the district

Generally the internet employs two primary tactics to encourage conspicuous consumption, either “its really cheap” or “its really limited edition.”  New street/surf wear merchant Jack Threads has boldly launched a dual-pronged attack on weary online consumers. Throw in some irreverant “we’re cool like you” text around the site and it can’t lose, right?  The concept is simple, one item of streetwear every day, severely discounted for 24 hours for online members.  With the success of sites like Shirt-a-day, shirt.Woot, Teefury, and so on, the concept is hardly groundbreaking, however it  does take the platform to a new product range.  The success of the site, which appears to have launched yesterday, most likely depends on their ability to offer genuinely desirable products, instead of just becoming a clearing house for streetwear manufacturers extras.  As they have so far only displayed two offerings, it is still too early to tell if they will be able to meet that bar, although lets hope that this wasn’t their idea of stacking the deck with the good-stuff first.  You can sign up at their home page www.Jackthreads.com

By this point in the game, there are a lot of Obama shirts out there, which in my mind is a net-positive despite relatively few noteworthy designs.  However, the fact that the Democratic nominee is inspiring people to want to make t-shirts at all should be taken as a pretty good indicator of the left’s interest in this election.  Frankly, this time in 2004 I don’t really recall any street-wear label’s rolling out their line of John Kerry T’s (and thank god for that).  Anyway, Thriving Ink, the East Bay “artist collaborative” is the latest to join Obama T-shirt mania with their “Hope Is Dope” collection, which donates an unnamed percentage to fight hunger in the Philippines. While these things are obviously subjective, I can’t say I am blown away by any of the designs, but they are definitely not bad just not tremendously original. For example, what the fuck is with the giant printing of EVERYTHING?  Now as previously stated on this site, I am a big Obama fan, but why the fuck would I want a giant Obama face t-shirt?  Now I recognize that this is popular right now, so I am not faulting Thriving Ink, but I still just don’t get it.  On that note, what’s with the resurgence of cassette tapes on t-shirts and tattoos? I may only be 28, but I remember with clarity that cassettes were not exactly the ideal media for listening to music, yet hipsters iconify the damned things as if they were the coolest shit since 8-tracks.  Forgive the off-topic rant, but to me this exemplifies the hollowness of hipster culture in general. Its as if some hipster czar randomly assign status to the most arbitrary items and they become cool despite their lack of any real intrinsic worth, just because some douche bag in Williamsburg thought “wouldn’t it be irreverant of me to put a cassette tape on a t-shirt?” Fuck cassette tape shirts.   You can check out the Obama shirts here.

How’s that for an exciting lead-in. Sears, which apparently still operates stores somewhere, has signed LL Cool J, who is apparently still around, to produce a line of hip-hop street clothes. Oddly enough, this story has lit up the news wires, but interestingly, it appears to be mostly getting filed under the heading of “news of the weird”. No pictures yet, but I can assure you they’ll be here when available.

As Inigo Montoya once said, let me explain, no no there is too much, let me some-up: Fresh Jive printed the t-shirt above, a lot of people got pissed-off and called them anti-semites. Urban Outfitters decided to quite selling the shirt, lest people actually associate them with progressive urban image they try so hard to maintain.
I’m assuming that the negative reaction is the result of an overly literal interpretation of the design, which would be that Fresh Jive is saying that all Palestinians are victims, so it’s okay to give kids AK-47s and tell them to shoot at Israelis. As street-wear legend Rick Klotz’s response clarifies, there is a lot more to depth to this shirt than inciting hatred. While I truly believe that the worst of it is over, I am truly saddened by the way that Americans have become so intolerant of any view points on the middle east that are more nuanced than, “You are either with us or you must be a terrorist-sympathizer”. Frankly, since Sept. 11 the censorship of mainstream American political culture far trumps the worst of anything we have ever seen from the actual government. Point being: what the fuck did Urban Outfitters think was going to happen when they put this shirt on their shelves? Let’s not forget that until very recently you couldn’t even critique the war without having your loyalty to America called into question. Regardless of one’s interpretation, this shirt is clearly making a bold political statement raising the question; Are Urban Outfitters’ buyers so naive that they didn’t anticipate this shit-storm? Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one, then they should at least have had the gumption to stick with the shirt once they green-lighted it in the first place. It is pretty shameful that at the first sight of controversy they would rather pull the shirt than let people react to it. Albeit a small one, this is just another example of tyranny of the majority in which any type of political dissent (or even commentary) is discounted merely for rubbing some individuals the wrong way. Urban Outfitters decision to pull the shirt marks another significant loss for legitimate political dialog.

Incidentally, these pictures of Mexican Man-vestites on Fresh Jive’s website was way more offensive than anything political could ever possibly be.

“T-shirts, T-shirts, and more T-shirts” has lately become my auto-response to just about any inquiry about the state of my life these days. It is for that reason that reason that Rumplo comes into the world as a mixed blessing, I mean sure its a great way to check out what’s what in the world of printed T’s, I just don’t know that my life needs another site dedicated to T-shirts in it. That being said, I should throw in a disclaimer that my doctor has restricted me from caffeine this week, so I’m not really too enthusiastic about anything but making my headache go away.