T-Slick: Slick Cafepress T-Shirts

Slick New Color

2006-09-13T23:31:00.000-04:00

For those of you who missed today's news, Cafepress just released the new Cardinal color for "dark" t-shirts. Click on the post pic to see an example of what the new style looks like in a shop.

Slick? We say yes, but we're not terribly excited about having to go through every single black shirt in our shops to decide which designs shouldn't appear on the new "cardinal" (it's crimson in our opinion) shirts. We're guessing the benefit outweighs the cost.

Well, off to manage our own products for the rest of the night (and likely through the weekend). Today's feature item comes to you from Nerdluv. We went with the easy Office Space reference to save some time today... but don't think that means it's any less slick than our other picks.

Where's Slick Been?

2006-09-12T11:52:00.000-04:00

Where's Slick been? Almost a week without updates... what could possibly be that distracting?

Two words: Fantasy Football

Yes, the author of T-Slick is somewhat of a fantasy football ninja, and has been focused on his 2006 sqaud (and the kickoff of the NFL season in general) for the past few days. Highlights from this year's team include Peyton Manning at QB, Antonio Gates at TE, Cincinnati's Defense, and a combo of Edgerrin James and Chester Taylor at RB. We'll keep you updated on the team's performance throughout the season.

So... what could be more appropriate than a "fantasy football" themed T-Slick pick? We set out to find the slickest example on Cafepress, and found it in the shirt pictured above. A graphic of a sporty Jesus and the bold claim of "Jesus drafted my Fantasy Football team" appears on today's pick. Awesome.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Easily the most original Fantasy Football related design in the CP marketplace.
- A superb "aged" look gives the shirt an old-school athletic feel
- It's hysterical if you're not offended by the Jesus reference (which, obviously, T-Slick isn't)
- This writer plans on wearing one to his end-of-season fantasy league party. You should, too. Unless of course you don't like scoring geek points.

You'll find this one tucked away in the Miscellaneous Section of the Dogs Of War shop. T-Slick wishes them luck with their fantasy team(s) this year.

Push Button, Receive Slick

2006-09-05T00:03:00.000-04:00

The public restroom usually inspires relatively crude humor, most often seen in the form of quickly scrawled notes on the bathroom stall wall. However, today's T-Slick is a different story. Inspired by the famous picture instructions on automatic hand driers, Push Button, Receive Bacon brings a new and very slick sense of humor to the table. Or stall.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Original and very unique humor.
- Easily recognizable illustration, with a twist that earns many laughs.
- Bathroom funnies you can share with the kids!

This looks to be the only design available in the basic shop Eat at Joe's, and there's not much more information to go on. Well, congrats and good luck with it. T-Slick gives a big thumbs-up.

Three Day Weekends Are Slick

2006-09-03T02:05:00.000-04:00

T-Slick is taking a little vacation this Labor Day weekend, and we'll be back and ready to take on the rest of September on Tuesday. There's some great stuff lined up... be prepared.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Slicker than Jared

2006-09-01T23:33:00.000-04:00

For those that enjoy twists on corporate branding, we're not sure if it gets any better than today's T-Slick. Combine "ZOMBIES: eat flesh." with the heavily popular Mao-Mart design, and you've got the beginnings of a top-notch parody/satire wardrobe. And don't forget that zombies are hot right now, currently enjoying a bit of a comeback thanks to a popular XBox 360 game and the Halloween season looming just around the corner. Brick-and-mortar shops near us are already gearing up for the October 31st fright-fest.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Solid, easily recognizable parody.
- Try saying it out loud. See? There's a very special slick "ring" to it.
- Zombies are, well, cool (in our book). And definitely not vegans.
- We wouldn't be surprised to see this on the shelves of "Hot Topic" at the mall. The kids will love it.

"ZOMBIES: eat flesh." is one of the designs available at Insanity 'R Us.

Owl Slick

2006-08-31T23:46:00.000-04:00

There's plenty of chuckles to be had when you peruse the ample content of the Cafepress "Humor" offerings. We have even been known to laugh out loud on occasion. But sometimes something very special happens... a snicker, followed by the thought, "man, that's slick." Today's Pick is a great example of one such design that received that particular reaction. Quite simple, but quite special.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Like we said, it generated a solid snicker when we viewed the design, and is likely to do the same when you wear it out in the real world.
- "I'm a Hoot" is such an old person thing to say... which makes it due for a come-back amongst the kids. Bonus slick points have been awarded for predicting a trend.
- Widely understood reference won't leave many folks scratching their heads. Those that don't get it may need to be removed from the gene pool.

