I was contacted recently by Jonathan Lax A.K.A. Yonil with some great news that he will be (now has) releasing a whole batch of new t-shirt designs. The first time we reviewed Yonil it was  a walk in the park. A park that was weird, sunny and pretty damn good. I can quite confidently say that you will never be disappointed buying a t-shirt from Yonil, not only for the great t-shirt quality, designs and service but also for the designer himself, a very humble fellow indeed.

Yonil has great looking website backed up by strong and friendly branding and so it should considering he has a degree in visual communications. He does state on his website that he does not like “summer heat”. Now Londoners like myself might disagree but then again Yonil is based in Tel-Aviv, as I type this post it’s 33º over there and that’s not even the hottest it gets.

Now what is the hottest (see what I did there) is Yonil’s latest t-shirt designs. I was lucky enough to be sent this t-shirt below called ‘Roof’ to review. Yonil’s line style and texture execution reminds me of (and may very well be) monoprinting. Monoprinting is a process of creating an image by inking or painting a flat surface, then laying paper lightly on top and drawing on the back of the paper with a blunt-ish implement like burnishing tool or even a  Biro pen. The paint/ink then adheres to the reverse side, giving you a lovely textured style. There are different forms but this is the one I learnt at college.

As you can see this design is two colours printed  on yellow 100% combed cotton, custom cut T-shirt . The design has no base layer on white so the print is thin and the red is enhanced by the yellow fabric. As expected the t-shirt fits well and is soft, whatever the “custom cut” is, it works. Included in the freebies were some stickers and an unusual printed cardboard square which made me initially think that perhaps it was a ‘tab’ that you collected and once you collected a certain amount, you posted them back for a free t-shirt or something of that nature. Who knows, maybe that’s an idea I have thrown out there (hint hint).

Be sure to visit his quirky website to purchase one of these new tees for $27 and follow Yonil on his Facebook page here. Yonil is also giving the wonderful HYA readers a 15% discount so just enter HIDEYOARMZ  at the checkout and get yourself some tees! Offer ends Friday 17th May 2013.

Here are the other 3 designs from the new collection.

Slight of Hand

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Looking Forward

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Diggin for Gold

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 Dusk

Ok so it’s not a t-shirt! It’s an odd thing to see on a t-shirt blog right? However despite the fact I wasn’t too enthused about the products based on seeing them on the ‘Not On The High Street‘ website, since I received my necklace from Button and Bean I simply haven’t had it off. It is something that I already know is going to be of immense sentimental value to me. You can also purchase all sorts of unique, one of a kind, special gifts from Not On The High Street.

I had a choice, and I opted for this necklace because it was sizeable enough that it would be able to get a good feel for the quality and also I wanted something that was going to be robust and I could wear it for long periods of time, and I’d be able to wear it for work.

There is a pretty cool selection of products, there is jewellery, cuff-links  keyrings, bookmarks, tree decorations that can all be personalised with fingerprints (or pawprints) of your loved ones.

After you order you get a little cast with which to create the finger print mould for your item. Me and my hubby took pics and broke it down into stages.

Basically you get some white goo and blue goo that you have to mix together, first need to separate it as below:

Mix them together until they are basically one even colour and then place them on to the card. You need to do it quite quickly as it starts to harden. Then firmly place your finger into the mix.

With the kit they sent us we had enough to do do four fingerprints altogether however, I mixed mine for too long and it began to set. So we ended up with three mounds of three different fingers of my husband.

After this we posted them in the SAE provide and I received the necklace within a fortnight.

The necklace is super sturdy and I love that it has a story about it and that I am able to talk about it and how much I love my husband. I am fully intending on getting two charms with my kids finger prints on to add to it. Because of the minimalist style of the jewellery it would be a nice gift for a relative who maybe doesn’t wear much jewellery but as I mentioned there are other options of things to can get for gifts. Looking at the site you might think it’s a tidge pricey but these are things that are made ‘just for you’!

My only tiny complaint is the type of chain they’ve used for the necklace keeps catching my hair in it, but it’s no problem to just fish it out.

To conclude I love my Button and Bean fingerprint necklace, I know that it one item I will treasure, love and wear forever and not because it’s worth a lot of money but because it has deep significant meaning for me.

