T-shirts started getting popular in the US during World War 1 when wool-uniformed American soldiers noticed European troops wearing lightweight and comfortable cotton undershirts. The trend quickly caught on and someone named it T-shirt. The rest as they say, is history.

T-shirts have always been the mainstay of the gaming industry. Sometimes also known as Nerd Shirts or Geek-Tees, the T-shirt makes a comfortable gaming attire, allowing for optimal gaming performance, and the studio gets their logo up on chests. It’s something well known as a win-win situation which are also employed by mega brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, Y2K Pro-Revolutionists, and New York City.

(There’s even an existing T-Shirt game – a game where you create your own T-shirts by matching ridiculous slogans to outrageous images. The judge holds the T-shirt card while everyone else throws in the best slogan card. If the judge likes it, you gain points.)

After tons of help from Pat, our art designer in the UK, I made a sample purchase of the Bulge shirt two weeks ago and this morning, there was a white package sitting on my table when I walked into the office. My breath quickened and I tore through the package to confirm my suspicions. The Battle of the Bulge T-shirt had finally arrived!

Miguel, who was the only other person at the office at that time, was kind enough (the shirt was ordered in my size) to put on the shirt and strode about the incubator to reenact the scene of a typical gamer on the streets – to provide me with the optimal resources for critical shirt evaluation; whether we should darken the shirt color or adjust the logo placements, order a different shirt design or eradicate certain aspects of the shirt art, etc. He even allowed me to take pictures of him modeling with the shirt and an iPad.

T-shirts are just one of the many components of our Kickstarter rewards. And the Battle of the Bulge shirt is just 1 of 3 shirts we will be delivering to our backers.

The shirt is growing on me like coffee and wine. I wasn’t impressed by the shirt’s bright background initially – a little too bright to contrast against the white images. But now, six hours later, I can’t take my eyes off it. Other than slight color adjustments, I think it’s ready to ship out!

The Battle of the Bulge Shirt

The Shenandoah Studio Shirt

Miguel modeling the Bulge shirt, with the iPad!

Miguel modeling the Bulge shirt