Seven Hours (and counting) of Shirts
In which I share a playlist of my progress.
Last June, I decided that I was going to try and wear every band shirt that I own. I wanted to see how long it would take me to do that, and how many I actually have.
Well, it’s been six months, so I decided that it was time for a check-in.
As of last Friday, I’ve worn 130 band (mixed with a few various artist, tattoo shop, pop culture) shirts.
I’m aware that’s not enough to account for every day that I’ve been doing this, but it’s close. The days that I don’t wear band shirts is usually because I have client meetings, or Open Houses to host. The homeowners and prospective buyers in southern part of the valley probably wouldn’t love rolling into an open house to see a guy wearing a Cradle of Filth shirt that says “JESUS IS A CUNT” on the back. My job would be a lot cooler if that was the case.
I’ve been tracking progress on my Instagram page (@trevorhale), posting them in my stories each week, then adding them to the Highlights section. Instead of posting daily, I usually batch 5-7 days worth together and post them on Friday or Saturday evening. It’s become a nice little routine—especially now that it’s colder and I mostly just hang around my house otherwise. I take a shirt photo every day, and once a week, I head to a coffee shop and put it all together. I usually add a song to the photo, and write a little blurb to go along with it. Usually it’s a quick, cool memory of where I got the shirt, the band itself, or a memory that it reminds me of.
As I was doing a little winter cleaning, I found two boxes of SLC local band shirts, and put up a poll as to whether or not they should be included. Seeing as how most of them were from bands that I was a part of, they don’t get worn regularly (if at all) so I wasn’t sure if they should be counted. The poll was overwhelmingly in favor—with only one naysayer. Most of those shirts are too small for me, but it’s January in Utah, so they’re covered by a sweatshirt anyway.
It’s probably safe to say that I won’t make it a full year, but I’ve got at least a few more months to go. I’m still buying shirts at shows, but I muted all the IG bootleg sites that I’ve been buying from. I need a break, both financially and space wise. To make sure that I don’t double up or repeat anything, I haven’t done band shirt laundry since I started. That hamper is pretty, pretty full right now. It’s gonna take like two hours of folding shirts when this is all over, and then another two hours of figuring out where all of them are going to live at my house.
Going back through some of the posts the other day, I saw a few shirts that I forgot all about. I bought them during this project, and only wore them once. This summer it’s going to be like I got a whole new wardrobe, so I’m pretty excited for it. Then I’ll probably unmute all the bootleg sites and start all over.
There are a ton of good shows coming through Salt Lake this year, so my collection will continue to grow. I’ve already got tickets for Rival Schools, The Kills, and Kilby Block Party over the next few months, so there’s 4 or 5 more shirts there. I also bought a Golden Ticket for 2024, which gets me into every show at two venues owned by the guys that put on the Kilby Block Party, and there are a bunch of smaller HC/metal shows coming through this year. I feel confident that I’m going to hit the 200 shirt mark before the year is over.
Right now we’re at 130, so as a treat, here’s the playlist I’m keeping to go along with the posts.
You can follow along on Instagram, or you can hang tight and wait for another newsletter check in down the road. Thanks for reading!
