I suppose this warrants its own post.
THE SHIRT was first though of a few months ago, at a session of the Ottawa Comic Jam. We were talking about the recent spate of “fake geek girl” memes and posts, and a couple of us were talking about making t-shirts with some funny comment about fake geek girls. It’d be snarky, of course, because we were all women talking about this idea.
A few days later, I was lying in bed one morning when I came up with a possible shirt idea. I told it to my husband I texted it to one of the other Jammers, and her response was, “Phhhbhhbhbhbtttthahahahah I want one.”
And so it went. I would tell people I had this awesome idea for a shirt, and there’d be laughter, and I’d think of ways to make the shirt a reality.
So it took a few months, and I mentioned the idea to my sister-in-law, who suggested I “just” go make one on Cafe Press.
I can say why I didn’t think of it first: because Cafe Press has a terrible reputation. Expensive ($22 for a women’s t-shirt, no commission???), shoddy quality… no, I didn’t want to do Cafe Press. But that didn’t mean other print-on-demand sites weren’t possible.
So I did a bit of googling, and looked up Zazzle (another site I remember from my early webcomic days) and Spreadshirt. Spreadshirt intrigued me, and it seemed easy enough to set up a store. Plus they had decent prices and a wide array of products on which to emblazon things.
So, I set up a few items on Spreadshirt. And, for the ultimate litmus test, ordered myself a shirt.
And when it got here, it became THE SHIRT.
My little phrase was printed with vinyl, so it looked solid. There were no typos. The shirt looked good. It fit well.
I wore it out that Friday evening to a drink-and-draw, mostly populated by women. It was appreciated very much.
It went into the wash (cold water, inside out, agitator). It survived its trip quite nicely. It has since gone through the wash a second time, this time being a commercial laundromat.
And when I wore it to the Ottawa Maker Faire, I had a lot of great reactions to it.
So, THE SHIRT survived its initial tests, and I could publicize it. I put a few items into the store and linked it. So far, I’m the only person who owns one, but I’m hoping that will change.
What was this magic little phrase?
“I’m a fake geek girl like you’re a real nice guy.” Here’s a photo.
I’ve linked the store in the sidebar, if you’d like to buy your own.