Review: DVClothing

Writing a review is work. Let’s make that clear. It is just like any other job, sometimes you enjoy it and sometimes you don’t but whichever, it is still work. I do quite a lot of writing in my life actually. For example, one of my jobs is writing articles for Yokohama City and it is the same. Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes it is tedious, sometimes it is hard work and sometimes it is stressful. Other times it is fun and I can’t believe I get paid for it. Writing these reviews is very similar except here I can give my honest opinion. But the pay is lousy. On the other hand, it’s my blog and I am the boss.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I just want to emphasize that writing this particular review was work. Usually when people contact me to review a shirt they provide me with plenty of information but not this time. One guy just contacted me and said he wanted to send me a shirt and I gave him the address and a shirt arrived. There was quick note scribbled on to a scrap of paper that gave me some bare details. No information about the store or shirt or anything. I had to contact him to get some details…like the url of his store. Nice guy but definitely needs to learn some marketing skills.

Anyway, on to the t-shirt. The tee that was sent over is called Rosa Parks Station. It’s from a line of photography based t-shirts called Grey Matter that was started in 2006. I have nothing against putting photographic images on a tee but this particular t-shirt does nothing for me. I know who Rosa Parks is, even though I am neither black nor American but I don’t know the significance of Rosa Parks Station. Is it a tourist t-shirt? Why would I want a photo of this on my tee? I don’t know the answers to these questions. As you can see below the image looks like it might have been a good photo but I’m not sure it was meant for a t-shirt.

The tee is a black cotton Alstyle and looks like it will last a while. On the back of the t-shirt you will also find a quite uninspired logo. Another negative point. If you are going to put the logo on the outside of the t-shirt you should at least have a good logo or be very creative.

DVClothing (Dirty Vato Clothing) started in 2007 as a way to “creatively articulate the culture of L.A”. that Erwin Recinos (owner) sees. “From pop culture references, latino heritage, car culture and a true L.A. lifestyle that is ever changing.” After three years the line is still quite small and made up of a variety of logo t-shirts most of them going for just $10. Of all the tees on sale only the Dirty Dodge t-shirt seems to be “designed” although I do like the His Gun t-shirt. Just don’t try and get on an airplane while wearing it.

DVClothing is hosted on Big Cartel. You can check it out here: DVClothing.

Review: Izzi Pop

Izzi Pop sent over these two tees quite a while ago and it has taken me all this time to actually post about them. Sorry about that Izzi.  Before I talk about the tees though I think  I will talk about the store. I hadn’t really checked out Izzi Pop before the tees were sent over. After getting the t-shirts though of course it is my duty to check it out. I have to say I was a little surprised by it. I mean the tees were perfect, not something that I would buy for myself but definitely something that I would wear. The Izzi Pop website is far from perfect and I tell you this so when you visit you won’t be put off. There is quality in there, you just have to click…and click…and click…and click to see it.

The website looks like it was built by someone just trying out a new CMS, using the default template and perhaps changing a color here and there. From what I can see there are two logos, the one on the top corner is so small that the words “Izzi Pop” are illegible. I know they are there only because I got stickers with my t-shirt. Then there is another logo right in the middle of the home page and as far as I can see it is not even available on a t-shirt. If that were me and I had no choice about the layout of the store I would put my best selling t-shirt there.

On the Izzi Pop website the images are too small and I bet that most people don’t even bother to click through (4 clicks to largest image) which is a pity because for those into vector collage designs Izzi Pop has this style down pat. I think the popularity of this style has subsided but there is still a market and if people could actually see the designs in Izzi Pop they might take a small bite out of it.

Anyway, enough about the store design. Let’s talk about the shirts. The mans shirt I received is a silver gray tee of super soft cotton. The print on three areas is flawless.  The chest design is a bit generic but that’s OK and across the back shoulder is a logo with some embellishment. I’m not into logos on my tee as I may have mentioned. The third print area is the tagless tag for your comfort.

