Retailers Catch the Custom T-Shirt Wave
The latest trend in T-shirts might be a do-it-yourself style, and there is a wave of retailers offering new ways to customize a blank tee to suit customers’ personal styles.
One retailer is taking a page out of 1970s pop culture. The Red Heat boutique debuted Dec. 12 at 7225 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. Like the ubiquitous custom T-shirt stores of three decades ago, Red Heat will let its customers iron on graphic lettering or numbers on T-shirts and hoodies made by Atlanta-based Alternative Apparel.
Red Heat owner Virginia Irvin said her company has a library of more than 700 images, including anime characters, but she will be staying away from licensed images for the time being. “You can buy those at Target,” she said. “That market is saturated.” Her Los Angeles shop take up 1,500 square feet. Retail price points range from $21 to $50. She is scheduled to open a store on Los Angeles’ Ventura Boulevard in 2008.
If Red Heat is inspired by the 1970s, Los Angeles–based Hit + Run takes note from the current nightclub scene. Hit + Run artists Brandy Flowers and Mike Crivello produce screen-printing events during which nightclubbers can go to a party and make customized T-shirts based on how they mesh artwork created by Flowers and Crivello. Hit + Run has produced its own events as well as worked at parties for Levi’s.
Trend forecaster Tom Wallace, president of Los Angeles–based Label Networks, said Hit + Run satisfies a new niche of people seeking limited-edition T-shirts. “Part of going to a club is not only getting a T-shirt but getting a custom T-shirt,” Wallace said. —Andrew Asch
