T-post

T-post, the world’s first wearable magazine, celebrates their 50th Issue this week with a special issue from Sweden, about Sweden and designed by Swedish artist/designer Jessica Eriksson. To celebrate, they’re also gifting 50 free issues - just in time for Christmas.

Is it a t-shirt, a magazine, or both?

T-post works a lot like a magazine subscription. Every six weeks, subscribers from over 50 countries receive a new issue/T-shirt in the mail. The offbeat news story is printed on the inside back of the shirt. And a graphic artist’s interpretation of that news story is printed on the front. For subscribers, the comment “Nice shirt” now becomes an invitation to tell the story behind the design and create dialogue about an interesting world event.

More than just an innovative social brand, T-post is also an environmentally conscience one. To reduce waste, T-post is only sold online to subscribers using the principles of on-demand manufacturing, i.e. making only what consumer's want. Additionally, shirts are sweatshop-free, often organic, and printed with eco-certified inks.

What’s the story?

50 issues ago, back in 2004, T-post began as a media experiment created by a few advertising guys in Sweden and quickly took on a life of it’s own after garnering major attention in The Netherlands largest newspaper. Today, the independent company has thousands of subscribers in over 50 countries as well as operations in Umea, Sweden and Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

“It feels great to celebrate such a milestone with a local topic, design by a local artist, just like we did with our very first issue,” say Founder/Editor Peter Lundgren. “Only this time, 6 years later, we’re printing for thousands of our closest friends around the world instead of five co-workers.”

No, not that story. The news story on the 50th Issue.

According to the Chinese media, there’s a town in the northern Sweden woods called Chako Paul City where all the residents are women, and all the women are gay.  Founded in 1820 by a wealthy widow, Shakebao, as it's also referred to, boasts 25,000 residents and a medieval castle guarded by hot female sentries. Why no one else has heard of this place in it’s alleged 150 years of existence is news to T-post. Swedish artist/designer Jessica Eriksson interprets this offbeat news story as a wildly colorful and disorderly place that is sure to get people talking.

And what about those 50 free shirts?

As an added bonus, T-post is also taking this glorious time to unleash 50 free issues every six weeks. But there’s a slight catch—a rather fun one. Not only do you have to follow T-post online to know the exact time of release and be quick enough to snag one, you cannot keep it for yourself. It’s called The Gifty 50 (www.t-post.se/gifty50). And it’s a chance for the lucky few to send a free gift, i.e. T-post’s latest issue, to the person of their choice.

Creative Director Chad Rea, who joined Lundgren in June, couldn’t be more excited about the future of T-post. “While many people think of T-post as only a T-shirt company, we’re really a media company.” Rea goes on to say that the dynamic duo is currently beefing up www.t-post.se with things like designer portfolios. They are also shooting a documentary about the company, developing T-post TV, launching a referral program unlike any the world has ever seen, and exploring how to merge video content on the shirts themselves.”

Share this:

              

Comments (11)