The second t-shirt that was sent I really like. It is a very clean vector graphic design that has a combination of elements that make it just a fun design. It’s called Hair Pop Graphic Tee and contains a lot of swirls, ink splashes and hearts. It even has a hair comb….I mean, what else would you need. It is a light blue super soft cotton tee too. And I don’t think I mentioned but they both smelled great.

There are only five mens tees and 5 womens tees at the moment but Izzi Pop are having a holiday sale at the moment with tees marked down to $23 from $27 with further discounts available (if I am reading it right) if you buy 3 or more shirts. On top of that you can receive 10% off with the code Izzi Pop kindly gave to The T-Shirt Review readers:  retro. Now that’s awesome! Thanks Izzi!

Review: Hypnic

A few weeks ago I received this sweet tee in the mail from Hypnic. Hypnic does seem like a strange name and truth be told I had never heard the word before. I was sure Hypnic’s founder, Mike Hammer (Really!), told us that the name of his web store comes from his design process but I have nothing to back that up. According to Wikipedia a hypnic jerk “is an involuntary myoclonic twitch which occurs during hypnagogia, just as the subject is beginning to fall asleep. Physically, hypnic jerks resemble the “jump” made when a person is startled.” I have had a few of those. So Mike Hammer wakes up suddenly with this idea in his head and sets to work creating these awesome abstract yet somehow comfortingly familiar designs and we get the Hypnic store. (Disclaimer: I may have imagined this.)

There is not much of a selection. With only five distinct designs (available in several colors), you don’t have much to choose from but what they do have is originality. You won’t find these tees anywhere else, in fact I imagine it would be hard to find similar tees. All the tees in Hypnic are wearable and are perfect for people who are sick of the the current trends such as the oversized prints  produced by stores like Design by Humans, lazy pop culture references by stores like Busted Tees and grotesque Zombie tees by just about every indie tee designer with a Big Cartel store.

Anyways, the tee I received in the package may be the Hypnic signature tee and is available in navy, brown and lemon yellow. The design is used as the background to the website. It’s called Ootline which makes me think that it must be a typo but it doesn’t really matter what it’s called. The design looks like smoke wafting over the shoulder and the placement of the design is what really makes this t-shirt. As you can see the design goes right over the sleeve and over the seams. There are a few minor print issues at the seams but that’s the norm for screen-printing and they are barely noticeable and don’t take away from the overall effect of the design.

Another tees that really caught my eye was the Winter tee. The design looks like a block of ice that has naturally formed tree patterns as it melts. It is a stunning design and really does make me think of Winter when I look at it.

Hypnic uses American Apparel so you don’t have to worry about sizing or wonder if they were made my little kids in China. If you want to wear something different you have found it. Hopefully he will crank out a few more designs before Christmas.

As an added bonus Hypnic is giving a 30% off coupon to anyone who becomes a fan on their Facebook page before the end of November. Also you should follow their blog for other offers, news and new t-shirts.

Review: Symbolika

I received this little package from Symbolika a while back but am just getting around to it now. It’s been a while since my last post and I had been doing so well too. I admit to setting up a few robo-posts though. I had time one day and stuck a lot of posts on a timer. Anyways, back to the tee shirt that I received all the way from Israel.

First impressions are important and Symbolika know this. Not only is their website stylish it is a perfect match for the demographic they are targetting. It’s  a pity they didn’t do the same with the packaging. That said, even in its lack of style, the packaging is impressive enough. Inside the white envelope there was a smooth silver envelope and a sticker. Who doesn’t love a freebie?

OK, so environmentalists won’t be too happy with the next layer of packaging but they would have to admit that it looks good.

The t-shirt itself is quite nice, not too heavy, not to light…just right but it just seemed a bit loose for my taste. I couldn’t find the size on it so I guess it is either a medium or a large. I have a feeling it is a medium though as it is short. In either case I think the neck hole is too big but that may be the preferred style in Israel. I also feel that the  fit is a little odd…maybe I am just used to slimmer fitting tees.

