Arka Clothing are a pretty new company (at least I think they are), but they’re really hustling to get themselves out there. They’ve been mentioned on pretty much every t-shirt blog you can think of (and quite a lot you can’t), appeared at a couple of Thread Shows, as well as Focus and last weekend were hanging out at Agenda, I’m sure I read something on Twitter about a print magazine interview too, they’re everywhere at the moment!
I often question whether there is any value in me discussing whether I like a design or now when doing these hands-on review, because like all the tees I show you, you’re either going to like it or not, what I say isn’t really going to make much of a difference, I’m pretty sure I don’t have that much influence on you guys… yet. For what it’s worth, I like the concept and enjoy the style employed, though I can understand the reaction of my girlfriend and brother, who both said that it looked a bit too much like it was drawn by a kid when they saw it in my office/man cave. It’s certainly wearable though, by which I mean I think it would look good framed by a zip-up hoodie, or one of button-up cardigans that seem to be popular at the moment (a trend that I haven’t quite caught up with yet).
Arka clearly know how to put together a good t-shirt. It feels nice and soft, I’m almost tempted to say that it’s softer than an American Apparel tee (before either have been washed), but it’s so subjective that it’s hard to tell either way, especially with my hands being rather chilly due to the arctic conditions that Britain. The print feels good too, Arka are pretty proud of the use of non-toxic inks in their printing process, here’s a quick quote from their FAQ regarding their printing:
We are one of the only apparel companies in the world that use non-toxic (non-formaldehyde) ink for all of our products. Regular toxic inks are harmful to the environment and cause cancer. It is not a popular choice of printing by other apparel companies due to its high cost.
Here’s the thing, that simply isn’t true, there’s a lot of brands out there that use non-toxic ink, and I’m struggling to turn up good evidence supporting the idea that regular inks cause cancer. I’m not saying they don’t, but surely if the ink used on the majority of t-shirts out there was a significant cancer risk there would be millions of people getting cancer due to wearing t-shirts, and presumably those inks would be banned. That’s probably just me being pedantic, and I don’t expect them to be linking to medical papers about cancer, but it struck me as an odd thing for them to include in their FAQ.
All that aside, the print is nice, you can tell it’s there but it isn’t too heavy, and considering the large size of the print that’s admirable, there’s no way you could complain about it feeling bulletproof.
Costiness=$34.99 Available from Arka Clothing
