“The Creature” is basically a logo tee using their mummy head logo as a front print and some big type on the back pumping up their IC name further. Both sides of the shirt are 2 colors and the combo on black creates a really nice effect from front to back. The print seems to be a mix of plastisol and discharge (or possibly water-based) ink. The off white areas are super soft and have no touch at all and the green areas have a bit of plastisol feeling hand to them. I wonder if it were possible to create a completely soft hand garment seeing as how there are only 2 colors? Perhaps plastisol was used to keep color accuracy though and in the end the amount of ink thickness is still fairly light.

All of their tees are printed on American Apparel and feature 2 sewn on labels. A large sewn in neck label and a sewn on sleeve label. I found the placement of the sleeve label a bit odd as when worn it ends up more towards the ‘front’ of your arm as opposed to the side where most sleeve labels usually end up. Here’s a pic showing what i mean:

I suppose it’s your call on how weird you find that. Both labels add a nice touch either way. They recently dropped all their tee prices to $25.00 from the original $30.00 so if you’re digging it nows the time!

VERDICT: 4 out of 5
BUY LINK

I picked up their 1942/Street Fighter inspired design which is a great take on the old school top down shooter and mixing it with Cammy from SF and turning her into a bombshell pin-up like a war plane would have painted on the side. That’s where Meatbun is doing something better than say slapping a drawing of Mario on a shirt or just printing a games’ logo on a shirt like you would find in a Hot Topic or the like.

I’m not entirely sure what kind of tees they’re printing on since they’re (nicely) relabeled, but it looks and feels pretty much exactly like American Apparel. I’d wager they are relabeled AA tees, but all the same it’s a nice slim fitting 100% ring spun cotton tee. When I picked this up they were sold out of the super appropriate olive colorway which is what I really wanted, but the gold looks pretty sweet too. The graphic on the tee seems to be 4C process print which leads to some pretty serious ‘hand’, but generally this is how these prints always end up so I can’t fault them too much for it. I do think the graphic is printed a bit too small or if they had printed the same size graphic a bit higher on the chest it would’ve looked nicer. Check out this pic from their site and you can decide for yourself:

While it’s pretty normal to get freebies in your order, and Meatbun is no different with some buttons and stickers thrown in, they went that little extra bit and made some super nice die cut stickers in the shape of their logo and a button pack instead of the normal loose buttons. Customers remember special additions like this!

Moleskine not included

Apart from my review of this tee I should mention they just recently put up their newest set of tees and I really really like what they’re are doing with the brand and doing flips on well known gaming icons/elements and incorporating their name/brand. The 1942 tee was a part of their first ever set of tees and i’m guessing internally they wanted to push the brand a bit now that they’re gaining some attention, it’s easy when you’re starting out to get caught up in putting out cool ideas and forget (or feel unsure) about pushing the brand name. It’s great to see young brands form in front of you and be there at the beginning of it.

VERDICT: 4 out of 5
Buy Link

So on to the shirt. ‘Eyeconic‘ is basically their logo tee which is probably why it appealed to me the most of all their current line (the ‘Vampire Grill‘ is pretty hot too though). It’s a 3 color plastisol front print printed on American Apparel with the inside neck label VERY cleanly cut out…if you aren’t a dork like me you’d never know it was there. Kinda thick on the ink which is sorta disappointing, but the graphic is small so it isn’t too bad when you have the tee on. The tee also has a custom printed inside label and what’s a little odd to me is it’s really smooth/soft on the ink which makes me think the printer could’ve done a softer job on the front print.

The order shipped very quickly (in a generic envelope but with time I bet that will change) and cheaply. Stop charging people 10 dollars for shipping 1 item dudes we know how much that shit costs! Also, in my picture you can see the order came with a bunch of goodies which is always welcome. I’ll go ahead and consider myself a fan and def. look forward to see where this brand is going. If I could make a completely random suggestion to the brand…on their site they use the word ‘party’ in their nav to, naturally, see pics of parties. So it only makes sense to me that site nav should be broken down into a section for ‘DANCE’, ‘PARTY’, and ‘MASSACRE’..right? Ok, i’m just talking shit go buy a shirt!

VERDICT: 4 out of 5
buy link (they have almost every design available for girls as well just a heads up!)

The ‘Fame, Fame, Fatal Fame‘ tee (inspired by the Morrissey lyric) I picked up is a 2 color print on a black American Apparel Tee. I’m not one to complain about tee prices (people gotta make money), but for the 22.00 price tag is carries I was sort of disappointed to find the tee has no special labeling of any kind and doesn’t even have the AA tag cut out.

