When high-end custom-shirt company Original Stitch first partnered with Pokemon to deliver custom poke-patterned garments in Japan, the world took notice. The company had created a shirt pattern for each of the original 151 Pokemon, with creative designs that worked with both casual and formal styles. It was a Pokemon fans' dream turned into reality, with the caveat that the collaboration was exclusive to Japan - until now.
Both the Pokemon Company and Original Stitch heard the fan demand loud and clear, and the two companies have now opened up shipping to both North America and Europe. Unfortunately for fans, however, the cost of the shirts are quite high in both continents. Unless one has over $100 to shell out per shirt (plus shipping), the creative designs are likely going to be out of budget for many Pokemon fans.
Still, those who can afford the shirts have a great opportunity to craft something unique. Here's a few of our favorite Pokemon-based Original Stitch patterns:
The Original Stitch website allows for fans to put different patterns on different locations of the shirt, so Pokemon fans could create a Psyduck shirt with a Bulbasaur pocket and a Weepinbell collar. The mix-and-matching of patterns opens up a lot of design possibilities, but it also complicates the stitching process and is likely one of the reasons the shirts ended up being quite expensive for fans in North America or Europe.
It's unclear if the high prices are just growing pains as the company expands the sales scope of its Pokemon collaboration, or if the high costs will be a permanent price point. At the present time, it's not known if Original Stitch will expand the pattern selection beyond the original 151. It would certainly be a neat idea to have some tie-in patterns for Pokemon Sword and Shield, though no generation can hope to match the nostalgic selling power of the original 151.
Somewhat amazingly, this isn't the only Pokemon-shirt related news to occur this week. A few days ago, a UNIQLO-sponsored contest to have a shirt design make it into Pokemon Sword and Shield announced that its winner was disqualified. The contest stipulated that entrants must make a design specifically for the contest, but the winner had sold his design as a phone cover previously. A replacement winner was not selected.
Shirts aside, it's been a wild week for Pokemon fans. The Pokemon Company just aired its 2019 Pokemon Press Conference, where everything from a new Detective Pikachu game for Nintendo Switch and a bizarre sleeping-based Pokemon application were announced. For those excited about the latter, it should be known that Original Stitch doesn't sell patterned pajamas - but that's a hundred-dollar idea if we've ever heard one.
Source: Original Stitch