Is it me, or is the "Streetwear T-shirt market" really stale?

[eastcoastrider27]

Everything is repetitive.

Seems like every company bites another company's idea, and we see 10 different t-shirts with the same theme.

For example:

How many shirts are there with pictures of Shemaghs? or Raiders logos? or skulls? or Ghostface quotes? etc. etc.

Are original ideas really that hard to develop?

Sorry for ranting, as this has probably already been said as nauseum, but I just had to vent.

[watchman]

i think it depends on what you call "streetwear". There are some great brands making cool, unique, designs, even as most of them keep putting out the same stuff. For example, king stampede, nomad, 3Sixteen, the Hundreds, etc. Even brands that are somewhat played out (stussy?) do some cool stuff. You just have to make sure you buy what you like, and not what people think is cool, and your style wont get stale even if the industry begins to.

[englandmj7]

Welcome to 2005......."t-shirt" companies have killed themselves.....I am trying to cut them out of my wardrobe in general..other than non-graphic tees and shit for working out, etc.

Everytime I see a new spammer post a link to their new "t-shirt" website it makes me cringe. Oh well, at least we know there are millions of unitelligent minds who we won't have to compete with in the business world.......

[sean_]

i don't think tshirt companies have killed themselves.. undeniably theres a huge amount of crap flooding the market right now, and im sure it will only continue, but beyond the crap there are still a bunch of companies putting out hot-as-fuck designs. you just gotta look for the right things.

this is my signature

[isdenn]

best solution is to make your own shit, or have others make shit for you...failing that, just hunt for individual pieces that are fresh

[mspark]

Personally, I just rock plain t-shirts in various colors and just the old graphic t-shirts I already own.

[jjs home]

the shit is whatever

i could care less who bit who or anything else, the only thing that matters to me about a t shirt is that it looks dope and its funny. I don't believe none of these ideas are original anyways so its basically whoevers shit appeals to me most is whos I support.

as far as business goes though, you won't sustain yourself as a business selling t shirts in a trend driven market because the barriers to entry are minimal

its all whatever though, why be mad because you can't find any cool guy t shirts? a 20 dolar T shirt is like the least patr of any thing I wear as far as I see. t shirts as a fashionable item are always pretty stale

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Edited by jjs home on May 16, 2006 at 03:47 PM

[show_N_pruv]

buy what you think is dope, the rest shouldn't matter.

I come fresher than a moist towelette

[leanmachine]

I actually am going to start my own t shirt line here soon it's gonna be sick as hell and I'm not even looking at anybody elses shirts so all new shit

I don't buy any t-shirts online anyway so I wouldn't know what shitty trends are going on

[UsVersusThem]

the thing is, why are you paying so much attention to them if its bothering you so much? in my opinion shit gets stale when no one is doing anything at all....id rather have a bunch of companies out and competing because then the true innovators and quality brands make moves to raise themselves above the fray, and because of that you get high end brands with intelligent design. do you really think visvim would be around if nike didnt blow up for so many years creating the limited sneaker market as we know it today? would supreme be making high quality cut and sew if it werent for the japanese market wanting more than what had been flooding their market up until that point? in order for anything to come from youth and be quality, there must be a period of time where its all a big party and people are creating popular trends....then someone goes "i can do this shit waaay better"

[keri]

I'm not into street wear, so this doesn't really affect me, but if you don't like it, either put up or shut up.

Not being bitcy or anything, but like many of the other people have said here, this is the kind of thing that gives rise to creativity, so either do something about it or lie down and take it.

Masochism at it's finest.

[watchman]

Quote:

the thing is, why are you paying so much attention to them if its bothering you so much? in my opinion shit gets stale when no one is doing anything at all....id rather have a bunch of companies out and competing because then the true innovators and quality brands make moves to raise themselves above the fray, and because of that you get high end brands with intelligent design. do you really think visvim would be around if nike didnt blow up for so many years creating the limited sneaker market as we know it today? would supreme be making high quality cut and sew if it werent for the japanese market wanting more than what had been flooding their market up until that point? in order for anything to come from youth and be quality, there must be a period of time where its all a big party and people are creating popular trends....then someone goes "i can do this shit waaay better"

--- Original message by UsVersusThem on May 16, 2006 04:31 PM

true. Same thing happened when the the dot com bubble exploded. A few companies with real business plans, etc, succeeded while the less well managed ones failed.