Congratulations are in order for Lush Laundry, the owner of today's T-Slick.

Slick Jerk

2006-08-30T21:43:00.000-04:00

Ha! Today's T-Slick is downright rude... and frickin' hilarious. OK, we'll admit that we've seen this one before, so when we stumbled across it while going deep into Cafepress.com, it was an easy pick. A blast from the past, so to speak, given the retro style of the design, which states "The Jerk Store called... and they're running out of YOU!" next to a classic 50's clip-art image.

What makes it T-Slick?

- It's offensive without being overly offensive. Not that we'd wear it to church, but you technically could.
- Read the text in the design. You know you want to say it now. It's like a movie quote that gets thrown around at the local bar on a nightly basis.
- Combines the classic 90's "so-and-so called" jokes with a great retro flavor.

Did you laugh? Chuckle? Well, if you're ready for more slickness, head over to Monkey Dan Tees to see their full stock of original geeky and retro designs.

Dragons = Slick

2006-08-29T23:23:00.000-04:00

Today's pick was fun and quite efficient. Here's the scoop... we went to Cafepress and searched for dragon. Two seconds later, today's T-Slick appeared before our eyes. There may have been some mystic dragon-voodoo at work. Now were just talking loony.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Clean vectored design without any unnecessary bells and whistles.
- Well-executed circular pattern that really pulls the eye in towards the dragon head.
- Looks fantastic with the black sleeve/neck accents on the Ringer Tee.
- Dragons are, well, slick.

You'll find today's T-Slick, the Classic Tribal Dragon, amongst the deep collection of designs at SKULL SHOCK. Our comments above apply to a majority of their work. We dare you to prove otherwise.

Planet Slick

2006-08-28T23:56:00.000-04:00

Chances are that, since you obviously have interweb access, you know about Pluto's downgrade to dwarf planet status last week. This story was made for Cafepress, and the network of shopkeepers that provide content have not disappointed. Check out the plethora of Pluto inspired designs available (over 1,500 at the time of this post).

We've picked our favorite for this T-Slick post.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Quality retro style with a touch of distressing.
- Nails the subject and really "pops" in the marketplace.
- It's our favorite (so far), dang-it.

The shop is Pluto: I Love Dwarf Planets, which is a "basic" shop that only features this design. Take a look if you want to see all the products available with our T-Slick design, or click here to browse all the Cafepress "Pluto" designs.

All Your Base Are Slick

2006-08-27T17:36:00.000-04:00

The minds behind T-Slick are deeply versed in the ways of gaming, and have been since the days of the Atari 2600. You'll likely see more than a few gamer shirts pop up on this blog, and today's T-Slick quest involved finding the slickest "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" design on Cafepress.com. No idea what the geeky reference is, in fact, referring to? Check out the Wikipedia background here.

What makes it T-Slick?

- A well executed juxtaposition of the highly recognizable "Property Of" genre and savvy geekness.
- Proves that sometimes a text-only design can be truly slick.
- Obscure gaming references are a big part of our lives.
- We were able to use the word "Juxtaposition" in a T-Slick entry for this one.

A tip-of-the-cap to FlippinSweetGear for claiming this one as part of their deep and unique catalog.

Pirate of the Slick Seas

2006-08-26T11:42:00.000-04:00

A post over at Engadget.com yesterday got us thinking about digital music rights, piracy, and the way technology has changed the way we listen to music. No, we're making that up. This is a fun blog, not some sappy, reflective and serious rambling.

So, truthfully, what our reading did do is inspire us to find a T-Slick music piracy design... which we present to our readers for your amusement and enjoyment.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Awesome pop-culture reference. Everybody has heard of "music pirates," right?
- Says it all without the need for any text on the shirt.
- Great vector-based look, which is quite the popular graphic style these days (ask the kids!)
- Pirates are cool... music is cool... cool+cool=Friggin' Sweet

Kudos go to the Strk3 Shop for today's T-Slick. Some of their designs are on the more offensive side, so avoid the click-through if you're light of heart. Don't say we didn't warn ya.

Hippy-Slick

2006-08-25T01:25:00.000-04:00

We stumbled across today's pick and immediately fell in love with it. Who wouldn't fall for the line "Everything is Made From Dreams"? It implores the viewer to explore their inner love-child and make peace with the world. OK, we may be exaggerating the impact of this design... but it doesn't change the fact that it's T-Slick (and we want a hug).

What makes it T-Slick?

