There is no drink that screams summer more than iced tea. OK, maybe lemonade if that’s your thing, but iced tea is where it’s at!
Now, being from Michigan, I grew up drinking iced tea and sun tea as-is. That is, it’s chilled, but there’s nothing else in it. It’s good. It’s got a little bit of an aftertaste, but I couldn’t imagine adding sugar to it.
Five or six years ago, while vacationing in Charleston, SC I had a glass at a friend’s house and ended up drinking sweetened tea at just about every meal for the rest of the week. I don’t even think you can get unsweetened iced tea down south without having to make it yourself. There were a few other delicious things I tried down there (like boiled peanuts!) but sweet tea’s the only one that’s stuck with me. To this day, it’s actually one of my favorite ways to relax after a day at work, sitting on the balcony with a glass.
There’s a t-shirt for everything, and sweet tea is no exception. Sweet Tea Junkie’s got a little over a dozen tees celebrating what may as well be the official drink of the south. There’s a pretty interesting story to the origins of this brand too.
Our story began with a group of four friends that would gather at IHOP for breakfast quite regularly. We almost always had the same server, and every time we went in each of us would drink 5-6 glasses of Sweet Tea. After a few visits our waitress began calling us “The Sweet Tea Junkies,” this got my entrepreneurial side running immediately.
I love that “grab opportunity by the balls” mentality. Someone getting an idea and actually acting on it, it’s great. Sweet Tea Junkie does have some shirts that feature their brand name pretty prominently, and that’s something I’m not too keen on. I’m generally a believer that good design will speak for itself, and I think that’s especially true for the text-based design you see here.
Here’s a bonus though. All the Sweet Tea Junkie shirts have a sweet tea recipe printed on the inside of the shirt. This is one of the first really clever uses of inside-printing that I’ve seen and wouldn’t be surprised if things like this catch on a bit more.
Most shirts are 17.50 at Sweet Tea Junkie
Use promo code “tsrb” at checkout to get 15% off all items!
So how’s t-shirt land been? I’ve been away a while and haven’t had the chance to keep tabs like I usually do, but I am still around. Real life’s got to come first, after all.
If you know me, you’ll know that when I’m not tending to my herd of unicorns or feeding small children to the alligators at the zoo I’m usually pretty active online. I’ve been pretty absent from Facebook, Twitter, and here.
I miss TRB the most though, so let me fill you in on what’s coming up. I’ve got a few more t-shirt sites that have been sort of sitting in the oven for a while, and I’m going to try to squirt those out this month. I’m pretty good at half-baking an idea and design, then not flipping the switch and making it a live site. It’s about time to change that.
I’ve also got a handful of Thread Notes TV episodes recorded and sitting on the hard drive. As soon as I can edit those, they’ll be up for you to enjoy. I enjoy shooting them, but the editing is crazy time-consuming.
Anyways, I appreciate you stopping by and those of you that have asked to make sure I’m alright, here’s to finally having the time to touch the PC again!
In this episode of Thread Notes TV I take you to the park (because it’s practically criminal to sit at home when it’s nice outside here) and tell you a little bit about a sweet t-shirt Patrick from Tilteed sent me. There are a lot of things that set Tilteed apart from other t-shirt design competition, so they’re definitely worth a look.
In this episode
This intricate design from Tilteed delivers a classic 1-2 punch: it stuns you first with its attention to detail and the delicate lines on the book pages then knocks you out when you realize there’s really nothing random about it and the message is quite focused and clear.
It comes across like an illustration you’d expect to see on an old British children’s book, Danny or Christopher Robin perhaps?
It just really makes me think of all those times we had to read a book in school as child. I didn’t want to do it at first because it wasn’t a book that I picked out, but after a while I realize it’s a good story and there’s a reason the teacher picked that book.
Soon enough I’m engrossed in the story and don’t want to put it down. The imagination is in full gear and I’m filling in details and backstory on my own. Then, just as you’re knee-deep in it, somebody taps me on the shoulder and it’s like being startled out of a dream. All that smoke and color goes back into the page and you’ll left with just a bunch of words on a bunch of pieces of paper. It’s about that time that there can be a brief moment where you realize the imagination’s power to turn something so literal and concrete into such a vivid and vibrant experience.
Leave a comment down below and let me know what you think! If you’d like your t-shirt featured in a future episode of Thread Notes TV, check out my submit a t-shirt page.
Thanks again to Patrick at Tilteed for sending over Jungle Book and being so patient while the review was edited and put online. Zip over there and check out their latest designs.
I found this dramatic t-shirt while poking around Google images. It was a shirt that was available for purchase to participants of the 2007 Terry Fox Run in Kuala Lumpur. It’s got an incredible black and white photo of Terry during his Marathon of Hope run across Canada.
If you’re unfamiliar with Terry Fox, I encourage you to read his dramatic and inspiring story at Wikipedia. Terry ran the equivalent of a marathon every day for 143 days in a trek across Canada to raise money and awareness for cancer research. He did this all on a prosthetic limb after losing his right leg to bone cancer.
Terry wasn’t able to complete his journey as he lost his life to the disease at just 22 years of age. Around the world though, organizers host an annual run in the fall in Terry’s name to raise money for cancer research. The run has no winners or losers, and everyone is free to go at their own pace.
I haven’t seen anywhere to purchase this tee, and the Kuala Lumpur event seems to have a new t-shirt each year, with 2009′s tee being a closeup of Terry’s face on a black shirt.
Nevertheless, I thought it was a really interesting t-shirt with a cool story behind it and wanted to share it with you.
I know my house pretty well. I can usually walk around in the dark without running into things. Usually.
Most of the time I know that at the end of the hall I have to walk straight forward until I can see the microwave clock before it’s safe to turn left. If I don’t, there’s a pretty good chance I’m going face first into a wall I forgot was there.
Every now and again though, we all do it. We forget where something is and run right into it. It’s usually enough to keep you from making it back to sleep right away because, well, it hurt dammit!
This shirt from Snorg Tees is instantly relatable to anyone that sees it. That means you’ll see a lot of positive reaction wearing it out and about. It’s printed in two colors on a black tee, and I have to admit I’m digging the font they used too. Pretty neat shirt, and it’s on sale just this week.
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