April 2008

HYAs latest advertiser, Social T, sent a couple of tees over recently, which is great because it gave me a chance to make sure that I was still advertising a quality product, because I want you guys to trust the people that I let advertise on this site. I think it says a lot about Social T that even though they’ve already sent me a sample in the past that they wanted me to check out more of their limited edition tees.

For those of you that are unaware, Social T is a company that runs on the subscription model that is increasing in popularity. Basically, you can pay each month, or a prepaid plan (2, 3, 6, or 12 months) and a new tee will arrive on your doorstep around the 15th of each month. Social T will only print as many tees as they have subscribers for that month, so these tees are pretty limited edition, if you’re into that kind of thing. Of course, you do have to make a leap of faith with services like these since you don’t know what will be inside the envelope each month. I quite like being surprised when I receive a tee (I make a point of never picking a certain design when offered a sample), but I guess its different when you’re actually paying for the clothing. Luckily, Social T do have a style that they don’t deviate from too dramatically, so you can judge from their back catalogue of ‘issues‘ whether your style fits with theirs, and hopefully you won’t be disappointed at what you pull out of the package each month.

I know I said that the house style at Social T doesn’t deviate very much, but that doesn’t mean that they’re sticking to a certain type of design, I just think that if you like one of their tees, its fairly likely that you’re going to like most of them. Social T aren’t just making tees that look good (hey, they’re called ‘Social’ for a reason), they’re also meant to help spread the message about social issues and spark up a conversation, and they manage to do it in a way that isn’t preachy. For example, today’s shirt (Issue 15, January 2008) is a bit on the lighter side and has “I resolve to be a better human being” written on it, a lot, obviously as a reference to people making New Year’s resolutions, which isn’t exactly a hard hitting social issue, and as such doesn’t serve as a very good example for what I was trying to say, but I would imagine it could have been a pretty decent pick-me-up if I’d got this in the mail in mid-January just as I was starting to lose track of my resolutions and think that “one doughnut isn’t going to matter.”
Quality is impressive (shocking, I know). The stock tee is provided by American Apparel, so the vast majority of readers know what you’re getting there (soft cotton, sweatshop-free, made in Los Angeles, slim fit, hipster friendly), and the printing is good too. You can feel the print, but it certainly is not rough. I can also attest to the print on Social T’s goods being long-lasting too, since issue 13 is still looking good in my wardrobe with a distinct lack of fading. Instead of a custom tag or the standard AA tag, Social T have printed a tag inside the shirt which has all the expected details on it, plus a mysterious ‘rn#103255′, which I guess might be some kind of print number, so that you know its limited edition, but I could easily be wrong, it has happened before… once.Costiness=$32 per month (some prepaid deals are cheaper per month) Link

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