They also have a 10% code on their FB page, the code is XFBD01

Graphic t-shirt brand My Main Man Pat just launched it’s website back in March 2013. My Main Man Pat makes nods to the golden era of hip-hop. The company accepts artist submissions for all of its t-shirt designs. Basically, each week only two different graphic tee designs are available, and they’re only available for that week alone. Thus, the tees are extremely limited in shelf time, but also in production. For example the tee we received was number 6 out of only 15!

This week, the two available tees are nods to the Wu-Tang Clan and the Beastie boys. However, due to the high-speed rate of turn in production, we will be reviewing a previously released design.

In the mail package I received, there was the shirt and also a thank you note from My Main Man Pat that included the shirt number and original artist contact info – a nice touch for sure. And, although the My Main Man Pat website FAQ stated that all shirts were printed on unisex garments, they did in fact label this specific style online as a “female fitted shirt,” so there was no surprise upon receiving the garment in the mail.

This sample was a size medium in a wonderfully soft 100% cotton fabric. The graphic on the shirt was based on the infamous “Fu-Gee-La” track from The Fugees’ 1996 album, The Score. The lyrics on the shirt read, “Find me in my Mitsubishi, eatin’ sushi, bumpin’ Fugees.” The lyrics are appropriate for a girls graphic tee style, as, according to the popular lyric-reporting site Rap Genius, they translate into, “[Lauren] will be partaking in ‘non-hoochie’ past times, like riding around the suburbs of Jersey in her Mitsubishi Eclipse, listening to her own CD and eating a California roll.”

The shirt felt great and the delivery and presentation of the package was fairly good, but the graphic content on the style seemed to be lacking something. The simplicity of the idea behind the My Main Man Pat brand – and, might I also mention, the website – was more than appealing. The site was clean, straight to the point, and easy to navigate. There are some strong points in the company. However, accepting artist submissions could be a tough process and being critical of what art gets edited in and what art gets tossed out for more revision (or for good) is important.

Most everyone can find in themselves a bit of, if not a helluvalot of, respect for hip-hop’s original icons and their lyricism; there are enough fans out there to support the idea behind My Main Man Pat. Perhaps with a little advertising and social media marketing, the company can attract more and more artists, and perhaps some who can bring a strong illustrative hand to the table. Still, there have certainly already been some winners in the My Main Man Pat weekly releases – like a Snoop Dogg one I would share here, but, it’s been slept on.

I received the Panda Tee from New Love Club who are a London Based indie brand founded in 2010, they seem pretty established from their vast collection of tees which is awesome and I’m glad they’re doing well. I must admit the majority of their collection isn’t something that particularly takes my fancy but that’s not to say that it’s bad. These tees on the whole probably appeal to a certain type of demographic which I find quite difficult to define but I’m sure some of you might understand? Ironically as well I noticed that this design was used on a tank top that someone wore on Geordie Shore – picture included! Honestly… I don’t watch it.

I’m not one hundred percent certain on how the tee was printed but I would hazard a guess as to CMYK printing, which is an awesome process when you think about it! The only draw back here I’d say is that the image doesn’t pop like it would with DTG or using exact colours via a screen print, but then again each process has it’s limitations and you can’t win them all! Overall the print is pretty good, it doesn’t feel heavy on the garment and feels like it will last and it won’t really ruin the design if it fades or cracks, it’ll just give it a nice vintage feel. What I will say however that bugs me is on the website the images they’ve used for their t-shirts, or at least this one, do not give a fair representation of the finished product. It almost looks as if they have photoshopped the image on because the t-shirt I received does not look as vibrant as the one shown online.

The quality of the tee is nice, I’m not sure what brand they’ve used but it’s light weight and soft on the skin which is always nice, nothing worse than having a coarse tee! It’s nice that they’ve added their own custom New Love Club tag on the neck and makes it more professional.

Overall I can see that this design and style will appeal to a lot of people, however to me I don’t particularly see the appeal of semi naked ladies on tees. I just feel a little bit awkward wearing them, but if this is your style I think there is something you will find that takes your fancy at New Love Club.

I’m really curious too to know if the tee featured on Geordie Shore was from them or whether this image is a stock image that can be bought somewhere! I hope for the former because I prefer designs which are thought out buy a company and not just a random image used.

