Deep Dive: “Jaded” Collection #4

It’s a new month, and that means a new collection. While I had thought of basing collections around certain themes when I first started this in February, I’ve gone with mostly color-based groupings of shirts so far. I’ll be honest, it’s easier. This month’s color, just in time for spring, is green.

I’ll focus on the newest pieces first, the ones which are going live for the first time. These are usually the ones I’m the most excited about anyway. First up is this Spiraling small ladies’ tank top.

This was printed in early 2021 at my temporary seaside print shop up in Church Point, NS, and sewn last year. Nearly a year ago now I started what I jokingly called the “100 tank tops project”: my goal was to make as many tank tops out of my extra fabric as I could, never dreaming that I’d get anywhere close to 100. In the end, it was more like 140 pieces, and many of them were tees, baseball shirts and other styles besides tank tops. But I was glad, both to find uses for all that fabric but also to make some cool tanks, which I’ve always wanted to do. This is the first one I’ve made live in the store: there are many more to follow.

So in fact, not all of the shirts I made last year were from extra scrap fabric. Actually quite a few of them were made by just cutting up existing ZBQ t-shirts and adding new elements, such as can be seen with this TUG small unisex long sleeve shirt which lived a happy former life as an American Apparel t-shirt before transitioning into its new incarnation as this unique item. This print was created around 2008 from an old photograph which dated from the 1920s I believe. It was on this CD of ancient pin-up photography I bought off of EBay in the dark ages of 2004 or so.

This double Birdman print also dates from my print shop on the beach (a beautiful spot and I might still be there if my neighbors hadn’t been terrifying crackheads). This is an old idea I’ve finally decided to try, which is a shirt which looks completely different when viewed from the back as it does from the front.

“Yeah I saw the guy officer, he was sketchy as hell, comin’ right at me wearing a yella shoit with green sleeves. I shoulda socked him one, right in the kisser.” “Whaddaya talking about Mac? This bozo was clearly wearing a GREEN shoit with YELLA sleeves, I’d swear it on me mudda’s grave! I seen ‘im from behind, plain as day!” Imagine the shit you could get into with this thing.

This Ditko extra small ladies’ baseball shirt features the adapted artwork of the late great Steve Ditko, one of the comic world’s greatest talents and most eccentric personalities. I would suggest checking out this BBC documentary from 2007 for an excellent overview of the Ditko’s interesting and often troubled life.

This OVERLORDS baseball shirt has been in the visualiser for a minute but this is the first time I’ve made it available in the store. So this is one of our “concept products”, which essentially means that it is a garment which doesn’t physically exist yet, but which I’m able to make very quickly. I already have the print on the fabric ready to go, I only need to sew it together, which generally takes less than 2 hours. As a result of this process, you (the customer is this scenario) can customize said garment in any way you so choose: change the style, change the color of the sleeves, the trim or the collar, and order it in your size. Neat huh? Give it a try. It won’t bite .

Hey here’s a little bonus, if you’re interested: a hyper-lapse showing the creation of the heat press composition above. When I’m blathering on about “heat press mash-ups” and other such nonsense this is what I’m referring to:

This Oceanview XL ladies’ tee is another new piece created from an old(ish) print.

This shirt features a scoop neck and cropped sleeves, which are fairly new innovations that I’ve been trying with a lot of the newer pieces. I like how it looks. And let me apologize for this fairly butchered AI model image. I did a bunch of these back in the fall when I was just starting to get into it, and a lot of them are sort of shite. I’ve been getting a lot better at creating mock-ups since then.

This medium ladies Birdman ringer also has the new cropped sleeves. Another soft water based print of Robin Antiga’s killer graphic.

This Mask One youth medium ringer is the only youth shirt in this month’s collection. Image courtesy of the amazing James Kirkpatrick of course. This is one of two recent pieces we did with James, and I’ve been jonesing to do more ever since.

This Melting Face medium pullover hoody was Frankensteined together from an existing thrifted zip-up. This amazing art by Geordan Moore was actually printed way back around 2013 or so. Hey, I’ve got some prints that go back to 2005 or even earlier. I hoard fabric like a FUCKING CHAMP.

OK, this AI image is actually much worse, but come on, at least it’s funny. I mean a GIRAFFE in a DUMPTRUCK ? RIGHT? This is another “concept product”, and so is completely customizable. Not only that, but green ain’t your jam, the print is available in 9 other color variations. So put that in your dumptruck and snort it.

This One Inch Lines medium ladies ringer tee is hand printed with soft water based discharge ink. And love. I think we can all agree that this AI model is just a tiny bit less creepy. And last but not least……

This one-of-one large OVVL crewneck sweater has something you won’t find on most crewnecks: pockets!! I mean who’s to say your hands aren’t going to get cold just because you’re wearing a crewneck instead of a hood? Who is going to say that? Not me. So I put pockets on a bunch of the crewnecks I made in 2022. This one has a bunch of other cool shit too. It took me way too long to make. All this stuff does. Thanks for tuning in homies. I’ll do another update soon.