One of the side effects of tech blogging and games blogging is the endless assortment of branded graphics t-shirts I own. Like everyone else in gaming, I have an extensive collection of shapeless XL black t-shirts with game logos, all from conventions. (When I was at Next Island, I tried to convince our marketer that we should make up fitted, women’s sizes of our game shirts, but he had different ideas about how to promote to women.) Almost every day I wear a women’s cut of a gaming shirt from one show or another. It’s amazing how long it can take me to get dressed when really I’m just deciding which graphic t-shirt and which pair of hipster jeans and whether to finish with Converse or ballet flats.
And, like everyone else in tech blogging, I have a pretty extensive collection of graphic tees with logos and slogans from various startups. I wasn’t exaggerating too much when I wrote about LoveMyLogo, my (fictional) new startup connecting startup t-shirts with genuine hipsters in Brooklyn, Austin, and Portland. It’s hard to walk anywhere at SXSW without someone handing you a branded t-shirt or offering to trade a hashtagged tweet for a t-shirt. I’ve been writing about tech for a few years now, so some of these have actually outlasted the start-up they’re promoting. Should probably pack them up in an archival box until they become collectors’ items.
In my industry, these funny graphic tees can be ice breakers or conversation starters. A lot of the startup ones have attention-grabbing slogans. I have one with a “clusterduck” on it that usually gets a second glance (although I do not wear it around my middle schoolers, for obvious reasons) and one advertising stock art that announces that prints not dead (Get it? Prints?).
And that is why a branded graphic t, skinny jeans, and Converse (or ballet flats) is totally a work outfit.
I was asked to write about graphic t-shirts by ThePhobiaShop because I am an extreme hipster.
