March 2015 Product Reviews

ProWrestlingTees
CM Punk & Jake The Snake T-Shirts
prowrestlingtees.com
Following the much publicized departure of CM Punk from the WWE at the start of 2014, a lot of fans had the inkling he’d be gone for good and snatched up what merch they could. Nearly a year (and a settlement) later, CM Punk pushed out his own gear on prowrestlingtees.com to immense success. These T-shirts are, without a doubt, a fan’s dream, as they are created and designed by the wrestlers themselves, with most of the cash going directly to them to help out their careers as opposed to being churned through the giant machine that is corporate wrestling. The CM Punk “MADD” shirt and the Jake Roberts “How To DDT” shirt are both fantastic in design—the only flaw any of these shirts have is the material and printing ink. Apparently, if you wash them incorrectly, your design won’t last too long. But, as is the case with many wrestling fans, that’s not really an issue, as they’ll dump money hand over fist to get a new design once the shirt is destroyed. I highly recommend these shirts for fans who want to show their love, but be cautious if you want to keep it longer than six months. –Gavin Sheehan

Seditionightmares
2015 Punk Rock Bikini Calendar
seditionightmares.com
This punk rock bikini calendar showcases 13 women wearing custom clothes made by two SLC artists, Trevor Bellaccomo and Alexander Yang. The self-described “pogo punk enthusiasts” behind the clothing company Seditionightmares have attempted to showcase their looks as hardcore punk, but fail to truly capture the DIY ethic of punk aesthetics. The zineish format appears more like a copy-paste into paint as a fast advertisement gimmick. Each month features women wearing various belts, “bondage shirts,” and bikinis in a MySpace-esque style, and unfortunately crosses the threshold into gaudy territory with extremely awkward Photoshopping, strange poses with guns, and overall bad composition. Everything is secondary to looking as punk as possible like a Hot Topic ad gone awry, thus it draws attention away from the products. However, it’s clear that both artists believe in their art, as ill-fitting and generic as I think they appear. The actual calendar portion is quite plain, but it includes birthdays and deaths of punk idols plus random concert dates. I commend the participants for trying their hardest to look like they don’t give a fuck about their marketing, but I just don’t give a fuck either. Well, maybe that’s the point. –Taylor Hoffman