It’s official: geek chic is in. With shows like the Big Bang Theory and Bones showcasing us nerds in a brilliant light and with the enormous size of the video games market itself, the nerdy t-shirt market is growing. But therein lies the problem, cheaper fan made t-shirts are often lacking in quality and official t-shirts normally charge a hefty sum for postage and packaging (I’m looking at you, Bioware). The problem I often find is that while men’s shirts often had lots of great designs, they weren’t available in women’s sizes. Trust me, girls play Call of Duty too.
Which is where Insert Coin Clothing comes in. Founded in 2010 by a group of gamers, fashion designers and writers who were fed up of the terrible quality of the majority of gaming apparel on offer, they decided to set up their own clothing company. I discovered them on Twitter (where I get all of my news), as many people in the games industry such as Daniel Maher (MrPointyHead) and Graeme Boyd (AceyBongos) from Xbox Live and the Gamespot UK lot had been raving about their wares. So with my interest piqued and being in possession of a student loan, I checked out their website.
Upon loading up the site I was struck by the designs, which were not only for men and women, but also for kids. Finally, shirts and hoodies from a range of games such as Call of Duty, Goldeneye 007 and Mass Effect 2 were available for a reasonable price! What got my attention almost immediately was that the clothes highlight recognisable features such as corporation logos from the games instead of game logos. For example, the Portal t-shirt is adorned with a picture of the infamous cake with “Aperture Laboratories First Annual Bake Sale” above it. The cherries on the cake are also from the Aperture Laboratories logo, which goes to show how much love for these games goes into the designs. Little features such as this are, whilst unassuming to those not in the know, still show to others which games we play. While Insert Coin Clothing are still a relatively new company, the range is slightly limited at the moment, but more designs are coming this year. After a quick browse of the store I decided that the Portal bake sale t-shirt would be mine and promptly sent my order.
At £20 per shirt and £30 for a hoodie it costs around about the same as apparel from the official stores, but with one big difference: shipping to most places in the world is completely free. Not only is postage free, it is incredibly fast. I received my shirt within a couple of days of clicking the ‘submit order’ button, and I’ve got to say, I’m totally over the moon with it. After spending years wearing small men’s shirts to fill my nerdy clothing needs (I own a very heavily pinned Ōkami t-shirt), I found that the female small shirt fitted wonderfully and was very well made. I’ve washed it a few times now, and the design shows no sign of coming off (unlike my Arrested Development t-shirt… COME ON!)
I would be careful with the sizes though, as the shirts are very fitted (hooray for us girls – we can have t-shirts that are not only really cool, but also flattering!), so be sure to check the site’s measuring guide.
Kate Moss I am not. Nice shirt though.
From the company’s Twitter page, there are a lot more designs to come this year. They recently acquired the rights to produce some Sonic shirts to celebrate his 20th birthday and announced earlier this afternoon that they have a new partnership with Ubisoft and will be producing some Assassin’s Creed in time for this year’s Eurogamer Expo in September.
As if I hadn’t made it clear enough, these shirts and hoodies are great, and I’d recommend them to anyone. My Portal bake sale shirt attracts compliments from gamers and non-gamers alike, and I love the fact that it’s a well-fitting and great quality t-shirt – which is often hard to find in normal t-shirts, let alone gaming ones.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be ordering the Resident Evil and Mass Effect 2 Afterlife nightclub shirts…
Check out their website at: http://www.insertcoinclothing.com/
Mike Lewis says:
I think we’ve discussed before how good these guys are….still loving my Gamers Voice shirt….if I had more cash I would definitely be making more purchases.
Sonic t-shirts are looking excellent as well. I’m going to have to get the Robotnik one.
Miles says:
I’m VERY tempted by the Zelda Fishing Tournament T…
Padraic Calpin says:
I now fully intend to purchase the Hocotate Freight shirt.
Chris Johnson says:
hey look at that. legitimately good vid t-shirts. thanks for the post!
Dan O'Connor says:
Loving the Mass Effect 2 poster in the background! Shirt’s alright too
haha
Lucy James says:
Cheers Dan, it was a Christmas gift.
From me to me.
Eurogamer Interview: Dan Long from Insert Coin | RobotGeek - Video Game News, Reviews, Opinions, and Everything Else says:
[...] video game related designs for both guys and girls. We here at Robot Geek have sung their praises before, and we managed to catch five minutes at the Eurogamer Expo with the lovely Dan Long, head of [...]