The artist doesn’t make it entirely clear what this design is really “about”. The oddly whimsical charm, however, is readily apparent.

I’d like to think the big furry critter (a giant monkey?) is some sort of imaginary friend of the boy, à la Calvin and Hobbes. Perhaps they’re embarking on, or returning from, some great childhood adventure of which the viewer is free to further envision for themselves.

The gold tee suits the image well… it reminds me of the over-saturated colors produced at twilight when the day’s outdoor activities must begin winding down. It has a few minor errors in color filling (inside the bucket handles around the right hand of the boy and left hand of the monkey-dude) but as a whole, the image proves eye-pleasing and unusually heart warming.

Verdict: 4 (View Submission)

El vez tries again with this beautiful piece, after I reviewed his Squeeze Blood From Feathers piece in my Decemeberists roundup.

While playing on a similar concept, Sorrow seems to nail it on the head. The girl is emotive and impassioned, and I feel for her.

It’s a striking design, with little room for improvement, though I do wonder what both the crane and the girl might look like with black eyes. Perhaps it’s better left untouched, though.

Verdict: 5 + Would Buy (View Submission)

We usually focus on Threadless the company and it’s goings-on, but what’s truly fascinating to me is the plethora of talented people which Threadless attracts. Some use the site as a creative outlet and a fun hobby, others use it as a jumping off point for other projects and a way to get their names out there.

Whatever the reasons, we all win (fellow artists and consumers alike). A continual stream of awesome work is the product of these fascinating personalities. I had the opportunity to chat with one such artist, slaterock, on Sunday. He recently started his own t-shirt website labeled “Cotton Werks“. Rather that just give a blurb about the site with my own opinions, I thought it would prove more entertaining for our readers if I gathered firsthand information straight from the creator himself. The interview starts below and continues after the jump. Enjoy!

Loves Threadless (Bree Lundberg): First off, please introduce yourself.

Michael B. Myers Jr.: I go by slaterock on the WWW, but in real life, my name is Michael B. Myers Jr. I’m finishing up my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Iowa State University, in which I’ve successfully taken a 4 year program and stretched into a 7 year nightmare. I am married to my beautiful wife Kristen and we have a 2 year old son named Davin. I live in the beautiful town of Boone, Iowa.

LT: So, what are your connections to Threadless and how do you participate at the site? (Blogging, submitting designs, etc.?) Read the rest of this entry »

No rest for the weary… Threadless released four new competition winners, a new Select tee, and two reprinted designs on Christmas day.

Here they are, in all their laconically referenced glory!

New Designs:
- You Are My HEROine (Boys Like Girls Loves Threadless winner)
- Peace and Hate. Can You Tell The Difference?
- Fallen (In Love)
- We Can Fix It
- JellyBalloons
- The Voyage of the Space Chrysalises (Threadless Select)

Reprints:
- Star Light, Star Bright
- We Are Made of Carbon

The Voyage and Peace and Hate have both made it onto hoodies. Meanwhile, We Can Fix It is also available in Kids sizes. (Which we seldom mention, but I figure that the tyke sizes deserve a bit of representation once in a while too.)

Enjoy your post-Christmas shopping, folks.

I just wanted to give a shout out to our readers and wish you all a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, awesome Kwanzaa, or whatever other holidays you may be celebrating right now.

Some nifty prints were released last week (on the 18th) which you might want to keep in mind once that holiday money grandma sent you starts burning a hole in your pocket. Here’s a quick overview…

Still Fresh:
- Silly Rabbit, Dreams Are For Kids (The Science of Sleep Loves Threadless winner)
- Confabulated Memory
- Mozart Didn’t Like To Practice Either
- Think Warm
- Bobshopping
- Gunsho (Threadless Select)

Radical Reprints:
- Pessimistic or Optimistic?
- Burn (also on long sleeves)

Tomorrow is Monday, the regular day for new prints, but since it’s Christmas I’m not sure whether or not the Threadless crew will be taking a break. (They certainly deserve it after that month long mega sale.)

Oh, and be sure to stay tuned this coming week… I have an interesting interview to post about a new shirt site and I’ll be revealing more details of our upcoming contest. For now, enjoy your holiday festivities!

The Decemberists are an incredible sound. (Listen to “The Island”.) Their breed of post-modern folk, mashed with subdued rock organ and accordion undertones is a brilliantly executed exploration into what you can have with amazing sound. Plus, any band that uses “would” to mean “I wish” (“Would I could afford to buy my love a fine robe,” etc.) already has a leg up. Their lyrics tell a story. Their lyrics are true poetry, with meter and metonymy and so many other forms lost in modern music.

So many times when wearing certain Threadless designs, (notably “Flowers”) people ask me “what band is that for?” Fitting, then, that their newest album’s sweeping magnum opus play the part of the concert’s focus. A story is told, and you feel complete through it.

