The S.D.F.C

Our Special Breakout T-Shirts

2010-02-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

For a while we've been promising our customers a special promotion on our t-shirts and so we've decided to give them exactly what they want, thanks to our exclusive Breakout T-Shirt section.
Starting today we will be selecting a design from our website which we will be available for our customer's wearing pleasure at the hairy palmed price of just £10.99. This promotion will only last for a limited time as we have just a specific number of each selected design to include in this discount. Our very first Breakout t-shirt is our Jaws tribute tee, Sharkspotter Amity Island, and is currently available for £10.99 HERE

John Smeaton is a fan of the S.D.F.C.

2009-11-19T04:39:00.000-08:00

We were alerted earlier this week to a BBC documentary called Make Me AN MP which documented Glasgow cult figure John Smeaton's attempt to became a bona-fide politician, during the recent Glasgow North East by-election. Mr Smeaton rose to popularity after he tackled a terrorist at Glasgow airport in the summer of 2007 and went on to enjoy cult status not just in Scotland but around the world. As you can see from the still above Smeato can be clearly seen to be wearing our Proudly Banjoing Terrorists t-shirt. Cheers Smeato.

Shocktober Tees For The S.D.F.C.

2009-10-25T04:47:00.001-07:00

It's the most mysterious month of the year and to celebrate we've designed four special t-shirts which celebrate four of the most famous conspiracy theories in history. We have the JFK assassination conspiracy, the death of Marilyn Monroe, the Roswell Incident and the fake moon landing conspiracy. Enjoy.

The moon landing conspiracy theory t-shirt
The Roswell incident conspiracy theory t-shirt
The Marilyn Monroe conspiracy theory t-shirt.

The JFK assassination conspiracy theory t-shirt.

Two New Tees

2009-09-25T01:36:00.000-07:00

WATCH TV & STAY ASLEEP

Here are two spanking new t-shirts currently available over on our website. The first is a parody of those Keep Calm And Carry On t-shirts currently doing the rounds spliced with a subtle reference to John Carpenter's cult sci-fi classic They Live. As you can see the second t-shirt was inspired by the wonderfully eclectic British weather.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN BRITAIN

Comic Con 2009

2009-07-30T02:45:00.001-07:00

Our good friends over at Slashfilm.com produced some amazing coverage of this year's Comic Con in San Diego. Just to give all of us who couldn't be there a taste of how fanatical things can get David Chen filmed this short segment highlighting the length of the queue just to get in to the Futurama hall. Incidentally David was wearing our I Heart NNY Futurama tribute tee as he bravely waded his way through a veritable sea of nerds...except for the hot blonde who appears at 0.59, who apparently left the prerequisite Star Trek costume at home.

Check Out Movie Overdose

2009-07-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

We just received this picture of the guys over at Movie Overdose who were kind enough to wear a couple of our Wire tribute t-shirts. Sam Unsted, John Doree and Tom Green review the latest cinematic releases and debate the finer points of being a film fan on their excellent weekly podcast. If by now you don't believe that radio is dead and buried then you haven't listened to podcasts like the Movie Overdose. Like films? Then listening to Sam, John and Tom is a no-brainer.

You can also follow the guys over at their Twitter page HERE

Trailers From Hell Is A Friend Of The S.D.F.C.

2009-05-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

A while ago American comedian/writer/actor Patton Oswalt sent us a couple of pics of him wearing our Charley Varrick and Cutty's Boxing Gym t-shirts. To describe our reaction at the time as excited would have been a huge understatement, so imagine our delight only a few weeks ago when we received an e-mail from Josh Olsen, a long time friend of Mr Oswalt's, who is also a regular contributor to the excellent website Trailers From Hell. Josh kindly informed us that he loved the shirts we had sent Patton and so he ordered some for himself, explaining that he planned to wear them whilst filming a segment for the website. One of the tees he picked was our Gremlins tribute shirt Dorry's Tavern, which he loved and wanted to wear as an in-joke for the director of the movie Joe Dante who actually helps to run Trailers From Hell. A double whammy for us, a fan of our shirts wearing one whilst filming a segment for a website we frequent, which is also run by one of our all time favourite movie directors.

Fast forward a couple of months and Josh has now filmed the segment, which you can watch below, and as promised he wore the t-shirt, but what is even more mind blowing, for us at least, is the video he shot was for the Kentucky Fried Movie trailer, a film which we took inspiration from to set up The State Dept Of Fashion Corrections and the name of our fictional Warden In Chief - Big Jim Slade.
We're not sure if Josh is aware of this coincidence but it tickled us pink to make the connection. Be sure to check out the rest of the excellent website Trailers From Hell, which any self-respecting movie fan will adore.

N.B. The reason Dorry's Tavern shows up as being blue is because of the green screen behind Josh.

Patton Oswalt Is A Friend For Life

2009-04-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

This pic is amazing for two simple reasons: 1) It features one of our favourite comedians and actors today and 2) he is wearing our Charley Varrick tribute tee. Hollywood comedian, writer and actor Patton Oswalt was gracious enough to send us this pic after we sent him out a couple of shirts knowing full well the man was a huge fan of the Walter Matthau cult classic Charley Varrick.

