DD have done their research and they’ve already got the following to pick up the slack. We shall see. One thing though, I’d recommend they buy the domain name dirtydudesapparel.com and link it to their store pronto -  if they want any decent Google rankings that is.

Mess Tee

Love the name, and even if its’ a very heavy piece of self-promotion the font is nice and fat and the composition works well. Printed on high quality, slim fit, unisex Tultex Apparel tees at $18 each.

CrossBones Tee

The tattoo/crest style composition is looking a little tired for me these days but DD have done a decent job of it and the diamond is really well designed. However I don’t quite see the connection – a pirate’s chest of booty (that’s gold bullion and jewels not a plump rear) would have made more sense. Thinking about it a diamond skull would have been even better. Printed on high quality, slim fit, unisex, American Apparel Tees at $20 each.

DD Sailor Tee

I’ve seen a lot of “anchor tees” in my time, this is definitely one of the better, a very nice composition and a far better typographic choice than in their CrossBones tee. It’s even a little more “dirty” which is a relief. Printed on high quality, slim fit, unisex, Tultex Apparel tees at $18 each.

I’d like to see far less branding, more graphics, in fact more t-shirts. If I was running DD I’d make the subject matter far more salacious, for a start, where are the strippers and fast cars? Lol. I’d like to see DD take grunge to the extreme, with ink splatters, smudges and wilder graphics. Ah well… maybe these  particular Dirty Dudes live on the right side of the tracks rather than the wrong ones – heh.

Urban Tees At Affordable Prices

admin    T-Shirt News     AUC, Got Boots, Paul Wall, affordable urban clothing, affordableurbanclothing.com, urban fashion, urban t-shirts, urban tees

Now, AUC otherwise known as Affordable Urban Clothing have a strong line of t-shirt designs, and even a thumbs up from U.S rapper Paul Wall aka People’s Champ. Their site is a little bit ropey, using two Paypal buttons instead of a real checkout system, which I’d always advise against. The prices aren’t the lowest I’ve ever seen, nor the most expensive, but you’ll have to click a product photo to find them. If I ran AUC I’d fire their web designer, get a decent cart, pay for some ssl hosting and use a snazzy template with a custom header to brand the store. That asides, and I mean this is what the t-shirt industry all boils down, they do have a couple of decent designs under their belt, there’s no denying that.

AUC seems to have a fixation with killer clowns, I mean the sort you’d find in a schlock horror rather than ‘killer’ as in the coolest clowns on the block. There aren’t too many designs on offer right now, and asides the clowns and undead clowns there’s a dinosaur, a superhero and a ninja. I think AUC needs to do one of two things with their creative collection, either narrow down their subject matter, or blast it wide open. I can understand them not wanting to follow the herd and produce the usual urban designs everyone else does, but I don’t think they’ve quite nailed what they’re all about at AUC, or not just yet anyway.

I feel like their aiming for something between childhood cartoon nostalgia, and the grim reality or rather horror of life on the street, in a city, trying to make the grade, to earn a little respect. Not sure if it works. The actual brand of AUC’s tees is ‘Got Boots?’ – they’ve used a rather generic font for the logo, and it’s big, and it’s all over some of their t-shirts – which is rather regrettable. The story behind the label is, on the other hand, supremely uplifting. A story of one guy, Donnell Love, and his aim to reach out to the masses of Urban America through fashion whilst serving a charitable foundation SMIP ‚ÄúSingle Mothers In Peril‚Äù. 10% of proceeds from the sale of Affordable Urban Clothing goes to SMIP which is “committed to improving the lives of single mothers and their families by helping them overcome the polarizing issues in single parent homes.”

Where worthy causes are concerned it’s difficult not to simply shower AUC with praise, their t-shirts do have potential, but no matter what my personal feelings, that store really needs redesigning. Anyway forget the store design for a moment and check these tees… read more

Brand Battle Royale

admin    T-Shirt Marketing     BOA, T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt Votes, bad as hell, new tees, someone clothing, syditty, t shirt blog, t-shirt voting, urban apparel, urban clothing, urban tees

Once again teemocracy is in full force effect at AlwaysUrbanBlog.com – come and join in the fun and vote for your fave t-shirt label in AUB’s latest brand battle! At present there are four t-shirt brands up against each other; Bad As Hell Clothing (who we’ve featured a few times at Buy Tees), Breathe On Apparel (who we’ve not come across before), Syditty Clothing (who offer a rather snazzy selection of designer women’s tees) and Someone Clothing (who we will definitely be featuring in the future!).

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… read more

Hendricks’ Happy Birthday Sale at CollarFree.com

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Threadless, art shirts, collar free, collarfree.com, graphic art t-shirts, graphic tees, t-shirt voting, t-shirt voting site, urban tees, voting t-shirts

Jimmy Hendricks (perhaps one of the coolest names of all time) is celebrating his 28th birthday (oh to be youngish) by offering a whopping 28% off all tees, available at his fabulous t-shirt crowd sourcing site CollarFree.com. I’ve watched this company leap from strength to strength over the last year with a mix of fond admiration and a tinge of envy. If you’re going to run a successful t-shirt label, Collar Free offers a textbook story of achievement and expansion that’s sure to make any CEO raise an eyebrow. With a strong range of graphic tees, a faithful band of designers and fans, and a savvy technical and business team working all hours behind the scenes, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s as near to t-shirt nirvana as you can get.

First things first, happy birthday Jimmy, may your all your birthdays be celebrated with as much success if not more! It does make me wonder if Mr. Hendricks lives to a ripe old age will the discount climb with him? It’s a long time to wait, but I’m sure it’d be worth the wait to celebrate Jimmy’s centenary on the planet. Although I’m sure by then accounting department for his multi-million dollar global fashion corporation (yes – I’m sure it could be if we wait long enough), will be shaking their heads as they wheeled him to the retirement home. Back to the present, and despite the fact it’s his birthday, here’s Jimmy’s gift to all of you! Just pick what you like and punch in the code “28on28” at the checkout.

read more

Word Up To Word Apparel

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     cool tees, fresh t-shirts, graffiti t-shirts, graffiti tees, graffito, hip hop tees, hip-hop t-shirts, tagging, urban t-shirts, urban tees, word apparel, wordapparel

Deamn Right! Here’s a fresh young label straight from the street for all you homies out there looking for something laid back yet sharp, slick but with a nice line in self-deprecating humour. Great for a night out downtown, or chillin’ with your bro’s, your first stop should be Word Apparel; created, owned and run by Levi based in Houston, Texas. His style, distinctly ghetto, his humour, toon surrealism with a great eye for colour and a great knack for one-liners. This t-shirt collection is not your usual funny ‘ha ha’ eclectic range of old tired japes you’ll normally come across. As you might (or might not) expect from the freshest of the fresh, there’s a distinct blend of the underground street about Word Apparel. Bold prints peppered with touches of pathos and cheek, backed up by an illustrative edge that any self-respecting graffiti artist would have to lay down his cap to, that’s the order of the day at WP. You should expect big things from this lad, and you won’t be disappointed…

As Levi puts it at his popular Myspace joint, “We are always doing something new, focusing on new items to release, and many more things. So check back everyday, you never know what you could miss out on if you don’t! We have your biggest concerns in mind: Quality, Comfort, a “true to size fit”, and LOOKIN’ GOOD! That’s why we only use the highest quality prints and shirts, American Apparel!” read more