The T-Shirt Blog

… Let it the fighting for you… at ShirtFight. This competition-based site seems to thrive on colorful, oversized prints like the ones above, which, at this time, are on sale for only $10. American Apparel tees are a standard feature.

Threadless hasn’t always had slogan tees, as their main focus has been, and still is on illustration. In fact, every month a new theme is declared for their design contest, challenging artists to create a suitable illustration in the form of a t-shirt design. Currently the theme is horror.

When Threadless launched TypeTees the premise was a little different.  Instead of designs, users submit slogans, which are voted for by other users.  Winning slogans are then designed by professional artists.  This great news on both fronts if you are a fan of slogan tees. You can earn $500 by submitting a winning slogan, or you can peruse their collection of existing slogan tees.  Here are my favorites:

• Allow me to explain through interpretive dance
• Stop detroying our planet. It’s where I keep all my stuff.
• Haikus are easy
  But sometimes they don’t make sense
  Refrigerator
• Being vague is almost as fun as this other thing.
• So far, this is the oldest I’ve ever been.
• In case of emergency, break dance.

If you are wondering what Sunshine Megatron, creator and owner of T-Shirt Hell is up to nowadays, you might be interested to learn about his next t-shirt making venture - TorsoPants.  Apparently, making really offensive t-shirts has become somewhat oldhat for Mr. Megatron, who had his name legally changed 2006.  The order of the day has become esoteric, dry-humored t-shirts that are a lot more likely to confuse than to offend.  There’s definitely some overlap between the two sites.  A few of the shirts, like Words on Shirt, Go Local Sports Team and/or College, and Home School Valedictorian have appeared on both sites at some point.[Via Westword]

I was eating a chocolate easter bunny one of these days and immediately thought of this t-shirt from Snorg Tees.  Don’t you just love when a t-shirt company comes up with something cute and original instead of the typical schockingly offensive tee you will find anywhere else.  But don’t wory, Snorg hasn’t completely gone soft either:

Even though Deez Teez is more of a Dirty Dirty Tees site, or a Movie Quote Tees site, today is Thursday so I’m going to talk about them as a Drinking Tees site. So by no means let yourself pigeon-hole them as Video Game Tees site, or a Political Tees site, or a Generic Slogan Tee site, or even an Inspired by Seinfield Tee site… , and definitely do not forget to visit their gallery of sexy ladies, I mean, porn models wearing (or not) their genuine Deez Teez rags.

I’ve been working hard on a couple of my own t-shirt designs lately, and a part of my ispiration is a site called One Horse Shy.  You might not notice just by looking at it, but OHS fully relies on Cafepress‘ on-demand printing and ordering platform.  What’s amazing is how seamlessly the Cafepress ordering system is integrated into the website, and how professional the t-shirts and the site’s design look.  One of my absolute favorites is “bad grammar makes me [sic],” and there plenty more shirts organized into topical categories, such as  Political, Religious, Topical.

No, I’m not just saying that as a play on words with the above t-shirt.  Lucky Threadz really is an outstanding vendor with a multitude of original and creative designs.  Think of them as Busted Tees‘ more urbane counterpart, but with somewhat outdated pop-culture references.  And while you are there - don’t forget to check out some of the embedded videos, like this hilarious Richard Simmons sketch from Who’s Line Is It Anyways, and a poignant reading by Charles Bukowski

For more things that rock check out the ultimate guitar hero accessory guide, and be sure to look through the rest of Lucky Threadz’ affordable inventory, including long sleeved tees, and hoodies.

Update: LuckyThreadz relaunched their site and is now under the brand name Loiterink.  I tried to change the links where possible, but not all of the t-shirts made it to the new site.

Remember the days when T-shirt Hell used to be really offensive, got itself into numerous lawsuits and all sorts of controversy?  Kotaku, a gaming blog, even got a C & D letter because they posted a T-Shirt Hell tee! 

Well it ain’t your grandma’s T-Shirt Hell anymore.  I’m not saying you won’t find a bunch of seriously offensive tees on their website, but some of the newer designs are funny in an almost wholesome sort of way!

Nothing from Walmart, anyway. I was browsing the T-Shirt Shopping List when I came across an ad for ChristianShirts.net. The site contains a huge 10 page selection of t-shirts, mainly slogan tees making a case against abortion, but also against gay rights and evolution.

