Today, July 20, is T-shirt Day in Japan. It was chosen to coincide with Marine Day, which celebrates the ocean, on the third Monday of July, but also because T is the 20th letter of the alphabet. The T-shirt isn’t just a simple yet convenient way to cover your torso. It’s also a conversation starter, a way of declaring your loyalties, or a canvas for a pointed statement. And it’s pretty easy to find a shirt with, say, a Miata on it, but what about more obscure automotive references, bad dad jokes, or hot takes? Something that will identify your allegiance the second someone sees it?
What automotive T-shirt do you wish existed?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “If you could only drive cars from one marque for your entire life, what marque would it be?”
This question returned some interesting results, because early on, before there were a lot of replies, commenters like TheJWT or @ye predicted that Toyota or Honda would win. We even had respondents like Negishi no Keibajo and Alan who said that their hearts were with Nissan or Mazda, but had to pick the ever-reliable Toyota in the end. Or Ian G., who went with Mazda even though they knew Toyota was the logical option.
There were a few brave souls, like Sebastian Motsch and Rotor Nutcase, who picked Mazda without hesitation, and even braver souls, like Kyuusha Corner and Taylor C., who chose Nissan. But there were also those, like Sammy B and Bryan Kitsune, who pledged Toyota as the number one choice of their hearts as well as their minds.
Unconventional answers from Michael Salvador and brkr12002 narrowed the lifetime commitment to a single model, the Honda CRX and Nissan Z, respectively, while BlitzPig looked out for Number One.
This week’s winner was returning champion Franxou, who picked the most insane single-marque vow we found:
Of course I would enjoy the warm embrace of Suzuki ownership.
As a teen, I guess I would have driven a Swift GTi, the one with the turbo I think? Then the Esteem station wagon was very nice for its time with a ragtop Sidekick for the weekends, then following up with the beautiful 6-speed Kizashi… dang it. And then a Suzuki Burgman with a sidecar I guess!
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I am thinking of a Nissan C33 Laurel Tee. Or a C130 Laurel.
This is the easiest for me answer ever: Make XL or XXL sizes of the Made in the 80s, Loved by Ladies shirt in your shop! I bought one when they first came out…but a combination of life and laziness means I’m no longer that size. I’d buy 5 more today if you had larger sizes 🙂
And if we’re going with a wishlist, I’d love if the design was an 84 Van to match my actual Van…but I’ll gladly accept the 86-89 graphic as it stands now.
Heck, if you’re open to a group buy to justify production numbers, let me know and I can do some legwork here to make this happen.
Sell your JCCS Anti-Supra Supra Club tee in the shop.
I always wanted to make one of the Citroen DS riding atop big orange balloons instead of wheels (c. 1959 advert) with the caption “HYDRO CUSH”. I’d sell 1, likely to myself, and I don’t like drugs.
Ones on ultra high quality t-shirts! My favourite shirt is the Tanuki Heavy. I have the Black, Indigo, and Natural ones. I would want it in another unique colour (any new colour is fine), with a classy embroidered logo in a complimentary colour on either the sleeve or front upper left of the chest.
If this is for a new JNC shirt, I really like San Mamiya’s art. I’ve been wanting an art piece like the My Fairlady Z one, but with a shortnose C10 Skyline coupe, following the car through the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and modern times.
Some more JNC / San Mamiya shirts would be cool, I like the posters he makes for JCCS
I’d also love some legit kaido racer stuff, made by people who actually understand the culture. Maybe some Japanese Nostalgic Bike merch someday?…
Nissan Pigeons T Shirt. Yeah, a shirt dedicated to that classic commercial. There once was a shirt for the Nissan Toys commercial that was set to Van Halen, but I lost that shirt.
Anything sold via JNC.com in 4x size
Lexus LFA, Lexus LC500 or a Scion iQ (sexiest Toyota in existence) in the middle with Borat in the bottom giving 2 thumbs up with a caption, “Very Nice. How much?!?!”
A giant carpeted speaker box in place of the 99 Xterra in an mage used in the Nissan “Get Away” ad campaign.
I asked AI to come up with an example for me:
https://i.imgur.com/hySoR8C.jpg
T-shirts showing Tamiya box art of RC cars or models. I like the box art for the avex Dome Mugen NSX.
Heck yes. Rabbi-kun and Moko-Chan were the ish.
Top Ramen flavors include “Oriental Flavor,” in that Arial font and the oval border around it. I’d like a tshirt with that “Oriental Flavor” printed along with the best selection of JNCs you can add to it, like a Datsun Z432 or a Datsun Roadster, or a Toyota Cressida or 2000GT, or Mitsu Galant VR4, or a nice Mazda FC. That’d be pretty cool.