Previous Message

...my midlife crisis appears to be (despite the fact I've still got about 400 T-shirts from heavy metal bands that I don't wear any more!) buying T-shirts with extremely subtle or niche references to the subject matter they are referencing - mainly films and TV shows, but I've also bought a lot of "fan designed" Everton T-shirts over the last few years under roughly the same remit - subtle "if you know you know" designs work far better for me than having "EVERTON" plastered everywhere.

My own personal preference is also for a front print only, with no backprint (unlike my metal shirts where I wanted both) - that's because I rarely wear just a T-shirt and usually have a hoodie or open shirt over it. Ideally available in navy blue (so the design needs to work on that) if not then black is OK, but I never ever buy or wear white T-shirts. I've bought about 20/25 EFC shirts over the past few years, most from Mike Lynch, formerly NYCHYL and now Everton The Gear - he has some great design ideas and the prints and the shirts are real quality. Others are more hit and miss but every now and then a decent one will pop up and I'll buy it.

So, looking at these, shirt 1 would be out for me as it's white, but looking at the design I'm similar to others about HK's eye, his facial expression etc. and the whole design is a bit "busy" for me. Even with a HK redesign and working it so that it worked on a navy/black background I'm not I'd get this one.

Shirt 2 isn't "Everton enough" - could be for any team without the tower - far too generic and although it's quite a clever idea I wouldn't wear it (despite having plenty of skulls on my metal T-shirts!)

Shirt 3 - the sentiment is a good one, but I think the text lets it down. It might work with better designed text, and maybe a full length picture of W R Dean rather than a huge one of his face. It's a front-print that would work on navy blue so they would be plus points for me personally.

Shirt 4 - great picture of Dunc - I really like that style and the image used, but again I think the text style/placement lets it down. The choice of quote is fine so it would just be a case of reworking it and I'm not sure the vivid royal blue is needed, but yeah, just the Dunc image with that quote placed better and (personally) as a front print only I'd probably buy, ideally in navy blue but also in black.

Shirt 5 - the subject matter is definitely niche enough for me! I like the style of the Eddie drawings, and probably prefer the content of the front design (pursuit) to the back one (tackle). Not sure about the bricks and the 1966 - either way they'd definitely better in blue than brown, and again for me, as a front print.

It's a fairly crowded market that you're looking at going into, but - certainly for a picky fucker like me! - most of the designs are poorly thought out and executed, so if you can get that right I think you could do OK with it - Lynchy is probably your benchmark to aim for though I'd say.

Hope all this waffle was of some use - good luck with it!