Think Geek T-Shirt Review Roundup.

Besides your usual geeky affair of smartphones, computers, and new fangled TV’s, clothing itself can even be a highly sought after item. Normal clothing is pretty boring to a digital junkie like you and I, but more sophisticated and “modern” threads such as those found at Think Geek, among others, are truly pushing the boundaries of what the typical “clothing” label entails. Think Geek was kind enough to give me four t-shirts for review so that you, the aspiring reader, can make an informed decision the next time you’re going through your cart and deciding what to buy. So hop on past for a good look at four awesome t-shirts: The Drum Kit, The Electric Guitar, The Personal Soundtrack, and, The WiFi Detector…

 

Drum Kit T-Shirt

Being an 8+ year drummer myself, I was uber excited to try this one out. Needless to say, it will be amongst the pile ‘o shirts that I wear on a more consistent basis. With that said, the nature of the beast means that a fairly heavy finger is needed to actually make any sound — in an age of super sensitive touchscreens, the familiar act of simple tapping won’t work with this shirt. On that note, I wish it were a bit easier to tap them. It can be pretty tiring after 40-50 seconds of hard tapping. If it were easier/more sensitive, quicker, more complex drum rhythms could be played.

Nevertheless, the fact that you can play the drums on your chest is awesome enough. For drummers and geeks alike: This is your shirt.

Soundtrack T-Shirt

This one is rather unique. Instead of a few sounds from pre-programed guitar or durms, you’ve got a solid 30 sounds and mini-theme songs at your disposal. What’s even cooler, however, is that the sound box includes space for a 2GB SD card allowing you to add your own life’s soundtrack as you see fit. I gave my life a soundtrack over multiple days as well as pushed some form of “life” on others. A few people were annoyed. But the general consensus was that I had a pretty sweet shirt. As far as looks go, the other shirts are flat in appearance. The Soundtrack T-Shirt is above such things and actually is a completely different beast. As you can see, a small modled plastic cone is actually affixed to the front of the shirt. Granted, it’s all for show and doesn’t really aid audio performance, tone, or volume. Still, the fact that you have a speaker clinging to your pecs is pretty awesome in it’s own respect.

For those who want the ultimate in customization, look no further than the Soundtrack T-Shirt.

Electric Guitar T-Shirt


If you’re not a drummer, then look here: The Electric Guitar T-Shirt. Not only does this shirt actually entertain with several different chords, it goes for the grand slam with a true-to-look sound box designed as a mini-amp (picture below). Playing the Guitar Shirt is pretty straight forward: Pick up one of the magnetic guitar picks that cling to the side of the amp, and strum while simultaneously holding a finger over one of the marked dots on the fret.

Moving back to the mini amp, I was pretty surprised to find a headphone port — You can actually plug in headphones and adjust the tone of the sound. Remember, this is a t-shirt! It won’t win any viral, raw, home created music videos, but it will certainly provide hours of fun and ensure you’re the talk of the party.

WiFi Detector

The WiFi Detecting t-shirt is the most basic of the four shirts I reviewed and yet the most intriguing and nerdy to me. This kind of t-shirt has been done several times by various parties. Even then, there’s something so nerdy about someone walking around with an article of clothing that tells the tale of surrounding WiFi waves. No extra features. No extra buttons. And yet, I still love this shirt.

If you live in a big city, flipping the switch on this shirt and then meandering through your local ‘burbs will at least bring a smile to your face and a few twisted necks/double takes from the “common folk” walking around you.


Is $20+ a bit steep for any one of these t-shirts? Yeah, it is. But these aren’t “normal” t-shirts. I’d easily drop a few $20′s on some of these and more. To a true geek who loves preaching the good digital word, you can never have enough tools ;)

The shirts were a lot of fun, especially when worn in public. Each time, I was stopped by at least 4-5 people asking me what I was wearing, where I had gotten these shirts, and if I could demo them. If you want to blend in, don’t buy these shirts, because you will stand out like a sore thumb. Though I’m pretty sure most of you out there are geeky enough that a few stares from the general public isn’t going to dampen your enthusiasm for detecting wireless waves with your chest or covering “Jump” by Van Halen with your Drum t-shirt. Get these and more from ThinkGeek.

**Stay tuned. I plan on adding a video or four showing off all the shirts above. I wanted to post everything at once, but I’ve had these shirts for a while now and felt I needed to get the review out there. Also, two jobs, school, and a baby tend to take ever increasing shares of your time. So, keep checking back cause I’ve got something cookin’ for ya…

*Thank you to Think Geek for providing me with the review t-shirts

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