It’s inspired some incredible designs. Here are some of my favorites:

Squeeze Blood From Feathers : 3 This design is rather simple in its execution. It’s done very well, but I fear it doesn’t convey the depth deserving of a near-13-minute sojourn like The Island. It instead feels as a window into just a brief moment—“The curlews carve their Arabesques”, notably.
Falling Away : 3 Perhaps embodying a larger view, I appreciate her facelessness, and the harsh juxtaposition of her dress against the abyss beneath her. I really like the true sense of falling backwards evoked by the hair and the circles beneath.
Lost : 5 + $ Simply brilliant. Besides obviously engendering the entire piece through its subtleties, the design itself is just gorgeous. There’s no true meaning evident, but the feathers and the pistol evoke a proper confusion.
The Crane Wife : 3.5 “You’ll not feel the drowning…” plays itself nicely here. I enjoy the sea and the island. But I feel as if the guitar is almost unnecessary; an allusion that breaks the fourth wall. Why remind us that we’re in a dream, a song, a story and a tragedy? No need to abstract this from what it is, for it should engulf, surround and embrace, fully.
The Soldier Returns : 5 Huebucket and slaterock will really need to battle this one out. This design is captivating, unyielding in its overt, powerful complexity. The attention to detail is staggering, and the piece tells the story. A fiendishly sable feeling prevails, and I’m left only wondering what (perhaps) the soldier might look like with dimes upon his eyes.
Cry Mercy : 5 + $!!! The Island is a dark, tragic song. A woman begs against her rapist, with sorrowed futility. The metaphor of the Crane pulls this piece together. The gold and silver pieces falling helpless to the floor; the only sound heard before the bizarrely quixotic, sinister theft. My God, this is brilliant.

This competition is a wonderful example of how brilliant art begets brilliant art. Cross-medium or otherwise, great things inspire, and you can tell which artists truly listened to the piece, and gazed upon its soul, ridiculous as it may sound. (I’m on play through number 10 for today…) I appreciate the efforts especially of huebucket and slaterock, whom I believe really got it.

View the others.

Occasionally, we give away gift certificates in contests. But sometimes we let the gods of eBay take them away. This is one of those times.

While Bree and I (and mostly Bree) are cooking up a few new contests in the future, I’m throwing this $50 GC up to eBay to let you determine its value.

If you’re a huge Threadless fan, then you’ll at least save a few bucks. If you’re not, then surely you know someone who is, because why the hell else would you be reading our site?

Either way, this makes a PERFECT last-second Christmas gift. The auction ends in a little under 3 days, instant payment is required through Paypal, but you get the code as soon as you pay. It’s kinda cool that way.

There are no bids as of this second, NO reserve, and bidding is starting at 1 cent. Think of it: You could have a GC for as little as 1 cent! That’s kinda awesome, right?

$50 Gift Certificate Auction

I admit that I’m a bit jaded when it comes to space and/or astronaut related designs. Having lived on Florida’s Space Coast my entire life, I’ve seen more than my fair share of kitschy astronaut imagery.

But designs such as this one then, which actually poke fun at space themes, really make me chuckle.

The humor of the design, in itself, is perfect. I love how the astronauts look as if they walked out only a little ways before realizing what a horrible choice they made wasting their time traveling to the moon. The style and colors (or lack thereof) are also very fitting.

My only complaint is the way the humor is presented. Something a little more subtle (a smaller text bubble? Some rewording?) might make it a bit less in-your-face. I much prefer laughing at clever wit requiring just a bit of thought than at something too obvious.

Kudos to the artist, however, for their lighthearted dissing of the moon. It’s about time.

Verdict: 4 (View Submission)

To put it simply, this design kicks ass.

It’s definitely one of my top picks out of The Decemberists Loves Threadless submissions I’ve had the opportunity to score thus far. It has a unique folksy feel about it which, from what I’ve heard of the Decemberists, is an integral part of their music.

Oh, and the Threadless 365 contest winners were announced earlier today. Congrats to Evilbutters and Cindle! (What are you going to do with all those tees?) Watch the entertaining video rich with “Shimala Claus” goodness over in the Threadless news blogs.

Verdict: 5 + Would Buy (View submission).

This is just a friendly reminder that Threadless is now entering the last hours of the Holiday Sale. The $10 goodness ends December 14th at 11am (CST).

There’s plenty of old favorites still in stock, such as She Doesn’t Even Realize, Calling Home, and Chinese Peaches. If you’re looking to add something fresh to your closet, consider one of the many fantastic new designs printed over the last thirty days like Homework Evidence, No Repeats, Maple Walnut, and The Downside of Genetic Engineering.

