The guys at the Originators sent over a few tees a couple of weeks ago that I am only getting around to reviewing now. Sorry guys. I was pretty busy back then and that was topped off with having a virus on my pc that led to my websites getting hacked. I think all is back to normal but I have to say that McAfee sucks. Hopefully I will remember that when my three year subscription runs out sometime in 2012. Anyway, back to the Originators.

Before I talk about the actual t-shirts I’d like to mention that the Originators just recently opened a bricks and mortar store. It’s great to see web businesses make it in the real world. Hopefully it works out for them.

This flagship store is in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles and exclusively sells Originators’ clothes, skateboards, and more.

The Originators Store LA is located at:
142 N. Hayworth Ave.,
LA, Calif. 90048

The purpose of the Originators brand (apart from profit) is to tell the world about the early years of hip-hop and the people who founded the movement. The founder, Adam Bach, previously considered making movies to tell these stories but the proposition seemed too daunting so instead he started this t-shirt brand (or so the story goes). The Originators is not simply profiting off these hip-hop legends though:

Every Artist involved in this thing, is under a per-unit licensing deal, so the Artist makes money on every shirt sold bearing their name and likeness. This was very important to us when setting up the company. I wanted the Originator to make money as the company made money. They do well as we do well, and that’s the way it should be.

I don’t know much about hip-hop past or present but if that’s your thing or you are interested in learning you can find out more on the Originators website. They have since branched out into different genres but hip-hop history is still the heart and soul of their business.

As I have mentioned numerous times, I am not a big fan of logos on t-shirts. I mean if you pay for the t-shirt you shouldn’t have to advertise for them too. The Originators tees don’t shy away from branding, with two of their tees having both a sew on patch on the front bottom and a printed logo on the sleeve. To be honest though, in this case, it adds to the t-shirts. And it’s not like you are marketing a big planet-raping mega-corporation.

The t-shirt on the left is a well placed photographic image of who I assume is Jo Jo, the original b-boy. It’s a pretty sweet t-shirt and really captures the spirit of break-dancing. The tee on the right is an example of how The Originators are branching out into other areas with a graffiti style I Heart Tokyo design. This tee doesn’t really do anything for me and being in Japan is something that I wouldn’t wear in public.

This t-shirt has a small target audience. Yankees fans. It’s a nice take on a pretty common design. They have added their own style and it works. For some reason this t-shirt was smaller than the others even though it is marked as a large, like the other two. I might just keep this one for myself.

The tees were all made of quite heavy material. I don’t know what blanks they are using but they look pretty durable. I don’t know if they are ideal for summer weather though. The tees come with a hang-tag giving details about the images but unfortunately they were unable to provide images of them so I can’t show you what they look like.

They have a pretty big selection in their store which uses the Big Cartel shopping cart.