The Challenge Has Ended

This is what a graphic designer and 378 T-shirts looks like:



378 days of purposely sourced upper torso wear forms a tower approximately 3 metres high should you be so inclined as to build one, and fills 8 standard issue black bin bags should you choose to transport them from your old flat to your new house.
They also gain you a lot of attention on the Internet if you acquire them from strangers all over the globe, wear them back-to-back for an entire year (and 13 days) and blog about each and every one in turn.

My THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge has now officially come to a close. I successfully met my target, and excelled it. I am once again free to wear whatever I please.
That's a little daunting actually; the realisation that I no longer need to carefully consider a week's worth of outfits at a time to ensure I don't end up wearing something grossly inappropriate to a dinner function or a small baby's Christening. The removed need to fill my morning commute with furiously typed anecdotes and reviews. The dissolved requirement to snap a photo of myself that's become a hard-coded daily ritual. Stepping out of the challenge is definitely going to be an adjustment this year.

Despite the frivolous intentions I had of the project when I dreamt it up back in November 2012, the daily reality was actually quite formidable. Convincing major brands and cash-strapped independent retailers to surrender their stock to me for free was no trivial feat. Neither was finding the time each and every day to write a solid blog post and maintain the webpage. I had to put in hours upon hours of dedicated promotion and research and grovelling to prevent me from failing the challenge. It certainly taught me a lot about willpower, and even more about the power of marketing.

Fortunately, aside from a desperately manic dry spell around the end of September, I managed to encourage a steady flow of donations all year long, keeping myself clothed and amassing an impressive bundle of tees to donate on to charity (stay tuned for details on that).

Of course, the challenge wasn't just a marketing exercise; that was merely the vehicle to drive it. The core of the project was and always has been to see if it were possible for one guy to wear a different T-shirt every day for an entire year?
The answer, I'm pleased to have discovered, is yes, it is. And it makes for quite an adventure along the way:

T-shirt donations from complete strangers began arriving a month before the challenge even started and at least one of those deliveries came all the way from America! As the challenge progressed I started receiving T-shirts from the farthest corners of the Earth - one especially unique design came to me from Malaysia (Day 32) which I thought was pretty rad.
To reciprocate, I took the challenge on tour to a couple of destinations around the globe. I traveled to Vegas for CES 2013 in January to round off a design project for Samsung I was working on (Days 7-11), and in May, I jetted off to Lithuania to attend a ceremony converting my girlfriend into my wife, where I had to tread the precarious line between failing my challenge in a suit and living happily ever after (Day 145). Deciding what to wear for my wedding when confined to nothing but T-shirts was matched only by my having to decide what to wear for Halloween that year(Day 306).
As expected, friends and family took the opportunity to donate T-shirts to the project with the soul intent of making me look utterly foolish (Day 304 and Day 125), but less predictably, so did a couple of vendors (Day 23 and Day 30). A couple of members of the general public threw in a tee or two from their own wardrobes (Day 340 and Day 177) and a couple of companies who have nothing to do with the T-shirt industry at all hastily pulled some promotional garments together once they'd heard about what I was doing (Day 161 and Day 17).

Once the challenge gained traction and word spread, I found myself involved in all sorts of awesome T-shirt situations. For example, on Day 255 I was assured that the T-shirt I was donated would endow me with superpowers and that the donator would eventually reward me with treasure (which reminds me, I need to follow her up on that). One brand had me wear a tee of theirs before it was available to purchase in their store (Day 305). Another set up an online discount code exclusively for the readers of my blog (Day 350). A couple of donators went as far as to design T-shirts for me (Day 90 and Day 2) and one was more than happy to print up a tee featuring one of my own designs (Day 257). Heck, I even won a T-shirt on Day 292!

Wearing three hundred and sixty five different T-shirts in a year wasn't completely without incident of course. There was the day I had to organise the logistics of getting an entire shipment of T-shirts across the ocean from a retailer who did not ship internationally (Posted on 3/4/2013), there was the day I had to tussle with customs agents to negotiate the surrender of a T-shirt package (Posted on 4/9/2013), and there was the day I had to leave the house with no T-shirt on at all, hoping to intercept one I'd organised be in transit as I travelled to my office or else fail my challenge immediately (Day 80).
Not forgetting having to deal with the numerous T-shirts I was sent that really had no business being seen by anyone (Days 236, 237, 187 and 371) - they were particularly difficult to wear all day!

