[Nerdspresso] Ode to a Nerdy Tee: My Life in Fandom

My love affair with nerd wear began early. I was 8 years old. It was the summer of 1977 and my Mom bought me a Star Wars T-shirt at the mall. Back then, there weren’t racks and racks of geek apparel available just anywhere. If you wanted to drape yourself in nerdery, you found a kiosk in the mall (or flea market). You picked a design and then had the sweaty kid behind the counter steam press it on a shirt. Then you wore it proudly on your first day of school, tucked into your shorts.

Which is what I did.

It was baby blue with Luke Skywalker in an attack pose, aiming his blaster at whomever wanted to take my milk money. That T-shirt was incredibly uncomfortable. The decal was heavy and stiff. It made my chest sweaty, but I wore that shirt anyway. I thought it looked boss. When that one wore out, Santa got me a yellow shirt with Darth Vader on it. But after that, there was a drought of nerdy tees. The whole press-on decal thing fell out of fashion. It was the late seventies and the flipped collar cool of the eighties was soon on the horizon.

The next time I flirted with fanboy fashion was in high school. I found a black market (translation: made in someone’s garage) Star Trek T-shirt at a comic book convention in 1985. Some guy was selling them next to bootleg copies of the Star Wars Holiday Special and homemade tribble plushies.  It was baby blue (see a pattern?) and in dark blue text said: “He’s Dead, Jim.”

This shirt was a lot more comfortable and teenage me loved its simplicity. I wore it to school, foregoing my usual Izods and corduroys. This shirt was no movie poster reprint or mall sweat shop knockoff. It was a tribute to a famous line from a classic show. I thought I was super cool walking the halls in my Star Trek T-shirt with my Trapper Keeper at my side.

No one else did.

We are so media saturated these days, it is hard to remember a time when people weren’t in on the joke. But my peers didn’t get it. One kid asked me if I wanted to be a mortician. Another asked if Jim was a friend of mine. My fellow nerds were too afraid of public ridicule to voice their support. Or maybe they were too busy playing D&D. Either way, my bold nerdtastic fashion statement was an epic fail. My fandom went underground for a decade.

I first felt the winds of change in 1994 when Kevin Smith openly quoted Star Wars in Clerks. Pop culture references were quickly populating movies and TV shows. In 1997, George Lucas launched the “Special Editions” to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of A New Hope. While we can debate the specialness of Uncle George monkeying with sacred canon (Han shot first!), we can all agree that it ushered in a new wave of consumer gloriousness for newly minted adults with disposable income.

I walked into Enterprise 1701, a legendary Orlando comic book shop and fanboy heaven, and saw a wall of cool Star Wars shirts heralding the return of the Jedis. I plunked down my hard-earned cash for Darth Vader posing like Uncle Sam as he called on eager recruits to subjugate the galaxy. I came back monthly for a new one to celebrate each release of the special editions. The seal was broken and my wardrobe would never be the same.

Here we are almost 30 years later, living in the golden age of pop culture. Nerds are cool. Movie references are king. No teenage fanboy will ever be mocked again for rocking sci-fi quotes on his person. By Crom, they sell these things in Target now! Forgive my grumpy old man insensitivities, but I saw what could only be described as a “popular” girl wearing a Batman symbol on a pink crop top with a mini-skirt yesterday. These kids have no idea.

It does feel like the pendulum has swung the other way these days. Yes, I love wearing a Star Wars tee as formal wear, but am I still a rebel or am I now a citizen of the Empire? There used to be a quiet pride in knowing not everyone “got” you. “He’s Dead, Jim” used to be a manifesto. Now it’s a punchline.

But so what? It’s just a T-shirt, right? There is something insanely great about being able to surround yourself with the stuff you love. Whether your passions are Klingons, Kafka, or kittens, you can always fly your freak flag in Geek Nation. And instead of feeling like an outsider always searching for your tribe, embrace the love of being among your people. Especially that special someone who lets you wear your Boba Fett tee on date night.

It’s baby blue.

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