Hey everyone, today I will be doing a hands on review with Liquid Screen Designs and their upcoming Kick Starer project. Usually when I do my reviews I like to break them down into different categories but that approach wouldn’t  be fair.  Instead, I will explain what LSD is doing and give my 2 cents on the project and what I thought overall.

The Idea:

Liquid Screen Design has figured out a way to make t-shirts change color when ever they come in contact with different temperatures.  Here’s an example:

Here is a blue Liquid Screen Design T-shirt

Here’s me putting a hot iron on a Liquid Screen Design t-shirt

And Ta-da! The t-shirt is now white in the area I applied the hot iron. Pretty amazing right!

And here’s a better view.

My Two Cents:

I personally think this is a pretty cool idea. I think this will be a home run if they were able to figure out a cost effective way to make these shirts and sell them as blanks. I know I would pick up a few to print my Bluu Dreams designs for the summer time. Who knows, this idea can just be a stepping stone into other clothing materials but as it stands now its a pretty cool idea.

Overall: 4.0-5.0

The shirt that I received from LSD was a anvil 100% cotton t-shirt. For those who don’t know Anvil makes pretty decent blanks but not as soft American Apparel (but we have been told the process will work on an AA tee too). As far as the idea I think its great and I’m curious to see how far the good people at Liquid Screen Designs are able to take this idea. I think there could be a really big market in selling the shirts to wholesaler companies. If you like what you see and you want to support Liquid Screen Design Kick Starter program just go here and back this project.  I know I will!

Liquid Design Website: http://liquidscreendesign.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LiquidScreenDesign

-AndyRocksBluu

Wake.Live is an independent brand that is focused on solid, ethically made goods. The fine folks behind the brand were kind enough to send me one of their Not Alone tees to review, which is pretty exciting as this is my first review. From a quick look at their site, its obvious they have a real passion for what they do, which is something I always appreciate.

I was impressed with their work before I even opened the package. It is always nice to see brands go the extra mile with custom packaging, even if its as simple as printing their logo on the mailer. Included with the shirt were a handful of stickers and buttons. Extras like that are a nice touch as well, even if I generally never make use of them.

As for the shirt itself, I definitely enjoyed it. The design is executed well, although the concept doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. It feels like its a lot of popular design elements that are combined into one composition. Especially the crown as it almost feels like an afterthought when the designer felt the top was too empty. Nothing inherently wrong with doing that, I just like when designs are a little more cohesive. The print and shirt itself are top notch though. The print is done with soft, water based inks which I vastly prefer to heavy, plastisol prints. They have a custom label printed in the shirt, which I always enjoy even if this particular one is a bit hard to read, so its hard to tell what brand they used, but the description on their site says its a 50/50 poly-cotton tee, which are very comfortable. The shirt also features a custom hem tag at the bottom which features the brand name. Another nice, subtle touch.

Overall I’d say I am definitely impressed with what I’ve seen from Wake.Live. They seem to really care about their product, which shows through their attention to detail in everything from their packaging to their website. I feel safe to say that if you purchased a shirt or two from them, you would be very satisfied.

You can pick up this shirt on their site for $24. They were kind enough to include a 10% off code with the package, so make sure to use the code “Birth” when placing an order.

Retro has become a huge niche market in almost all areas – t-shirts included. And one t-shirt company out of Ireland are taking advantage of that rise in popularity of all things retro.

8BIT has a collection of carefully designed tees based on the glory days of retro gaming. The 8-bit era produced some of the best games and established the modern-day industry as it stands now. Their limited edition run of shirts (snap them up quick: there are only four designs, and each design only has 100 or 125 versions) appeal to the kind of person who lived through the 8-bit era the first time round, and now wants to show their love for their childhood with a beautifully crafted piece of clothing.

That care in the end product comes as soon as you receive the package. Your tee is encased in a brilliant white box, sturdy enough to keep the quarry inside clean and tidy but not too heavy.

And once you open the box, and take aside the tissue paper and the cool postcard with an old-school Gameboy on a washed out beach, you realise that the shirt inside is pretty great, too. The design I received was ’001 – Grace’ (€30) which is a limited print run of 125 (mine was #19).

It’s a luscious representation of the kind of huge sprites from the classic era of 8-bit games that you grew up with; this footballer performing an overhead kick could have been ripped right out of something like Amiga’s Sensible Soccer franchise.

