Mainstream brand alert! Mainstream brand alert!

Have no fear, I’ll get back to posting about stuff that is printed by some dude in a poorly-ventilated garage, but sometimes I’ve just gotta post this stuff.

Natterjacks are selling two very limited edition Adidas tracksuits, the first is a black and red leather (yes, a leather tracksuit) number based upon the 80s original, which would be perfect for completing your Run DMC cosplay outfit if you’re happy to hand over £550 ($1010) for it. Up next, a track jacket that actually has stainless steel woven into the thread, which is fairly clever, but rather pointless and gaudy. In their product description Natterjacks say they they only have a couple of these so they’ll go quick, but I get the feeling that they might be hanging around for a while with a £400 pricetag, unless I have seriously underestimated the amount of disposable income that rappers in the UK have going spare for bling.

Since I wouldn’t want you to come away from this post thinking “that was fun, but why not point I out something I should buy Andy, you handsome devil?” I’ve found (ok, that’s a lie, I got sent an e-mail about them, blogging is so easy sometimes!) 3 tees from the Adidas Originals range that are about as retro as their track suits cousins, but you might actually want to wear them. All three are available from Urban Industry for £24.50, which is probably a bit pricey for our buddies in the States, but actually pretty good going for a UK shop.

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Tags » adidas • dots • expensive • limited edition • music • natterjacks • Run DMC • T-shirts • Track Jackets • track suit • UK • Urban Industry

I got an extremely enthusiastic e-mail from Mare Rosemayer, one half of the duo behind Effin Effigy, and her energy was enough to refocus my attention on blogging, just as I was tempted to leave the desk and go get some shortbread. Offtopic, but if shortbread is, well, short bread, is there such a thing as ‘longbread’, and is ‘mediumbread’ just regular bread? Google offers nothing but terrible jokes on the subject.

I’m not even going to spend time trying to segue from shortbread to Polynesia (the inspiration for the design)… this track jacket looks cool, there seems to be a lot of detail in the design, although the pics are a bit small (one of the few problems I have with the Big Cartel powered stores), the colourway works well, and there’s a bit of print on the collar too which is pretty unusual.

Here’s their blurb:

A superb collab between the infamous Z-Spot (of Strange Famous Records forum fame) and Zagadka- two Z’s in full effect.

Z-Spot has hand illustrated a Polynesian inspired design which is printed atop a cloud of lime and cream. A removable green fabric covered button is yours to place wherever you’d like!

Jacket is 100% cotton in a light weight french terry full zip up with cadet collar.

Costiness=$36 Link

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Tags » blue • effin effigy • navy • Track Jackets

I think that this might be the first time that I’ve posted a track jacket that might actually be appropriate at the track… can you feel history being made?

I think that if I was to wear this in the UK, I would be labeled a chav, and with good reason too, I can imagine a British teen wearing this track jacket whilst sat at a bus stop slanging abuse at whoever walks past. But I’d like to think that in areas that aren’t teeming with loutish youths that wearing this jacket wouldn’t cause old people to immediately fear you, and instead allow you to enjoy it for what it is, a nice throw-back to classic Adidas styling without going to overboard with the retroness.

Costiness=$80 Link

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Tags » adidas • chavs • retro • silver • Track Jackets • yellow

You know what’s cool about this track jacket? You’ve gotta look pretty damn close to tell that its made by one of the largest sportswear manufacturers in the world. I like that, I know that people stay away from companies like Nike and Adidas precisely because they don’t want to feel as if they’re being treated like a walking billboard, and its pieces like this that I find refreshing, of course, the fact it costs about double what I’d expect to find on an Adidas pricetag probably has something to do with the lack of branding, but its still refreshing.The cherry and gold colourway is pretty gorgeous, especially as it is set off by the little black pattern up around the shoulders and arms (which does include some teeny-tiny little Adidas logos).