Hurry and shop now while the affordability lasts. And good luck to everyone who entered the Threadless 365 Contest, the winner will be announced this Friday… oh the excitement!

For those of you who hadn’t heard (and I was one of them, up until late yesterday) there was a little “mishap” with the Tagged design. The image had been pirated off a photo of a design created by another artist.

2,000+ voters failed to catch this until after the sub made it to print. (Go figure.) Thankfully, Threadless stepped in quickly and is in the process of resolving the situation and giving credit where credit is due. Those who have already bought the tee or jacket can now feel a bit better about their purchase. You can get the skinny here in their latest news posting.

Moral of the story: use your own imagination for inspiration, don’t take shortcuts and Photoshop other people’s work.

A handful of awesome shirts have been printed since my last post, but today takes the cake in terms of quantity. Threadless put up six new designs and three reprints just in time for the last hours of the $10 Holiday Sale.

One of the coolest offerings, by far, is Tagged. The design is printed on “never-before-used Nylon Taffeta A-Way Jackets” which looks super sweet. I’m also quite taken with I Want To Be Friends and huebucket’s No Angel (winner of the Kill Hannah Loves Threadless competition).

Even the newest Type Tee aims to please, and the holiday-specific Day Of Reckoning proves adorable in its own way. Check all these out along with the newest printings from the last couple days via Threadless’ home page or by browsing the full catalog. I won’t bother with excessive links and/or explanations because time is of the essence… the sale ends tomorrow!

Edit: Threadless just announced that the sale is extended until Thursday, December 14th at 11 am CST. Oh the craziness. But don’t dally, the new tees are sure to be selling fast.

While there have been a few hints that the Threadless braintrust have been busily plotting the best way to build into a physical store, confirmation hit in a big way in this Chicago Sun-Times article from today.

SkinnyCorp raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based firm that funded pre-public Click Commerce in 1999. Proceeds will be invested in developing retail stores, starting in Chicago, and international distribution.

I have to say that I have some mixed feelings about this. For me, one of the primary allures to the Threadless brand is that it feels like I’m part of a small club. I can see someone in a store wearing a Threadless shirt and give them a Fight Club-like nod. We both understand because we’ve both been there. I totally understand Jake and Jacob wanting to take this to the moon, because that’s what you do with your dreams. And they deserve it. But I also would love to see them maintain an interesting approach to this whole retail concept. Perhaps they should keep limited their yields per shirt print and instead print a bunch more designs. Economies of scale aren’t working out in the the same, traditional way for them anymore, for a lot of reasons… I guess I like the exclusivity.

It’ll be a slow process, of course, and it’s not like you’re going to see Threadless shirts for sale in Anchor Blue or Urban Outfitters anytime soon, but it’s still a bit of a shift for them. Congratulations, guys, but keep it real. It’s what makes Threadless a joy to wear.

Read The Article | Oh, and: 2 Days Left To The $10 Sale!

Threadless has continued to churn out some fantastic new tees and reprints for their ongoing Holiday Sale. (Some of which Chris already mentioned in his last post, but there’s a handy recap below as well.) It’s the 23rd day of the sale, however, which means only one more week of $10 goodness.

One of my recent favorites is The Scr-Emo, winner of the Patent Pending Loves Threadless competition. The hoody version looks toasty warm, yet it doesn’t quite beat the awesomeness of that huge printing on the regular tees.

I adore parodies and updated versions of classic art. This one pulls it off perfectly, not only on its own but within the theme of the Loves contest. I’m drawn to it even more so since Edvard Munch, the one responsible for the original painting, was an artist I wrote a research paper on oh-so-long-ago during my first semester at college. (Did I mention I’m graduating this month?)

Perhaps The Scr-Emo doesn’t quite fit your own style as it does mine, but you’d be crazy not to find at least one lovable tee out of those released this past week. So check ‘em all out and be sure to place your orders before the sale ends!

Hot New Designs:
- Pending Peril
- Lunch Time
- Facial Hair Club For Men
- Barf Trip
- Mechanical Mayhem
- Camouflage
- A Caged Bird Dreams
- The Scr-Emo
- Acute Invasion
- Birds & The Bees

Revived Reprints:
- THIS Is How The World Ends
- Technology Ruins Nature
- Rock Out With Your Cock Out
- Get Some Fresh Air
- Midnight Snack
- Chinese Peaches
- Fish Tank
- Bleeding Heart

Anyone who’s seen and played the Nintendo Wii will tell you just how much pure fun it is. They aren’t lying. I picked up two at Target just before they sold fresh out again, and one of them is currently spiraling through eBay at this moment. If you’re in the market, take a bid, and if you mention this post, I’ll toss in a $25 Threadless Gift Certificate with the auction. You know, to make up for my shameless self-promotion.
Buy My Wii