Gift ideas for my brother: t-shirts with fun graphics

[Willie the Duck]

My brother's birthday is coming up, and as is common for middle aged men with more compensation and time spent already accumulating what we need than actual needs, there's nothing he really needs or wants as a gift. His one and only suggestion to me is that his kids think he should have more 't-shirts with cute or ridiculous graphics.' From context, I think the idea is things along the lines of 'pirate (ninja astronaut) hedgehogs,' 'velociraptors on penny farthing bicycles,' 'squirrels on hang gliders' or similar. Does anyone have some good suggestions in that vein?

[sihnfahl]

Does anyone have some good suggestions in that vein?

You could go to Topatoco.

My personal T-shirt favorites in that vein are "The Oldest Profession" and "Dress for the job".

[Peelee]

It's not a t-shirt, but I've found that going to Etsy and typing in "leather" brings up some really neat things that a lot of people would never think about or buy for themselves but make really nice gifts - for example, one of my best friends just had a birthday, and I got him a leather desk pad. Not something I think the vast majority of people would buy themselves, but it makes for a dang nice gift that feels all adult and nice and fancy.

That being said, for t-shirts I'm a huge fan of well-designed travel-esque shirts for fictional locations. I'll see if I can't find my two current faves for ya

[Willie the Duck]

You could go to Topatoco.

My personal T-shirt favorites in that vein are "The Oldest Profession" and "Dress for the job".

Thanks for the suggestion. Just went through the entire t-shirt collection. Definitely a trip down lolrandoms past. I recognize a few of those from Diesel Sweeties and Goats. I think "Dress for the Job" and "Rewrite History (add more dinosaurs)" are two I could get. "The Oldest Profession" might have his kids making 'oldest profession' references at school, which would not go well.

It's not a t-shirt, but I've found that going to Etsy and typing in "leather" brings up some really neat things that a lot of people would never think about or buy for themselves but make really nice gifts - for example, one of my best friends just had a birthday, and I got him a leather desk pad. Not something I think the vast majority of people would buy themselves, but it makes for a dang nice gift that feels all adult and nice and fancy.

That sounds like a perfect suggestion for lots of people, but would not be the right one here. My brother has all the adult-and-fancy products he could ever want, but needs things that work well with crawling around playing legos with his kids.

That being said, for t-shirts I'm a huge fan of well-designed travel-esque shirts for fictional locations. I'll see if I can't find my two current faves for ya

Please do.

[Peelee]

Please do.

Spoiler: Here's the Tatooine one.

Show

Trying to find the Bespin one. I'm weird and have a lot of pickiness about whether designs like that look too cheesy or not. That one I think is really well done. I definitely didn't get it from Walmart because I actively avoid them unless absolutely necessary, but you can totally get it at Walmart, it seems.

[snowblizz]

Am I the only one thinking:

If only your favourite online web-comic had designs for t-shirts one could buy somewhere.


Or are those not a thing anymore?

[Scarlet Knight]

Guys are the easiest to get stuff for, especially T- shirts.

If he is a sports buff he will like need/want one for each of his major teams (baseball, football, basketball, hockey) ... five if he went to college.

[DavidSh]

Am I the only one thinking:

If only your favourite online web-comic had designs for t-shirts one could buy somewhere.


Or are those not a thing anymore?

The OOTS t-shirts are mostly good for fans of the comic, or at least fans of D&D. But I like the Greyview shirt:
https://www.cafepress.com/orderofthestick/15692176

[Willie the Duck]

Guys are the easiest to get stuff for, especially T- shirts.
If he is a sports buff he will like need/want one for each of his major teams (baseball, football, basketball, hockey) ... five if he went to college.

Another good guess, but not his jam. I'd have a really hard time explaining it -- he is a later half of gen-X advanced-in-his-career computer engineer who is not into sports, most webcomics, the Big Bang Theory, Welcome to Nightvale (these last three seem to rule out half of Topatoco), or most nerd culture things other than the Star Wars/Harry Potter stuff his kids like. That's kinda why I started with the base of funny animals -- he likes offbeat things, and kid-friendly images, but anything specific to a given IP runs a high chance of not being a match.

Am I the only one thinking:If only your favourite online web-comic had designs for t-shirts one could buy somewhere.

Another great suggestion that sadly does not fit.

[snowblizz]

The line about a t-shirt for crawling around Legos with kids immediately turned my mind towards the Playtime guardian version. Too bad that one only is in kid sizes.

Just saying it ticks the silly graphics and suitable for kids. A lot of it is in-jokes true, but not everything.

Who wouldn't want a Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator dreams of his dinosaur roots t-shirt?

[sihnfahl]

Okay, how about 'Parasaur with a parasol' on cafepress?

Steampunk snow leopard?

Natures Ninjas?

[Peelee]

Actually, come to think of it... Willie, go to shirt.woot and check out patrickspens. Back when I was really into graphic Ts, I noticed a trend that my favorite shirts happened to be by that artist, to the point that I feel completely comfortable recommending him as a sole search criteria to find some of the best designs that site has, especially for non-IP designs (IIRC he does some but most are more generic and probably what you're looking for and what your brother would like).

ETA : https://shirt.woot.com/catalog?q=%40patrickspens

He usually goes between beautiful, artistic designs and super cute designs. The super cute ones are what I'm thinking what might be right up your bro's alley.

[Lacco]

The best one I have seen was Sheldoncomics' "Mind of a Ninja - Body of a Manatee".

Unfortunately, I do not think they sell those.

"Lucky Duck" was also rather positive.

Also: if you are interested in crazy t-shirts, why not design one yourself? It's fun. I do it for my colleagues for birthdays.

[Iruka]

xkcd also has shirts that might be up your brother's alley. I am pretty sure Dr. McNinja had something like 'cowboy bandits on velociraptors' as a shirt, but the store does not seem to exist anymore. Found it, but not as spectacular as I remembered.

[Artemis97]

I just got a few shirts from Tee Turtle, which has a lot of fun designs. They're not brand specific, but have some fun references. A lot are Disney or Harry Potter inspired. I got three with dragon designs, and a HP inspired pin. Seem to be a lot of cats too, if he likes cats. Most designs are kid friendly too.

[Willie the Duck]

I have picked up 3-4 shirts from the various sites (here they are, in case anyone is interested). Thanks everyone for their suggestions! Anyone else who wants to make suggestions, I'll certainly keep them mind for others/his future gifts.

Also: if you are interested in crazy t-shirts, why not design one yourself? It's fun. I do it for my colleagues for birthdays.

I'm very much not an artist, and have just enough mental energy at the end of the day for my gaming and webcomic hobbies, much less learning design.

[Keltest]

I've got a few shirts I'm really satisfied with from a place called, iirc, dragonstuff.com. as the name suggests, the pictures are all just dragons doing things. My personal favorites are dragons playing Houses and Humans, and one captioned The Computer Hacker, where the dragon is literally hacking at the computer with a battleaxe. But he has a pretty wide range of stuff, and not all of it is on just shirts. He does posters and the like too.

[Peelee]

I've got a few shirts I'm really satisfied with from a place called, iirc, dragonstuff.com.

So you're just openly admitting to buying all our stuff?!

[Keltest]

So you're just openly admitting to buying all our stuff?!

Hey, dragons have good stuff. Its a compliment!