Where can I find kids tees with nerdy themes like the Solar System outside the US?

December 7, 2008 12:59 PM

Where do I find nerdy T-shirts and other clothes for a 4 year old in Europe? And by nerdy I mean space, science, alphabet, math all the usual autistic obsessions. :-)

My son's autism means that shirts with all the usual kid obsessions, like Spiderman, Ben 10, or Batman, anything with big eyes, humans or animals are absolutely out. They scare the pants off him. I know this is probably silly, but there are so many normal kid things we miss out on that just being able to get a t-shirt that he will love, just lke any other parent might pick up one of the thousands of transformer/power ranger/pokemon shirts out there... well that really is the only thing *I* want for Christmas.

You'd think this would be easy, but I've been looking for a year and not found anything except a couple of pairs of space jammies on ebay and a sold out alphabet shirt on threadless.com. Surely there are other kids outside the USA who would love a t-shirt with planets on it?

I know he's not the only nerdy 4 year old in Europe. There are plenty of cool things to be had in the US, but the customs charges are often as much as or even more than the cost of the shirts themselves if I want to have them sent to Holland.

And he's a big lad - he's wearing size 6/7, so you'd think someone somewhere would be selling something to suit him. Surely?

posted by pootler to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (11 answers total)

Check out museum stores. That is where many of my nerdy shirts came from.
posted by Loto at 1:07 PM on December 7, 2008

He may enjoy seeing his own design on his t-shirt. I think I may have used cafepress to do that for my child.
posted by jfrancis at 1:12 PM on December 7, 2008

Loto is right on. Science museums are a good bet. But this Rosetta stone t-shirt from the British museum is cool too.
posted by vacapinta at 1:17 PM on December 7, 2008

Best answer: If you're up for a craft project, you could make your own using Freezer paper stencils. Freezer paper seems to be difficult to get in Europe, but according to this person, book-covering paper also works.
posted by craichead at 1:22 PM on December 7, 2008

Also these self-referential t-shirts from Magma might suit, except for the size. So, design/book stores that sell t-shirts might work too.
posted by vacapinta at 1:38 PM on December 7, 2008

Also, ThinkGeek ships to Europe.
posted by vacapinta at 1:45 PM on December 7, 2008

Best answer: I design stuff; in case you don't find anything for ready consumption, I'll be happy to help; with regard to printing, in Europe Spreadshirt is probably the best bet in my personal experience.
posted by _dario at 6:03 PM on December 7, 2008

You could try contacting the owner of this Etsy store and see what she can do in terms of t-shirts or other items.
posted by VioletU at 6:24 PM on December 7, 2008

Mental Floss ships their T-shirts to Europe, but the international shipping fees are a bit pricey...may be worth a look anyway.
posted by Oriole Adams at 8:44 PM on December 7, 2008

Threadless.com has some interesting designs. Maybe not nerdy enough, but different.

This one might be more along the lines of what you are looking for: Last Exit to Nowhere.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 7:10 AM on December 8, 2008

Response by poster: Got him some shirts printed at vistaprint.nl. Looking into Spreadshirt. And then though, ah, sod it, we'll order some threadless t-shirts anyway, because they had PERFECT designs for him. Still waiting to see how much import tax I'll have to pay, but it'll be worth it. :-)
posted by pootler at 12:51 PM on January 16, 2009