If for some inexplicable reason you're not familiar with Patton's work he was the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, has appeared in Reno 911, Starsky And Hutch The Movie, Blade: Trinity and is set to appear alongside Matt Damon in The Informer. Also be sure to check out his excellent stand-up albums Werewolves And Lollipops, Feelin' Kinda Patton and 222. Here's a taster of the man at work,(NSFW language).

Patton Oswalt: Stella Dora Breakfast Treats

Back To The Grind

2009-03-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

After a brief time away researching new products, (Ahem, on holiday), the S.D.F.C. is now back to full working order and it's full steam ahead towards Spring. Full of optimism and inspiration we've just recently uploaded six new t-shirts to the website, click on the corresponding pictures below to teleport you to their product pages. We have no idea how long our new positive approach will last, but we hope that we can...oh for f**k's sake look at that, it's raining.

We Want Your Pictures

2009-02-19T05:29:00.000-08:00

We're going to make this very simple. We want you to send us your pictures and in return we'll send you out some prizes.
The rules are as follows: Send the S.D.F.C. a picture of you, or your friends, wearing our t-shirts or hoodies and the funniest or most inventive two entries will win a prize. First place gets a t-shirt of their choice and second place gets a gift of our choice.

This month we have a copy of the brilliant Cormac McCarthy book The Road, which is soon to be a movie starring Viggo Mortensen up for a second place prize.
Send your t-shirt pics to info@bonaroo.co.uk and we'll announce the two winners in four weeks time. All of the pics we receive, (including non-winning entries) will be uploaded to our exclusive gallery at the S.D.F.C. Get clicking.

Hoddies Now £19.99

2009-02-17T02:52:00.000-08:00

We've just added a couple of new hoodies to the S.D.F.C. and on top of the new products we've decided to slash the price from £24.99 to £19.99. We've been threatening to upgrade our hoodie range for some time and although we've only managed to throw up a few new products there are many more on the way. Please keep checking back regularly as we are determined to upload a rash of designs as soon as possible.

The Teen Wolf Hoodie is basically just a cross over from our Teen Wolf T-Shirt only it comes without the "Howard 42" backprint. The other new edition is the Farmington Barn Hoodie, (a tribute to the excellent cop show The Shield), which is also a direct crossover from our Farmington Barn T-Shirt, and is only currently available in grey, but rest assured more colour options will be added soon.

The February Freeze

2009-02-09T11:49:00.000-08:00

This is the current view outside the S.D.F.C. right now. Gorgeous isn't it? There's something about a heavy snowfall which stirs the imagination and teleports you back to simpler less stressful times. The snow has been threatening to fall for some time now and after a week of just slightly cold weather the temperature dropped and the the white stuff came down. Apparently in Aviemore it plummeted to -18 on Sunday evening.

However, no matter how cold it is outside things have been heating up nicely inside, as we've been hard at work getting new designs printed and uploaded onto the website. You can view them below:

Lone Pine Mall - Back To The Future

V8 Interceptor Wanted - Mad Max 2

Jaws Cast List - Jaws

Last Of The Independents - Charley Varrick

That is all.

A Wonderful Evening Of Bleakness

2009-01-22T02:51:00.000-08:00

I've been working my way through Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic book The Road over the past couple of days and last night, (with only 40 pages left), I managed to finish it. The basic premise centres around a father and his son struggling to survive as they travel down a single road, cutting through America which has been ravaged by fire and is now covered in a blanket of ash. Needless to say it isn't the feelgood book of the year but a total page turner nonetheless and possibly one of the best books I've ever read.

Feeling a little jaded and somewhat depressed after finishing the book I then watched the movie The Escapist starring Brian Cox. This is a British prison flick and to even briefly describe the plot would be giving too much away, just trust me and rent this movie. It has all the great elements of a prison escape story plus a lot more. There you go folks, read The Road and watch The Escapist...unless of course you are looking for a laugh.

Apologies

2009-01-10T04:12:00.000-08:00

We realise that the radio silence on here has been deafening but that was mainly due to a hectic festive period in terms of work and socialising, but now with all of that over we can focus on keeping you guys updated on the latest developments at the S.D.F.C. We've released two new tees this week, (click on the pics for more info), one is a tribute to the 80s Sci-Fi classic Back To The Future and the other references Mad Max, (in a classified advert style). There is a reason for the basic design of the Lone Pine Mall tee as it's based on the original sign which you see in the film. Yes, we could have added a more detailed pine tree, made it look more artistic and pleasing to the eye, but as a fan of the movie and a friend of the S.D.F.C. pointed out, we would be doing the hardcore fans a disservice. The tee also subtly references an in-movie gag about the name of the mall, if you don't know it then we suggest you watch the movie again.
We have more designs on the way and around 20 current designs to be transferred onto our hoodie section so keep checking back for more regular updates. Enjoy.

