In collaboration with Lonely Kids Club
I spent a lot of time joking with my physiotherapist while I learned to walk again on a treadmill.
A lot of these shirts came straight out of those conversations. Some are no-brainers. Some are personal experience. Some come from films and genres I love. Generally they started as a joke, and as a way to pass the time.
I hope you get the joke. And I hope one of them breaks the ice, or changes the conversation, or tells someone something worth knowing.
Design one
Still can't stand you.
The exercise room at physio is full of strange equipment. Harnesses that can fly you across the room. Pilates platforms. Boxes, cones, weights, balls, and plenty of things whose purpose I never worked out.
One day I was looking at all the crutches lined up, and the joke arrived more or less fully formed. Even with all this support, still can't stand you.
I think this one stands on its own. Boom tish.
Design two
Glue not included.
The first design that came to mind. I always loved putting models together as a kid, and although I wasn't very good at it, it was great fun.
What fascinated me was how all those pieces came together and made a single thing. The spars too, everything organised and identified, little bits here and there that somehow fit.
It felt right to represent the human body with these new adaptable pieces.
Design three
The ideal proportions of the ideal man.
Leonardo da Vinci drew the Vitruvian Man around 1490 to set out the ideal proportions of the human body. I thought, how has this changed?
The name is thanks to a mate with a quick wit. I said what the shirt was, he said "I deal, man", and that was that.
Design four
What do you call a man with one arm, one leg and a black belt?
A Master of the Partial Arts. Yes, groan. Based on one joke and then taken to fabulous extremes.
Picture a crack squad of amputees with crazy, cool prostheses. A backup team of prosthetists, engineers and physiotherapists. The squad keeps growing, on account of the violent nature of their calling. They shout painful puns at each other mid-fight.
In my mind the series is directed by Quentin Amputino. In glorious mono.