Music
11 Minor Threat merch ripoffs
by Mark Teo
August 1, 2013
The Minor Threat tshirts being sold at Urban Outfitters are legit.
It should come as no surprise that you can now find a Minor Threat tshirt at Urban Outfitters–it’s retro, iconic, and centres around a perennially influential band. The surprise was that those shirts were actually fully licensed (Urban Outfitters obtained the shirt from Tsurt, the company who handles the band’s merch).
“Dischord doesn’t make T-shirts,” bandleader Ian MacKaye told the Washington City Paper. “It’s fucking absurd the amount of bootlegs that are out there…. My time is better spent doing other things.”
“It’s not a political thing for me,” he continued. “I just don’t give a fuck about T-shirts.”
The band did lash out at Forever 21 over a bootlegged shirt, and MacKaye was similarly outraged when Nike appropriated the band’s imagery. But MacKaye tells the truth—his band’s artwork has been repackaged so many times, it’s hard to keep count. Here are our favourite Minor Threat ripoffs.
Photo: Sleevage.com
Nike’s “Major Threat” flyer. This mockup features a rendition of Minor Threat’s first EP, only featuring a dude in some sort of Nike SBs. Bonus points for appropriating the straightedge triple X, too. Ugh.
Photo: Exclaim.ca
Forever 21’s Minor Threat graphic tee. Garish much? This tee combines neon silk-screening, a girl in aviators, checkerboard racing patterns, and of course, the words “Minor Threat.” Makes sense, right? Um, no.
Photo: milesawayhc.bigcartel.com
Miles Away’s EP ripoff. We’ll give it to Miles Away: They’re a genuine hardcore band who likely idolize Minor Threat. We can’t fault ’em for this tee.
Photo: Teetilldeath.com
New Lows bottleman tee. We’ll give it to New Lows—not only do they play a supremely pissed-off brand of Boston Hardcore, they also ripped off Minor Threat’s under-utilized Bottleman illustration.
Photo: hardcoreshirt.com
The Effort’s Out of Step tee. Who can resist the allure of Out of Step‘s EP artwork? It’s the quintessential straight-edge-black-sheep metaphor. At least 65 per cent of edgemen everywhere have a Minor Threat black sheep tattoo.
Photo: howsyouredge.com
Zorlac skateboards’ black sheep deck. Heck, Out of Step‘s imagery even catered to skate jocks.
Photo: Seekingthesimple.wordpress.com
Ensign’s Never Give In tee. Even some of hardcore’s most established acts got in the act, with New Jersey’s Ensign swapping out the signature “Out of Step” label with “Never Give In.” Creative, fellas.
Photo: itsacoldworld.wordpress.com
The Hundreds black sheep tee. It’d only be a matter of time before the streetwear heavies stepped in. To be fair, we’d totally buy an Out of Step five-panel.
Photo: Ilxor.com
Emily the Strange EP knockoff. We haven’t figured out if this tee’s authentic, but we’ll give it props for being kind of adorable.
Photo: attherisers.bigcartel.com/
At the Risers Out of Gear shirt. We’ll give it to At the Risers’ motorcycle-themed merch—they do a pretty sweet G.G. Allin knockoff, too.
Photo: Sloanmusic.com
Sloan’s hardcore seven-inch. Sloan (most specifically the band’s defacto frontman, Chris Murphy) have long professed their love of Minor Threat. So much so that they recreated Glen E. Friedman’s iconic photo of the band on the steps of the Dischord house for a recent hardcore seven-inch.
Tags: Music, Lists, News, Ian MacKaye, minor threat, Sloan, Urban Outfitters
