This is the last T-shirt I will ever have to wear that requires annotation.
This is the last blog post I’ll ever have to publish promoting my annual folly.
This is the last T-shirt of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge.
Cast your minds back to Day 315 when Phoenyx, the lead designer of clothing brand Bare 77, requested that I meet him personally so that he could give me the T-shirts he wanted to donate to my challenge. I traveled over to his neck of the woods where we ended up sat in a bar drinking Corona and talking about T-shirts. As the conversation went on, he asked a question that was becoming ever popular now that the year was entering its closing months. He asked me if I had anything in mind for the final T-shirt of the project; the T-shirt I would wear on Day 365. Honestly, I had nothing planned. A few weeks prior to that day I didn’t even have enough T-shirts prepared for the rest of the month, let alone the year, so holding one back for a celebration that may never arrive was largely out of the question.
I told him that no, I had not, and expected he would reply with the sort of suggestions others had made; I should wear a T-shirt with a print of all the photos I’d published all year. I should wear a T-shirt with a large caption denoting the completion of my challenge. I shouldn’t wear a T-shirt at all… and other tepid ideas. But instead of contributing another proposition to that already exhausted list, Phoneyx reached into the bag of T-shirts he’d brought along with him, handed me one and asked "Will you please wear this?"
I looked down at it spread across the table and thought for a moment. Nobody had specifically asked me to wear one of their garments so poignantly before, least not someone keen enough about my challenge as to do so in the flesh, having requested a meeting in the first place.
"Yes, I will", I replied.
So there it is. I’ve done it! I’ve actually done it!
I’ve crossed the organically sourced, pre-shrunk, 100% cotton finish line!
I have successfully proven that it is possible to wear three hundred and sixty five T-shirts in as many days - one T-shirt a day for an entire year - without washing, re-wearing, or purchasing a single one!
To those who told me I couldn’t do it, or scoffed at the notion of clothing brands being good-natured enough to donate (I wish I could remember the name of that American pillock that goaded me on a T-shirt forum last year until the moderator shut down the thread), I invite you to read back over the last 365 days worth of posts and eat a pile of something while doing so, and to everyone else who supported me, enjoyed reading my posts and indeed donated to the cause, I salute you and thank you for everything you’ve done to help make my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge a significant achievement for 2013. Get married. Buy a house. Wear a different T-shirt every day for a year.
It took Guts, it took Glory and it most definitely took today’s final T-shirt donation from Bare 77.
See more from Bare 77 via their Twitter account
Now go forth, party your asses off, and look forward to having one less thing to read for 2014!
