A bunch of years of living in the Land of the Morning Calm have made Sync City Shirts realize a couple of things. One, not only is Korean a kickass language, but it’s also visually beautiful. And, two, very few people here do anything with Korean on t-shirts. Market opportunity anyone?
Now there’s a huge amount of things you can do with Korean on t-shirts. And if you’ve ever been to Itaewon, then you’ve seen what not to do. White shirts, shitty black printing and too many references to soju. Now, don’t get me wrong, Sync City Shirts are soju positive, but a picture of a stunned, frazzled cat with an empty bottle of soju next to it doesn’t do it for us. Or anyone as it turns out. Those same t-shirts have been on the Itaewon strip for more than a decade, soaking up the sun, the rain and … err … probably the soju. Which is why we have partnered up with Songtan Mugs to get you the best product available on the peninsula and at the best price. Seriously, we looked around and Songtan Mugs rock!
What you can do with Korean is play around with the language both culturally and visually – hell, Koreans sure have fun with their language, they just don’t put it on t-shirts. Chimaek (see the hunky Asian dude next door) being the perfect example. The ‘chi’ (치)comes from the English word for chicken. And the ‘maek’ (맥) comes from the Korean word for beer ‘maekju’ (맥주). Stick them together (치맥) and you have a great evening out, and an even better t-shirt. Though the t-shirt doesn’t come with a potentially epic hangover or regrets about various declarations of love made to those around you – we’re working on those last two last, though.
The t-shirt on this handsome flame-haired gent is another great example. One of the fantastic aspects of the Korean language is the ability to spell out words and expressions in English. If a Korean speaker were to say 왓 썹? aloud, it would come out as ‘What’s up?’ . It’s a show stopper in the right crowd, and the look of gleeful astonishment on people’s faces when they work out what it says is priceless.
Surfing the K-Wave
Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand for the past twenty years, you’ve no doubt come across K-band after K-band, K-movie after K-movie, and K-drama after K-drama – and it’s amazingly good stuff. But what you haven’t seen are the everyday visual crafts on display.
Until now.
Sync City Shirts takes the day-to-day culture of Korea, gives it a twist, and chucks it on a t-shirt. Walking down the street wearing a ppali, ppali (빨리 빨 – hurry, hurry) shirt will either get you ignored (fine that was already happening), get you pointed and laughed at (this has happened on many occasions, and we’re sure it was the shirt – honestly) or, ultimately, get you photographed (yes, this has also happened a heap of times). Whatever happens, you can be secure in the knowledge that your t-shirt will be bringing joy, love and mirth to an otherwise gray, miserable, dystopian world 🙂
Tried and tested on the streets of Seoul
What’s better than one samgyupsal t-shirt? Two samgyupsal t-shirts, and they come in different colors! This t-shirt is a killer and brings a smile to all but the hardest of hearts. Which is a good thing, as if you eat too much of this barbecued, fatty magnificence, you will have the hardest of hearts. Eat the food. Buy the shirt. Get your cholesterol tested on a regular basis. We’re not doctors.
But we digress. The shirts you see before you have all been road tested in the urban, awesomeness that is Seoul. Some generate a smile, some generate wonder, and some generate disbelief. But that’s what you’re looking for, right? A reaction to the billboard that is your body. Your Sync City Shirt says something, even if others don’t know what it means (and we all secretly want to be in that club).
But once all the fattiness and soju settles, the bottom line is you (and we) want a product to be proud of, and one that you (and we) will wear to bring joy to those around us. Sync City Shirts loves the fact that Songtan Mugs can do this in a timely, professional manner and we look forward to a long-term relationship and perhaps some more samgyupsal!
