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When gamer fashion goes tragic photo

I was browsing the intertubes this morning in hopes of finding a new t shirt to add to my wardrobe, because like most women, I love to shop. I also have a pink jewel encrusted tampon chest in my bathroom, a minature poodle named Fiddlesticks, and a muscled swedish man named Hansel making me salmon pate in the kitchen as we speak. What a life!

Anyway, back to the point. Although I didn't find anything while I browsed about, I did find that there are an unsufferable number of terrible gamer related T-shirts on the market, most of which I would not want to be caught dead wearing. Hit the jump to see the worst offenders, which I will likely torch the next time I see them on the street on a human body.

Ok, let's talk about how this shirt could have been cool. Firstly, just the selection of items by itself would have been just fine. But some clever marketing guy HAD to say, "You know what it needs? A witty slogan. Let's come up with one!" Hence this ridiculous sentiment. To test the utter lunacy of it, try saying it to another human being, even one of your friends. At best, the people that love you most will likely sneer at you. At worst, you may be stoned to death in a public place. 

Nothing about this shirt makes sense. Nothing. The phrase itself is used as a common excuse why people do porn. Somehow this slogan is being tied to Mario, yet Mario has nothing to do with porn. It's not representative of Mario love and its not representative of porn, so it makes no statement either way. It is, however, an ideal representative of a shirt I would use to wipe birdshit off my car.

If Donkey Kong actually caught someone wearing this, I think he'd likely punch said person square in the junk. I can't say I'd be able to blame him. Let me just say that puns are the only thing less funny than court jesters, and this one takes the cake by taking an already ghetto phrase and making it completely cringe worthy. Also, I believe this fine garment is sold at Hot Topic, which ought to sum up its cool factor for you.

Where do I even begin with this? The pebbled chrome frame? The plastic PS2 logo? The fact that I would trust it to hold up pants? I envision this being worn by a guy with a fat diamond stud in one ear and chain necklace to match. If he's really rolling, he may have a platinum grill with the God of War logo in the front tooth. Why don't I ever meet these winners? That'd be a date to remember.

This by far is the winner of the batch. I suppose if my Paris Hilton hallucination back in paragraph one had been true, I could worn this around the house during the day. Trust a marketing genius to take the legendary image of the NES controller and make it look like its been vomited on by Barbie after a round of Pepto Bismol. Yet women wonder why our demographic in the gaming world is still vague.

What's the difference between a good piece of gamer merchandise and the list above? I believe it shows in love of the genre and not love of the dollar, although it'd be ideal to have an equal balance of both. Sites like The King of Games and Nerdy Shirts seem to be doing a good job more often than not. What's your favorite gamer wear? 

[Disclaimer: If any of you should happen to own any of the merchandise above and are offended by my analysis, I do apologize. Feel free to send me your merchandise and I'll happily set it on fire for you, saving you both the time and effort.]

 


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43 comments | showing # 1 to 43

ashius's Avatar
ashius at 04/15/2007 20:59
I get most of my shirts from www.jinx.com
velcroman's Avatar
velcroman at 04/15/2007 21:01
i get most of my shirts from nowhere, because I'm poor. I'm wearing a shirt that I've had since 8th grade right now, now THATS old school!.
velcroman's Avatar
velcroman at 04/15/2007 21:02
little known fact though, the best place to get t-shirts, comic shops.
blankCANVAS's Avatar
blankCANVAS at 04/15/2007 21:07
IT BURNS!
J03yyz's Avatar
J03yyz at 04/15/2007 21:12
ok, where can i find <i>GOOD</i> gamer shirts?
J03yyz's Avatar
J03yyz at 04/15/2007 21:13
OH NOES! im lame...
joepekula's Avatar
joepekula at 04/15/2007 21:19
What about those SNK trucker hats?
Cruds's Avatar
Cruds at 04/15/2007 21:19
I thought this one was pretty cool:



Sadly it got voted down and never made it on a shirt.
10BobMarleys's Avatar
10BobMarleys at 04/15/2007 21:26
This story disturbs me.....I'm torn between my love for the cheesy "Chimp my Ride" tee and my Nagiko obsession. No fair making me choose between u and my teeshirt obsession, Collete
10BobMarleys's Avatar
10BobMarleys at 04/15/2007 21:33
damn, no edit function.... I said obsession too many times.
MIKEisONfire84's Avatar
MIKEisONfire84 at 04/15/2007 21:50
@ Cruds

That pic is great man.Where did you find that at??? Also, is your avatar that Faust guy from Guilty Gear?If so,your the man!
..............................

