King of the Mountain

Before our long departure, you may recall much ado about Kickstarter and a SEIBEI project therein. Those guys smashed their anticipated goals, in large part because they've got madd ties in the biz. I'm stoked to have been a part of it, however small. But I'm equally stoked to try to drum up some love for a relative newbie.

Tom Moyer is known to some of you guys as SkiRochester, sometime woot designer. Lately it seems he's been hunkered down, putting together a line of his own. This is Downhill Threads, a set of tees aimed at skiers, who classically are best served with cold weather apparel. Tom's thought seems to be, among other things, that the snowbound shredders might wish to have a line of products which they can wear year-round to showcase their love of the game. Fair call. What sets the line apart from your generic apparel brand, however, is that the brand is not DHT so much as it is Loving To Ski. It seems honestly built from love of the game, and quite a few of the pieces are more than wearable enough for even a non-lover of the slopes. There's a mix of standard originals based on the sort of tropes one expects from sport-centric apparel, but it's mixed with some truly wearable designs.

The gem for me is longtime fave Gunnbjorn Field (to the left to the left), a piece that I had hoped to spawn onto the world last winter at Tilteed, but that I am excited to see Tom pulling out of storage for this project, because along with his bird silhouette, it could be a flagship tee: something that people will want on their chest even if they don't ski, much as I want it on my chest yet would break my face if I got on the slopes. It's got the sort of style you expect from old travel posters and ads, with the playful bear-shaped mountain added in, the exotic resort name, the adventure of a helicopter ride... there's a vacation package reading itself out in this image even without the text, or possibly even a classic spy thriller book-cover... all while still being the sort of graphic many people think of when they think of tee graphics. It is very standard-tee, but all the elements are done so right, so attractively, and in the end it affirms all the best reasons why this sort of thing comes to mind so quickly. You'll get a tee that makes sense visually to the masses but still feels fresh and new to people looking aesthetically. That's a bit of a gem.

You want to help out? There are $25 packages that will get you a tee, which really is not much more than many shops will sell at when you think about it. It'll guarantee you a design of your own, and help a start-up start up, which is frequently the hardest thing. If you happen to be a bit more flush with cash, though, packages in the hundreds are available that will knock the project even further into the realm of possibility, and come complete with ski gear or even a lift ticket, along with a metric tonne of tees. I cannot recommend enough that you check out what's on offer, and if you're a tweet-y sort, spread the love around to your friends.