Straight from their mailout:
A selection of our badge sets are now available from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London – Nice.
There should be an interview with Chris in IDN magazine soon – Nice.
We have some new T-shirt designs on their way for ’08 – Nice.
OUR ONLINE sale HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL 4th OF FEB – That’s not nice! That’s bloody brilliant!! Go grab a T-shirt bargain!!!
CHs tees might be a bit more pricey than the usual HYA fare, but they’re also pretty damned excellent, so no whinin’!
Concrete Hermit
Very cool idea in this design, simply though enjoyably executed too. And now for a bit of poetry from the SC team:
…and from the dark there sprang a light, followed by hundreds of butterflies… hope rests in strange places…
May I recommend this hoodie for those of you about to embark upon some kind of quest for justice?
Costiness=£42 Link
I’m pretty sure I saw this design being worn by the slightly-less-nerdy one on not-that-bad-though-often-scientifically-inaccurate TV show ‘Big Bang Theory.’ I don’t really know why the tree is hanging down from the neck-line, but it is nice to see that kind of innovative and unusual placement when the shape of the tree trunk really lends itself to this kind of look, even if the tee itself isn’t all that exciting.
Costiness=$18.99 Link (use the code us46 to get 10% off your purchase)
If I’d seen this tee at the beginning of the HYA ‘journey’ I’d have dismissed it off-hand as a tee for ‘those streetwear people.’ But nowadays I’m pretty open-minded, and even if I don’t have the cajones to wear a tee like this, I do quite like the way that they’ve mixed the traditional side of things (and made it monochromatic too, as if to emphasise just quite how old plaid is) and totally flipped it on its head by laying it onto a pink t-shirt. Its a bit of a pity that they don’t offer this in slightly more… subdued colours for the tee… maybe something in a pastel shade?
Costiness=$36 Link
*PANIC OVER, ALL PARTIES WORKED THINGS OUT AMICABLY, EVERYONE’S HAPPY,
SEE*
Let’s get this clear from the outset: I like David (Mr. Seibei). He’s a good guy, we bounce e-mails back and forth on a variety of issues, and he’s sent me stuff in the mail before. For that reason I feel as if I’d be on dubious moral ground shouting accusations about what the comparison picture above suggests. That said, when I saw the tee on the right, I immediately thought “dude’s been ripped,” and whilst the two items are fairly different, the similarities are undeniable.Here’s the back story: Seibei first put the tee on the left of the picture on sale in the summer of 2005 and it has gone on to be one of their best sellers. I’ve always thought of the dinosaur as being the unofficial mascot of Seibei, especially as it has also popped up on the Ice Wizard hoodie (late 2006? early 2007?) and Dino checkerboard tee (I have no idea of the date, sorry). In January of this year Hot Topic started selling the the tee on the right, which is by a brand called Goodie Two Sleeves, who I know nothing of, though my research suggests they’re pretty big and are suppliers to chain and department stores across America. So there’s about a two and a half year gap between the two tees going on sale.
David’s hope is that G2S stop producing and selling the “Awesome Monster Tee,” and has contacted them to that effect. In reply they have stated that any resemblance of their design to “Sandwich Dinosaur” is completely unintentional. Offers were made to David (I am broadly aware of what the offers were, but I don’t think it is appropriate to share them), stopping selling the “Awesome Monster” was not one of those offers, so David declined what they put on the table.
I think that gets us up to speed. David seems fairly resigned that there is little he can do about this. We’re looking at a David vs. Goliath situation (in this case the David is actually called David, which helps the metaphor) and his one-man-brand can’t really compete with G2S and HT on a legal battlefield. I guess the only way he can console himself is that he’s not the only person that this has happened to, which I would presume isn’t much consolation at all.
Links:
Sandwich Dinosaur tee: here
Awesome Monster tee @ Hot Topic: here
Seibei: here
Goodie Two Sleeves: here [warning: Fash site with some sound]
Original post on the Seibei blog: here
Fantastic Bonanza’s take: here [note: slightly less restrained than mine]
