I went out tonight and noticed a couple of guys who would probably fit the douchebag stereotype wearing these shirts. It made me think back to this thread I started a few months ago.
Anyway what is it that makes these shirts douchey and why do douchebags like wearing them so much?
They’r not really douchbags. It’s just that us white people need somebody to talk shit about.
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I’ve never seen those until I googled them, but yeah, that’s total douche-gear.
It’s too damn flashy for men. Completely show-off wear. Douchebags love to show off. 
I like the concept of tattoo-inspired designs but those are all really twee tattoos.
Ed Hardy shirts are incredibly popular among a subset of douchebags. They are not all that popular among the rest of the population for two reasons. First, they are very expensive, and even if a person happens to like they style, it’s hard to convince them to shell out so much cash for a simple t-shirt unless there’s something about it that makes them really really want it–like the fact that their friends will think it’s very cool. Second, as Ed Hardy t-shirts have become more and more associated with douchebags, non-douchebags who might be willing to buy and wear one just because they like it might opt not to do so for fear that people will assume that they are a douchebag.
The result is that whatever initial popularity Ed Hardy t-shirts had among douchebags has turned into an exclusive association with douchebags.
To wit:
A couple of months ago, my 7-year-old son was wearing a tattoo-style t-shirt from Target. An acquaintance asked me “oh, do you like Ed Hardy?” I hadn’t even realized that there was anything Ed Hardy-ish about the t-shirt! I was in a quandary! Was this guy asking me if I was trying to make my son into a douchebag because I think douchebags are cool? Did he just not know that Ed Hardy shirts were associated with douchebags? I didn’t want to directly refer to the Ed Hardy/douchebag connection in case the guy really liked Ed Hardy or something and/or thought douchebags were somehow worthy of emulation.
So I just said “Not particularly. He just likes that shirt.” So I suppose I left the question of whether my second grader is a proto-douchebag open, but what are you gonna do?
Sad thing is that I actually really like the way Ed Hardy stuff looks.
Incidentally, I was looking through the OP’s first thread on the topic, and came to an outstanding definition of what makes a douchebag. I’ll repeat it here for reference:
Green Bean hit the nail on the head. It’s apparel for white guys of modest means who want to pretend they have more than modest means. True, they’re expensive, but still within reach of someone with a halfway decent job who wants to look like a high roller (or rather what they imagine a high roller to look like).
Also Jon Gosselin, the reigning king of the douchebags, seems to have a real fondness for them.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of these in the wild, but I do know that Johnny Drama from Entourage wears them on occasion, and that pretty much seals the deal right now, as that character’s douchitude is off the scale.
My Mig (Hispanic male) likes the designs. Walmart carries some knock-off he’s just as happy with, but he has one of the real EH shirts we got from TJ Maxx for probably less than twenty dollars.
I think they’re loud and obnoxious too, but he’s not a douche. He says the skulls and stuff reminds him of Dia de los Muertos.
Because they’re worn by the same people who wore Von Dutch stuff five years ago - douchebags.
Errr… I have a pthalo green and blood red Ed Hardy tank top I got at the flea market for ten bucks. It’s really beautiful. I’m a girl. Can I wear it anyway?
If you like it, you can wear it, douchette.
This.
When I was in India, I bought a Von Dutch knock-off shirt for a friend who loves Engrish. It said “Death Before Dishoor” which was pretty awesome. (Not as good as the hat I bought her in China that said “Sabble Up” and had a silhouette of a naked woman on all fours. She still wears that one.)
If it’s featured on “Jersey Shore” (the new MTV reality show that makes me lose all hope for humanity), it’s douchy.
I saw this Web site the other day. I love the ribbon.
http://www.swollenpickles.com/2009/12/10/international-douchebag-awareness-day/
It is the perfect clothing for people who wear too much jewelry, too much cologne and talk too loud…in other words, a douche.
Ironically, both are real people, and both have and had zero to do with clothing. Von Dutch, aka Kenny Howard, was a very famous car customizer and Don “Ed” Hardy is a world reknowned tattoo artist who was a student of Sailor Jerry Collins. Howard’s daughters sold off the right to use his name, and Hardy was approached by designer Christian Audigier with a metric buttload of money to slap his name on some shirts and (perhaps understandably) said “you betcha.” I’m a big fan of the orignal work of both, and not in the slightest a fan of the fashions using the name of either.
The first time I saw an Ed Hardy t-shirt it was on a male exotic dancer. Who wears too much cologne, is way too tan, and yeah, is a big honkin’ douche.
No one I have seen wearing one since has changed my original impression.
Hmm. That’s interesting. That makes me wonder whether they’re aware of the douchey reputation their monikers have taken on.
I noticed my first Ed Hardy t-shirt last night at a nightclub where there was a Christmas Party going on. I tried so hard, firstly not to laugh, and then not to judge the guy just based on his t-shirt but, sure enough, within five minutes it was pretty clear he was a douche.