The Hoo Rag
I had a philosophy professor in college that wore exactly the same thing every day: black pants, black shoes, a black t-shirt, and navy blue socks. Halfway through the semester, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to ask, “why blue socks instead of black?” Everything else was black. He told me that his wife does all his clothing shopping and one day she bought a bunch of socks for him thinking they were black, but were actually blue. Now, realizing the mismatch, most people would probably return the socks and exchange them for the “right” color. But not my professor. He simply didn’t care. Unlike most people, clothing wasn’t a status symbol for him. Not only was it not a status symbol–it was completely irrelevant to him. He probably would have been just as comfortable lecturing about Kant in a clown suit as he would have been in black pants and blue socks.
Mark Zuckerberg also wears the same thing every day: jeans and a grey hoodie. I imagine walking into one of his mansions and seeing a walk-in closet the size of the first floor of my house lined with rows and rows of gray hoodies and jeans. Could uniformity be some kind of implied dress code for the talented?
Now I’m neither as talented Zuckerberg nor as smart as my professor, but it’s been pointed out to me on numerous occasions (mostly by my wife) that I pretty much wear the same thing every day. It’s not because of any rebellion against the status quo or any philosophical ideal. If anything, it’s more out of laziness.
I work from home so I no longer have to put on a monkey suit or worry about if my belt matches my shoes. I pretty much don whatever is on the bedroom floor and that typically means jeans or cargo pants, my Tenkara USA baseball cap, and … a tenkara T-shirt.
I hadn’t realized how many tenkara T-shirts I had accumulated over the years. In niche-within-a-niche sport, you’d think something like a T-shirt would be relatively rare. But I was recently surprised that I had enough of them to wear one every day of the week (and then some).
Tenkara USA Shirts
Since Tenkara USA has been around the longest, it’s no surprise I’ve accumulated the most shirts from them. Here are two of the same shirt featuring a kebari on the back in olive and light blue.
And here are a couple from the 1st and 3rd annual Tenkara Summits. Somehow I ended up with two of the blue one even though I didn’t attend.
Tenkara No Oni Shirts
These shirts were given to my by Tenkara legend Tenkara no Oni. They’re both the same and below you can see front and back in different colors.
Tenkara Fisher Shirt
This unique shirt was given to me by Adam Trahan of Tenkara Fisher.
Tenkara Talk Shirt
And last but not least, a very old and faded Tenkara Talk T-shirt with my old logo. You can still order one (along with some other Tenkara Talk swag) from my Zazzle store. I really need to update everything in the store with the new logo.
So there you go. Nine T-shirts in all. If you would have told me in 2009 that one day I’d have a tenkara T-shirt collection, I probably would have laughed in your face. But now having the hindsight to see tenkara’s growth, it doesn’t seem all that strange.
Which tenkara shirts do you have? Post your pics below.
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Dig yours for simplicity, love the No Oni beige one!
BTW,Apple Boss Steve Jobs wore same cloth everyday. Jeans from Levi Strauss #?? and black turtleneck t-shirt and the history is below:
Steve Jobs’ famous black turtleneck and blue jeans uniform was inspired by Sony workers, according to an excerpt of his forthcoming biography by Walter Isaacson. Gawker’s Ryan Tate got the excerpt from Isaacson directly.
In the ’80s, Jobs was on a tour of Sony’s factory and he saw the employees all wearing the same thing. He was told employees wore uniforms because after World War II, many Japanese didn’t have clothing, so Sony provided it. Over time each company in Japan developed its own style and it was a way for employees to bond.
Jobs thought he would do the same thing for Apple. That was big mistake:
Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”
Jason, have some dignity. You could have dewrinkled them. LOL! I also work from home, but it’s a mobile business. I personally wear a uniform . PROFESSIONAL! McDonalds even have sense enough to put employees in a uniform. I like to wear it when I’m not working for advertisement! A walking BILLBOARD ! Any who, SWEET SHIRTS! You have a SUPERB WEBSITE, very informative.
I don’t have any tenkara t-shirts, nor any fishing t-shirts I can think of. But my daily uniform at work DOES consist of a t-shirt. I am a surgeon at a veterinary spay/neuter clinic. Our uniform is a pair of black surgery scrub pants, and either a scrub shirt, or a t-shirt with our company’s logo on it. There is a quote or a saying of some sort on each of our various t-shirt designs. A favorite of the staff, and clients, says “It takes balls to get neutered”.
I was in the mens wear retail business from the age of 19 till my middle 50s, suits, ties, slacks, sportcoats, etc (spendy ones!) Now? ALL GONE!! I wear t-shirts, shorts, sandals, etc pretty much all year long!!! ps-Mark, love that quote, just may have to get one!? “It takes balls to get neutered”.
I agree with Josh…at the very least invest in a steamer to remove the wrinkles AND when you’re not spiffing up your T’s you can use it to restore those crushed/flattened flies. 😉
LOL. I don’t do ironing.
My favorites are the Sebatatake-kun shirt and recently acquired Oni shirts (which I have wanted for a couple of years)- a bit pricey, but not much more that a Patagonia fly fishing themed shirt I’ve seen on-line. Today wearing the Oni shirt triggered a pleasant 20 minute conversation with the sales guy at Cabela’s about Tenkara.