Big Thanks

2008-12-16T05:35:00.000-08:00

Since we launched our website back in 2006 this time of year has always been our busiest, but over the last six weeks we have been locked away pressing shirts at the S.D.F.C. like our lives depended on it. Not that we are complaining, far from it, especially in the current financial climate.
We have only now managed to surface for some much needed air and sustenance after our busiest pre-christmas period yet and we would like to thank all of our customers, new and returning, for purchasing our t-shirts. We are ecstatic that so many of you get pleasure from wearing our tees, which is really the only reason we ever started up The State Dept Of Fashion Corrections two years ago. We hope 2009 will be yet another exciting year for us and for you, we have a brand new website which we intend to tinker with in the coming 12 months and a few ideas up our sleeves which we hope will give you a few pleasant surprises. Until then friendo have yourself a disgracefully good Christmas.

Buy 2 Get a 3rd Free

2008-11-28T02:35:00.000-08:00

With the world's economy in freefall and the doomsday merchants on the news 24/7 literally praying that we enter the greatest recession in 60 years, we thought we should offer you a little pre-xmas cheer in an otherwise thoroughly depressing time. If you go to the site between now and the 24th of Dec and order yourself, (or someone else), two t-shirts you'll get a third absolutely free. If you click on Christmas Steve above you can read all the details on how to go about getting three t-shirts for the price of two. Happy shopping.

America Is Restoring - Please Wait

2008-11-10T02:24:00.000-08:00

Following the election of Barack Obama, making him the first black president in America's history and signifying the end of the Bush administration and eight miserable years of Republican rule, the post-election mood flooding the country and the rest of the world has been one of hope. Our America Is Restoring t-shirt pretty much sums up the post-election mood. Who knows, maybe like every other politician before him Obama may end up an ultimate disappointment, but until that happens here's to hopeful and happier times.

Win Yourself A T-Shirt For Only £1

2008-11-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

We've just launched our special Secret Santa Giveaway offer on our main website. The rules couldn't be simpler, just purchase an entry ticket costing only £1 and you could be one of three lucky winners to pick a t-shirt of your choice come December 15th. Read about the offer and the details HERE

Worst Photo Shoot Ever!

2008-10-24T02:09:00.000-07:00

We have no idea who Heidi Montag or Spencer Pratt are and nor do we have any burning ambition to find out. We are guessing they are a pair of vapid reality TV stars who have modelled their entire lives around the Barbie and Ken dolls.

So why, we here you ask, write a blog post about them? Well as you'll see from the pictures in the link below they have appeared in what could only be described as the most ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious photo shoot ever.

Apparently these two "stars" are rabid supporters of the McCain and Palin campaign and as you will see from their t-shirts, (especially Ken's...sorry Spencer's),they have embraced the right-wing republican way of thinking, with all the might their little cleanly shaven and well moisturised bodies could muster.

PHOTO SHOOT HERE

Facebook Steve Says: Buy 2 Get 3rd Free

2008-10-22T03:43:00.000-07:00

So after being kicked off of Facebook, (for reasons read below), the S.D.F.C. has re-established itself on the popular social network site and to celebrate we are now running a special offer, just for our facebook friends.

To qualify all you have to do is add yourself on as a friend HERE and then click on our Buy Two Get Three link on our Events box. There you will find out the special code which you can use to buy two t-shirts and get a third free from our glorious new website.

NB. You have to be a facebook friend to qualify for this deal. So we will be watching!

New Website Is Live

2008-10-22T02:57:00.000-07:00

After a very lengthy lay off from blogging we have returned. The reason we took a hiatus was mainly due to the construction of our brand new website, which is now up and running, (at the same domain: http://www.bonaroo.co.uk/). There are a few changes which you will notice, as we are now selling hoodies and polar bear friendly tote bags, (for all you ecologically aware), and we have a gallery feature and a mini blog on our homepage. All in all the site is looking great and is now a lot easier for our customers to use and more importantly, now the hard work is more or less over, we can get back to blogging.

The Boys Are Back!

2008-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

We recently found ourselves kicking chairs and throwing papers around the office of the S.D.F.C. in anger over the discovery that we had been kicked off of Facebook. Our exclusion from the popular social networking site came as a huge surprise and then as a monumental disappointment as we realised all of our work and contacts we had gathered over the last year and a half were gone forever.

Turns out the reason we got booted was due to the fact that we hadn't created a proper fan page for the business. Apparently we had used the website's name rather than our own names when we first created our Faceebook pages and that's why they pressed the ejector button. The good news is we are back up and running and if you were a friend or a fan before, then please re-add yourselves HERE.

Lessons Learnt This Weekend # 1

2008-09-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

1. Never buy fancy food at music festivals, no matter how strong the temptation. (one portion of chinese noodles = £7.50)

2. Drunk people are hilarious.

3. Drunk people are annoying.

4. Kasabian are probably the best live band in Britain right now.

Plagiarist Express

2008-08-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more annoying in life than having your hard work stolen and some other cretin take the glory for the time and energy you invested.

As t-shirt designers we know how common a problem plagiarism can be, but when a movie director claims the limelight for a product he quite clearly ripped off, action must be taken.