- Top-notch "distressing" of the design.
- Positive, catchy message. A total hug attractant.
- Interesting usage of text as a complete graphical element.
- This was meant to be printed on an Organic Tee (color-scheme & hippy-chic)

Today's T-Slick winner is a well-known Cafepress heavyweight sporting a shop full of desirable and original looks. Check 'em out at KA Designs.

Slicker than your "Average Joe"

2006-08-24T03:24:00.000-04:00

Movie inspired gear makes up a good portion of the Cafepress universe. A great example is the recent "Snakes on a Plane" craze. Today's T-Slick has nothing to do with snakes. Or planes. We're happy to present "Average Joe's" a tribute to the underdogs of Dodgeball, the delicious comedy from a few years back. This isn't one of the many "slap a movie quote on a shirt" designs, and we love the work that went into it. It also helps that we freakin' love the movie.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Loving attention to detail and a slight hint of aging.
- Slick retro feel.
- It works as a great shirt even if you don't get the reference.
- See that smile on the graphic? That's how we feel about the movie, the sport, and the design.

OriginalGear.net, you've been T-Slicked. We also highly recommend checking out their other great movie inspired designs.

Slick-squatch

2006-08-23T20:23:00.000-04:00

T-Slick gets a warm and fuzzy feeling over today's pick. Wait, no... make that warm and furry. What could make us feel this way? One word: Bigfoot.

Our geeky guilty pleasure for this legend of the woodlands led us to "Believe: Bigfoot" on the Cafepress marketplace.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Cool font and graphic combo, all done in black and white.
- Geeky sasquatch reference.
- It's a fantastic conversation starter.
- We believe.

Credit goes to Live Loud Tees for putting this one together and keeping the Bigfoot dream alive.

The Super-Slick

2006-08-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

"Superstar" shirts seem to be everywhere these days, but this one is something special. Something different. Something very T-Slick. We immediately were impressed with the old-school style of the graphic. This one could have come right off the side of an early 80's arcade game cabinet. It's not certain whether this was the original intent of the designer, but they've pulled it off regardless.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Throwback arcade style.
- Great layout of the individual design elements. Not too much, not too little.
- Top-of-class in the plethora of "Superstar" designs.

We tip our hats to the crew of Tinyninjas for earning a great big wet T-Slick today.

Monday T-Slick Escape

2006-08-21T12:03:00.000-04:00

It's Monday. It's the summer, and you'd rather be on vacation instead of reading this blog at work (oops, hi boss!). Well, hop on the Planet Express and spend the rest of your day in the land of science fiction. Ok, we admit that this is another design that we've seen multiple times on the Cafepress marketplace. We also admit that we may have gone looking specifcally for this one since we feel it's worthy of an early T-Slick award.

What makes it T-Slick?

- Clean graphic and solid font placement.
- The neat trick of extending the jet exhaust over the edge of the main design to give an extra feeling of size and depth.
- It's retro, geeky, and is a perfect example of what only three colors are capable of.
- Memorable tagline. Hey, we remembered it. Beat that.

You can find Planet Express and more at theboxthebox.com, our latest T-Slick honoree. They've also got ninjas, which is worth huge bonus points in our book.

First T-Slick Pick - Super Speedway Gasoline

2006-08-21T00:18:00.000-04:00

If you know us, you know we love retro. Super Speedway Gasoline is just that, and we've seen it quite often while searching the keyword "retro" on Cafepress to see where our own shop's designs rank. So, when it came to picking our first T-Slick, of course we went retro. Would you expect anything less from us?

What makes it T-Slick?

- Clean, polished graphic with a perfect touch of "distressing."
- Great color scheme that really pops on the black shirt.
- Have we mentioned it's so very retro?
- We love racing.

Congrats to the folks of Factory 69 for earning the first T-Slick award. Be sure to check out their other offerings if you're feeling this one.

Hola! T-Slick is born.

2006-08-20T19:15:00.000-04:00

Greetings from the studios of Unimental Designs. We post here before you to announce our newest undertaking, "T-Slick" the blog. Our intentions are simple here: spend some time talking about shirts that aren't in our shop (we do enough of that at the Unimental Shop Blog) and add to the internet coverage of great designs that can be found on Cafepress.

We know we're not the only ones talking, but we know that you know that we know t-shirt design.

So, without further ado, we plan to post daily (yes, daily) on our favorites that we've come across. Other features may be added in the future, so feel free to suggest something if it fits your fancy. Or if it's just fancy. Welcome aboard, and all that jazz.