Now for some shameless self promotion and selling out! I think I have a solid reason for selling Punk Outlaw T’s and merchandise. My goal is to take over the world with every punk wearing a shirt, hat, or sporting a punk outlaw sticker on their guitar. ha, ha, ha, ha, ha….. (picture me rubbing my grubby paws together as I sinisterly smile in an unhinged manner)
Ahhh but the reality is I can only give away so many in my travels and I’m just one guy in a big, big punk world.
Punk Outlaw Men's Tank W/ Random Logo
That being said you can find Punk Outlaw gear on select punk rockers all over the world in places as diverse as Medellin, Bogota and Cali Colombia (where I am now) to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perth, Russia.
But I really won’t feel like we’ve made our mark until I see a Punk Outlaw T-shirt on a homeless old dude who cares not what the shirt represents. But not in in NYC or maybe downtown LA, that is just too easy. I want to spot one in Havana, Cuba or maybe Jakarta, Indonesia or some far off island like Tahiti, Cape Verdi or the Canary Islands.
I mean the thing I’ve found during this journey is that there are truly punks AND homeless people everywhere (sometimes, unfortunately not mutually exclusively).
Women's Punk Outlaw Tank
I always find it such a bizarre thing to be traveling somewhere really remote, like my recent trip to the Amazon, and see an old Indigenous dude totter past me with a University of Michigan or Tennessee Titans hat or T-shirt on. Or maybe some completely old slogan from the 70s or 80s in the U.S. like “I shot J.R.”, “Don’t Tread On Me” or “Kiss Me.. I’m Rich”.
It’s so incongruous with the surroundings, it just doesn’t seem to fit (the scenario or quite often even the shirt).
How do shirts sporting such obvious U.S. culture make it to these remote locations? Well while it’s a big world, it’s simultaneously a small world my friend and if you follow the trends, you’ll know a trend is truly, completely and totally dead when you see Von Dutch trucker hats or Tommy Hilfhiger polo shirts on cats in the middle of the jungle or in a town where 90% of the populace otherwise hasn’t two nickels to rub together.
Unisex Punk Outlaw Shirt
Yes, the citizens of North America (or perhaps Western Europe) dispose of perfectly good (but no longer in style) clothing and they make their way to where they are needed most. At lease theoretically that is how I imagine our consumption mad economy somehow working. Or maybe it’s the T-shirts desire to find it’s way home to it’s birthplace (check the tag in your t-shirt selection and see the “Made in.. Peru, China, etc.) thanks to globalization, NAFTA and all that other mess that allows people to be exploited.
But I digress, the point is I want to see Punk Outlaw Shirts on homeless people the world over, the more remote the better. So of course I’ll need your help and since I can’t give a shirt away to EVERYONE, if you really do want one, my good friends at LiveFast in NYC will hook you up while I’m traveling. Just do me a favor and wear it a few times before you chuck it to the local homeless shelter.
Just check out the Merch Page @ Punk Outlaw Records or check out the cool as LIVE FAST webpage. The proprietor, Cecilia is not only Ecuadorian-American she’s a cool punk rock/rockabilly girl who’s got some really good designs that you won’t find anywhere else.
And if you don’t want to consume so conspicuously or buy in to the capitalist rhetoric of trickle down economics, that’s cool. Just please don’t flame me with a bunch of comments about how Punk Outlaw is selling out. Trust me, we’re not. No way these shirts will ever make me ANY money. It truly is a money losing proposition. So rest easy comrade, I’m still firmly adhering to the punk business model.