Here's a guy who we imagine would be, like every other film director, overly protective of his own creative work but David Gordon Green, director of the new Seth Rogen comedy Pineapple Express, doesn't quite see it that way when it comes to other people's intellectual property.
In the movie James Franco's character wears a t-shirt with the print of a great white shark devouring a kitten, a design which was first released in 2005 by WOWCH. But in a recent interview Franco states that David Green designed the t-shirt and after WOWCH chatted with the movie's lawyers it appears they don't have any hope of recieving even an apology. This is mainly because the design has been reversed and darkened slightly!!!

There is no other word for this kind of behaviour, it's theft. The guys over at WOWCH worked hard to come up with an original design and now the t-shirt which they created is about to be part of what looks like a popular cult movie, only the director is claiming it as his own. That's low in anyone's books. What's even worse is WOWCH only now want some free passes to see Pineapple Express and some popcorn when they get there and that looks doubtful too.

You can read about the whole affair HERE.

Intermission

2008-07-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the recent radio silence folks, but we've been busy at work not just on new t-shirt designs but on a brand new website. We should be up and running in the next month with a whole batch of new features and products which we hope you'll enjoy. Plus we will also be running some special promotions and discount sales soon, something we've been promising to do for a long, long time. We'll keep you updated as the construction continues. That is all.

We Are Gathered Here Today.

2008-06-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

To play one of the most addictive and fun filled games consoles ever produced. No, we aren't on comission for Nintendo but their Wii provides us here at the S.D.F.C. with bags of gaming satisfaction. So much so we've designed a t-shirt just for those of you who know the joys of the Wii...drunk or sober.

N.B. We will be adding this tee to our collection in the next few days.

Love Pumps

2008-06-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

Women and money, women and shopping, women and shoes. It's like a mathematical equation which always presents the same answer - total satisfaction. A few of our male friends here at the S.D.F.C. have witnessed first hand the changes which take place when a woman is shopping for shoes. The giddiness, the shortness of breath, the trembling voice and the flushed cheeks all for some leather in a heel. Men on the other hand have sport, but in comparison that's nowhere near as satisfying...and we know it.

Off You Go You Small Boys

2008-06-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

Most of us here at the S.D.F.C. grew up watching and quoting lines from Bill Forsyth's hilarious teen rom-com, Gregory's Girl. Although this t-shirt might not mean too much to our American cousins, (fanny is the word used in the UK to describe a lady's front bottom), we think the gist of it is there for everyone to understand. Growing up in Scotland and the UK this phrase, taken from the movie, was heard countless times in conversations about the opposite sex. But it's the conclusion of "The lot!", which for some reason never fails to crack us up.

Slashfilm.com Are Our New Friends.

2008-05-06T01:59:00.000-07:00

A while back we received a very pleasant e-mail from a guy called Peter Sciretta who confessed his undying love for our Escape From New York tribute tee. Peter, who runs and writes for the San Francisco based movie blog slashfilm.com, apparently fell in love with our t-shirt when he noticed Quint, (a fellow movie buff and blogger, who writes for Aint It Cool News), wearing one at the SXSW festival earlier this year.

So, being the nice guys that we are we sent him out a freebie along with a couple of other shirts which we thought he would appreciate. And appreciate them he did, by giving us our biggest review yet. You can read the article HERE and be sure to check out the rest of his site for all the latest movie news and reviews.

*We also had Peter include a special discount for our shirts for his American readers only, what with the dollar in poor shape against the pound...you see, we really are nice guys.

filmschoolrejects.com

2008-04-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Recently a few of our film tribute t-shirts were featured on the excellent movie blog www.filmschoolrejects.com

We get a massive kick from online articles like this, as we know the people responsible have a love and affinity for the same kind of things we do. Check out the article HERE and also explore their site, it's jam packed with cool movie related stuff you won't find on the bigger more commercial sites. Enjoy.

Same Old Crap!

2008-04-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

Here's two new designs we created this month which we hope you'll get a kick out of. The recycle t-shirt basically says it all, we are living in age where originality died a long, long time ago and we're having to put up wit the same old crap, day in, day out. And the Old King Cole tee is the first of a new batch of similar themed t-shirts which we will be uploading onto the website soon.

You'll also start to notice some changes around the S.D.F.C. in the next few weeks, as we're shaking things up a bit on our main website. Among them will be a brand new section exclusively for hoodies and a customer gallery, which we've been promising for some time. There will be other stuff too, including some special deals and discounts, so keep checking back for updates.

What Were They Thinking?

2008-04-04T02:27:00.001-07:00

We read about this story in the newspapers last week and thought we should share it with you as it went largely ignored by the mainstream media.
Turns out Hollywood director/actor Woody Allen is suing a clothing company called American Apparel for using an image of him on their advertising billboards, (for those of you who don't know AA are huge in America and are one of the biggest t-shirt suppliers the country has to offer).
Apparently Mr Allen has a strong objection over the use of his image or his body of work to promote anything comercially and as American Apparel failed to seek his approval over the use of his face in their adverts he's suing them for $10m.
This is truly an amazing feat of stupidity, firstly who the f**k goes and uses a famous person's face in a large advertising project without ever consulting with said celebrity for approval and secondly, if you look at the advert what the hell does it have to do with the products they are selling?
Incidentally their last billboard was defaced as it showed a woman bending over in a pair of tights next to the phrase "Gee, I wonder why women get raped?"