Overall, my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge has been an amazing success and really given what was an already jam-packed year a motivational injection. It's helped me to form new relationships, engage with new audiences and make another entertaining dent in the quirky Internet landscape. My little T-shirt project.
I'd like to once again thank everyone who took part in or expressed an interest in my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge, as were it not for you I'd have just been another downloadable topless disappointment.
Now that the project is complete and forever in my memory as 'that thing I did that time', I can say without equivocation that I've been there, done that, and most definitely got the T-shirt.

Thanks for reading.

Day 378

My THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge is now in its thirteenth Day of 'Extra Time', marking today as Day 378 on the overall project calendar. Yep. Still going. The T-shirts just keep on driving in. Literally.

Designer Maryam from fledgling brand Rella was kind enough to donate a very special tee to me back on Day 305; special because it arrived in advance of the brand officially being launched. It was a sneak preview garment from the forthcoming line and she picked my project as a means to expose it.

Half way through last week, I received another email from Maryam that told me all about the success Rella had had since going public, and that one of their tees called Constructivism was a stand-out favourite among customers. "I'd like you to wear a copy of it for your challenge" she said.
"Sure," I replied "but you'll have to get it to me pretty quickly - the challenge will be officially over any day now so it can't arrive too late or I won't be able to include it..."
If it were possible to hang-up an email, Maryam would have done so then.
She shoved her chair backwards from her desk and propelled herself rapidly across the office, grabbing a copy of the high-profile Constructivism garment from the hands of an admiring colleague as she flew past. As the wheels of her chair collided with the back wall, she tossed the tee into the arms of a waiting figure dressed head to toe in black and a smoky visor, straddling a motorcycle. He revved twice in acknowledgement before ripping off into the city.

Meanwhile, I'd gotten up, made some coffee, photocopied my face a few times, thrown out the coffee (I don't like coffee) and returned to my desk to find a man on a motorcycle poised on my keyboard and paperwork. Thank goodness I'd taken the coffee away - it would have gone everywhere.
The masked figure handed me a crisp white T-shirt before revving twice and ripping away again out the window from whence he came.
Definitely the fastest T-shirt delivery in history.

The T-shirt is this sturdy, comfortable article bearing a full-frontal illustration printed in black. The familiar Rella tiger plods through a wood-cut style landscape, framed by Russian text proclaiming the year of Rella's birth, 2013. The tee is garnished with construction details such as a deliberately longer back piece, defined by triangular slices made at the gusset to achieve a baggier look. It's details like this that reinforce the high quality of the Rella brand and make it so much more than just T-shirt printing.

See more from Rella via their Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter channels.

Day 377

For Christmas, it may surprise you to learn that I only received one T-shirt present. I put that down to the planned completion of my challenge being just after the holidays and everybody being confident that I would make it. That or everyone had grown far too tired of my constant talk of T-shirts all year long and they wanted no part in encouraging any more of it.
Either way, my sister was kind enough to give me this T-shirt on the big day, which makes up Day 12 of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge's 'Extra Time', bringing the total duration up to Day 277.

There have been a couple of 'evolution' style T-shirt designs to appear on my blog, but this one is of particular interest as it feature my favourite apocalyptic ghouls. Left off the conventional diagram of man's development, the final stage of Reanimated Corpse is shown here, printed in white against the blue garment.
Of course, the burial and resurfacing phases are optional as the same conclusion is reached from a zombie biting the chap at 'man' stage, but let's not quibble – this is a clever idea, a comfortable tee and a well thought out Christmas gift.

Thanks Dawn!

Day 376

The Go West T-Shirt Company of Fort Collins, Colorado have today ensured that my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt wearing challenge has ticked over into its eleventh Day of 'Extra Time' since successfully completing my mission goal.
The T-shirt they sent came through with the same batch as the 10 Days of Idiot Genius Christmas I wore back on Days 355 through 364, as Go West T-Shirt Company are the founders of the brand.

Unlike the Idiot Genius T-shirts, this self-branded article makes full use of the entire garment to show off its very conspicuous design, comprised of two giant, dominating tie-dye spirals that have done nothing to let me go undetected in the high street this morning.

The About Us and Blog pages of the Go West T-Shirt Company website make for interesting reading; the enterprise has risen up over the last 30 years from the dreams of a Christmas story author, to the development of a warehouse and art studio that now turns out work for some of America's most prominent beer and bicycle brands as well as local bands.
The company is also extraordinarily environment conscious and make every effort to ensure that what they do and how they operate leaves a minimal footprint.

