Trick or Treat

Buy this. Happy Halloween.

The Humans Keep Designing

Design By Humans continues to release some of the freshest shirts on the net, with some seriously talented artists reveling in DBH's ability to use specialised print processes - and pay them fat wads of cash.

Plus, apparently for the next 20-something hours you can get 25% off using the promo code silversnow

What about the profits??

Ten Bills are having a sale with tshirts from an insane $5 and hoodies from $10. Crazy right. But it only goes until Sunday. I think these guys might have missed a few classes at business school...

Jordan Atkinson

Jordan Atkinson makes me want to be an artist. His bold, musically influenced style is something to behold, and indeed many would agree with me judging by his impressive client list. If you can't shell out the required coin for a print why not opt for the useable - and affordable - alternative, a tshirt? These beauties are screenprinted on American Apparel Tshirts and pay homage to pop sensations from the past and present. Too freakin' awesome.

TEE TEST: Custom Industries

Custom Industries is an interesting label, choosing to stay away from popular trends but instead creating a line that is influenced by artwork from many traditional cultures. The brand's aesthetic "reflects the quest for adventure and discovery of the obscure." And as someone who has been around the world a few times visiting over 45 countries on the way, Custom Industries founder Matt Taylor should be the right person to do the job.

The range from CI includes jackets, hoodies thermals and tank tops for guys and girls, as well as your everyday tshirt. Each is decorated by art from many different countries including China, Indonesia, Egypt and India, to name just a few.

Matt flicked me one of his new Dragon shirts to check out, and I'm happy to say that it gets a big, cheesey DBT thumbs up. The shirt is well made and the grey colour has just the slightest hint of lavender to it - not enough to decrease your masculinity, but just enough to be different. Also the exposed stitching - which I'm not usually a fan of - is really good quality and definitely suits this style, adding to the rugged global traveler feel. The quality of the screenprinting is great, with two tones of red adding depth to the illustration of the bad-ass dragon. (Am I allowed to say bad ass about a dragon?) To pop a cherry on top the material is nice and soft and the fit of this shirt is particularly good.

So if you want to express your love of the orient, wear a mean looking dragon, or pretend to look well travelled to impress a certain someone, then Custom Industries is the place to fulfill your culturally-influenced attire needs.

RRP: $30 (USD)
BUY IT HERE

Want your shirt reviewed? Get free publicity and a link in our tshirt stores section. Email deathbytshirt@gmail.com

New Threadless

Contrary to my little rant last week, I actually think Threadless have released some pretty cool shirts this week. Top of the list for me though is a reprint, Star Men in Moon's Milk (top) by the irrepresibly creative Christopher Buchholz. Star Men is one of my favourite Threadless shirts of all time, and I didn't buy it first time round so I'm stoked it's been re-released.

New shirts include Hello Dave by Robert Gould, Where The Watermelons Grow by Brian Walline and New World Order by Tony Aguero.

Of course there are more to view on the website. Check em out here and use the coupon code rubberdanpants at the checkout to get $3 off.

Supermandolini

There's a couple of sweet shirts on offer from new a new online store called Supermandolini. The site itself is pretty good too, with detailed views of all their products (which also include prints, posters and accessories) and 360º movies of models wearing the shirts.

Ten Bills

Hey, remember when a Paddle Pop cost like 50 cents, gum was 20 cents and you could get 5 gummy bears for a two cent coin? These days a Mars Bar almost costs as much as lunch and you can only afford a Slurpee if you don't have a car. Thank goodness Ten Bills have a great range of tshirts from a variety of artists all available for only - you guessed it - ten bucks. They've got a new range that's just come out, and they're celebrating by giving you a further $10 of any order of $50 of more. With the money you save on clothes you might be able to lash out and grab a pack of nerds!

Threadless - predictable?

Here's the latest bunch of awesome tshirt designs dropped this week by Threadless, who continue to release and sell a massive amount of tshirts at a great price.

However, I have a small gripe - I think Threadless are becoming a bit of a one trick pony. Ok, a two trick pony. The cutesy puns and prettiness are becoming a bit predictable. By no means am I taking away anything from the amazing work of the artists, but the designs that win week after week all seem to be of a similar style and are very "Threadless."

Sure, some may argue that this is a good business plan - Threadless becomes known for their style, and obviously they are getting a lot of traffic and doing extremely well.

Threadless's competition may benefit from the apparent reluctance of Threadless to stray to often from their preferred style. Sites like Design By Humans and A Better Tomorrow, whether conciously or not, are releasing some bolder, sharper designs (admittedly some look similar to the stuff Threadless used to put out).

Don't get me wrong, I still love Threadless and think it's a great community and a great platform for emerging artists. Perhaps it's just becoming a great platform for a certain type of artist...

What do you think? Agree? Think I'm full of shit? Let us know in the comments.

Oh, don't forget you can get $3 of your purchase by clicking here and using the code rubberdanpants at the checkout :)

Green Tees

The environment - it's a big issue at the moment, and, well, let's be honest, if you aren't recycling, reducing, reusing or off-setting something it's about time you pulled your head in and your finger out before you wake up one warm winters day choking on a cloud of smoke with a pile of rubbish outside your window.

Anyway, today is Blog Action Day and this years theme is the environment. If you want to learn a bit more about the environment and how to save it I'd recommend looking at one of the other 15 squillion blogs that are participating, as I don't want to get too preachy, and I'm sure that others have much more wisdom to share.

My advice however is to not underestimate the difference you can make. One of the best ways to contribute to any cause is to raise awareness - if you can get 5 people to change their attitudes, actions or contribute in some way, you've done a great job, and hopefully they in turn will pass it on to 25 people and so on.