Too Much?

2008-03-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

We created this t-shirt after a heated office debate about the war in Iraq, in particular the recent figure which showed that more than 4,000 American servicemen had died since the country was invaded. It was suggested by a certain individual in our group, incensed at the actions, lies and betrayl of Bush and Blair that the torch, held by the Statue Of Liberty, should be replaced with "that little f**ker's head on a spike". And the very next day we got to work.
It's probably the strongest t-shirt we've put out so far and we haven't really done a lot of political designs, but we hope you like it nonetheless.

As a point of interest George Bush once said during a conversation with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson about the Iraq war: "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." Gun, shoot, foot.

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction!

2008-03-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

A while back a few of us here at the S.D.F.C. went to see the Cohen brothers latest movie No Country For Old Men, half of us loved it, half of us hated it. So imagine our suprise when we came across this little nugget of information, which we found posted on a celebrity website blog. This is one strange coincidence:"In the novel 'No Country For Old Men' (but not in the movie), Sheriff Bell says of the dope-dealers, "Here a while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge."
The author set the story in 1980. In 1979, in San Antonio, Federal Judge John Howland Wood was shot and killed by rifle fire by a Texas freelance contract killer named Charles Harrelson. Actor Woody Harrelson (Carson Wells in the movie) is his son.
Charles Harrelson was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of Federal Judge John Howland Wood on the orders of drug dealer Jimmy Chagra, who reportedly paid him $250,000. Harrelson has claimed to be one of the "hobos" taken away from "the grassy knoll" right after the shooting of John F. Kennedy.
Harrelson died on March 15th, 2007 in a federal super-maximum prison in Colorado."

You can find out more about Woody's old man HERE over at Wikipedia.

Dinki-Di Dog Food And Other Updates.

2008-03-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

Long before he claimed to own the whole of Malibu, in a time before he referred to police women as "Sugar Tits" and blamed every major war on the Jews, Mel Gibson was actually famous for being Mad Max. In our humble opinion the best installment of the Road Warrior trilogy was the second film and it's from that movie that we drew inspiration from, for our latest film tribute tee.

Dinki-Di dog food is the fictional brand of canine sustenance used in the film which both Max and his faithful four legged companion share whilst trying to survive on the barren wasteland highways of the future. The word Dinki-Di is also Australian slang for "genuine" and legend has it they called the dog food that because Gibson insisted on eating the real stuff, taking method acting to a whole new level. So there you have it an inside, subtle movie reference t-shirt for anyone who ever wanted to dress in leather, drive a supercharged car and eat dog food.

Aside from designing new t-shirts we've also been hard at work on updating the site and in the next few weeks you'll notice a few changes around the S.D.F.C, most notabley a new logo, a gallery section, clickable links to our social network pages and a new section for hoodies. We're also pulling out all the stops for this summer and fingers crossed you may actually see us and our stall at a few of the summer music festivals around the UK.

Lovelace & King

2008-02-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

Long time no hear, but truth be told we've been busy tidying the website up, getting organised for hitting the summer music festival scene, generating new ideas and designs and working on a special side project which we hope to reveal later in the year...plus some of us ended up addicted to playing Call Of Duty 4 on Xbox Live.

Anyhoo, here's two new tees for your wearing pleasure this month, the first features a replica of the customer service sticker which was stuck onto the body armour of Hannibal King, (played by Ryan Reynolds) in the movie Blade: Trinity.

We understand that the Blade vampire franchise is pretty much dead in the water but why, oh why, didn't they just forge ahead with a Nightstalkers spin off with Reynolds and Biel?

The other tee is a design we came up with ourselves pulling inspiration from a 70s sex comedy farce called Linda Lovelace For President. Those of you not familiar with Lovelace can catch up with her rather tragic life story here, but in short she was one of the world's first commercially recognised porn stars, largely due to her controversial hardcore movie Deep Throat.
That's all for just now folks but we have a ton of new and exciting stuff for you in the pipeline, which we hope will take your fancy.

The Ups & Downs Of December 2007. Part 2: The Ups

2008-01-10T02:33:00.000-08:00

Reeling from our missed opportunity with the BBC, (thanks to some clown at Heathrow Airport), we pressed on and distracted ourselves with work. Sifting through the mail one day we came across an unusual letter from a guy called Lyle Christiansen from Minnesota and we immediately recognised him as a previous customer. On opening his letter we found with it a photograph and a photocopy of an article from New York Magazine about the mystery of D.B. Cooper .

This is where things start to get a bit bizarre, as in his letter Lyle explained that he came across our D.B. Cooper's School Of Skydiving t-shirt on our website and felt compelled to buy it because, in his words, he thought it was the best one of it's kind. He also purchased it in memory of his late brother Kenneth who he stated was the real D.B. Cooper.

