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!
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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Sometimes I’ll be lounging around the house and I realize a run to the store is in order. Nothing major, just a quick trip. That may or may not be a beer run. Right. So I take off the old t-shirt I was wearing around the house and toss on something a little more respectable to run to the store in.
I’m back to the house in 20 minutes, what happens to the t-shirt? Do I put it in the laundry? Do I hang it back up? I mean, I wore it for less than a half hour. This t-shirt is suddenly in cotton limbo. What do you do? Almost invariably, the shirt will see a second run before it sees the laundry basket. It just doesn’t make sense to wash something that’s essentially clean.
This tee is perfect for those situations. It’s the simple, cheeky humor that Snorg Tees is known for. It’s printed single color on a grey shirt. If you look closely, you’ll see the recycle symbol is actually 3 t-shirts instead of arrow. Pretty clever!
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Sometimes indie designs are just the best. Here’s a tee from Alive and Well, a small t-shirt line from the south of England. I can only imagine this colorful shirt was inspired by the classic tootsie pop ad that’s been playing on TV since…well, probably the Nixon administration. I’m sure we’ve all seen it by now:
While the shirt is cool (like the rest of the designs Alive and Well has) and the price point is right at 13 quid…what really sold me was the video of the shirt being made. I think it does a lot to sell the shirt, seeing the tee being born. It serves to remind us that there are people on the other end of the shirts we get in the mail. It humanizes the whole process to see the screen printing in action. Check it out:
Owl is £12.99 (about $19.50) at Alive and Well. (Check ‘em out on Facebook too)
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