3.04.2009

040: N a h b s: The t-shirt collection

Try as I might to limit the number of t-shirts that I picked up this year. I couldn't do it. I came home with no less than ten t-shirts...not good. Or, good, depending on how you look at it.

I looked at almost every booth there to find what I deemed to be the best shirt of the show. Here are some of my favorites.

Big fan of the color scheme on the Signal Cycles shirt. If you remember, and I hope you do. This was the color scheme of their award winning bicycle last year at the show in Portland. Great image of the satellite too. Apparently at the show this year they overheard someone saying that "a signal is something that you receive, not send, so in this case the waves on the satellite would be going the wrong direction." My response to that? "Hey Pal, its art. Art."

This one cracks me up. It is from Inglis Cycles the frame company of Curtis Inglis. He makes really sweet bendy frames. I spent a good amount of time lusting after one of his 29ers last year. He also does a really great job of putting together slick paint jobs to go on his bikes. Ingliss was also the host of the 2008 Mountain Bike Single Speed World Championships in Napa Valley...what else?


Meet Andrew Frasca of October Hand Made Bikes. Great guy. Great bikes. I love the slogan that he is using on his shirt. "Guided by a different set of principles." Yes, my friend. In this industry we all are. Lust, greed...kidding, I'm only kidding.... Another thing that I really like about the shirt is the off-center positioning of his logo. I love when photos bleed off the page of a magazine, and I love when t-shirt graphics wrap around.

Here we have Jon from No Brakes, a shop in Atlanta. I visited his shop last January on a visit to Atlanta. It is a really small shop run by a bunch of really great guys. I'm glad to see that they are still doing it. In fact, I got to spend some time with these guys and it sounds like they're doing pretty well. Here Jon just finished up his heat of the Gold Sprints during the Art Bike Party that was held on Friday night of the show.

I like the No Brakes t-shirt. In fact, I am now a proud owner of the Yellow (not for Livestrong, just happens to be the same color) version. I like how the beard of the man on the shirt bleeds out to say "No Brakes." I like beards too.

Here we have our man Chris Igleheart. I tell people all the time..."no Purple, purple equals crazy." In fact, I had a girlfriend in college who used to love the color purple. Everything that she owned was purple. Purple shirts, purple bike, purple purple purple. And I know everyone says it about their ex girlfriends, but this girl was craaaazy. I'm not even lying.

I like Chris' shirt though. I like it because I have one of his single speed 29ers (pictured in the shirt) and it rides like a dream. The bike has 'Guilt Trip' painted in the top tube. Guilt Trip indeed, for ever time I look at that bike I feel bad that I don't ride it enough. Sigh.

Jordan Hufnagel is from Indianapolis. What a rad guy he is too. He is the founding member of the NAHBS Hot Tub Club. Which boasts a pretty great membership too. Lots of builders and friends of builders. Signal Cycles are a part of it. Midwest Cross Racer Ben Popper made an appearance, and by the end of the weekend it was all I could do to not beg desperately to be let in to the club.

Jordan also did a great job of hosting the weekend. He took Molly and I back to his parents place to cook some vegan food. I'm no where near vegan, but Molly is so she really appreciated the break from middle america slop...I mean stuff.

DeSalvo. 10 Year Aniversary. This one is for you Yash.

Courage Cycles. Another Portland builder here. They really are everywhere. These guys were really great to hang out with though and if I had to choose brought their A game in the Cyclocross Department. Ah, how I love the three color stripe combo. You could say that I'm a sucker for it. Also a sucker for the Griffin. This mythical beast is known for its Lions body coupled with the wings of an eagle...one feather of said wings are known to cure blindness. Which I would think would be a good thing.

Jay Sycip. Hold that Cielo shirt close to you my friend. Jay also designed the packaging that the Cielo bikes ship in. There is a photo in yesterdays post. Jay said that more people looked at the packaging than they did the actual bikes. Dimensions were taken, mouths were drooled from, and Cielo moved on into the future. The future.

Last but certainly not least we have a t-shirt from our Teddy Ruxspin toting friends over at Broakland Bicycles. If you click on that link you'll be taken to their Myspace page. It is interesting to note that the character, or avatar if you will, that is Broakland Bicycles is a green elf that is tearing his own guts out...but the guts are shaped in the form of "Broakland Bicycles."

I wish that I had the sheer tenacity that it would take to tear your own guts out and then form them into some sort of shape, or in this case, words.

These guys were pretty great though. Every time I would see them hoards of people would be standing around their booth. Watching them. Emmulating them. Trying to get their hands on that cute little bear that plays cassette tapes from his backside.

This is my favorite shirt from the show.
There, I said it. Its done. Yes, and...good.

Lex from Villin Cycle Works is pretty much an all around amazing guy and he's got the t-shirt to match. Don't try and fight it, just believe in its power. "What does it mean though?" Does that mean he wants to be taking a nap instead of building bikes? I doubt it, I mean he did just chop this here pile of logs, but I'm sure he's not napping.

Thanks Lex and everyone who knowingly, or unknowingly participated in my sick obsession with the t-shirt.

I also ran into some very classy and interesting t-shirts today that I'll try to get to at some point.

But it does beg the question:
Do T-shirts (especially the ones that say 'Virginia is for Lovers') make the world go round?