December 2009

It was inevitable that after spending almost 4 years writing about t-shirts, hoodies and anything else that I thought was cool and you guys would be interested in, that I would put my money where my mouth is and actually try and release a shirt.

The shirt, mocked-up above, features the brand new Hide Your Arms logo, and this is the first time most of you will be seeing that, it’s a 4 colour print with negative space on the arms (so they’re hidden, get it?), a fairly large print on American Apparel 2001/2102 tees (that means I’m doing sizes cut for men and women). The logo (created by Ray Masaki of Lowdtown fame) will be being used in the upcoming redesign of the site, and general branding. I know what you’re thinking, “Andy, don’t you always complain about people slapping their logo onto a shirt?” It’s true, I am generally not a fan of logo shirts. I’m not entirely against them, which is why we have the logoteesthatdontsuck tag, but I do often feel that brands, and new brands especially, put their logo onto a tee and there isn’t really much to it. I feel that a Hide Your Arms logo tee has a bit more to it because the site is almost four years old, and with around 5000 readers I’d like to think that some of you have developed a fondness for HYA, so the logo tee comes from their already being a brand, rather than trying to build a brand around a logo.

Throughout the process of having the artwork made by Ray (check out his portfolio), picking colours, choosing a printer, working out how many tees to order, and calculating the pricing I’ve been learning an awful lot. I almost wish that I had done this a long time ago so that I had a lot more insight into what all the people I write about do on a daily basis, because you know what? This is hard. I’m sure the first time is the hardest, and I hope I get to repeat the experience again in the future with original artwork by some of my favourite artists, but I think going through this will help to improve HYA because the more I know about the industry the better I can critique designs and provide feedback to clothing companies.

The tee will likely be going on sale on January 21st next year, a day that some of you may recognise as the 4th birthday of Hide Your Arms, so there’s a while to wait before it is available, so I’ll let you know more details closer to that time, but I wanted to let you know now since I’m really excited about this. Your thoughts and feedback are very much appreciated, I’ve spent enough time telling you what I don’t like about tees, so this might be an opportunity for scorned t-shirt companies to get their own back!

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