Back on topic....The mario shirt about the coins is kinda funny but the graphic is weak as hell. It's rare to find a video game shirt that you would actually wear.I only own one gamer shirt but I dont really wear it out much.Feel free to check it out at the link below.

http://www.wackyplanet.com/reniduhut.html
Cruds's Avatar
Cruds at 04/15/2007 22:03
MIKEisONfire84: I got that from here but don’t get your hopes up. It’s a site where people can upload there design and others can vote or they want to see that design onto a shirt, this one never made it. There a lot of nice shirts over there, most are not game-related tho. And yeah you’re right it’s Faust throwing one of his items.
deiga-the-semivaliant's Avatar
deiga-the-semivaliant at 04/15/2007 22:17
DONKEY KONG IS AN APE. A DAMN DIRTY APE.



...it's like calling Sonic a gerbil.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 04/15/2007 22:18
Actually, I kinda like the Zelda one. The reason not to buy it is because anyone who wants to buy a gamer shirt ends up buying that one and I've seen it far too many times on jocks who probably never even played the original Zelda.

It's not fair! It's not like they needed video games! They had girlfriends!
Oni's Avatar
Oni at 04/15/2007 22:25
Am I a bad person for thinking the 'Chimp my Ride' one is kinda clever?
10BobMarleys's Avatar
10BobMarleys at 04/15/2007 22:30
No, Chimp my Ride FTW!
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 04/15/2007 22:37
Don't make me go Zelda on you? What's that mean... I'm going to get kidnapped by a giant pig wizard and THEN you'll be sorry!
Colette Bennett's Avatar
Colette Bennett at 04/15/2007 22:46
I forgot to add the disclaimer part two that if any of you guys have these shirts, I kinda still love you anyway. The belt buckles, however....unforgivable.
SourceDecay's Avatar
SourceDecay at 04/15/2007 22:46
i have one that says "girls < playstation"

it was a gift. i don't remember who got it for me. probably an ex.

pj shirt, and that's it.
Oni's Avatar
Oni at 04/15/2007 22:47
I saw one of those belt buckles at a FUNERAL of all places! It was the black one, not the pink.

They're absolutely retarded.
ChrisFurniss's Avatar
ChrisFurniss at 04/15/2007 23:06
Also Donkey Kong is obviously a Gorilla, not a Chimp.

I fucking hate the retarded slogan Hot Topic shirts. And all the stupid innuendo Mario Merch. just. stop.

What is so wrong with just putting something neat on the shirt? Why does it always have to have some stupid SLOGAN.
el moco's Avatar
el moco at 04/15/2007 23:24
ha. i personally love my also cocks tshirt

Adamska's Avatar
Adamska at 04/15/2007 23:33
I wonder if this generation is going to be sporting these awesome chic shirts in their winter years.

I'd like to see some Zelda shirts at retirement homes.
Pieceoftime's Avatar
Pieceoftime at 04/16/2007 00:00
<img src="http://www.80stees.com/images/products/Mario_and_Yoshi_Japan-T.jpg">