The quality is great, as you’d expect from a company so invested in producing the great packaging they do. The tiny touches such as a nicely presented package are one of the best ways to separate the wheat from the chaff in an industry where the ability to enter it is becoming ever lower. Those who take pride in their work will make sure to present it neatly.

The tee is a thick, soft one, and it holds up well in a wash. Overall, if the bright lights of the 1980s and early 90s gaming world is your thing, you should head on over to 8BIT and grab yourself a tee.

When I was offered another custom t-shirt review to do, it seemed to be the right fit for me considering I’ve already done several others, like Wordans and Zazzle.  This time though it was for CafePress, and I was thoroughly surprised, because I know a lot of people that use CafePress for getting custom promotional items and are always very pleased with the results.  However, just because the promotional items are well done, doesn’t always mean the custom t-shirts are going to come out all that great – so this was my time to investigate!

CafePress has everything (and I mean EVERYTHING), literally from customizable iPhone cases, aprons, mugs, jewelry cases, t-shirts, hoodies, baby onesies, home and office decor, stationary, wall art – should I go on?  I mean, the list is endless, which is quite amazing.  There’s obviously no shortage of customizable ‘stuff’ on CafePress’ website.  My interest was in customizing a t-shirt though, so I went right into the Women’s Custom T-Shirt section and started searching for my style.

So here’s my first issue, CafePress has such expensive BLANK t-shirts, that even though I was given a gift certificate to complete the review – I was even being money conscious while shopping.  I honestly don’t understand why they’re charging $17.99 and upwards for blanks, and this is way before you even get to customizing it.  A custom dark t-shirt is $32.50, a custom white t-shirt is $17.99 – that’s odd, right?  Like I said though, I was given a gift certificate, so I went for the custom white, because I’m stingy with my ‘non’ money.  Let me note that most of these customizable clothing websites have very poor photos of the blank garments which makes it difficult to choose what style you want because you don’t really know how it looks on a person.  CafePress has simple stock photos of the blank garment on a white background.  It’s hard to tell the shape of the shirt, the length or the fit.

Moving on, when you get into the Design Center, as I like to call it, they give you a big cheesy image/drawing of the shirt on the background and a box in the center of the shirt to show you where you can design.  CafePress allows you the option of designing on the front, back or the pocket area of the shirt.  The area they give you allows a decent amount of space to place wording or an image, which I liked.  It wasn’t too small or too high near the collar of the shirt.  They allow you to choose from many different fonts, select an image from their gallery or upload your own, and they give you the option of adding shapes; which is a new one for me, I don’t recall having seen this option before on other websites.

My problem is there’s always so much to choose from and play with that I get overwhelmed.  I’ve tried several different ways of customizing on the other websites, so on CafePress I decided to go with the ‘clip art’ from their design gallery.  They had a great selection of black and white and colorful images to choose from, which left me excited because I like to sometimes overlap 2 clip art images on these customizable tees and make my own brand new image.  After playing with that for quite a while, I decided to go with a simple image (just 1) and put it right in the center of the chest area.

You can obviously rotate the image, flip it, enlarge or even shrink it.  So once you get all that set and decide on how you want it to look, you go over and click “I’m Finished” in the upper right hand corner to move on to the next page.  The following page will now lead you to the beginning of the check-out process which is fairly self-explanatory and simple.  Select your size, confirm the color of the t-shirt you want, click ‘Add to Cart’ and then enter all your personal info to purchase the product.

Now that we’ve gone through the process, I will let you know how the final product came out.  I was delighted when it arrived in a custom mailer that ironically read on the front “It’s here!”  The packaging was easy and friendly – a no hassle package is a good package!  Inside was my shirt folded up with a few goodies to Thank Me for shopping with them and my receipt.  The shirt came out great and the print was pure quality.  It was a soft shirt that fit me perfectly – however remember I guessed on the style from the poor image, so I was pleasantly surprised when it fit perfect!

The print was not rough or raised, it blended into the shirt and was just as soft as the tee itself.  The shirt still had it’s original American Apparel tag inside – which now explains a little why the price was so expensive.  The other thing I took a look at while shopping on CafePress was I noticed they had bulk options so I went to check out the bulk pricing – which I might add was again quite ridiculous.  Sometimes us clothing companies take for granted these easy-to-use online shops and printers, so I always like to go ahead and research and check them out.  There’s been a few times I was pleased to see the pricing AND quality was much more affordable than going through a regular printing company and working hands-on with them.  Unfortunately, I thought I’d be more pleased with CafePress’ pricing, but I wasn’t.  Their quality however, was definitely superior and the entire customization process was easy and simple.

