There’s something about a great t-shirt, right?
We put it on and think: “Yes. This is who I am.”
T-shirts have been around since the beginning of the 20th century, first issued to U.S. soldiers and later popularized by movie stars such as Marlon Brando in the 1951 movie “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
For every day, there is a t-shirt
Any day, actually, is the perfect occasion for Padres gear.
Having a baby? Shame on your family and friends if the shower gifts did not include a jersey like it did for Josh Simmons.
First game ever? Beau reportedly said “LFG!” (Vocabulary credit to his dad, Woods).
Graduating high school? If your name is Ryan Cohen, you do it Padres style.
Getting married? Find someone who loves your jersey as much as you do. Jorge did.
Grandma in town? Take her down to the yard. That’s how Rachel and her family rolls.
Customizing our wearables
If you went to a Padres Twitter meetup in 2019, you may have met Michael, who had about 30 different shirts that he customized for himself based on the designs of popular shirts and logos.
Michael also made a shirt with a barcode that (when scanned) played a video from the 1984 NLCS series with the Cubs.
“The idea for the QR code came from a wrestler named Zack Ryder [who] wore trunks that had a QR code on the front of them.”
One of the most popular grassroots endeavors in 2019 was a shirt featuring a “Swinging Tatis” logo designed by Sam Bisson and distributed by Cody as a fundraiser that brought in over $2,000 for the son of the late @likeleila.
Sam says he created his @TheFrozenFriarTwitter account because he moved away from San Diego as a kid and has rooted for the team while moving between the states of Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.
“Padres Twitter gives me an outlet to meet incredible people, create endless post-game memes, and share in the amazing ride of being a San Diego Padres fan.”
And, we can’t talk about customized t-shirts without talking about Tony Losoya, the creator of several popular shirts, including the Skadres logo shirt in 2017.
The Skadres shirt was an instant hit with the fan base. I asked Tony how it came about.
“The inspiration came from a conversation on here [Padres Twitter] about the Skadres hashtag and someone mentioned a dancing Friar would be a cool picture.
So I looked at a few pics online of one of my favorite ska punk bands – Operation Ivy – and drew the Friar dancing like a design they have.
It was wildly popular, way moreso than I ever thought it would be.“
If you have one of the Skadres shirts, consider yourself one of the 200 or so fortunate ones. Although the Padres were aware of the shirts and “were cool with it,” MLB shut down Tony’s enterprise earlier this year.
Tony says it was “fun while it lasted” and led to the opportunity to design a shirt for this past summer’s #SDSocialSummit in connection to the team’s 50th anniversary celebration.
So, yes, the Padres will unveil their new brown uniforms on November 9. And, we will no doubt empty our wallets and fill our closets with the corresponding merchandise.
This is undeniably a new chapter for the franchise, and most of us are excited for it. But we will probably also hang on to a few favorite items of clothing from the past.
Because every t-shirt or jersey tells a story. Here’s to those already told and those waiting for us in brown and yellow hues.