See more from Go West T-Shirt Company via their Facebook account.

Day 375

You must have been living in a crater for the last 50 years to not be aware of the controversy surrounding the USA's most famed Luna adventures. Actually, if you were living in a crater for the last 50 years, you're likely to have a much more accurate account of events up there than anyone else, but you get the point I'm trying to make.
According to global press at the time, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first human beings to ever set foot on the surface of the Moon.

It was supposed to be a life-altering feat of endeavour; a real testament to the human species and a colossal re-imagining of our perceived boundaries. It was supposed to inspire the whole world.

Unfortunately the photographs that came back from space were heavily scrutinised by conspiracy theorists the world over, damning each and every grain of moon dust (or in some cases, the lack there of) that appeared in them for their placement, tone, contrast and orientation. Nothing and nobody possessed a shadow on the Moon that conformed to our conventional understanding of physics according to these pics, and most well documented of all was the observation that the American flag shown in a couple of snaps was blowing victoriously in the breeze, despite the vacuum of space preventing this from being possible. Basically, the whole thing was a little fishy.

A little late to the party but offering perhaps the most conclusive evidence over the issue to date comes today's THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge T-shirt donation from Monster Press, featuring a design they printed for brand Falkor. The image is a rare photo taken on that excursion showing Armstrong on his morning jog around the satellite, but if you look closely at the high-definition enhancement of the helmet visor, you can see quite unequivocally that inside the space suit is in fact a specially-trained laboratory skeleton. This proves that no living human has ever touched down on that rock, as only dead ones are sent up there to begin with. The whole thing is a swiz and this beautifully printed Monster Press garment is the hard proof we've been waiting for.

See more from Monster Press via their Twitter account.

Day 374

This'll be the second T-shirt I've worn this week to have hailed from my family's Mallorca adventure and is indeed the last. It marks the 9th day of 'Extra Time' of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge and was picked out specifically by my brother as the design is heavily safari themed - a personal interest of my sibling who is a marine biologist by profession.

It's not clear whether this T-shirt is in any way affiliated with the safari zoo based on the island or not, though the chances are that the attraction was the inspiration for its conception.
The design is comprised of rows of animals queuing amid a landscape of typically African markings, towards an undisclosed goal. Perhaps they're queuing to use the food stalls and amenities before the visitors arrive at the start of the day? Perhaps they're queuing to board some sort of ark? Perhaps the fire alarm has been triggered and the animals are carrying out the evacuation procedure? Who knows?

In addition to the lines of beasts, text labels punctuate each row to define which animals should queue where. The lions have correctly filed behind the Lion sign, the elephants behind the Elephants sign, but curiously, the gazelles and rhinos have opted for the Fauna line, despite that being open to everyone. There is perhaps some animal-based admin protocol that I'm unfamiliar with that explains this; I shall have to ask my brother what normally happens when he has to arrange the fish in queues at his office.
In the ocean.
Where he works.

Thanks for the tee Rob.

Day 373

I'm not sure that we have cowgirls here in the UK. I'm not sure that we have cowboys either come to think of it; they're both typically of American origin. The lack of cattle wrangling industry, time-warp saloons and liberal policy toward possessing firearms probably turns them off. So it seems the closest thing we have to cowboys and cowgirls here in Britain is farmers and their wives.

That said, there is at least one genuine cowgirl here on our shores and she's currently on my chest, courtesy of Johnny from Newcastle based Native Skate Store (the irony of my discussing American contexts sold on English territory branded Native is certainly not lost on me). Johnny has donated this excellent second tee to my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge; a Native Skate Store original featuring a graphic novel style illustration of a black and white pinup cowgirl, whose face happens to be melting off.
Well, it's not too surprising is it? She came all the way over here from the States, hoping for a care-free, rootin' tootin', ho-down in a hay field with her hip flask filled with whiskey, and all she actually got was a plot of mud in the cold and her genetic-makeup malfunctioning as a result of exposure to excessive levels of foot-and-mouth disease and GM crops, supping tepid bitter in an abandoned inn while her husband polishes his blunderbuss.

Come to think of it, Night Of The Living Dead Ex-pat Texan Cowgirls In Devon is actually a film I'd watch if they ever made it...

So thanks to this garishly attractive tee, my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE T-shirt challenge has now ticked over into it's eighth day of 'Extra Time'!

See more from Native Skate Store via their Twitter account.