Forums > TShirt Talk
Do you think that less effort goes into how t shirts are designed now that the internet allows for easier advertising for bands?
Who's joined us?
Top Collectors
Recent Trades / Sells
View stats on all 33,430 traded or sold items
Nater90 on
I prefer the old school shirts, But some of them go for stupid amounts of money so I tend to get a boot...
But in terms of both shirts and albums, You can see it's not as good as it used to be.
DeathFuckinMetal on
My Bolt Thrower shirt i have i paid over $100 on ebay! Don't wear it that often but still will not sell it!
Nater90 on
Yeah can understand certain shirts or bands mean a lot, I've done the same. I wear em, I paid $99 for my CD of Seance - Fornever Laid To Rest and play it couple times a year. But if you look at their album artwork for Awaking Of The God's it is awful artwork compared to FLTR.
Behemoth116 on
I know what you mean I paid some good money on some older shirts. I'm afraid to wear them at times!
DarkValkyrieofDeath on
i notice alot of bands change their logo to something bland and that effects how much i want the shirt and how good it looks, but if i like the band its not the biggest deal
nameless_rites on
The graphics are definitely worse, but the actual shirts seem a lot better. In the late 90s when I got into metal, you could ONLY find giant, circus tent sized XLs that were about as wide as they were tall. At the time I was about 5'11" and 140lbs so it wasn't the best look, personally. Furthermore, the fabric tended to be thin and wear out quickly.
A perfect example was my old 90s "Gardens of Grief" shirt printed by Fiend; the seams at the arms began to separate after a couple months and the fabric was thin and developed many holes so that I eventually just threw it away. The graphic was subtle, detailed and beautiful however. The replacement I picked up in 2008 featured a blurrier, higher contrast inferior quality image, yet it came printed on a tough, durable Fruit of the Loom shirt that fit great and has yet to wear out 10 years later.
I also don't really miss the logos printed all over the sleeves, stupid broken English "evil" slogans on the back, and other 90s shirt trends. Looking like a demonic NASCAR driver wasn't really my thing.
OmeletteDuFromage on
Demonic NASCAR driver, rofl
I actually dig sleeve prints, but I agree with you for the backprints. Most of the times (especially happens with black metal bands), I find a shirt with an absolutely beautiful front print, but on the back there is some retarded slogan,, so I pass.
I know sometimes the band themselves don't take these slogans seriously, but people in the streets will, and even if I'm ok with provocation when it's well done, I don't always want to look like a douchebag or an edgy trve satanist kid.
nameless_rites on
BTW the cost to ship a single shirt from Indonesia is about $8 for 3 week RLN, $12.10 for 7-10 day EMS - remember that next time you see someone quoting $26 for shipping that takes 3 weeks. Even the budget level shipping has tracking, too.
dlasater on
Sucks that the same quality of the shirts isn't in the here and now, however it makes discovering and owning the old school prints more intriguing and powerful.
If I only knew in the 90s what would come of metal longsleeves, I would have stored away boxes of shirts in some sort of high security storage.
Influx on
Kinda depends honestly. I mean I have some newer shirts with fantastic designs on them but generally the better designs tend to not be the album covers but I like the variety there is. Like I just bought a Metallica shirt from 2003 with the pushead skulls and I love the design, great design, alternatively I also bought a Lordi shirt from the show last year and you know what, probably my favorite shirt I own, this ridiculous masters of the universe style throw back. So yeah I think it depends, from band to band and design to design. Usually the guys shirts end up being better quality than ladies shirts (the lady shirts always seem to use thinner fabric) so lady fit shirts I bought only a few years ago already have holes in them while my 'unisex' shirts are still in solid condition, if not a bit faded (And it took my dad's Bob Seger American Storm tour shirt nigh on thirty years before it fell apart, it survived him then me as a kid wearing it)
deadlock on
I think any illustrated shirt still has roughly the same effort put into it.
vkok on
Approximately the same. Richer bands have much more complex design. Poorer bands will have simpler design. Its always been more or less the case. Quality of the shirts did improve in my opinion. This logic is not bulletproof though. There are exceptions to this rule.