With the Summer Olympics — to be hosted, as most people are aware, by the democratic exemplar that is modern-day China — now mere weeks away, a running debate about human rights, the activism of participating athletes (or lack thereof) and “acceptable” forms of protest has reached a fevered crescendo. Today, The New York Times reported that the German Olympic Federation has outfitted its Beijing-bound national team with an assortment of thought-provoking tees emblazoned with slogans like “Fair Games”, “Sport for Human Rights”, “Celebrate Humanity”, “Free Tibet” and “Free China.” Regardless of how you feel about, oh, any of this brouhaha, the episode is testament, once more, to the extraordinary power of an ordinary clothing item to make media waves. How long do you think it will take before some of these shirts find their way onto eBay?

For the record, I’m looking for screenshots of the tees in question, but thus far, to no avail. If anyone out there can help, please forward them to my e-mail address:

Greenwood.Travis@gmail.com. Muchas gracias!

T-shirts are our bread and butter, so when they make the national news, it catches our attention here at It Goes To Eleven. The paper of record, what most of us call The New York Times, recently profiled a batch of Midwest-based t-shirt entrepreneurs in this enlightening piece. As the article explains, thread heads in places like Detroit and St. Louis, are trying to fight negative stereotypes about their hometowns with cheeky, hip tees that play on local sentiments and colloquialisms. Cool t-shirts, the theory goes, make you feel good about yourself, and by extension, the place you live. Seems logical here to us at the site, but we want to know what you think. Are t-shirts the new postcard? Do they have a role to play in transforming people’s attitudes about spaces and places? What are some great hometown t-shirts that you like/love? Sound off and we’ll post some of the best responses at a future point.

Welcome to Great Moments in T-Shirt History, a new, ongoing project here at the site that will make recurring appearances in the coming weeks and months. Evolving from a common, everyday clothing staple to a luxury good coveted by the stars, the t-shirt has carved out a significant and increasingly popular niche in contemporary fashion. In this vein, we’ll sift through remnants of the past and train the spotlight on t-shirts that made an artistic, social or political impact on human history. Some of these moments will be light, others will be heavy, but all will make you think, laugh, or cry.

With that, we’ll inaugurate this project with a look-back at a recent episode in t-shirt history. In 2006, acclaimed French techno superstars Justice broke through to the mainstream with their club anthem, “D.A.N.C.E.” The duo’s stylish, groundbreaking video for the song, which garnered a nomination from MTV for the 2007 Video Of The Year (despite the fact that though it aired on only a handful of occasions), features a pair of skinny, headless hipsters snaking their way through loft parties and gallery galas, dressed to impress in t-shirts that morph, rapid-fire, from one Urban Outfitters-approved design to another. If you love fun visuals and cool threads and you haven’t seen this clip, you owe it to yourself to take a look-see.

Maybe it’s the weight of the whole A-Rod affair, but Madonna doesn’t look so fresh here in this pic…though, damn, her t-shirt does. Despite my best efforts, I can’t seem to figure out just what it reads (my best bet is 1-800-Confess), who makes it, or where it can be purchased. Could it be that she’s actually wearing a tee promoting her very own lackluster album, 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor. How shameless would that be?

We were going to turn this little guy into a pair of slippers, that was until he revealed his secret super powers! Throw away that letter opener people, this is the future!

Flle under: Cute as Fuck