I was born May 23rd, 1977...two days before A New Hope came to theaters. Granted, I was not aware of Star Wars at 2 days old, but to say my life has, to a certain extent, revolved around that galaxy far away is an understatement. My first memory of a movie was Empire, and I can still vividly picture the theater in LA that my mom, brother Chris, and I saw it in. Fast forward a few years later to the Christmas I got an At-At, and played Star Wars with my family. Next came Halloween, and I dressed as a Gamorrean Guard(the pig faced guy who the Rancor ate in Jedi). I was a chubby kid back then, so I guess you could say I could relate to that character...
My lovely wife, Jennifer, loves to talk about when we first started dating in college, and I told her I had a couple Star Wars toys at my apartment, and one night she stumbled across my secret stash of x-wings, stormtroopers, and of course...the Millenium Falcon. Since then she has endured several SW conventions, all the movie releases and re-releases, and loads more toys!
It was only natural that when The Force Awakens was announced, I knew there was a t-shirt there. How could I combine my love of Star Wars with my love for my hometown? Simpicity is always key, and I wanted to create a shirt that feels like its 30 years old both in terms of the style, the printing, and the shirt material. Earlier this week, we printed some prototypes to make sure colors, placement, and size all worked, and when I put on the first approved sample, it was a very emotional experience for me. It felt like everything has gone full circle, and here I was, putting my love for this mythology onto a t-shirt for Tee See Tee. I hope you all enjoy this shirt as much as I enjoyed making it.
And as an added bonus to my Northern Michigan peeps, the first 100 t-shirts sold will include a special invite to the first 3-D showing of The Force Awakens at Traverse City's brand new theater, Carmike's Cherry Blossom 14! The advanced screening is on Thursday, December 17th at 8pm, and your ticket is absolutely FREE with the purchase of our new MI Star Wars tee! Come celebrate Star Wars with the one company that celebrates where you're from with wear you're from!