Costiness=$86 Link

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Tags » adidas • cherry • gold • Karmaloop • red • Track Jackets

I went snowboarding once, I have some ankle problems and figured that just strapping myself to a board where my ankles wouldn’t move was the best option… I was wrong, as it turns out people that don’t have great balance off the snow aren’t that well suited to sliding down a mountain in Austria!This is a pretty cool looking track jackets, the colourway is nicely balanced and subdued, although I would quite like to see the print on a black background, I think that might suit it more. The way that the winter-y scene rolls all the way around the body is quite interesting as well.

Costiness=$67.50 Link

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Tags » grey • jacket • Karmaloop • LRG • powder • snow • snowboard • Track Jackets • white

Just a thought; does anyone make mixtapes for anyone nowadays? Mixtapes on cassettes? Everyone did that. CDs? Yup, and you could even make your own album art too. MP3s? Not so much. Does anyone remember romance?

Obey have a pretty good view from the top of the mountain when it comes to the streetwear world, and with good reason. I like the way that the print happily bounds across the zipper, and the black sits well on top of the heather grey, and I’m always a fan of a funnel neck on a track jacket. I’m not so sure about the bits on top of the shoulders though, what are they called? I get the feeling its something to do with flying or pilots?

Costiness=$54 Link

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Tags » epaulettes • grey • mixtape • music • obey • Track Jackets

Just a quick and mainstream recommendation today. I found this Volcom track jacket whilst I was searching around quite a cool looking store called “Standard Style Boutique“. There aren’t very many items there that run cheap, but there’s still decent products to be had. Also, with large stores like this there tends to always be some bargains in the sale section. For example, the volcom track jacket is 50% off.

Costiness=$31 URL Nico from Teees.com says that they only ship to the US, damn them.

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Tags » brown • crest • teees • Track Jackets • volcom

I must be entirely honest and admit that I didn’t actually recognise this quote, but something clicked in my brain that said “Andy, that is totally from a movie. Google it, then get a pitta bread.” About 10 seconds later I found out that the quote is from legendary 80s Van Damme kickbox-a-thon “Bloodsport“, though curiously it has not been deemed a memorable quote by the powers-that-be at IMDB. I then ate a pitta bread.

It’s a pretty simple track jacket, words and a stock kickboxer silhouette, but its pretty effective, and the off-vertical text gives it a bit of a DIY feel (or has the little ninjutsu man kicked the letters so hard they’ve moved?)

Costiness=$48 from Tiny Factory.

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Tags » boxing • text • tiny factory • Track Jackets

Embroidery on clothing does seem to make it feel a bit more luxurious than regular screen-printing, even if excessive stitchery has a tendency to render the fabric less flexible.

The Imaginary Foundation is a think-tank of free-thinkers who wanted to “eliminate set conventions in favor [sic for Brits] of the humorous,
the abstract and the visionary”. Frankly, I don’t care what they do as long as the merch is nice. It is!

As I alluded (sp?) to earlier, this track jacket has an embroidered logo, which has a pretty funky font, which I assume is abstract and humorous. Its hard to make out from the picture but the there are two colours in the logo, my favourite light blue for ‘the’ and ‘foundation’ and some classic white for ‘imaginary’.

Costiness=$70 (free thought costs) from The Imaginary Foundation.

*Early post today because my classmates and I are going out to celebrate the completion of our dissertations (10,000 words, 1 years research and work) and I don’t trust myself to post after an evenings revelry.*

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Tags » embroidery • imaginary foundation • navy • Track Jackets

It’s not every day that you see someone taking the time to have a stitched design rather than regular screenprinting. That’s why this track jacket from Double D Apparel caught my eye (and yes, the name is about boobs), its pretty simple, with a vertical design, but that would serve to frame the body, and whatever you were wearing underneath.

Oh, and everything Double D produce comes ’supersized’, which is great for us big guys, but the skinny hipsters (I know you’re out there!) should bear that in mind if considering a purchase.

Costiness=$100 Australian, which is about $75 USD, from Nice Produce.

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Tags » asphalt • Double D Apparel • grey • Nice Produce • stitched • Track Jackets