For a long time now, the Prince t-shirts Ive acquired throughout the years (band and music shirt collecting is a hobby of mine) were all made independantly. The only 2 that were official was my purple 1999 shirt when I went to the Musicology tour, and the other one being him behind a bass that covers half of his face when I went to W2A a few years back. And besides the other items for sale at those merch booths, and maybe a few Purple Rain shirts Ive seen on ebay and Hot Topic, Prince has NOTHING out there in terms of t-shirts for sale. I find it funny and odd that one of the most recognizable and popular musicians ever does not have a licensing agreement with a shirt maker (if he does, please correct me). We all know Prince can be a bastard when it comes to protecting his music and image. However, does the man not realize how much of a killing he could make by having an official store, or a contract with a company that would put more merch of his in stores? For example: there was a seller on ebay that had this insane Lovesexy tour t-shirt with P's name in many colors pointing upwards towards the collar, and on the back it said "88" in those many colors as well. The guy wanted $200 at first, and then lowered it to $75 and he still didnt find a buyer. I understand that the shirt was vintage, but this is just an example of the MANY images throughout Prince's career that would sell like hot cakes if it were readily available and affordable. Me personally, I would KILL for a SOTT zip-up hoodie, or maybe a picture of the Revolution from the inside gatefold of Parade would look hot on a black shirt. Does anybody know for certain if Prince has been approached about a merchandising contract of some sort like this? Or did he do what I suspect he would do and refuse it?

I have to admit, his Symbol is perfect branding. It lends itself well to the kind of stuff that was in the Camden Store... Candles and Chocolates other Trinkets etc. Infact there is no end to the amount of shit you could symbol bomb and sell.

On the big ticket side people still want to buy his guitars - The Cloud, The Symbol, the Model C, along with plectrums and drumsticks etc.

But he doesn't have a proper management team. Prince isn't going to get on the phone and set any of this up.

^^ Those are excellent points. I may be wrong, but I think I remember reading somewhere that Prince has a policy of not endorsing anything equipment-wise, and all of his guitars were one-off custom jobs or something like that. But man, imagine if there was an online store where we could buy an ATWIAD shirt, or that SOTT hooded sweatshirt I've longed for for many years. Theres too many iconic images and album covers that is just being overlooked. Makes me sad. I wanna show the world the Prince shirts I'd wear just how cool his golden era was, and the fact the shirts I have bought isn't what they could and should be does a disservice to him in the end.

Man I wish Prince would be up for some stellar licensing. His entire career and iconography would lend itself to some badass, unique, and cool looking apparel. I wish he would let someone really do it right instead of the cheapy one off type of thing.

ElectricMayweather said:

Well the official music store does have a webpage on shirt sizes so maybe that's a sign of something coming. I've got a Purple Rain shirt, a 1999 era shirt and an official Parade Tour 86 shirt which I got off ebay.

May I ask how much you spent on those shirts? Since you said they were from those eras, I'd imagine none of them were cheap at all. It's like that Lovesexy shirt I was talking about in my original post: starting price was $200, then $75. I messaged the seller directly and told him I'd give them $50, but they didnt budge. Vintage merch like this one and the ones you speak of don't come cheap and it seems that's what ebay is full of when it comes to Prince shirts.

kygermo said:

I find it funny and odd that one of the most recognizable and popular musicians ever does not have a licensing agreement with a shirt maker

.

You're talking about a guy who can't be arsed to keep his music in print.

ElectricMayweather said:

Sorry I probably should have specified. The Purple Rain shirt I got from T shirt Subway which I guess isn't official. http://www.tshirtsubway.c...Shirt.aspx The 1999 era shirt has a picture of Prince on it circa 1999 era with him sitting on the base drum in purple. I do recall Amazon saying it was fully licensed but I can't seem to find the product anymore. My Parade shirt though was quite expensive because it is actually from the 1986 tour. This one in particular: http://www.defunkd.com/pr...86-sweater Which obviously it looks the same except it's the shirt. That cost me about $100 off ebay about 8 months ago. I saw a black one go for about $55 or such a few months ago.

