The Trail

Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: A&E

I am usually a pretty mild person. But the one thing that induces me into an irrational level of superlative rage is when someone is wearing the same shirt as I am. Nothing gets me more incensed. One minute you can be the belle of the ball, and the next you can be the whimpering outcast shunned like SARS. No other faux pas can turn you from unique to kitsch faster than wearing the same shirt.

The insensitivity people have towards my shirt-wearing is truly outrageous. As a 20-something hipster, I must have a unique shirt: my profession demands it. Fortunately, with the discovery of the "internet," there are now an increasing number of t-shirt websites dedicated to independent, creative shirts that you will never see on another human being.

The most prominent t-shirt website is probably Threadless.com, which features not only uniquely designed shirts, but also a creative networking system that lets users determine which shirts they want made. Users create a Threadless account, which lets them browse the thousands of user-submitted graphic art. You rate which ones you like the best-the most highly regarded submissions will then be run as a t-shirt that usually sells for $15 on the website. The democratic system of voting not only allows the most popular shirts to be featured, but also gives the site a diverse range of what is available.

There are a lot of talented graphic artists who feature themselves on Threadless, and the shirts themselves range in mood and style. Most of the shirts are campy, funny, or unexplainably unusual. Some are also incredibly simple: one of their newer shirts is a plain red shirt with rounded text that says, "I'm a noun!"

Threadless prices are reasonable; often there are $10 sales, and normal prices typically hover around $15. However, their "premium" shirts (featuring American Apparel) are unusually expensive, about $25.

Online t-shirt sites are the best place for internet humor. Bustedtees.com and DirtyMicrobe.com both are good examples of t-shirt sites that capitalize on the young, wired generation's version of funny. Bustedtees features shirts like "put a hole in box" or a picture of an NES cartridge saying "blow me."
Many of the shirts on Bustedtee and Dirty Microbe are a little passé, such as "Kenya Dig It?" But other shirts are surprisingly keen and timely, like one shirt that says "Attention ladies, I enjoy Grey's Anatomy."

Bustedtees and Dirty Microbe's shirts typically run from $10 to $15 dollars, sans shipping fees.

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