Now, we've received a lot of weird and wonderful things in the post before, many of which we could never write about, for legal reasons, but this really took us by surprise, especially as it referenced one of our all time favourite unsolved mysteries.
With a fair amount of scepticism we read on and started to digest the accompanying New York Magazine article which Lyle had included with his letter. You can read the whole article for yourself HERE .

To cut a very long story short, it turns out that Lyle's brother Kenneth is now indeed an official suspect in the D.B. Cooper case and aside from the fact that his height and weight may not fit the profile his experience as a sky diver and his past history certainly do. So there you have it on a random rainy Tuesday morning we receive a wonderful letter and photograph from what could be the brother of D.B. Cooper, the only man in American history to carry out a skyjacking and evade capture from the FBI, unless of course you buy into the theory that he died...something we certainly don't!

N.B. As a point of interest Lyle informed us that in the photogrpah, (pictured above), he's wearing one of his brother's wool lined overcoats, which he may have worn for the jump and he has one of his attache cases which he found when his brother passed away.

The Ups & Downs Of Decemer 2007. Part 1: The Downs

2008-01-08T03:07:00.000-08:00

Firstly let us officially wish you a Happy New Year and all the very best for the next 12 months and thanks again to all of our customers who kept us busy throughout the run up to Christmas. Last month was definately full of mixed emotions for us here at the State Dept Of Fashion Corrections. This first part will detail the down side of December for us and the next part will deal with the upside.

Picture the scene we're busy printing up shirts for customers three weeks before Christmas when we get a call from a lovely young lady from the BBC, (for our American readers that stands for British Broadcastng Corporation), who tells us that she loves our John Smeaton and Proudly Banjoing Terrorists t-shirts. We thank her and she goes on to tell us that she's currently involved with filming a documentary about John Smeaton, (the Glasgow airport baggage handler who helped to fight off two terrorists intent on blowing the place up), for the BBC entitled An Accidental Hero and that it would be really cool if we could supply her with some free t-shirts. So we agree, after all it's not everyday we get a phonecall from the BBC. She explains that the film crew will be followng Smeaton to New York where he'll be presented with a special CNN Everyday Superhero Award and will meet with stars such as Mary J Blige, Glen Close, Kevin Bacon and Billy Connelly and that she and the rest of the crew would love to hand out our t-shirts to the stars. As you can imagine we get a tad excited about the prospect of our t-shirts being handed out to Hollywood celebs so we agree to supply her with a batch of Smeaton and Banjoing Terrorists t-shirts and we post them out to her two days before the crew are due to fly out to New York. She is overjoyed and promises to phone us when the she returns from the Big Apple.

Four days later and true to her word we get the call, but we realise straight away that something is wrong. She tell's us that they all made it to New York only to discover that Heathrow Airport staff had placed the wrong labels on all of their luggage and that they spent the entire three days with no change of clothes, laptops, camera equipment or, more importantly for us, t-shirts. So there you have it folks, what could have been a massive opportunity for the S.D.F.C turned into a non-event, we had visions of watching LL Cool J flexing his man cannons whilst wearing Proudly Banjoing Terrorists t-shirt. Apparently nobody seems to know where the the t-shirts ended up, so if you settle down to watch the news one night and are surprised to see some kids running around Somalia or Kazakhstan with John Smeaton's face plastered over their chests, you know the story behind their t-shirts.

The Xmas Rush

2007-12-13T03:27:00.000-08:00

Hey folks, not long now till the festive season kicks into high gear and don't worry if you've just recently placed an order with us, we'll try our very best to get it sent off ASAP. We run a 5-10 working day dispatch policy, which basically means when you place an order with us we will dispatch it within 5-10 days, (weekends not included). Usually we send out orders within a day or two but as you can imagine we have been slammed with Xmas orders and things here at the S.D.F.C. have been busier than normal. Any queries drop us a line at info@bonaroo.co.uk

A Man Called Quint

2007-11-25T05:24:00.000-08:00

A while ago we sent out one of our Quint's Great White Fishing Trips tees to, funnily enough, a guy called Quint who writes and contributes for the excellent movie website Ain't It Cool News. That was a few months ago and to be honest we had forgotten all about it until just last week, when one of our inmates noticed that the big guy had included not only the Quints t-shirt but our Snake Plissken and Karate Kid tees in a review of online gifts to buy for Xmas.

Each year Quint compiles a comprehensive and excellent guide to things online which would make someone smile this festive season, you can read the whole article HERE. We did and going on his recommendations we've ordered The Monster Squad on DVD and that rather excellent Alien Abduction lamp, (pictured above). Genius. So here's a big thanks from all the inmates here at the S.D.F.C. to Quint from AICN. Keep up the good work.

Are You A Gradute From The School Of Hard Props?

2007-11-15T02:01:00.000-08:00

This design is basically a take on the famous phrase School Of Hard Knocks and if you've never heard that phrase before it's usually used to describe a person that looks like he/she had a very hard paper round when they were younger....and if you don't know what that means then there really is no hope for you.