The design is beautiful: a computer generated 3D model of an elephant’s head on the front. The print is perfect and much better than I had expected from looking on the website. The back print is also quite and amazing piece. It employs some visual trickery which I find very clever. At first I didn’t notice how many creatures were there. The back print seems to be a bonus because the front design totally carried the shirt.

As I have mentioned countless times before, I don’t think that shirts need to print their logo on the outside of the t-shirt as we paid for the tee, why should we advertise their company for free. But this logo actually adds to the shirt. The location is subtle and the logo itself is a work of art.

I think the design of the symbolika.com web site perfectly matches the products that they are selling. It’s a bit confusing but it looks good and with a bit of patience you will find what you are looking for. It seems all the designs were created by this dude called Fabian and if he wrote all the text he comes off as as quite pretentious but of course it could be just google bait. “Symbolika is a peephole into Fabian’s psychedelic and spiritual creation.” I wonder what his spiritual creation is. I guess I need to be more enlightened to see it.

The designs are all pretty good, the kind that you’d expect to see hippies in the sixties wearing. Well, if computer generated images were all the rage back then instead of batik or tie-dye or whatever at-the-time innovative technique was actually used.

While I think many people with no interest in the eastern philosophies and cultures referenced at symbolika would love to wear some of these shirts just for the aesthetics, for me the fact that these designs have a deeper meaning and one that may not be in line with my own beliefs or lack thereof is a negative point. For the same reason I don’t wear a crucifix or a star of David around my neck I wouldn’t wear the symbols of a belief system that I know nothing about on my chest. At least not intentionally. That said, I do find some of the artwork very attractive. The beautiful line work reminds me of 3D models that you might have seen in eighties science fiction movies.

DIY Screenprinting

I’m sure many of you have thought about printing your own t-shirts at some point. These days we have POD companies like Zazzle and Spreadshirt so there is really no need to get your hands dirty or even deal with the customers to have your own t-shirt store but the fact is that those companies’ base prices are quite high and you have to work very hard at marketing to sell a lot of $30 t-shirts. Anyway, back to screenprinting. I have never screenprinted anything in my life so when I was given the chance to see how it’s done I jumped at it.

The guys at DIYTeeShirts.com sent me over an evaluation copy of their screenprinting tutorial series. This is a great collection of video tutorials totaling over 1 hour and 20 minutes with accompanying pdf files. They take you through the whole process from beginning to end seemingly without skipping over any areas. They teach you how to build a press from scratch. They show you how to create your design and they even tell you how to clean up after you are finished.

To be honest I was surprised at how much work there is to screenprinting so if you want to start your own screenprinting business this is a great place to start. You can see the actual process on video by screenprinting professionals. You can quickly learn about the do’s and don’ts. They even discuss the difference between water-based inks and plastisol based. At just $67 it might be the best investment in your screenprinting business you will find.

OK, I do have a disclaimer though. As I mentioned, I have never screenprinted so for all I know they have skipped out some important information but I doubt it. Not only do they give video demonstrations of how to do it but they also explain why and they even tell you how to avoid bad prints.

One criticism I would have about the videos is the sound. It is quite inconsistent so you may have to adjust the volume up or down several times. Still the information is there. Check it out.

Screenprinting Walkthrough at DIYTeeShirts.com

ShirtFight over but not out

ShirtFight have just posted the winner of their final bout. For those of you who don’t know, ShirtFight is a t-shirt contest site that just appeared a couple of months ago. They held a weekly themed competition and attracted great designers many of whom made designs especially for these contests. They seemed to be doing quite well until a few weeks ago when they announced that they would be increasing the time between contests for financial reasons. They later announced that they would be doing away with the contest altogether. I would guess that sales were not quite as high as they had hoped and these contests were scrapped to stave off financial ruin.