The idea being that if you plan to charge a little more than your peers there should be some kind of reason right? The print itself also does nothing to set itself apart as it’s a pretty basic plastisol print with a fair amount of ‘hand’ (but overall not too bad as all the colors only ‘hit’ once). Another some what odd thing about my order was that while it did come with a bunch of freebies they were all freebies for Alphabet Arm. Free is free but it would have made more sense if at least something pertaining to Print Brigade was included.

That said I still love the tee because of the actual graphic and AA tees, relabeled or not, are obviously still pretty nice. They are a new brand and one would think as they grow so will it’s product.

VERDICT: 3 out of 5
Buy link!

The tee is a 5 color plastisol print sporting a fairly soft print job considering the amount of colors. According to a popular forum post on whether they should switch over to AA for their blanks they reveal they use Alstyle blanks. The cotton feels great and is similar to AA, however the fit while trying to be a AA slim-fit, sort of misses the mark. I found it felt a little odd on my body compared to how a AA medium fits me, but it does get close enough without the cost of a AA blank (longer body, fabric ‘clings’, etc.).They also have a custom sewn in label, a nice touch for a fairly new site/company.

I think for the audience they’re trying to reach they should switch to AA for their tees not only for fit, but the amount of color choices AA provides. Perhaps you’d want to chime in on their forums with your own opinion.

3 out of 5
BUY! (you can’t buy this one obviously…but you can buy whatever the newest tee is)

Casualty Classics - Halloween (glow in the dark) - $12.00


CC has been around for a little while now and i’ve been checking them out from time to time. With their newer stuff they’ve changed their style up a bit (you’ll see what i mean when you check out their store) this tee is from their original line. Pretty straightforward 2 color design that i’m sure you can make out from the picture. I’m not totally sure what kind of blank it’s printed but but I want to say Tultex? it’s got the thin, soft cotton feel of one of the many American Apparel substitutes, but with a more ‘classic’ boxy tee fit. The print is plastisol and fairly thick but for glow in the dark ink I don’t think they would have had a choice. The glow in the dark effect is subtle (my camera couldn’t pick it up at all!) which I actually think is a plus since I, personally, don’t want to walk around looking like a jack-o-lantern. No special labeling, but it did have a bobby pinned hang tag which was a nice touch. The only negative with experience was my order took about 2 weeks to show up, but they took notice of that and threw in a free shirt and note apologizing so all is well. Again, letting your customer know they’re dealing with real people goes a long way…had my tee shown up late with no note or freebie they probably would’ve lost a customer right? They did what they had to redeem themselves in the eye of a repeat buyer. The free tee thrown in the order is a (at the time of writing) unreleased collab with another NY based line Brooklyn Circus. The plastisol print here has a much softer hand feel so one could assume all their newer items are of a similar quality.

verdict: 3 out of 5
BUY!

The first thing to take into consideration when deciding which printing method to use is knowing whether or not your printer even offers both. While more are starting to learn how to work with waterbased inks they are still used far less than the industry standard plastisol inks. This is generally because they’re harder to work with so if your printer does offer waterbased inks plan to pay more to use them. Printer logistics out of the way what’s the difference between these two and why use one over the other? Well, it gets a little complicated here because like many things dealing with apparel there isn’t any right way to do things; It’s really a case by case basis (dependent on your design, market, personal preference). Some designs will do better to be printed with one method over the other and, if your printer is willing, a combo of inks could give you the best outcome. so lets break down the pros and cons.

PLASTISOL:
Pros - best color accuracy (based off pantone color match), most resistant to fading, able to layer colors without any blending, cheapest, easiest to find a printer for

Cons - creates the most ‘hand’ (feeling of ink on the shirt), can chip or peel over time, when printing over seams can bunch up in tight areas and crumble creating ugly areas in the end product, less ideal for creating faded or ‘vintage’ looking designs, not very ‘green’ (how important this is to your company could weigh heavily in your choice)

WATERBASED:
Pros - creates little to no ‘hand’, environmentally friendly, can print over seams better since the ink seeps into the shirt itself, great for creating distressed or worn out looking designs, able to layer plastisol over it without any problems (waterbased over plastisol however won’t dry on the shirt)

Cons - generally more expensive, doesn’t work well (if at all) on dark garments, layering colors can cause problems (as you can see thru the layers creating some color mixing), can be harder to do a pantone match (depends on printer), fades after first wash resulting in what could be duller colors than expected

So these aren’t end all be all rules and I bet some printers could/will tell you different, but based on tees i’ve printed so far this is what i’ve experienced. Now there are definitely exceptions to these rules. For example most modern printers are now using mixes of plastisol inks that water them down and make them much softer than in the past. Take note that these thinned out plastisol inks will fade after first wash in a similar way that the waterbased inks will (but not as drastic). On the flip side there are companies creating new waterbased products that don’t fade at all and are much better at nailing color accuracy. Also, I didn’t mention discharging since it doesn’t work like either of these inks and (for the most part) doesn’t offer specific color accuracy. The best thing to do is consult with your printer based on your designs and if they aren’t very receptive to your questions take a note from my rookie tips article and save yourself money and a headache by finding another one!