OMG look at that! Thats so cool. And to think, if that shirt and countless others went back into print, everyone from us P fans to hipsters would wear those threads with pride.

Here is the Lovesexy shirt I was talking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/P...1425385877

He does need to sort out the Merchandise, personally I think he should have embraced Troy Gua instead of issuing him with a Cease and Desist over his Le Petite Prince he has a genuine love of Prince and think he would be brilliant working together.

Video of Le Petite Prince book he has done (only has the 1)

https://www.facebook.com/...amp;type=3

[Edited 11/17/14 14:29pm]

[Edited 11/17/14 14:31pm]

^ Thats awesome.

There was a ladies tshirt for sale in TopShop in the UK. This is a major highstreet retailer so must have been official on some level.

kygermo said:

ElectricMayweather said:

Sorry I probably should have specified. The Purple Rain shirt I got from T shirt Subway which I guess isn't official. http://www.tshirtsubway.c...Shirt.aspx The 1999 era shirt has a picture of Prince on it circa 1999 era with him sitting on the base drum in purple. I do recall Amazon saying it was fully licensed but I can't seem to find the product anymore. My Parade shirt though was quite expensive because it is actually from the 1986 tour. This one in particular: http://www.defunkd.com/pr...86-sweater Which obviously it looks the same except it's the shirt. That cost me about $100 off ebay about 8 months ago. I saw a black one go for about $55 or such a few months ago.

OMG look at that! Thats so cool. And to think, if that shirt and countless others went back into print, everyone from us P fans to hipsters would wear those threads with pride.

Here is the Lovesexy shirt I was talking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/P...1425385877

fuck I wore the fuck out of that shirt for years.............should have held on to it, was good quality and people had to take a few seconds before figuring out what it said

3rdeyedude said:

kygermo said:

OMG look at that! Thats so cool. And to think, if that shirt and countless others went back into print, everyone from us P fans to hipsters would wear those threads with pride.

Here is the Lovesexy shirt I was talking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/P...1425385877

fuck I wore the fuck out of that shirt for years.............should have held on to it, was good quality and people had to take a few seconds before figuring out what it said

Well its like I said earlier, collecting band and/or music shirts is a hobby of mine, and thats one of the coolest shirts I have ever laid my eyes on, regardless if I were a Prince fan or not. And the fact that I can't just go online and spend $20 to buy it really bothers me. I even printed out a copy of the photo of the shirt and took it to a t-shirt maker to get one printed, and he turned me away saying it was a printer's nightmare because of all the colors. Best he could do was print it with white ink on a black shirt which I declined. It's reasons like these that makes me wish Prince or somebody in his camp would get to merchandising full-on. And I envy you heavily for owning that shirt before, it's awesome to the eyes. It just oozes dopeness.

fnksoul said:

He does need to sort out the Merchandise, personally I think he should have embraced Troy Gua instead of issuing him with a Cease and Desist over his Le Petite Prince he has a genuine love of Prince and think he would be brilliant working together.

Video of Le Petite Prince book he has done (only has the 1)

https://www.facebook.com/...amp;type=3

[Edited 11/17/14 14:29pm]

[Edited 11/17/14 14:31pm]

Prince sent a c&d letter to the maker of these?? He is just too stubborn for his own good. If I were him, I would have taken these designs and made them my own and released them. I really fail to understand why he's so shaky when it comes to fan adoration examples like this. There are some seriously talented artists out there that really appreciate Prince and show their skills by giving up their props to him by creating things like these shirts, and it's usually not for profit either. I've seen drawings of Prince by fans while searching through google images that have just blown my mind. And if these artists receive a nasty letter from P's lawyers, thats the risk they take. You know, for a guy who has a musical catalog as diverse and rich and open-minded as his, he sure tends to be simple-minded with other things.

fnksoul said:

He does need to sort out the Merchandise, personally I think he should have embraced Troy Gua instead of issuing him with a Cease and Desist over his Le Petite Prince he has a genuine love of Prince and think he would be brilliant working together.

