Fight the Good Fight

Last week, we talked up newbies Teextile's launch. This week, the one-two punch of new blood continues with ShirtFight.

ShirtFight officially launched Friday, midnight central, but trust me, I'll catch you up. It goes like this: one "fight" a week, one winner a week, $500 and other unannounced silliness/awesomeness. With the launch, however, comes special rules: two whole weeks of submissions and voting, and a $2009 prize. Solid stuff for a startup, and definitely worth popping in to check them out if you're a designer. This week's theme: "eating junk food before bed." Basically it's all about weird dreams and the like... you've still got plenty of time to try your luck. We recommend you do it.

Unlike our the other start-up we've been keeping our eyes on, ShirtFight launched with a pair of tees ripe for the purchase at an introductory price of $15, presumably the debut price for all their shirts. Free shipping, no less, so you can't sniff at that. And what does a SF design look like? Well, it probably looks like herky's Zombie Lunch, my fav. of the two currently for sale. It has a total "Big Daddy" Roth feel to me, given the overblown cartoon grotesqueries of the artwork, while the halftones make it seem almost comic-book up close. The colors scream at your eyes, but work together ideally. And the concept, while treading basic zombie ground, has a definite humor to it (and I think the brain pie is absolutely delicious... well, design-wise). If this is ShirtFight's MO, it certainly will do much to set it apart from other contest sites, and while I don't know that I'd want a whole catalog like this, it makes me both intrigued and excited to see where the site evolves once the fights really get into full swing... I simply don't think other shirt contests are thinking like ShirtFight is, and that makes me feel they didn't just buy those gloves for the product photos... they're in this fight to do some damage