I own 2 custom t-shirts made by friends in small batches. Thes 1st is for the El Paso Surf Club. It’s anchient. The other one (made up by a regular at my favorite bar) has a stylized map of Osaka, and says “Osaka Drinking Team”. There were about 25 with “Rookie” on the back, and the rest (about 10) were individualized. Mine reads “MVP”.
The one I’d like to have made up just for me would be a list, in Japanese, of answers to all the common questions that gaijin living here get asked - “Yes, I like sushi. No I don’t like Natto. etc.”
Key:
Front…
…Back
(over a sillouette of Rick and Ilsa)
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world…
…and the bitch has to ruin my life?
Rene DesCartes was a drunken fart…
…I drink therefore I am (courtesy of Monty Python)
THINK!..
…It ain’t illegal yet!
Why doesn’t a duck’s quack…
…aw, fuck it, you idiots!
(On a tie-dye shirt)
I’m a Doper!..
…I like The Straight Dope!
Isn’t that from “Feet Of Clay by Terry Pratchett”?
I saw another really awesome shirt once, On the back it had a picture of one of those corny, stylised PR/propaganda cartoons (like “pip boy” in Fallout) of a guy in a Lab coat with couple beakers and other lab equipment in front of him. Above him it said “Better Living Through Chemistry!” and around the outside of the picture was the words: LSD, XTC, HADOL, MDMA, etc (you get the picture).
This isn’t really an idea of mine anymore since I’ve already done it.
Take a plain white $2 t-shirt and write on it with a black Sharpie pen the name of an expensive brand of clothing such as Abercrombie & Fitch or American Eagle.
“Pink fluffy tortoises help me with my politics essays”, followed by my name, course, college and university. Or,
“Caver: happiest when stuck between a rock and a hard place”
The Oxford University caving club has expeditions to Spain (the Picos de Europa) every year, and this summer we were exploring a cave (as the first people in the world, ever) called Pozu de Tormenta - Storm Cave. Anyway, on my birthday a few weeks back, I went caving in the Oxford storm drains with some friends of mine, and we have grand plans of making parodies of the expedition T-shirts - instead labelled “Desagüe de Tormenta 2002”…
One day, when I win the lottery, I want to start my own clothing company and call it ** No Endorsement Implied. **
Until then, I would just like a t-shirt to say that in subtle, classiness that makes everyone look and go…“Wha?”
**NDI ** would have t shirts with a purpose, not dumming down the reader, but smart stuff to make them think.
Examples:
Freedom, afterall, is the ability to live with the consequences of your decisions. ( Thomas Jefferson)
Everyone wants to save the world but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes. (PJ ORourke.)
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Our actions - and inactions - define our future. There is no standing still. ( tag line in a money magazine.)
Naturally, my company is not vain and vaccuuous enough and I would be bankrupt within a week. But I would have cool t-shirts.
Dang, this thread isn’t at all what I thought. Here I was envisioning this T-shirt with pectoral implants, handy pockets and an attached tape measure, maybe a flashlight on the wrist (similar to Buzz Lightyear’s laser).
Which reminds me, I wonder if Jackie Chan’s “The Tux” is out on video yet…
But in keeping with the theme: I’d go for subtlety and put a small picture of a heart. On the sleeve.