About Illegal Shirts

In 2022, my best friend from high school and I launched Illegal Shirts, inspired by internet and meme culture, industry pioneers, and the lessons from the book "Stealing Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon. Kleon encourages you to embrace influence, mix ideas, and re-imagine them into your own creative work. He emphasizes that nothing is completely original and that all creative work builds on what came before. Every artist eventually gets asked the question: where do you get your ideas? The honest artist will answer, “I steal”. Apple has been infamous for drawing inspiration from Braun’s designs, yet innovating to create something distinct and unprecedented. Every new idea is just a mash up or a remix of one or more previous ideas. That’s about all there is to it. When you look at the world this way, you stop worrying about what’s good and what’s bad. There’s only stuff worth stealing and stuff that’s not worth stealing. As we began sharing our creations on social media, our community started to blow up, attracting support and submissions from all across the world. This experience has not only deepened our passion for design but also highlighted the continuous cycle of inspiration and innovation that propels the creative industry forward. Today, our focus is to create the best quality shirts designed to provoke laughter and stir the pot, motivated by the value of spreading humor, creativity, and uniqueness.