[andewhall]

I find streetwear akin to music these days. I might like two songs a band does, but think the rest of their stuff is kinda shite, same with tees etc. I usually buy on the merit of the design not so much the label or hype surrounding it.

Current Label Ande Whall: http://photobucket.com/albums/y278/andewhall/

Old Label Dune R.I.P: http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g50/dunerip/

[englandmj7]

Quote: the thing is, why are you paying so much attention to them if its bothering you so much? in my opinion shit gets stale when no one is doing anything at all....id rather have a bunch of companies out and competing because then the true innovators and quality brands make moves to raise themselves above the fray, and because of that you get high end brands with intelligent design. do you really think visvim would be around if nike didnt blow up for so many years creating the limited sneaker market as we know it today? would supreme be making high quality cut and sew if it werent for the japanese market wanting more than what had been flooding their market up until that point? in order for anything to come from youth and be quality, there must be a period of time where its all a big party and people are creating popular trends....then someone goes "i can do this shit waaay better"

Uh, there are so many flaws in this argument I don't know where to start......firstly, when you are on a "fashion" messageboard, you don't have to "pay so much attention" to t-shirt brands, cause dudes like you are posting their new shit all the time and it is impossible NOT to see it. Not to mention that coming from a major city like LA, you are surrounded by t-shirt/sneaker fanatics and would have to be blind not to see what type of brands/logos they are wearing.

Secondly, I don't really know what your knowledge of Visvim entails, but they have NOTHING to do with "limited" quantities/territories. They make shoes because they want to purvey traditional/contemporary styles in new materials made with superior quality whilst at the same time maintaining strong ties to the Japanese market/culture. They have nothing to do with Nike or anything Nike has done for the market. The reason people associate them with sneakerheads is because Visvim is part of the Harajuku/Japanese youth craze that "streetwear" kids are obsessed with.

In terms of your last sentence, the reason people are ridiculing the t-shirt market is because most of these t-shirt brands sincerely think their brands are doing shit "waaay better." The whole point of the argument is that there is only one thing different about all these brands: LOGOS. They don't cut and sew, they don't use crazy materials, they don't have crazy marketing tactics, nor are they redefining anything. The only thing they are doing is drawing different shit and putting it on a shirt and calling themselves a lifestyle brand. That is the bullshit my friend.....

[levistrauss]

t-shirts are dead. if you haven't moved to button-downs by now you're behind the times.

[Selegna]

T-SHIRTS FOREVER MOTHERFUCKERS...

YOU'RE A GOD DAMN LIAR IF YOU SAY YOU HAVENT PUT ONE ON IN THE LAST DAY OR TWO.

<img src="images/icon_smile_evil.g

[Selegna]

THIS "PROBLEM" YOU'RE ALL TALKING ABOUT IS NOT BECAUSE OF LACK OF IDEAS

GET SOME WEIGHT ON YOU LIKE THAT FAT BITCH DELLA REESE.

[englandmj7]

^^ So is this your new "thing" SELEGNA? Tons of emoticons pasted repeatedly? Ingenious!

Who taught you how to do that?!!!!

[artificialsky]

blocks of smilies are the new all-over print, england.

[Servo2000]

I should print an all-over print sweater that's just smilies and see if I'll be able to Selegna to buy one.

Selegna's probably too cool for that, though.

i t a l i c s f o r l i f e

http://www.liarsliarsliars.com

[onemancult]

The market's saturated, but there are clear stand-outs, in my opinion. It's not stale; stale to me implies that it isn't dynamic at all, and I think the streetwear t-shirt market is incredibly dynamic and volatile. It can go any number of ways, methinks. We'll just have to wait and see.

[eastcoastrider27]

I don't want to come off too much like 'Dontcaretoomuchforcrap', I was just saying how once one image or theme is used on a t-shirt, it seems like every other brand uses that same idea.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

[steven]

orisue - front runners for the new gay t shirt lines