The wholesome goodness of these designs from SnorgTees is a breath of fresh air, especially in a world filled with so much violence and uncertainty. This all makes for a happy coincidence that SnorgTees now has kid’s sizes available through Spreadshirt.

Usually when you see a t-shirt company with more that a hundred different designs, you figure that the quantity is there to make up for a lack of quality. Not so at Old Guys Rule - the t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and caps are clearly put together by a team of aging designers and illustrators with a creativity honed by the California sun, and years upon years of design experience. So grab a gift certificate for your dad, and that awesome Spare Tire Ale t-shirt for yourself.

And here’s another thing. Ya know that cute girl in your english class that you’ve been trying to impress? This shirt should do the trick. It shows you’re smart and clever while making sure she knows you’ve got a sense of humor too. Place your order on a Monday, get the shirt on a Thursday, wear it to class on Friday and ask her out for Saturday. After that, welcome to Pantyville, population: you.

With descriptions like that and t-shirts like this, BustedTees should be on anyone’s short list of the best t-shirt shops online. Sure, Threadless is artistic, melodramatic, and above all democratic, but BustedTees are just funny, clever, and well designed, and you don’t have to collect all 200 of them. Their shirts are sort of middle of the road, not too artsy or esoteric, and not offensive like so many other t-shirt sites. Here’s some evidence of what I’m talking about, sweet, delicious evidence:

So be sure to visit BustedTees and take a look at the rest of their collection, like the classic “Visit Cuba,” and one of their newest creations “I’m with Cupid.”

If you’ve ever thought about starting your own t-shirt site, here a quick step-by-step guide on how to do it right:

First, come up with a good name. It doesn’t have to have the word ‘tees’ in it, and with so many good .com names already taken, you better be creative. Something like Burnswell is good.

Two, don’t even think about launching the site without enough shirts. You don’t need to have that many, 9-15 designs is more than enough. In fact, I’d rather see your best shirts all on one page, instead of having to sift through filler.

Number three is take some good pics. Everybody wants to see what that cool tee looks like on an actual person, instead of just a superimposed image. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt if your models are as breathtakingly photogenic as the ones from Burnswell.

Part four is equally tricky - making the website. You need to make it look as good as the t-shirts, but you also need shopping cart software and a merchant account to process credit orders. You may also consider setting up an affiliate program so that anyone can easily advertise your tees on their website.

Launched recently in 2005, Burnswell seems to get all this, with a website that looks professional and tees that are unbounded by convention.

Update: Use coupon code BRNS_TSB for 10% off your order.

The mercurial PalmerCash sells vintage style tees made by independent manufacturers such as No Star, Vintage Vantage, Five Crown and Heavy Rotation. Visiting the site feels a little like browsing through an eclectic collection of t-shirts at a good thrift store, or at least one with over 300 tees. Here’s but a small cross section of the quality product available, appropriately themed if you happen to be enjoying a beer while reading this.

I am not going to post the YouTube link to ‘Kramer’s’ racist tirade at a Las-Vegas nightclub. You can find it yourself if you’d like. Needless to say the outburst was so outrageous that no apology can make up for it — he might as well have been wearing the “arrest black babies before they become criminals” tee from T-Shirt Hell. What I find interesting is how quickly T-Shirt Hell came out with a t-shirt about the whole thing. The story surfaced on Monday the 20th, and by Wednesday evening the shirt was featured on their front page. The illustration isn’t super amazing or anything, but 2 days is at least how long it took me to write this post.

In fact, T-Shirt Hell has been staying on top of recent events, as they continue to churn out their brand of edgy and irreverent tees:

And while you’re over there, check out “International Age of Consent Tour“. I’m sure you know someone who deserves to own that tee.

It’s only fitting that I start off the T-Shirt Blog with a post about one of the most beloved t-shirt retailers on the web. In case you’ve never been to Threadless, they run ongoing t-shirt design competitions, and sell the best, most popular submissions as voted on by viewers like you. The end result is a constantly evolving, limited edition collection of unique designs, all reasonably priced at around $15 each. Here’s a round up of the ten most popular designs on Threadless (based on the number of submitted photos), so you can see what you are missing out on:

My one and only Threadless tee actually happens to be “Flowers in the Attic,” the one with the butterflies. Can I get some props for being completely unoriginal and getting THE most popular shirt on the site? I might also go for this svelte going-out tee next.

Stay tuned for more cool tees, and possibly an in-depth search engine keyword analysis of this domain name.