We digress, anyway we came up with this design in tribute to those amatuer rugby players who, although lack cool sounding names and the natural athleticism of the likes of Joe Rokocoko or Bryan Habana, put their bodies on the line every Saturday or Sunday. They do so for two reasons, the love of the game and the fact they have a very strong sadomasochistic streak. Let's face it rugby is one of the last true Gladitorial sports left and it's played by sportsmen and women who have graduated from the School Of Hard Props.

Shaun Of The Dead T-shirt

2007-11-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

Probably the greatest Rom Zom Com ever made, if not the only one. Shaun Of The Dead taught us that platonic love between two men could exist and that the best way to kill a zombie was to remove it's head or brain. This is admittedly uncharted waters of geekery and nerdism for us here at the S.D.F.C but I think you'll agree it's a t-shirt which would complete any self respecting Shaun outfit for parties or Halloween , all that's missing is a cricket bat and a bunch of flowers. We can't wait to the see what kind of pics will crop up with this t-shirt.

We're Now On Facebook

2007-11-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, we finally decided to take the plunge and enter into the wonderful world of Facebook. If you're already part of this social network then by all means add yourself on and become part of the Dept. Leave a comment, a video a picture or even give us a poke.

Add yourself on HERE

If The Shoe Fits

2007-11-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these trainers. They're the Ian Brown inspired limited edition Adidas shoes which we got a first hand look at when one of our old friends dropped by The S.D.F.C. for a visit. He was lucky enough to buy them on ebay for half the price most shops were selling them for and was eager to tell us that you cannot buy them on the high street anymore. Admittedly they do look the part and have an enormous amount of detail. Apparently in 2005, Adidas asked the singer if he would design a pair of trainers to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of their Superstar shoes range, (remember the famous Run DMC trainers?).
So he gave them a special wax coated leather at the front which would repel the Manchester rain and coloured them red and black in honour of Manchester United supporters. He also gave them a gold plated looking tag for the front of the shoe with his initials IB and the eye from the ‘Music Of The Spheres’ album cover was imprinted on the outside of the heel. On the spine of the left heel, was the signature ‘Ian’ and, on the right, ‘Brown’ both stitched in red.
Finally he also added the lyrics of two songs ‘Longsight M13′ and ‘One Way Ticket To Paradise’ to the inside of each inner sole.
Our friend was also pleased to announce that his pair is only one of 5,000 ever produced and have become one of the most collectible pairs ever manufactured. Personally if that's what you're into, then that's what you're into.

Howling Halloween Madness

2007-11-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

Just a big thanks to everyone who bought a Teen Wolf t-shirt over the Halloween period and were kind enough to send us their pics. Apparently dressing up as Scott Howard in full basketball playing werewolf mode, was the costume to wear this year and it seems our Beavers tee came in handy for the finishing touches.

"We always wanted the t-shirt to be special...but we never expected this."

Every Which Way But Loose - The Black Widows

2007-10-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

Anyone who grew up watching Clint Eastwood's cult movie Every Which Way But Loose, (and the sequel Any Which Way You Can), will appreciate our new t-shirt. It's a tribute not to Philo Beddoe or his beer swigging pet orangutan Clyde, but instead to the most inept biker gang ever to grace the silver screen. Led by the hilarious Cholla the Black Widows, through the course of both films, lose their bikes, their hair and eyebrows, their dignity when they are chased by a shotgun weilding 80 year-old woman and are consistently abused by Beddoe's pet ape Clyde. Like the Keystone Cops on two wheels these lovable rogues nearly steal the show. Check out our product page HERE for more details.

Long Time, No Hear

2007-10-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since our last entry but things here at the State Dept Of Fashion Corrections have been hectic, to say the least. Firstly a big thank you to all of our customers for their gracious feedback about our products, along with pics of them enjoying their new favourite t-shirts, keep them coming.

You'll be happy to hear we have a fresh batch of new designs sitting in Solitary right now awaiting release in the next few days, including a cracking tribute to a certain 70s cult movie featuring a street brawler and his pet orangutan. So if you haven't subscribed to our newsletter then keep checking our website for updates. We are also planning on re-arranging the site before 2007 bids us farewell, with a more interactive theme and gallery feature, which we have been threatening to do for some time now.

Also a few of the inmates have been indulging in the odd orange flavoured KitKat with their tea and coffee, they are surprisingly delicious and come highly recommended.

That Is All

Our Gremlins T-shirts

2007-08-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

After watching Joe Dante's 80's classic creature feature Gremlins recently, we put our heads together and came up with the following two designs for tribute tees. They will both be uploaded onto our main site for sale shortly. Let us know what you think?

What Would John Smeaton Do?

2007-08-03T04:37:00.001-07:00

It's been a very busy time here at the S.D.F.C. recently, following the addition of two new t-shirt designs to our website. The first is our tribute to Glasgow's very own have-a-go hero John Smeaton, (the airport baggage handler who helped police restrain one of two terrorists who tried to attack Glasgow Airport), with a simple design and phrase which reads: "What Would John Smeaton Do?" We've been recieving all sorts of feedback from this t-shirt, with people being asked by complete strangers to pose for pictures whilst on holiday or at recent summer music festivals, all because of their John Smeaton t-shirt. One of our customers wrote and told us that over 100 people at T In The Park, were pointing at his shirt and singing "There's only one John Smeaton."

