Harry the Monster T-Shirt

The title makes it sound like Harry is the name of a really big t-shirt but that’s not what we’re talking about here at all. What we are talking about is the collection of Sesame Street t-shirts being sold by American Apparel. They actually launched this series quite a while back and I meant to post about it but things slip through the T-Shirt Review net sometimes.

Anyway, as you can see, the one featuring Harry the Monster is a pretty neat shirt. The thing that annoys me though is that  I don’t remember Harry the Monster. They should have just used the Cookie Monster. Nobody can forget the Cookie Monster. (Cookie Monster shirt available too.)

This particular tee is $25 but the prices vary almost as much as the options. Several Sesame Street themed t-shirts are available in all sizes including babies’s and children’s sizes.

Alexander McQueen Tee for Charity

I have never bought anything by Alexander McQueen and now that he has shuffled off this mortal coil I am even less likely to.  I believe the brand will continue though. I have nothing against this type of fashion (by this type I mean way out of my price range) and if I were younger and richer I no doubt would spend some of my silver spoon money on it. At this stage in my life though I am pretty sure that I will never spend $150 on a t-shirt which is what I hear an Alexander McQueen tee goes for. I am not likely to spend $65 on a t-shirt bearing his image either even if 30% of the proceeds go to charity which is what this tee would cost cost you.

Let’s break this down a little though. How much of this t-shirt price is actually going to charity. It says 30% of proceeds on tonic.com although when I asked hintmag.com they didn’t reply. We’ll take it that tonic.com know what they are talking about. That could be 30% of the profit or 30% of the sale price. Let’s say they are generous and base it on the sale price, that means that for every shirt sold they will donate $19.50 to charity. It’s a one color print on white American Apparel t-shirts so lets say they print 1000 of them that could cost as little as $5 per shirt but again lets say it costs $10 per shirt. So that leaves them with $35.50 profit. If my calculations are correct that means they are making more profit from these t-shirts than they give to charity. That doesn’t seem right does it.

I know there are a  few other factors here. They have to pay the designers I guess. But that means the designers are profiting from this charity tee. I know that they don’t have to give any money to charity and you could see them as being very generous but you have to admit that many people will buy this tee because of the charity side of it. So basically their sales are piggybacking their charity efforts. The charity is driving their sales. If they were really generous they would give all profits to the charity not just 30%.

This is what I think in this case. If you want the t-shirt, buy it. If you want the t-shirt and want to contribute to this charity, buy it. If you just want to contribute to this charity, do it directly it will be much more appreciated. Although you won’t have the t-shirt to demonstrate what a charitable person you are.

The proceeds go to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the largest HIV/AIDS organization in the UK. You can buy the t-shirt online at hintmag.com.

Mad Andy Kaufman T-Shirt

American Apparel have just released this wild Andy Kaufman t-shirt. The shirt is about as wild as he is. I wouldn’t wear this, the print is too big and the Andy Kaufman face is a bit scary but I’m sure there are a few fans of both the style and the man out there who would be more than happy to don Andy’s face. Andy is probably turning in his grave. (Two posts in a row I am guessing what other people would feel and this time it’s a dead person. Maybe that’s my new thing.)

Side note: I was old enough to know who Andy Kaufman was before the Jim Carrey biopic came out. From the Taxi series. Although it was in Ireland so probably a few years after its release stateside.

This is totally going in my blog

I received three tees from Zazzle yesterday and I am pretty impressed with the quality. After constantly hearing about the poor quality of POD t-shirts I guess my expectations weren’t all that high. Even if they were high though I wouldn’t have been disappointed. That said I was always pretty impressed with the shirts from Cafepress too. Anyway back to the t-shirts. The t-shirts I received were all from my own store. Sorry fellow Zazzlers and they looked just like they do in my Zazzle gallery. The only criticism is that the print area looks smaller in real life than on the screen. I have included photos so you can compare them yourselves.

The first one here is one of my newest creations and bears the same name as the title of this post. This is totally going in my blog. This is a line from sitcom How I Met Your Mother but I made it because I found myself saying this line (to myself) many times. It is printed on a 6.1oz Hanes Beefy Tee. I have heard many complaints about white printing on dark tees but this is exceptional. It could easily be mistaken for a silkscreen print.

The next one is my Obama 8 T-Shirt from the Rude Politics Store. It is a parody of the Superdry Osaka 8 t-shirt made famous by Beckham. Again the print is very clear and it could also be mistaken for a silkscreen print. Of course it is a simple one color design. It is printed on a 6.1 oz Hanes Tagless tee. A little warm for Japan summer. Definitely night time only.

The final one is one of my favorite designs and one that took me a bit of time. It is a flashback to my childhood when this type of image was very common for toys for young boys. Something as simple as a yo-yo was sold in packages just like this design. It’s on a lightweight American Apparel Tee.

Review: Political Tees Go Retro

The good folks over at Retro Campaigns sent us a couple of t-shirts to review and to be honest there is no way I can criticize them. For those who don’t know and haven’t bothered guessing the t-shirts at RetroCampaigns.com feature former politicians and in this time of Barack The Vote and and Bros before Hos t-shirts they are a breath of fresh air.

The t-shirts themselves are American Apparel and the choice of shirts perfectly suits the designs. The two shirts that we received are both Mélange Jersey Short Sleeve Gym T-Shirts which American Apparel says are “a retro reinvention of the classic gym T-shirt”. I say Retro Campaign t-shirts are a retro reinvention of the classic political t-shirt. It is like they found a secret stash of 40 year old political t-shirts in mint condition and are now sharing them with the world. The designs on the t-shirts makes them look like they have already been through the wash about 50 times or have faded with age which just adds to the vintage vibe.

At the moment there seem to be about 20 designs on the front page but I recommend clicking on the designs because not only can you see what they actually look like on the t-shirts you can also get a free history lesson while learning about the inspiration for the shirts. My personal favorite is the Ready for Teddy t-shirt.