Lindsay, posting over at the official Spreadshirt blog, was kind enough to remind me of the painful mess that was Generra Hypercolor tees. Sold from the 80’s through the early 90’s the shirt’s gimmick was to change color based on temperature. Sounds like a pretty cool technology, right? Wrong. All the t-shirts did was emphasize the tropical rain forest that lives in geek’s pits during social situations – and that’s when they were working. The chemicals responsible for the color change were as delicate as Corey Haim’s “comeback” and often stopped working after a wash.

Taken together Hypercolor Shirts had about the same longevity as LA Gear Catapult Shoes in the NBA or Dan Marino’s Zubas… um… anywhere. It was a lame stunt that had little lasting appeal which is why is shocking to hear that American Apparel is bringing Hypercolor back (but with a geek-enticing “unisex thermochromatic” name).

I’ll leave you with a blast from 80’s past. Bad music, bad lighting, and shirts that show where you were being groped. If the shirts looked this unexciting in the company’s own ads how awful were they in person?