Video of Le Petite Prince book he has done (only has the 1)

https://www.facebook.com/...amp;type=3

[Edited 11/17/14 14:29pm]

[Edited 11/17/14 14:31pm]

The Le Petite Prince stuff is great. Prince should have endorsed that stuff, it's a huge missed oppertunity.

kygermo said:

ElectricMayweather said:

kygermo said:

OMG look at that! Thats so cool. And to think, if that shirt and countless others went back into print, everyone from us P fans to hipsters would wear those threads with pride.

Here is the Lovesexy shirt I was talking about: http://www.ebay.com/itm/P...1425385877

Definitely. I'm always buying shirts of my favourite bands and artists yet with Prince I only have those because they're so hard to find. An official store with shirts from 80's to now would be great. Yeah that Lovesexy shirt is nice. I will say with finding shirts on EBAY so many are XL sizing. Looking for a size Small is so hard sometimes. If you have the Ebay app on your phone save the searches and it will alert you whenever a new shirt has been put up matching that description.

I'm so backed up on the shirts ive been watching on ebay its absurd lol. But ebay is the place to go for shirts and novelty items like that. Are you in Europe or here in the states?

I agree with u. It's probably because of what he said in a video I watched on youtube.

"Prince - Press Conference-1998-08-08 Marbella (Plaza de Toros)." In the video he mentions he doesn't give autographs because he doesn't believe in idols so to Prince his autograph would be an idol. Instead he gave a religious pamphlet to a reporter who asked him for an autograph because he stated it's something more valuable because it's valuable information. To me, the religious pamphlet could be an idol as well but, I respect his decision regardless. Not all artists are the same and as we know Prince cannot be compared to any other.

I don't get it. Veteran bands are making a nice little piece of change and keeping their brand out there by selling t-shirts at Target and Hot Topic. Hendrix, Zepplin, AC/DC, Beatles, and Pink Floyd t-shirts are all over the place. Damn, Prince could easily sell t-shirts with the 1999, Purple Rain, SOTT, and Lovesexy logos.

kygermo said:

ElectricMayweather said:

kygermo said:

I'm so backed up on the shirts ive been watching on ebay its absurd lol. But ebay is the place to go for shirts and novelty items like that. Are you in Europe or here in the states?

I live in Australia so you could imagine how much less there is to find here. Haha.

Well the reason I ask is because some of my favorite shirts came from overseas. I have this Black Sabbath shirt that I'm very protective of that came from Bulgaria of all places, and a Kyuss shirt from your nearby neighbor New Zealand! It just seems everywhere but the USA has the best threads.

stop trying to whore 'im out...

luvsexy4all said:

stop trying to whore 'im out...

I always heard trolls live under bridges in the woods. How do they obtain internet access?

kygermo said:

3rdeyedude said:

fuck I wore the fuck out of that shirt for years.............should have held on to it, was good quality and people had to take a few seconds before figuring out what it said

Well its like I said earlier, collecting band and/or music shirts is a hobby of mine, and thats one of the coolest shirts I have ever laid my eyes on, regardless if I were a Prince fan or not. And the fact that I can't just go online and spend $20 to buy it really bothers me. I even printed out a copy of the photo of the shirt and took it to a t-shirt maker to get one printed, and he turned me away saying it was a printer's nightmare because of all the colors. Best he could do was print it with white ink on a black shirt which I declined. It's reasons like these that makes me wish Prince or somebody in his camp would get to merchandising full-on. And I envy you heavily for owning that shirt before, it's awesome to the eyes. It just oozes dopeness.

I also have this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/P...43d2ea4e5b

but it doesn't fit that well...........too big