DC Comics comes to Zazzle

Zazzle are pretty good at getting what must be pretty lucrative licenses and getting the DC Comics license is a big event. Now you can get official Batman, Superman, Super Girl, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Justice League merchandise that you can customize and it’s all in one place.

I am not really into comics. When I was a child in Ireland it wasn’t easy to find DC or Marvel comics and when you did find them they were a little out of my price range. I did enjoy the Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman TV series though as well as the Batman and Superman movies of course. I loved the original Tim Burton Batman movie and I was a big Prince fan at the time so it was bonus that he did the soundtrack.

Anyway, I think that there are a lot of crap designs on these t-shirts that are really only suitable for kids but the Batman store has a nice selection that even adults could wear. I think they really could do better though. Zazzle did amazing work with the Star Wars stores. Hopefully they will add more interesting designs to the DC Comics stores soon.

Check out some examples below. I think you can also get $4 off t-shirts at until March 8th with the coupon code: 4OFFPATTYTEE.

Retro Japanese Batman T-Shirt

I just love this t-shirt that I came across this morning. Sweet n’ Sour Tees is one of the ugliest online t-shirt stores I have seen but they have an awesome collection of retro pop culture tees. For the curious the Japanese text in this t-shirt simply says ‘Batman’.

Dark Knight in the Election Campaign

Anonymous LA-based artist has painted McCain and Palin as Two Face and the Joker and is selling them on Cafepress t-shirts. The artwork is excellent whether or not you agree with the message but I wouldn’t wear such a hideous image on my chest. It is for a good cause though.

The artist is currently selling these designs on a variety of products through Cafepress.com. Because he has seen the homeless and the animal communities suffer so much during the last 8 years, proceeds from the sales will be given to two local non-profit groups that help the homeless and animals.  (Read more at indybay.org.)

Batgirl T-Shirt at Topshop

At the moment the new Batman movie is breaking records at the box office with both reviewers and audiences giving it the thumbs up. Being in Japan, i haven’t had the opportunity to go see it yet as it hasn’t been released. I will definitely pencil it in to my schedule though. I think a lot of people are going to try and capitalize on its success and perhaps that is what Top Shop is doing with these awesome Batgirl T-Shirts. Sometimes even these big stores manage to pull off a great t-shirt. Of course they can afford to pay for licensing so that helps a lot with the material. Still though, I love the vintage look of this t-shirt and the very retro, very not dark Batgirl image.  It costs £16 and ships from the UK, I believe.

UT T-Shirt Shop in Harajuku

While I was in Tokyo today I decided to drop in to Uniqlo’s UT store. I took some photos but with my mobile phone so don’t complain about the resolution. As you will see it is a pretty cool place and at the moment they are having a Sunday magazine 50th Anniversary tie in promotion. Hence the manga images on the front windows, the floors and of course on dozens of t-shirts.

For those who don’t know Uniqlo, it is a Japanese discount store that became extremely popular selling good quality but bland clothes cheaply after the economic bubble burst. Last year Uniqlo’s parent company made an unsuccessful bid for Barney’s in the US. UT is a relatively new project for Uniqlo and in my opinion is an attempt by Uniqlo to persuade the consumers to that it can be cool too as the brand was suffering. In fact we overheard someone in the store say that “it’s nice but it’s Uniqlo, so everybody will be wearing it”.

The store is just like you might imagine a Japanese store to be (with more space). It is very space age with the t-shirts stored in plastic tubes on racks lining the walls. Very futuristic. While you can see some other apparel it is 90% t-shirts and they have a great variety too.

The t-shirts in UT are reasonably priced at about 1500 yen and are available in regular Uniqlo stores too. I’m pretty sure you can also purchase them online. The advantage of going to the store though is that you can touch them and suss out their quality which I think is pretty good for a discount t-shirt shop.

Along with many exclusive and original designs UT sell many licenced t-shirts, from Japanese manga and American comic book characters such as Supergirl to images by famed photographer Robert Capa. And don’t think of shoplifting as Batman is the security guard.