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. With In The New York Times Magazine: Destee Nation T’s
The Indie Look
T-shirts celebrating little-guy capitalism — or at least the idea of it.
This week in Consumed, a look at a company that sells T-shirts that at first glance look as though they advertise long-lost, or possibly imaginary, places and businesses. Actually, they’re all real.
Destee Nation is not selling nostalgia or hipster kitsch but romance — the romance of the American small business, the neighborhood diner, the old bar, the mom-and-pop shop that has managed to linger into the era of big-box chains. It celebrates little-guy capitalism with an agenda: “Let’s keep it,” the founder says, noting that every time Destee Nation sells a T-shirt, the business it advertises gets a cut.
Founded in 2004, the company now has 21 employees and sales approaching 10,000 T-shirts a month, and this month will begin distributing through a number of Nordstrom locations. “Basically,” the founder says, “we’re using fashion as a way to save local landmarks.”
Read the column in the June 15, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.
Special thanks to Dan W.
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Reader Comments
How funny. The other day, John Markoff wrote about the Fremont Troll (about 4 blocks from Destee), and now you write about them. My office is equidistant from the two. I didn’t know I worked in such a nationally hip neighborhood. Destee and the troll are in the Fremont part of Seattle, which has official looking signs that proclaim it “the center of the universe” and “please set your watches back five minutes.”
This “new” company of t-shirts that was written up in the NY times (I read the article already this AM) does anyone know where the t-shirts are made? In the USA? perhaps that would be refreshing since one of the things that was mentioned is that they want to “keep the big-box brands one step further from taking over..” blah blah blah…also what about the caps? and if made in the US where does the materials come from! Nice idea but it has to be sustainable. Isn’t Nordstrom a “big box” store???
Destee does their own silkscreening in-house. Women’s shirts are on American Apparel (more fitted); mens seem to be on Hanes Beefy T’s. AA shirts are made in US…dunno if Hanes still makes shirts here.
I know you write about consumer behavior and thus must write about products, but for some reason this one feels alot more advertisement-ish than your other columns. I’m not sure why.
Tom: What you are saying is consistent with my understanding.
Jonathan H: Thanks for the feedback.
Jonathan H may be on to something. After I read this column I found myself checking out their website, hoping I would find something I liked so I could support the “little guy”. Then I realized I would feel stupid and phony if I were to wear a shirt advertising a place I don’t know and have never even visited.