badass coffee bad ass  | Today's T-Shirt Fix  |   ubux sombrero

Nov 03, 05 | 5:04 pm

mountain unicycling



unicycling t-shirt - do the muni

buy this t-shirt


I almost get chills thinking about this "vintage" t-shirt design :)

And by vintage, I mean this t-shirt has been sold online since 1999 by one of the original do-it-yourselfers of the web: Gilby.

It's almost mind boggling to think of the sequence of events that led to me "knowing" Gilby. I think he may have been one of my first paying t-shirt customers when I was first selling t-shirts on the web around 1997. About a year later I think I saw his name on an application to join a t-shirt webring that I created to help promote t-shirt designs. Gilby is a name that sort of sticks out, so I checked my high tech filing system (looked through old emails) and saw that it was indeed the same person. Turns out Gilby was also selling t-shirts online related to one of his favorite past times: unicycling.

Back then, our idea of "web promotion" was a little company called LinkExchange (or the Internet Link Exchange for those true veterans) who had the brilliant idea of allowing people to exchange banner ad space on their website. Remember back when people actually looked at banner ads? :)

Intially LinkExchange started out with 400x40 sized thin little banners and later on they moved to the now standard 468x60. The amazing thing was that it actually worked! Since people actually paid attention to banners back then, you could show ads on your website and as you generated "impressions" you would earn credits for advertising your banner on other targeted websites.

Anyway, LinkExchange was a great company while it lasted (it eventually got bought out by Microsoft and then phased out as web users began to become blind to graphical banner ads). One thing that LinkExchange gave was a great sense of community with other webmasters. As it turns out, Gilby and I were both members of that webmaster community as well.

As time passed, the webmaster community remained and Gilby helped create the software that would help archive thousands of posts and make it possible to post to a usenet newsgroup via a vbulletin forum.

Later, he went on to create one of the most widely used web applications online, TinyURL

Enough of the name dropping, nostagia fest for the time being :) On to what this is all about...the t-shirts. Thanks to archive.org, I can post one of my original reviews of Gilby's Unicycling t-shirts:


One of our favorite sites to visit is Gilby's Unicycling page. He's been a long standing member of T-Shirts! Around the Web, and his unique shirts are definitely worth a mention.

With a recent site redesign, Gilby's site has become even easier to navigate, with a simple drop down box on the main page, as well as helpful, bold image links to take you to where you want to go. Once you're at his site, you'll want to see all of his amazing unicycling accomplishments before you even get to the great t-shirts. Colorful photography, and a log of his long distance unicycling trip across Minnesota to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis are all features you'll find on his content rich site.

Whatever you do, DON'T miss the t-shirts! Gilby.com features an expansive collection of brilliant colored t-shirts and original artwork by Gilby himself. With his recent addition of secure online ordering and an easy to use shopping cart, you'll see why unicyclists and t-shirt lovers in general become instant fans of Gilby's work. Don't miss our favorite the, unicyclist's dream, "E.T" shirt.

After you've cycled around Gilby's site, be sure to keep surfing the ring!


Although Gilby isn't selling shirts on his site anymore, his designs are still being printed and sold to the unicycling community via the Unicycle.com Online store!

If you're a fan of unicycling or if you just had a good time going down memory lane with me, I highly suggest you visit the unicycling online store and check out some of Gilby's creations.

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COMMENTS

It brought chills to me just reading this. :)

Buying your "i hate clowns" t-shirt was my first ever online purchase and being a t-shirt designer that wanted to sell t-shirts online, everything about your buying process served as a guide for me.

Thanks for the inspiration and your help in getting me to be successful online!

BTW, my last minute halloween costume this year was to wear the ihateclowns.com t-shirt I bought from you with a clown wig. And yes, the clown wig got exchanged soon after arriving at the parties for some more acceptable headwear.

- Gilby


Posted by: Gilby on Nov 03, 05 | 6:23 pm

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