‘Message’ t-shirts help young entrepreneurs earn quick bucks

The day before hairstylist and Bigg Boss 6 contestant Sapna Bhavnani walked into the reality television show, she dropped by at her friend Karthikeyan Ramachandran’s office to remind him of the t-shirt he’d promised her.
“When she agreed to participate in the show, she asked for my help in coming up with some interesting t-shirt slogans. She wanted to use the platform of the show to reach out to people and make a statement.” recounts Ramachandran, director, Xtrathin Design.
Around the time, Ramachandran had started a Facebook group called ‘Teri Ma Ki Youth’. The name of the group is a take-off on the Hindi abuse Teri ma ki ankh. He explains, “I wanted to create a platform where people could vent. I was contemplating a blog for the same so when Sapna came along I suggested Teri Maa ki Youth as a t-shirt slogan and she loved it.”
Of the two t-shirts Ramchandran made, Sapna handed over one to host Salman Khan on the first day. Khan gladly received the women’s t-shirt and even held it up to the camera. His three-second endorsement on the show meant that a winner idea has suddenly been born out of nowhere. Enquiries for the tee followed and Ramchandran now hopes to manufacture a bunch of them to meet the demand. “I love glorifying jokes, and the t-shirt can be a very helpful tool as far as that is concerned,” he says.
From the American artist Jenny Holzer to Salman Khan, the t-shirt as a garment has met with the approval of an unimaginable spectrum of individuals. While Holzer employs t-shirts to convey stark slogans such as ‘Abuse of power comes as no surprise’, Khan has used the t-shirt to spread the word of his nonprofit Being Human. While in the past, people had to rely on what was available in the market, new digital production set-ups bring the process of projecting one-liners, visual and otherwise, within everyone’s reach.
For better or for worse, youth in the city and elsewhere don’t waste any time before using the t-shirt as a tool for communication.
While everyone who can has already started off their little t-shirt label, most are content with going with the flow, doing it for a lark and yet making a quick buck off of it. Rono Chakravarty, creative director at a top dotcom, recently posted an image of his own t-shirt design on Facebook. Immediate attention from his friends and friends of friends followed. For his design, Chakravarty artfully combined John Pasche’s iconic 1971 design for The Rolling Stones with goddess Kali by seamlessly importing into Indian mythology a logo that has often been identified as the greatest band logo of all time.
“A few weeks ago, out of nowhere I got this random, funky, designer idea,” he says. “I know a bit of computer software so I quickly put it into form. Next I googled possibilities for production, zeroed in on one, uploaded my design, chose the t-shirt material, size and colour. I paid online for my consignment and the production company promised to have it delivered within 10 days. Next I logged into Facebook and spread the word. In no time, I became an agent of cool.”
Chakravarty made 25 of these t-shirts not to sell but to give away as Diwali gifts. “The Diwali, Kali pujo is big back in Kolkata,” he says. “Since most of my friends there have loved the design, I’m gifting the tees to my closest friends. They’ll flaunt them and help me create some sort of longevity scenario. I hope to continue doing these one-off designs for now but eventually plan to make a business of it,” he explains.
Amit Arvind, another t-shirt entrepreneur, is an ex-naval officer who two and a half years ago started a company called iLogo with the tagline ‘T-shirts speak! Let t-shirts spread your story.’ “I used to sail all over the world, and at all the events I found that the official clothing was really expensive. When we launched, I was looking primarily at providing cheaper options to smaller and medium-sized companies outside of India. Soon, however, I realised that marketing costs for overseas companies were prohibitively high while the local market was waiting to boom.”
Local market it was then. “We have a cross-section of people coming to us, college kids in particular,” says Arvind. “They come up with a cool design, approach us for the job and sell tees around the campus. We’re even approached by NGOs; we worked together with a few, including Saplings.”.
T-shirt and tote bag sloganeering has often been equated with armchair activism, wannabe coolness and the like. For now, though, love them or hate them but you surely can’t ignore them tees.