The Internet Vintage Hardcore Shirt Scene ⇥ dirt.substack.com

Jason Diamond, Dirt:

Ultimately, that’s the beauty of the hardcore shirt. If you want a specific design, you’re likely going to find it through somebody who posts it somewhere like eBay or if one of the couple of good bootleggers like Justified Arrogance decides to print some up. The demand for these shirts will likely always be online, a place for the people that really want them, the maybe 20 thousand or so that follow Life. Love. Shirts. Maybe a vintage hardcore shirt or two will sneak through into the mainstream, like when Rihanna wore a vintage Nemesis Records “End Racism” shirt in a Harper’s Bazaar spread and sent eBay buyers scouring the net and spending big money on the first one they could find. Or, maybe, like with artists connected to the early punk and hardcore scenes like Gary Panter or Raymond Pettibon —the artists behind the Screamers and Black Flag logos, respectively — some of the artists who drew album art or the logos for bands like Earth Crisis or Racetraitor will grow in stature, capturing the attention of the worlds of art and fashion.

Boundless respect and admiration for the internet’s ability to connect people of niche interests for decades. I love this story.