Over at ShirtFight there was a great community and I think they probably put a lot of effort into making their site a success but of course success isn’t easy especially in this industry where hundreds, if not thousands of shops are vying for the same customers and that doesn’t include the POD shopkeepers like me. I often read Jud’s (co-owner of ShirtFight) posts about how he created ShirtFight “to showcase and support really awesome artists and their work” and things like that and in that he has been successful. As I said, he built a cool community and has developed strong relationships with designers. This may also have been ShirtFight’s failing though as he should really have been developing stronger relationships with customers and spending his time marketing his products.

I follow a lot of tee blogs and I didn’t see ShirtFight mentioned often even though they had some very sweet tees designed by popular designers. Of course if, as in my case, they promised to send a tee and didn’t (twice) that might have pissed off the bloggers. We can be a fickle bunch. (I myself have recently been snubbed by Andy at HYA for reasons undetermined.) But hey I’m still posting about ShirtFight regardless. It’s all about the shirt, right?

Another thing I noticed is that even thought they have an affiliate program, apart from an announcement, they seem to be keeping it a secret. Where is the link on their site to the affiliate program? I don’t know. We bloggers like to make some money too even if it is barely enough to pay for hosting. Let’s know about it.

Anyway, perhaps now that ShirtFight’s contest is over it will leave Jud and Miss Ettie time to really market their stuff. They have a good product and a cool new website coming (tomorrow?) so all they need to do is to get the word out. Here is my shout out for them.

Review: T-Post

It’s been about six months since I made a tee post about err… T-Post. A few days ago they sent me a tee to review.  I don’t think too much has changed over their since then except for the addition of a few new tees including the latest one which is currently sitting on my desk. At first I didn’t really know what the design was, I suspected it was some type of cake but when you step back you can clearly see that it is a skull design. A pretty cool skull design at that.

The article on (the inside of) the t-shirt is about filesharing and the design of the skull is connected to the pirate imagery. Get it? It was designed by Siggi Eggertsson, who apparently gets around (as a designer) and his work has been part of everything from Dazed and Confused, Wallpaper, Wired Magazine (my personal favorite) and The New York Times, to numerous international music projects. Pretty high profile.

Let’s get back to the article on the inside of the t-shirt for a second. What is the point of it really? It’s on the inside and nobody can see it. Perhaps the guys at T-Post think that the news they are peddling is very important and that the t-shirt designs reflect the news and people will ask the wearer about them. The wearer need not worry about forgetting what it means because they can just whip it off when someone asks and read it. Or, they could just wear it inside out…

The tees cost 19  EURO  plus shipping and are paid for on a subscription basis. Just sign up with your credit card and they will charge your account every 6 weeks or so and send you a new topical tee. You can stop your subscription at any time by emailing them.

Review: Bytelove

10% Off at Bytelove until September 27th with code: ruderetro_com

Bytelove is a t-shirt store from the guys who brought you The Pirate Bay, * a website that has been in the news a lot recently due to their file sharing activities. There has been talk of defiance, jail time and multi-million dollar deals, the stuff of Hollywood, so you would really expect their t-shirt store to be more out there. Even if the shirts were simple, the design of the website or the language used should be entertaining but it is not. I guess it may be hard to translate humor across five languages though. Yep, Bytelove is a multilingual site.

The site as well as the t-shirts they peddle are pretty low key. They are clearly not talented illustrators but they do know how to design a wearable t-shirt. The shirts found here are pretty generic and similar tees can be found all over the internet. I even sell a few similar to them myself. Not that I am putting them down. I mean gamers and geeks dig understated as much as the next guy, and I am sure the majority of them don’t want to wear t-shirts that are clearly over the top.

The guys at Bytlelove sent over this pretty cool and yes, understated, space invader t-shirt. I love this type of shirt. It has a simple design and one color. It may be a gamer t-shirt, it may be a retro t-shirt, it may be just something you picked up. It avoids labeling. A lot of t-shirt t-shirts at Bytelove have no real design, just some text but if that’s your thing head on over. There is a huge selection or gamer and geek t-shirts to choose from. There are a few funny illustrated tee too though and below you can check out my two favorites.

