tshaped - t-shirt reviews

My favorite t-shirt is a black American Apparel with a blue, hand-drawn blaster on it. Simple. Blue. And a sci-fi gun. Perfect. Unfortunately it’s no-where to be found on Option-G’s apparel website. Actually, that’s good for me since it’s probably been retired from the vast cannon of Option-G’s designs. Hopefully I own the last one in existance! For those of you who don’t already own Option-G’s Blaster t-shirt (because I own the only one), there is a worthy replacement available on their website.

Nice is nice! First of all, I love the penguin. I’m going to guess that it’s an emperor penguin and we all know how worthy they are of our respect (from that documentary). Plus, the adjective “nice” is extremely generic and annoys writer types, which makes displaying it, well, nice! I once had a professor lament over the word “nice” and that has stuck in my head like an vengeful case of deja vu. Maybe with this t-shirt I can finally end that nightmare. That’s one down…

• artistic
• ice
• illustration
• Vendor Review

I have found my new favorite t-shirt site…of the moment. PalmerCash.com. At first the site comes across as yet-another-funny-saying-t-shirt website but it truly has some very nice finds. All one has to have is a little patience and twenty or so minutes.

Before I get to the quality shirts, I’ll start with the website itself. PalmerCash.com is like a fine seventies era den built for the ease of getting your guests trashed. The t-shirt icons are easy on the eyes save for a few overly dark ones. I also love the wrinkled t-shirt full view look. It really lets one see the fabric (those AA t-shirts look so soft!). The pages also show up to 60 icons at once making for quick window shopping. The only thing missing is a filter for all of the t-shirts with tired ironic sayings .

The t-shirt designs run the gamut from artistic and trendy Option-Gs to the previously mentioned ironic/humorous sayings to thick’n sturdy symbolism from the old U.S.S.R. (remember those cats?). Highlights are DNA, Huey, KGB Badge, Eagle Shield, De Luxe, Skeleton Lady, and about thirty other t-shirts. I also have a confession…there are even a few humorous t-shirts that I would wear (I can’t tell you which ones though!).

PalmerCash.com has clever copy in both the t-shirt descriptions, FAQ and elsewhere. They carry both mens and womens t-shirts plus a small selection of jackets. Enjoy!

• humorous
• Jokes
• Vendor Review

Sit back and relax and enjoy this all-flash site! You’ll have to sit back, of course, because of the tedious animations that mire the wonderful shirts in a cluttered bog of grungy shapes. Luckily exist1981 only has a limited number of shirts or it would be impossible to peruse their catalog in a single sitting. It also doesn’t help that I had to crank up the brightness on my monitor to find the “Shop” link on their main page. I’m sure they lose many, many potential orders from people becoming frustrated and clicking away.

Now, on to the positives…the shirts! While some of them they may be a little too mainstream artsy for tshaped, they do have varying degrees of intensity that even the most modest shirt enthusiast can find something to wear on casual Friday. My favorites are Juarez, Official, Beast, Collage, Saber Face (sorry no direct links to these shirts…damn Flash!). They also have other items but I have lost my patience with their slow website.

The order. The order went surprisingly smooth considering the choppiness of the website. I also liked the fact that my order was one of the first on the site…or so the confirmation page indicated. I think I just stumbled upon something…the more amateur the vendor’s website, the less likely others will risk their credit card info (or be able to successfully place an order), and the less shirts will make it into the hands of competing t-shirt enthusiasts. After all, aren’t we all after unique t-shirts that no-one else wears?

Another benefit of exist1981’s difficult website is that they have lots of time on their hands to spruce up their shirt packaging. The shirt I ordered (review coming soon) came in a sea-green and stenciled padded envelope stuffed with flyers, buttons and awesome black and gold tissue paper (I never thought I would ever describe tissue paper as “awesome”). I love well designed flyers and many of exist1981’s have made it into my collection of favorites.

In conclusion, I have been hard on exist1981’s website because it does everything wrong. Their shirts, however, are well designed and will be on my radar for the foreseable future.

• artistic
• illustration
• Vendor Review

The first thing one notices about Panic’s online store is it’s shopping cart. It is extremely simple and easy to use. Just select the size, amount and color and drag the shirt to the blue Shopping Cart box at the bottom of the page. If you make a mistake, simply drag the shirt off and drop it anywhere (where it cleverly poofs away in a cloud of smoke). I did encounter some bugs in the drag and drop functionality but a page refresh always fixed the problem. Entering the required payment information was quick and painless and very straightforward. I received a confirmation email almost instantaneously (I hate waiting for confirmation emails…I always think my order failed!).

The shirt arrived (reviewed here) within five days of my order (I honestly forgot exactly what day it came!). I actually got my hands on it a day later since my mailperson was kind enough to leave it on the bushes (I enter through the back door). The t-shirt, printed on an American Apparel blank, was quality as usual.

• American Apparel
• cartoon
• humorous