I have this shirt and in my opinion at least, it's pretty cool.
mrberns's Avatar
mrberns at 04/16/2007 00:24
Yeah, the amount of really bad video game shirts is not acceptable. I've been sketching out some designs for a few tees, but am still looking for some good graphic artists to do the actual artwork. Hopefully in the near future they will help the current gamer fashion situation.
Pieceoftime's Avatar
Pieceoftime at 04/16/2007 00:35
Oops messed up. After some thought, maybe this is a bit Japan freak geeky.
<img src="http://www.80stees.com/images/products/Mario_and_Yoshi_Japan-T.jpg"/>
trypticon's Avatar
trypticon at 04/16/2007 00:36
yea cruds that image is awesome, I'm gonna try and have a friend that does silkscreening put that on a shirt for me. nice work.
HungLaser's Avatar
HungLaser at 04/16/2007 00:43
so what did you end up getting?
William Haley's Avatar
William Haley at 04/16/2007 01:26
@Oni, theres no such thing as a bad place to be stylish. =)
Kerri's Avatar
Kerri at 04/16/2007 02:36
Great article Colette, I was looking at geek shirts just yesterday actually - shame I didn't find that ps2 belt buckle before, its in the post to England right now however. Best $10 ever spent ;)
Samit Sarkar's Avatar
Samit Sarkar at 04/16/2007 03:09
The one videogame-related T-shirt that I do like is the one with the ESRB logo that says, “Your Mom: Rated E for Everyone.” Simple, understated, but still funnier than the “doorknob” ‘your mom’ joke...at least to gamers.

T-Shirt Hell :: Shirts :: YOUR MOM - RATED E FOR EVERYONE
plastictrash's Avatar
plastictrash at 04/16/2007 07:20
The original Konami Silent Hill T-Shirts are great, which are sold here: http://stylinonline.stores.yahoo.net/konamisilent.html
I don't know about anything else which comes even close
MusashiX2's Avatar
MusashiX2 at 04/16/2007 08:24
i like my AWDS shirt that has each letter on the side of the shirt corresponding to its respective movement control. i think the better shirts are the ones that most people wouldn't get unless they were (even though i hate saying it this way) in.

and btw, that looks like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory in the picture for the post.
s0lesurviv0r's Avatar
s0lesurviv0r at 04/16/2007 09:31
I think the cheesiest game related shirt I have is one with an NES captioned with "Classically Trained". While we're on the subject of Tshirts, would anyone happen to know where one would find a reversed Venom shirt(White shirt, black symbol)? A guy told me he got one from Hot Topic(ugh), but I couldn't seem to hunt it down there.
Justice's Avatar
Justice at 04/16/2007 10:49
haha my friend got that "i needed the gold coins" shirt for his bday last week
A New Challenger's Avatar
A New Challenger at 04/16/2007 10:50
I too hate the goddamn "clever" "attitude" slogans that ruin otherwise decent shirts. I have one of them, the only Mario innuendo shirt that's clever: "LET'S PLAY DOCTOR mario." Other than that, I just want a cool picture.

My favorite game shirt I got this past Christmas: dark green with Tanooki Mario on the front. That's it. Fucking perfect.

Another gripe I have with these shirts is that pre-vintaging, to make it look like you've had it since the '80s because you are hardcore. Wow, thanks for ruining my shirt before I've even worn it! I have a Zelda logo shirt like this, and it took about 2 washes before the image pretty much disappeared. Fucking douchebags.
SaraAB87's Avatar
SaraAB87 at 04/16/2007 12:35
I own a lot of gaming shirts, but none are really like the ones pictured, there are simple ones out there, but those were pretty bad. I prefer shirts that just have a picture on them, not a slogan like many others have said. I have shirts with just pac man on it, nothing else, just pac man, its simple but effective. I've seen that pre-vintaged zelda shirt and I didn't buy it because of the same reason, you couldn't even tell what was on it. I have many atari shirts that i got all the way back in the year 2000 and they are holding up quite well. I am still looking for a galaga shirt though, I have seen them just not the right size at the right time!
plyr3005's Avatar
plyr3005 at 04/16/2007 14:40
does anyone else see something weird on the Donkey Kong one?

plyr3005's Avatar
plyr3005 at 04/16/2007 14:48
oops: (stupid imageshack)

Cruds's Avatar
Cruds at 04/16/2007 21:09
here are some nice tees without smart remarks. what's nice about this shop is they made tees of games that are less common like Rez or Ico.
verkon's Avatar
verkon at 04/17/2007 08:31
I got that nes belt buckle, in original colors though, so not so bad I hope?
verkon's Avatar
verkon at 04/17/2007 08:34
And oh, the gaming shirts from nintendo world aint that bad.
cjpkiller's Avatar
cjpkiller at 11/05/2007 22:29
mm... I think I know what I'll be using as toilet paper for the next couple weeks... do they offer these shirts in extra soft? or just plain old shitty?
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