Here are some sweet shirts that I've found that look great, tell people you have an enviromental conscience, and can help trigger interest and spark conversation.


Ok, so this particular shirt is out of stock, but Tobi has a great range of eco-friendly labels so you can revel in consumerist conservation.


Ban t-shirts have a range of shirts with environment-themed designs including this anti GMO one, that comes printed on an organic shirt. Delicious.


The perennial classic and perhaps one of the best logos of all time (different versions available in different countries - this one comes from Canada and is made of organic cotton).

Monsieur T sale

Monsieur T are having a sale - go there now to get 30-50% off their spring/summer line. Sweet.

Funkrush

Sometimes I feel like the internet is like a giant maze, a labyrinth that you have to navigate through to in order to find what you are looking for. But unlike your traditional maze, the internerd can have a million different outcomes, and sometimes you're not even sure what you are looking for. Del.icio.us acts like clues to get you through the map, and Google is like a teleporter, but sometimes the results can be unexpected (especially if you're feeling lucky). Sometimes when I'm browsing for new stuff I end up getting nowhere, following link after link to crapsville until i reach a dead end. Alternatively, sometimes I end up finding something truly extraordinary, completely justifying (to me at least) my wasted hours of net travel.

Recently, on one of my geeky adventures, I somehow ended up at Funkrush. This awesome site has an unbelievable range of tshirts from some of the biggest names in contempory illustration (Jon Burgerman, Peskimo, Tado, Olly Moss, Dalek and many more). How I have not come across this outstanding label sooner amazes me, but if you are also unfamiliar with Funkrush click here to warp to their site. Post-haste!

Fresh Cakes

Johhny Cupcakes seems to be an unstoppable juggernaut - with people going crazy for him and his "cooler than free booze" tshirts, apparel and accesories. Check out the new JC website where you can see photographic evidence of cupcake mania, and spy some fresh new lines.

New Design By Humans

Design By Humans is quickly climbing it's way to the top of my list of favourite tshirt stores. The newest releases are awesome, and if you don't like the ones I've shown here have a look anyway because there is quite a variety available.

If that's not reason enough, you can get 15% off if you use this coupon code - 01VLNT. Yay!

Freakin Entrepreneurs

A quick congratulations to our sponsor defunkd and more specifically founder James Applegath who placed second in this years' eBay Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year awards. The defunkd store is a temple of retro, specialising in authentic vintage music, movie and pop culture tshirts. Gold Star

Go Ape//Olly Moss

I spotted this awesome design on Olly Moss' site a couple of months ago, and am happy to say that it is now available for sale from Go Ape. Also, check out Olly's impressive collection of tshirt designs and excellent work for Threadless.

Reconstructed

Ok, so apologies to anyone who has stopped by in the last couple of days to check out fresh new stuff and has encountered only three day old, stale stuff. I've been in hospital for a couple of days getting my knee reconstructed and enjoying the porridge... But I'm back in front of the computer now and will of course be on the look out for new awesomeness.

A.M.P. Street

A.M.P. Street have been emailing me for a while, and to be honest I have found some of their stuff a tad on the boring side. Lately however, they have been releasing more and more completely awesome shirts, with a real "street-art" feel to them and a really good illustrative style.

Straight out of Bangkok, A.M.P. Street release a range of streetwear in limited editions and have a very "hands-on" philosphy. They even have an inhouse tattoo studio in their retail store.

Definitely a label heading in the right direction, and one to keep an eye on.

A Better Tomorrow

Man, I wish I had've kept going with the German lessons at school. Then I'd be able to understand what's going on at A Better Tomorrow - and perhaps order a thing or two. The site is pretty big, with stuff from a big range of labels, as well as A Better Tomorrow's own line (pictured), comprised of design competition winners and contributions from guest artists such as Koa (bottom). I think ;)

As seen on: Shirtspotting

GAMA-GO Yeti Cannons

GAMA-GO release awesome new stuff constantly and I'd have no chance keeping up with it all, but I do particularly like this sweet design called Yeti Cannons. Their bags, wallets and jackets are also worth a look.

Escape Escape

There are so many musical genres (and sub-genres) these days. What happened to the days when it was just punk or hip-hop, just rock or disco?

My friend Josh is a great designer and also the lead singer of neo-awesome, transient new-wave, post-modern pop-punk band Escape Escape. He just set up a Red Bubble store for their tshirts which he created.

Check out their tshirts here and their music here. I don't like genres - just listen to it and give it your own label.

Threadless Picks

Great new releases this week at Threadless, with my favourite this week being the Threadless Select release Away From Home (top) by Ryan Lin (who coincidently was a competition winner last week). The space colonisation themed shirt glows in the dark and looks pretty flippin' cool.

Other standout winners include Runnin' Rhino (middle) by Allan Faustino and Piggy Bank Heist (bottom) by Jason LaRose.

And don't forget, you can get $3 off your order by clicking here and using the coupon code rubberdanpants at the checkout.

Lifelounge 22 Flavours

Lifelounge has launched the 22 Flavours project, utilising the skills of the "who's who" of the art and design world to create a stunning range of limited edition tees. 22 artists were each given a flavour as a theme and the results are fantastic. Even more impressive is that proceeds from the sale are being donated to help the homeless. There is only 22 of each design printed, so if you want one be quick - they may sell out as fast as Rage Against The Machine tickets.

YWFT Limited Edition Tees

As mentioned a little while ago, YWFT are in the process of releasing a range of new shirts. The two that I wrote about earlier are now available, along with this number entitled Pie in the Sky. All are printed on American Apparel and are a limited edition of 70.