Would I shop with CafePress again?  Yes, I definitely would, but I think they should reconsider their pricing strategy.  There are quality products that aren’t American Apparel that will draw in more customers because they’re more affordable (we’re still in a recession people).  I loved how many options they had on their website because now I know I can go to them for really anything I need, which is always great to know!  The design and checkout process was not at all complicated, it all went totally smooth and the t-shirt literally arrived to me with normal shipping in a matter of 3 days (or less).  They’re quick, easy and produce a great product!

Thank you CafePress for allowing me the pleasure of reviewing your Custom T-Shirt process.  If you want to check more out about CafePress, head over to their website and remember they’re on Facebook and Twitter too!

Last week I was lucky enough to review a sample from MKNK Clothing! The tee arrived a pretty funky pizza box style packaging with some lovely cute freebies.

When I was first told about this site I hopped on their site to see what they were about.  I enjoyed the site, it’s clean, crisp and bold and all their designs have a flow as if they are part of a cohesive collection.

The designs are all pretty cool, with gaming, music and they are all on white tees. I think it works because it makes the designs pop.  The hoodies are on black and grey and they look awesome too. All the tees are guy fit but I’ve started just throwing them on with leggings, dead comfy! I particularly like this design called Bolt Dismay! All the designs are original, you won’t find anything like these anywhere else.

The quality of the tee I received was first class! It was an absolute joy to wear and I’m totally looking forward to wearing it in the summer with my bright yellow shorts! It also washed super well the print is still as perfect as it was pre wash.

MKNK have also have had some product shots done on models and they are very current and in touch with the young un’s of today. I would definitely be inclined to buy one of these tees or hoodies for my 16 year old brother and I know for a fact he would be happy to wear them.

Drop by their FB page https://www.facebook.com/mknkclothing and also they have a $5 discount code on the go until 30th of April : BUNNYHOP

You also get a cute paper toy to make up! Amazing idea! Haven’t made mine up yet but I am gonna!

The crew over at Patcht are doing it differently. Buying a t-shirt (hoody, or tank top) isn’t as simple as clicking the product and adding to the cart, but that’s where the fun comes in.

Patcht makes patch-based garments. It’s that simple.

When a customer goes to the Patcht website, they are able to choose a design they like (made in patch form) and a garment to add it onto (style, size, color, etc). The patches come in a variety of materials and are cut into different shapes (designs), allowing for endless combinations of design and style choice. Patcht believes in uniqueness and expressing individuality, thus their brand allows customers to order product that maybe nobody else has, even though they bought it from the same brand and/or store.

The idea of D.I.Y patching or ironing-on graphics may be off-putting to some, as this type of design could be regarded as poor in quality, having a harsh hand feel, etc.

However, based on the Patcht sample I received, I believe Patcht’s garments are nothing less than premium.

For my order, I chose a simple color wheel patch design and added it to a clean, white tank top. I found this design fitting for the approaching spring and summer weather.

I was curious as to what the garment would feel like (as previously mentioned, patched on designs are often not a good feeling on the skin). I was also scared, what with the seemingly D.I.Y nature of the production, that the actual garment (sans patch) may be a heavyweight cotton or another lesser quality. I was surprised when I pulled my tank top out of the package. It was lightweight and super soft to the touch. Even better – the sewn on patch did not have any backing and it still felt amazing on my skin. There were no loose threads and all stitches were finished off fairly well, so that there was no “poking” or “itching” feeling behind the sew-on. The threads used were also poly-cotton (or possibly 100% cotton), so the soft hand feel was consistent throughout the garment.

It was softer than any tank top I’d ever owned (and I am a big 100% cotton top fanatic). The bigger surprise was the hand feel of the patch design sewn onto the garment; it was equally as soft and comfortable.

In the end, the added bonus for me was that I was able to take part in the design of my order. I chose the body style, size, and color as well as the design. Although somebody else created the graphic/patch, I made the rest go together at my own free will. The product price depends on the type of patch design and garment chosen (a tank top will be less than a short sleeve, etc.) and the product seems worth the spending.