The shirts seem to cost around the €19 – €22 mark and at the moment they ship from Germany but they we will start shipping from within the US soon to be able to offer faster delivery, cheaper prizes and better service for their US-customers.

* Correction: “we are a partner of the pirate bay, meaning we are selling shirts and hoodies with their logo and pay them a part of the profit to support them, but we do not belong to them in any way.”

Review: The Originators

The guys at the Originators sent over a few tees a couple of weeks ago that I am only getting around to reviewing now. Sorry guys. I was pretty busy back then and that was topped off with having a virus on my pc that led to my websites getting hacked. I think all is back to normal but I have to say that McAfee sucks. Hopefully I will remember that when my three year subscription runs out sometime in 2012. Anyway, back to the Originators.

Before I talk about the actual t-shirts I’d like to mention that the Originators just recently opened a bricks and mortar store. It’s great to see web businesses make it in the real world. Hopefully it works out for them.

This flagship store is in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles and exclusively sells Originators’ clothes, skateboards, and more.

The Originators Store LA is located at:
142 N. Hayworth Ave.,
LA, Calif. 90048

The purpose of the Originators brand (apart from profit) is to tell the world about the early years of hip-hop and the people who founded the movement. The founder, Adam Bach, previously considered making movies to tell these stories but the proposition seemed too daunting so instead he started this t-shirt brand (or so the story goes). The Originators is not simply profiting off these hip-hop legends though:

Every Artist involved in this thing, is under a per-unit licensing deal, so the Artist makes money on every shirt sold bearing their name and likeness. This was very important to us when setting up the company. I wanted the Originator to make money as the company made money. They do well as we do well, and that’s the way it should be.

I don’t know much about hip-hop past or present but if that’s your thing or you are interested in learning you can find out more on the Originators website. They have since branched out into different genres but hip-hop history is still the heart and soul of their business.

As I have mentioned numerous times, I am not a big fan of logos on t-shirts. I mean if you pay for the t-shirt you shouldn’t have to advertise for them too. The Originators tees don’t shy away from branding, with two of their tees having both a sew on patch on the front bottom and a printed logo on the sleeve. To be honest though, in this case, it adds to the t-shirts. And it’s not like you are marketing a big planet-raping mega-corporation.

The t-shirt on the left is a well placed photographic image of who I assume is Jo Jo, the original b-boy. It’s a pretty sweet t-shirt and really captures the spirit of break-dancing. The tee on the right is an example of how The Originators are branching out into other areas with a graffiti style I Heart Tokyo design. This tee doesn’t really do anything for me and being in Japan is something that I wouldn’t wear in public.

This t-shirt has a small target audience. Yankees fans. It’s a nice take on a pretty common design. They have added their own style and it works. For some reason this t-shirt was smaller than the others even though it is marked as a large, like the other two. I might just keep this one for myself.

The tees were all made of quite heavy material. I don’t know what blanks they are using but they look pretty durable. I don’t know if they are ideal for summer weather though. The tees come with a hang-tag giving details about the images but unfortunately they were unable to provide images of them so I can’t show you what they look like.

They have a pretty big selection in their store which uses the Big Cartel shopping cart.

Review: Format Tee

Not that long ago I introduced the loyal readers of the T-Shirt Review to a new t-shirt store from the guys who brought you internet fashion magazine Format and they were kind enough to send a t-shirt over here. The tee they sent was a black number with front and back print called Naked Eye. It’s American Apparel so can’t really complain there (unless you are concerned about their hiring of illegal immigrants). The quality is top notch and the print was pretty sweet.

It’s a nice t-shirt but it looks like one of those work t-shirts that you get if you work in a bar or a restaurant. You know, the logo on the front and the menu on the back. Maybe a part of it is that the back print reminds me of the girl in a cocktail glass image. That said it is a pretty nice image and the line work and halftone effects just add to the sexiness of it. I don’t think the legs would have worked well as a front print so that may be why it was designed this way.

If you want to wear something different from what others are wearing check out the store at Format. There is a small selection at the moment but is is sure to grow.

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