Gaming and fashion isn't a thing people associate with one another. I generally get it. Video games still have a stigma and the gaming community itself doesn't seem to care much about fashion. I get why. People into video games or nerdy stuff in general were bullied growing up and a lot of those people who did it were popular and into fashion and also bullied us for how we dressed. So I can see why gamers would reject the notion of spending money on clothing.
I myself was one of those people and I heard a lot of other gamers on the internet say that they would rather spend money on games than clothes. I'm hear to let you all know that gaming and fashion can coincide. I'm here to break all stereotypes and conventions.
Firstly, I want to address that there are easily accessible video game clothing out there, most of what you get on the market is pretty bad. In the days before the pandemic when people would go out quite often it wasn't hard to find t-shirts with video games on them at places like Wal-Mart, Hot-Topic, and Target. The designs you find there often are really tacky and/or look like kid's clothing. Not to mention the so much wince-inducing shirts that usually have a generic game controller on them with a phrase like "Noobs Get PWND," "Eat, Sleep, Game," "I'm sorry I was late I had to level up". In addition, they are cheaply made with not much thought put into them. Even scouring the pages of the internet it could be hard to find things more creative.
There are a lot of places on the internet to buy gaming apparel, but which ones are the good ones? Well, I'm here to tell you. Firstly, the key to good gaming apparel is subtlety. Less is more in gaming fashion. We don't need a large obtrusive image of Mario's head slapped on a t-shirt. Most geek clothing out there amounts to simple graphic t-shirts, but I can shed some light on where to get more interesting ways to embrace your hobby or passion.
1. Shirtoid
Shirtoid is a conglomerate website for gaming t-shirts. Here you can view graphic t-shirt designs created by people from daily t-shirt design websites.
2. The Yetee
The Yetee was one of the first sites I went to grab gaming gear. They're one of many sites that sell shirts designed by freelance artists. They used to operate under a daily design format with two shirt designs will go out of sell after a 24 hour period, but over the years they added a marketplace where you can buy designs during any time of the year. They offer some cute christmas sweaters every November.
3. Fangamer
Fangamer offers has a light of graphic t-shirt designs like the rest, but they do offer some variety outside of that. You have their Ness design which is basically the shirt Ness wears in his games. Most of their clothes are of good quality with the exception of a few of their jackets. They're also the only gaming apparel site I've seen with Polo shirts, but unfortunately they are very thin and feel cheap. I was hoping something more akin to Ralph Lauren's thick, but comfy shirts.
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| The Animal Crossing Leaf dress from Black Milk Clothing |
4. Black Milk
Black Milk offers a lot of choices for female gamers. They have overalls, jackets, leggings, and dresses. As far as I know this is the only store where you can buy video game dresses. Black Milk's designs are filled with color and have a
5. Insert Coin Clothing
The best site on the net for video game clothing. You won't find anything better. Insert Coin Clothing is based in the UK and features officially licensed apparel from a variety of video games. You can get Japanese-styled jackets with designs based off the tattoos from the Yakuza series, Ellie's shirt from The Last of Us and some designs from the Persona series and Infamous Second son that could double as cosplays. Insert Coin has the highest quality of video game apparel I've seen. Their designs are more subtle and stylish, blending fashion and gaming perfectly.
The clothing is also particularly well made. The material on the items are thick and mostly stitched together well. I say mostly because I bought a reversible PlayStation jacket and felt like the threading started to come out way too quickly. I get the most compliments from people when I wear clothing from their site and most of the time it's not even from people who play video games. Insert Coin and Black Milk are the most expensive of the bunch, but you have to pay for quality.
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| A Pair of custom The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask converse designed by Bobsmade |
6. DIY
The other option out there is to make your own gaming gear. There are a bunch of websites that allow you to make your own custom designed t-shirts like Red Bubble, Society6, Uber Prints, but if you want to make something besides basic shirt or hoodie designs you'll have to look harder as I haven't found any on that end myself. I have found a couple of people who can make custom design sneakers for you, the best of which is bobsmade, but currently she is not doing shipping to customers in the US which pains me as I always dreamed of having her make a pair of moogle sneakers for me. You also have the option to customize clothing you already wear. The DIY or do it yourself has been a popular trend in recent years and you can do it here as well. There are many videos on YouTube showing you how to customize your old jackets, pants, etc.
That's all I have for you right now. If you're interested I made a few videos showing off some of my geek clothing pieces. You can check it my last one below:
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