• Have a point to what you’re doing. New brands lack focus…yes, it’s cool to just want to have fun and make some crazy shit…but that doesn’t make sense long term. Have an end goal even if it’s a hazy one (believe mine isn’t crystal but there is a finish line in mind).
• Don’t stress what you can’t do at first. Pretty much every small tee brand starts out with very little capital and there will be things you want to do but can’t afford. Don’t stress it. If the design is good and has strong branding and consistency to back it up the money will come and the product will naturally improve with time.
• Know your printer as best as possible before doing any business. Diff. strokes for diff. folks…what’s quality for one brand who recommends you their printer may not be up to snuff to what you’re trying to do. Ask questions, try to get samples, see if they are consistent with contacting you…if this turns them away from doing business with you then they probably weren’t your guys to begin with right? Of course there is a line between trying to gain insight and just being annoying.
• Figure out who you’re trying to sell to and tailor what you’re doing to appeal to them. This goes across the board..what you blog about, what your photos look like, who your models are, the design that surrounds your tees (website, myspace, stickers, so on..), etc. 410BC is a prime example…everything they do is geared towards the exact people they are and who they think will buy their clothing. Without looking fake or put on. You have to find every way you can to connect with your customer.
• Control the brand. Don’t turn away from criticism or input but ultimately you are your brand and if you aren’t steadfast in your ideas then your brand becomes diluted. Truth is most people don’t know what they want or like…that’s our job (’our’ being the people creating products, working in design and advertising, etc.). People will give you their opinion when prompted, but that doesn’t truly mean they believe it themselves.
• Plan ahead!! Don’t only think about your first line or first few designs think about how you’ll follow that up a month or two down the line. People WILL forgot about you as quick as they became familiar trust it.

That’s a good starting point i’ll do more of these over time (and as I make more mistakes myself!).

When I launched my original line of tees (seen above) I had a grand plan in mind and it all made sense…to me. Before I even had my photos or tees done i knew all the tees would be white and the site would be all black to create this great contrast. It all made sense to me. I didn’t think that people might have seen it as boring rather then purposeful. Not everyone has the same design sense or points of reference as you, so take things like that into account (of course easy to say in hindsight).

I also printed two designs on guys/girls both of which happened to feature sharp objects. Of course anyone who saw this or give me a write up only pointed this out, which again, was never my intention. I used these objects because of the shapes they create on a tee. I’m a fan of repeating patterns, symmetry, etc. and doing it all white w/ black prints seemed really clean and ‘high end’ to me. To an outsider though, this could just be seen as being cheap…clearly not what I intended. To their credit my photos also featured knives and some fake blood so it’s not like I did much to deter that thinking. Another one of those things that’s easy to see in hindsight.

The other part of perception is who is the audience you wanted to capture and who you actually did. One of the most amazing things to me about this first series of tees was how many people who are actually into swords picked up the ‘swords‘ tee. Fencers, sword swallowing troupes, history buffs all emailed me to tell me how much they like the tee and some even pointed out what KIND of swords were featured. Something I never saw coming…I used the image because I liked the repeating vertical pattern it created and the simple fact that swords are pretty cool. I thought i’d attract a design minded clientele who also liked clean simple good looking design. Perhaps I did and/or still could but the sword fanatic crowd is not something I would have ever anticipated. Cast a wide net is what I suppose you could gather from all that.

So the point here? Really, no matter how long you do this you can’t ever fully predict how it’ll be received or who will receive it. Try and think of it from all angles but expect to be surprised when you find out who your fans actually are. Once you know who that is, figure out how to keep them. A strange/amazing example of this are rap group The Clipse. Two brothers put on by Pharrell of the Neptunes who rap pretty much exclusively about the business of selling cocaine. Who is their core audience? Mostly white college aged hipsters. Why? couldn’t tell you, but the Clipse have taken note of this and now they do interviews with sites or magazines that they know these people read. They use the internet to speak to them and when asked in interviews what they think about this fan base they make no qualms about it (whether they internally feel this way or not I wouldn’t know). You never know where you’ll catch a fire.

Now what if you capture an audience you DON’T want and you want to rid yourself of them? That’s a tough one..