Monday, August 28, 2006

Crazy Shirts

Anyone who has grown up in Hawai'i knows Crazy Shirts. Since 1964, they have been an island institution, and have expanded to the West Coast, Florida and, much to my surprise, South Carolina.

They were the home of the "Kliban Cats" in the 70's and 80's, and in the late '80s, early '90s they introduced their line of specialty-dyed shirts. These were shirts dyed with chocolate and Kona Coffee, to begin with, and expanded to chili, money, hemp, and volcanic ash.

I initially started this post to showcase my shirts, thinking I could find photos of them online and post them here, but alas, they have so many great ideas and designs, they can't post them all.










Even my newest one, courtesy of my lovely wife fresh back from Vegas (where she snagged me a shirt and some li hing pineapple), can't seem to be found on the web, exactly. It's "Freak 'N Lucky Lucky Frog" shirt, money-dyed, from Vegas. This image isn't an exact replica, but the frog is the same (it says "Rub Here" on his chest). And the back says "When it's all on the line, it's freak'n lucky time!"

Also in my collection are a chili-dyed "Freak'n Hot" shirt, a "Blue Hawaii-dyed" sea turtle (or honu) shirt, a coffee-dyed gecko shirt, and a chocolate-dyed Big Island Candies shirt.

Of course, my favorite all-time Crazy Shirt is, go figure, beer-dyed "Bill's Bait and Beer Shop, whcih must be a popular one because I got mine many years ago and they still make and see it on their site. The back is the best.
I am off from work this week so let's see if BillyBlog suffers or flourishes. Of course, vacation week appears to be a wet one in the Northeast, at least the first two days.

1 comment:

1lkyguy said...

I have this as my favorite tee shirt to grab. Mine is long sleeve, which seems to be very unusual. I would buy another one or two, but they can't be found....... as far as I know. Wonderful simple design but very well made too.