We had some other vintage music review planned for today, and that can wait. I just got an email this morning from the DEVO mailing list and – boy howdy – the band have decided to reissue their infamous leisure wear shirt that was originally made from thin, unbreathable TYVEK® …and sold for nine 1980 dollars. Only this time that have taken the care to make it something that you might went to wear more than once. TYVEK® was designed for single use industrial purposes back in the 60s and was not washable [even though it was plastic].
The new shirt was 100% cotton with a button-down collar. Crisp. And the band enlisted Middle Of Beyond to manufacture and sell the goods. They are a popular culture manufacturing and sales company new to me [I don’t get out much]. The email stated and I quote:
“We predict this first batch will sell out quickly, and it will take at least a couple months for another batch to be made, so act now!”
And how. I received the email at 9:31 EST. By 11:15 EST I finally opened the email to see that the entire run of the shirt was… ‘ow you say… “sold out.” What do they think when they make something like that available again after half a lifetime of [obviously] pent-up demand? Old timers like me or chasinvictoria will remember buying our copies of the band’s 1980 “Freedom of Choice” album and almost as entertaining as the classic wax was, was the inner sleeve featuring all manner of desirable DEVO consumer-goods was almost even better. To wit:
Heavy on the kitsch Klip-art®
The $55 price [it seems appropriate to me, given the going rate on just t-shirts] was no impediment to it selling out, obviously. The fabric used had a “step and repeat” print meaning that each shirt was unique in the way the pattern covered it. The one identical trait was the custom DEVO pocket; always sewn onto the shirt to show the “Duty Now For The Future” print image. They were only for sale at the Middle Of Beyond webstore. The band’s own webstore did not sell them, though the band were the first group I saw making band-branded PPE way back at the dawn of time, in March of last year.
That delightful little combo came about from some bright thinker at the plastics manufacturer where the Energy Domes® are made also making PPE shields and having a firm grasp of the band. If you want to make a defiant statement with your choice of PPE, it will set you back $49.98. Spuds on a budget [aren’t we all?] can opt for just the Energy Dome® at $31.98 or the PPE shield at $19.98. Ironically, any of this PPE proved a non-event to Prime Spud Mark Mothersbaugh who ultimately caught Covid-19.
So the amazing shirt sold out in minutes today. Maybe you might want to keep an eye cocked to the band’s mailing list so that when there’s a second run you might have a fighting chance to grab one.
-30-
Post-Punk Monk 
Possibly the way they are made now limits the number they can do in a “batch,” but they should have planned for a “batch” equal to the population of NYC! This has been a coveted item for forty years and heretofore only glimpsed in the 21st century in curated fan collections! I hope I will be able to snag one from the second “batch,” to put it mildly!
I was the proud owner of one of this era’s full TYVEK® jumpsuits, which actually survived brief wearings for around a week back when I was as slim as your average DEVO member! Plus it was a DEVOtee fan magnet! Alas, in Florida there was no chance — even when storing it in cool dark places between brief outings — of it surviving intact. Shoulda bought a spare!
Interestingly, the handy inflation calculator of the web says that $9 in 1980 is equivalent to $28.27 in today’s cashless society, so the $55 may at first seem like price gouging until one remembers that this new one is an actual wearable, as in repeatedly!
May 2021 be the year we eliminate the ninnies and the twits! Looks like the US has already started! Over to you, UK …
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Sadly we will need to wait a few years over here…our twits have plenty of time to do more damage.
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mr monk,
i’m sorry, but this pales in comparison to the DEVO radiation suit, which i had a friend that proudly wore it to school once back in the 80’s (not halloween), when people wore pretty much what they wanted, and they were OK with it. i do think after all the attention, he didn’t wear it to school again after that.
later
-1
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negative1ne – While the hazmat suit was a classic DEVO statement, this is much more wearable while being a very busy, action packed design. Give me any clothing showing “atomic bombs in tailspin” and I roll over like a puppy and capitulate. The original leisure shirt in the late 70s [the band wore it in some of their 2nd album videos] was manufactured from TYVEK® because it made as disposable stagewear! I would wear this out while the hazmat suit would be more like a costume for me. Different strokes, I guess.
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Yes, I looked into this when I too finally opened my email. I did not expect a shirt like this, and certainly did not expect it to be sold out as quickly as it did. Much sadness for this spud. I did, however, recently receive my Rocket 88 paperback “2 for 1” DEVO book, so I have that to console me.
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