Our second t-shirt has proved just as popular, with a design of Scotland complete with Saltire cross it reads: "Proudly Banjoing Terrorists Since 2007". The word "banjoing" was used by John Smeaton in one of his many, unintentionally hilarious interviews, with the world's press and basically means to blooter someone very hard in the face. The media and online attention these two shirts have recieved has been overwhelming, one of our inmates even ended up on national radio to discuss the tees and their increasing popularity.

We even managed to raise a few hundred pounds for the British Red Cross through the sales of the John Smeaton t-shirt alone and recieved a wonderful letter of thanks, which takes pride of place on Big Jim Slade's oak desk.

NB. Look out for a change of design for our John Smeaton t-shirt, which will be uploaded onto Bonaroo.co.uk, very shortly.

Our Guantanamo Bay T-shirt

2007-06-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

Here's our special tongue-in-cheek Guantanamo Bay t-shirt, inspired by those tacky tourist based designs you often see for sale in novelty shops, during your holidays.

Regardless what your opinons are on the so-called war of terror, one thing's for sure whatever happens in Guantanamo Bay, stays in Guantanamo Bay. The detention centre there, dubbed "Camp X-Ray", seems to operate outside of all the human rights laws ever laid down and is surrounded by an air of secrecy.
Wether you're a die hard, right wing republican or a tree hugging liberal, you have to agree that nobody really knows what's going on in there and how many of the so called "prisoners of war" are actually guilty of the crimes that they've been accussed of, (without any proper legal procedure). Here's an interesting statistic for you, as of November 2006, out of 775 so called "terrorists", who have been brought to Guantanamo, approximately 340 have been released.

One Dirty Weekend

2007-06-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to Grant, Dougie, Kyle, Slammer, Leddy, Yorgi and Thomas who kindly offered their services last weekend to take part in the annual Swamp Soccer tournament, held in Argyll, Scotland. We lost both games but took three points in our final match by default, (the other team failed to show...we would've had them anyway). For those of you unfamiliar with the event it involves a pitch of knee deep mud and six players on each side trying to score more goals than the other team, it's outrageously messy and extremely tiring. Check out the main website HERE for details of next year's event which will be the World Championships. Better start our pre-season training now then. Our team, (in fact only half of our team) is pictured at the bottom of this newspaper article along with players from Team Cafe Bar Koodi, all the way from Finland, who had the good grace and manners to beat us 3-1.

Frankie Is An Asshole

2007-05-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick heads up about our latest t-shirt, currently available to buy at the S.D.F.C. If you turn the dial back to the 80s you'll remember there was some fuss made over a "Frankie Say Relax" t-shirt, printed as part of a publicity campaign for the pop group Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Well here's our take on the design, simply because the original is back in high street stores for a pocket bursting price of £35 ($69), and is now considered somewhat "chic", that coupled with the fact that we're sick of listening to what Frankie has to say!

Alec Baldwin Wants To Straighten Your Ass Out.

2007-04-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hot on the hells of the Baldwingate scandal, that every celebrity website seems to be obsessed about, we bring you our special Alec Baldwin t-shirt to mark the occasion. We really don't see what all the fuss is about, a frustrated and angry parent saying stuff he'll later regret, who hasn't done that before. It's not like he was caught existing cars flashing his junk, or was snapped with coke spread all over his naked chest, or shaved his head and went nutzoid in rehab, or leaked a hardcore sex tape onto the internet or any other like minded behaviour suited only to those who are idolised and held in high regard by society today.

2007-04-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

Technorati Profile

This Is The S.D.F.C

2007-04-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy old time for the inmates at the S.D.F.C recently, as in between designing another batch of tees for your wearing pleasure they've been listening to new albums from Arcade Fire and Kings Of Leon, reading an amazing book called Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner and watching episodes of a cartoon called The Venture Bros, which blows all other animation shows out of the water. If you haven't checked any of these out we urge you to do so ASAP. We've also received amazing feedback from our customers who have purchased our exlusive 300 inspired t-shirt, (Sparta Athletic Dept) we have plans to put the design on sweatshirts and hoddies, in the meantime you can read what T-shirt Watch and Random Stuff had to say about it HERE and HERE

Need Your Help With Sports Tees

2007-02-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

We are massive fans of sport here at the S.D.F.C so as a result we've decided to design and print a batch of t-shirts exclusively based upon the subject. But we need your help in one particular category - Soccer.

We have the initial design for these tees in place but we need suggestions, for example we want to know what your favourite soccer squad of all time is and why? You need to state the club, the year and obviously the reason why you've made your choice, (eg, Brazil World Cup Squad 1970). Who knows we might run with your suggestion and come up with a tee just for your wearing pleasure. Email your entries to info@bonaroo.co.uk