Microsoft Softwear

Perfect! Now I know what to get my wife for Christmas. Thanks for the great tip.

"So, people will make fun of this stuff, but it looks like typical hipster menswear to me." I agree. A lot of people are going to mock this and are already, but this is not much different than some of the stuff you get at stores like Banana Republic or even college campus stores like Urban Outfitters.

Only nerds would even consider...

This is what Microsoft has been missing all this time fighting the cultural gap between them and Apple -- T-shirts. Zune sales are going to go through the roof.

"Only nerds would even consider..." Yeah. That's why we're all interested. And "nerds" differs from "people who spend lots of time posting on a comment board about software" how, exactly?

I still have my tee shirt with the longhorn cow skull, an OSX logo and the caption "Longhorn. It's what's for dinner." I've actually had people at the gym ask me if "longhorn" is really good steak, so I guess it qualifies as real geekware.

>And "nerds" differs from "people who spend lots of time posting on a comment board about software" how, exactly?< Nerds lack style. Lots of people use the Internet for communication...

Only nerds would be interested? Hell, my fiancee is already begging me to get her the DOS T-shirt -- and she is as interested in computers as I am interested in debating the merits of "Worlds of Warcraft" over "Dungeons & Dragons"; it took two years for me to convince her to ditch her six-year-old laptop with the 512-megabyte RAM and 40 gigs of hard drive space for a spiffy new Dell with three gigs RAM and 160 gigs of hard drive (along with a half-terrabyte external hard drive). My sister's love for electronics extends only to the iPOD Touch (she hardly reads either, as smart as she is) and she loves the DOS and Bill Gates mug shot tees as well. I'd get the DOS tee myself if it was a V-neck; I generally prefer black v-neck Ts (with no adornment myself). Once again, some folks think little about the extent to which "geek chic" has actually entered into the mainstream. More importantly, a cool tee is a cool tee. The shirts aren't really needed for burnishing M'soft's image; most people are still buying Windows and when it gets down to it, think it works. But hey, why not win over some of those geeky tech writers who think owning an iPhone and dishing out smack against Nokia and M'soft makes them so cool.

And, of course, the binary in the "The 101" t-shirt spells out "Softwear by Microsoft" in ASCII encoding.

Yes. I did look it up the binary in an ASCII table. Yes. I am king of the geeks.

A t-shirt with an Atari logo would be cool. http://tinyurl.com/6729sr But I have to wonder about a guy who advertises that he is both "micro" and "soft" on his t-shirt.

"But I have to wonder about a guy who advertises that he is both "micro" and "soft" on his t-shirt." No need to wonder. It means he doesn't feel the need to compensate.

@lotsa, One persons sad is another persons badge of honor. Thank you for the compliement.

"The best ones don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum." Hence Microsoft using BillG's mugshot both here and in the Seinfeld ad. Can you honestly imagine Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison or Scott McNealy or Sergei Brin (or any other executive who sells their company image off their persona) using a photo of themselves in marketing material that didn't look just "oh, so perfect"?

Ballmer is another person in the "don't give a damn what anyone thinks and march to their own drum" group.

">>I know our readership a lot better than you do; let's just leave it at that. These are people who, in very large, vocal majorities, would rather not go to a bar that has free unlimited booze and food if they feel like they might not be 100% at-home wearing their Taco Bell-stained hoodies." Wow. Nice way to make your readers feel good about themselves, even if that isn't true. :-)

I think she's guessing they'll never, ever step foot inside a thread dedicated to style... It's here by the way, towards the bottom: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/34709834/m/5770055268...

Shark "Nice way to make your readers feel good about themselves" Well, you can't establish yourself as a fashionista if you don't put down everyone who isn't following exactly the same people you are. More seriously, fashion tends to have a very few leaders who have their own style, a lot of blind followers and a fair number of enforcers (like that Ars person) who make up for their own lack of style by keeping the less dedicated followers cowed.

>>Well, you can't establish yourself as a fashionista if you don't put down everyone who isn't following exactly the same people you are.<< To her credit, the writer posted what she used to dress like in the same thread (scary!). And now she makes her own clothes...

"To her credit, the writer posted what she used to dress like in the same thread (scary!)." How is that to her credit? It's essentially like saying "I used to be like you but I got better". It's just another way of putting the non-followers in their place.

Webguy Yep. ThinkGeek has some good shirts. Of course, for real geek cred you need to wear old team t-shirts from projects at least 5 years old - and you have to have been on the project.

@Mike - Re: shirt/logo - Great idea! I think a shirt with a logo that would be even better. A blibbet in the white "Microsoft" in the Albuquerque shirt would be nice too. Also, Re: Ballmer and Gates (that sounds like a law firm) walking to their own drummer - I agree. Just look at the mug shot in that t-shirt. I bet Ballmer would do something similar (I'm sure there are lots of shots of him where Ballmer doesn't appear "normal"). Now Jobs would never do something like that. Never.

"Do you have one of those Apple stickers in the window of your car?" No. I don't put stickers on cars, except those required by law. Well, once I made my own that said "No baby on board, go ahead and hit me", but that was because I was so fed up with those little yellow diamond "baby" signs.

"No baby on board, go ahead and hit me" /aligningknuckles

techfan The Microsoft logo in the Albuquerque shirt is actually 2 logos earlier than the blibbet logo. (in between was one with a kind of swoosh that's mostly seen on the brown looseleaf books Microsoft used before the green color became standard)