Militant Geek Custom Shirts

Threadless has great tshirts. That’s nothing new and a lot of people know that. The problem that it causes, however, is that sometimes great tshirts are sold out before you have the scratch to buy one.

One of the best of recent memory was ‘Dark Side of the Garden’ - who doesn’t love the idea of Darth Vader participating in a little topiary distraction? AND IT’s BACK! Threadless, thankfully, has the good sense to reprint some lovely must-haves. The second time around a men’s shirt will cost you $17. Finally, don’t care for affiliate links to help out this site? No prob - here’s the non-affiliate link.

Name me a post-apocalyptic piece of science fiction without zombies and I’ll show you a weeping George Romero. The living dead are a staple stepping stone of geek ascendancy. Of course, with the massive amounts of re-interpretation applied its hard to find a unique take on everyone’s favorite cannibalistic nuisance - until now.

Over on Threadless.com they currently are voting on this awesome design by Dennis Culver. That means the shirt isn’t in production yet but, if you’re like me and LOL’d when you saw it, you can make it happen. While I could nitpick that this couldn’t be a true vegan zombie - it’s not emaciated enough - that certainly won’t stop me from voting.

Like many a geek I remember staring longingly at the xray glasses pitched at the back or numerous pulp comics. New (to me) Tee store LaFraise is selling this wonderful ‘Geek Vision’ shirt. It costs 22 euros which, given the unfortunate state of the American dollar, means that celebrating the ability to see binary through clothing may be beyond what most geeks stateside are willing to spend. However, if price is not a factor, get this tee.

Sometimes simpler really is better. As is the case with this legal notepad-inspired TShirt from TheQuietLife.com, sometimes straightforward, clean emulation is the basis for great design. Or maybe I’ve just been writing too many notes lately.

‘Sheet of Paper’ by Christian Morin is $20. Thanks to ShirtFind for the discovery.

The French have contributed many things to culture over the years: snail cuisine, stinky cheese, and an arrogance so pure it is now considered a source of national pride. You’ll notice that amazing tshirts are not in that list - till now.

This lovely Lego monkey comes from the all French site ‘Monsieur Poulet’. That’s “Mister Chicken” in english but, being French, even the silly name sounds rather pretentious. The plastic gorilla will cost twenty euros. Given the exchange rates its not for the faint of heart (or weak of wallet). But for those geeks that love their bricks this shirt is worth it.

I am loath to admit it but, yes, I have purchased ‘novelty’ t-shirts that were mass produced from a chain store. What’s worse, they cam pre-distressed as if they knew I was aching for indie hipness but couldn’t be bothered to spend the time and energy. Sure, there are some serviceable designs rocking a Wally-World near you. But lets think about what happens when you buy one -

• Odds of having an embarrassing run in with another wannabe wearing the exact same thing dramatically increases.
• If you don’t have the time to find a cool tshirt you probably shouldn’t be trying to camouflage yourself as an urban hipster to begin with
• You’re not supporting some incredibly talented and creative designers - 99.9% of whom are more deserving than the multi-national looking to cash in on your nostalgia

So the lesson? Buy you’re undershirts in bulk from the big boxes. Buy your personal statements from an indie shop.

There’s nothing wrong with a Dirty Harry reference in Teedom. Forget for a moment that the original Dirty Harry came out more than 35 years ago. Forget that anyone under 25 has no clue who Clint Eastwood is. Forget that the movie is only above average. The phrase “make my day” has transcended all of that and made it ripe for riffing on this shirt from Snorg Tees. You can get your bit of solar sarcasm for $16.95. Attribution goes to the TShirts around the Internet blog for the find.

It is with great shame that I’ve just realized there is no ‘Superhero’ geek tshirt category on MilitantGeek. Sure, we’ve got robot hero tees galore but the best previous fleshy hero homage I can point to is MacGyver. After I laid my peepers upon this shirt its all going to have to change.

Dutch Southern is a new TShirt company and if the rest of their designs are as clever and well drawn as ‘Fantastic Forefathers’ they’re going to be a smash. This beauty is $18 from their store page. Props to the T-Shirts Around the Internet Blog for the find.

As readers of this blog know I’m a sucker for a good schematically themed shirt. Make it a wearable schematic of an audio wonderland and you wouldn’t have to be this guy to appreciated it.

The creation comes by way of Alphabet Arm Design which is apparently big with music hipsters. My suggestion to them would be to forget the groupies and start applying some of their apparent skill at designing geek-themed T-Shirts. Not only does our dress code make us a possible target audience; unlike the fanzies we can actually afford your products. You can buy this gem for $16 from their store.

Those in the Apple camp continue to amaze me. A year after being gouged for $600 for a phone the same people are lining up for a slimmer, fancier, phone whose extended contract actually costs more than the original. But hey, people love their gizmos and people most definitely love their iPhones.

A big part of that love is do to what’s called ‘Cocoa Touch’. It’s a collection of APIs developers can use to create apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. And yes, people are cuckoo for it. It’s available for $19.95 from Zazzle.com. Props to Fashionably Geek for the find.