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[SatoAilDarko]

The winners of last year's UNIQLO design competition, UTGP '17, with the theme of Nintendo have been decided.

Edit 4: Available to purchase here.

Nintendo UNIQLO

Video of all the Shirts

Grand Prix Winner:

I was extremely surprised and pleased to receive such a prestigious award for my creation featuring one of Japan's most renowned characters, Mario, as a motif. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you all, including my family who supported me throughout. Thank you!

Second Place Winner:

As someone who is trying to become a creator, I couldn't be happier. I want to take away this experience and joyful feeling and reflect it in my future activities. Thank you very much!

Third Place Winner:

As the first Mexican to win the prize, I feel extremely honored. I would like to express my gratitude to UNIQLO and Nintendo for giving me the opportunity to win the prize. I have been a fan of the games created by Mr. Miyamoto ever since I was a small child. Many years later, my creation featuring Zelda has been selected to be used on a UNIQLO T-shirt produced in collaboration with Nintendo. I feel as if my dream has come true. To the team of Nintendo, thank you for letting me be part of your world!

Edit 2: Higher Resolution Images:

MEN, KIDS:

WOMEN:

From: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/05/01/uniqlo-nintendo-collection/

Fronts-Only:

Full Details:

Franchise Breakdown:

Mario: 9 Shirts

Pokémon: 5 Shirts

Zelda, Animal Crossing and original Donkey Kong: 2 Shirts

Metroid, Kirby, Star Fox, Pikmin and Splatoon: 1 Shirt

Gender and Age Breakdown:

Men Only: 11 shirts

Women Only: 5 Shirts

Kids Only: 5 Shirts

Men, Women and Kids: 2 Shirts

Men and Kids: 1 Shirt

Men and Women: 1 Shirt

Not the most spectacular but there are several shirts for Men that I'm interested in from Metroid, Splatoon, Animal Crossing and that ABC Mario one. There are some great designs only available for kids and women like the third place Zelda shirt. I may buy the women shirts I find interesting and never wear them put in public but only with friends.

It seems possible the number per franchise was decided before the contest even Bagan with how ever franchise available:

Q05 Which game characters can be used for designs?
"The characters which appear in the following games series all can be used in design submissions." The Super Mario series, the Zelda series, the Pokémon series, the Animal Crossing series, the Star Fox series, the Pikmin series, the Metroid series, the Kirby series, the Donkey Kong series, and Splatoon

Got at least one shirt. You also couldn't combined different franchises as per the rules. Also the Donkey Kings shirts being from the original arcade game and not Country with characters like Diddy and Dixie is super disappointing. Then again Miyamoto was the judge.

Also I strongly disagree with the first place winner. There are so many 8-bit Mario shirts already that that winning is crazy.

Even a similar concept of 8-bit Mario on left edge of shirt has done by Nintendo years ago as a Club Nintendo shirt I have:

There's also this 8-bit Mario shirt available at Best Buy in Holiday 2015:

Obviously worse than the winner of this competition but it shows how well-worn territory 8-bit Mario on a shirt is.

So thoughts? What do you like? What do you plan to buy?

Edit:

These go on sale in Japan on May 19th. Not sure about other regions.

Nintendo posted on their Facebook that US will release on May 19th as well.

Some screenshots from the 1 Minute Promotional Video:

A closer image of the Peach shirt and its text:

I DON'T CARE!
I'D RATHER GET KIDNAPPED-
THAN ASK MARIO
FOR HELP!

Also looks like the Grand Prix Winner will be in White Fire Mario style for the woman version according to the Japanese page:

 

[Unison]

Even the concept of 8-bit Mario on left side of set wrapping to back was done by Nintendo years ago as a Club Nintendo shirt I have:

Embarrassing...

Any idea of when we can expect these in stores?

 

[Jotaka]

I really liked the 2nd place.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Second place looks better

 

[broncobuster]

3rd place shirt is nice, as is the similarly styled Pikmin one.

 

[Laieon]

3rd place looks neat (wait, it's only for kids? That's dumb) and I like the Magikarp card one. The Zelda one that's not for kids looks terrible though. Hope these make it to Uniqlo Korea.

The Donkey Kong one with him climbing into the pocket is probably the best design out of all of them.

 

[Toki767]

Why is the 3rd place one only for kids?

And why is the Boo shirt only for women?

 

[Kinokou]

Could you link the actual product page as well if they are for sale?

 

[Piston Hyundai]

They picked the right winner. That's pretty slick.

 

[Harusame]

I really the second place shirt. I also really like the Pikachu and Metroid shirt as they are minimalistic.

 

[Unison]

3rd place looks neat (wait, it's only for kids? That's dumb) and I like the Magikarp card one. The Zelda one that's not for kids looks terrible though. Hope these make it to Uniqlo Korea.

Yeah, that Zelda one is the absolute pits... Looks more like a Team Ico shirt or something.

 

[jooey]

Don't several of these break the rules from the FAQ at the start of the contest? I think the starman one is about as "lifted from the internet" as you can get.

 

[ponpo]

hyaku percent ugly.

 

[redhood56]

The DK pocket one and the one above it are pretty nice

 

[7DollarHagane]

I actually really like the first place shirt. Very eye catching. Simple but effective. A twist on a classic.

 

[Zolbrod]

Any idea of when we can expect these in stores?

May 19th.

I'll probably get a few of them, depending on how easy they are to come by.

 

[Pein]

The splatoon shirt looks way better then the 1st place shirt. The first place winner is just bleh to me, big Mario picture, like wow.

 

[Rokal]

I'll end up picking up several of these since I love Uniqlo and Nintendo, but I'm sad that most of the better designs all seem restricted to Womens or Kids sizing.

 

[IronRaven]

I want that Metroid shirt so bad.

 

[spekkeh]

Do only the winners get printed? Cause they're the worst ones, heh.

 

[OnPoint]

Do only the winners get printed? Cause they're the worst ones, heh.

This is my question. Can I get any of these? Or just a select few. And from where?

 

[SilverLunar]

I am absolutely disappointed in all of these to be frank, except for the Zelda one, actual effort went into designing it.

Meh overall.

 

[Mory Dunz]

I am legend is nice

 

[Frostinferno]

If I can buy that 2nd place Splatoon one, I'm buying the shit out of it.

 

[CaviarMeths]

That "I am a legend" Zelda shirt looks like one of those intentionally hideous Christmas sweaters.

Shame such a boring, overused designed won first place. The 2nd and 3rd place entries are both much better. I'd buy the 3rd place one if it wasn't for kids only. Sort of dig the Pikachu one that's just a white line on black too.

Honestly, most of these are... kinda bad though. Poor composition or use of colour, overdesigned, dumb slogans, etc. There's only a few on here that look professionally designed.

 

[nikos]

I'd wear a couple of those as pajamas, since I'm an elitist asshole when it comes to fashion, but the two I like seem to only be available in Women's and Kids' sizes.

Spoiler

I still may fit into them

 

[Zalman]

The Magikarp one is incredible.

For those who are unaware, its Japanese name is Koiking.

 

[Psychoward]

Wait, why are any of them gender or age specific?

 

[Ottaro]

I guess I'm buying women's shirts.

 

[Sesha]

Second and third place look nice.

Women? Psshaw, I want this. The Animal Crossing one too, even though I've never played any of the games.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Really suggest everyone watch that one-minute video.

Sorry about the resolution but on their webpage I couldn't select anything for a closer view. A regular screenshot on my phone didn't decrease image resolution much over linking to each image directly so I just did the latter. Also it shows who designed it and who's it for.

Intersecting that the third-place winner seems to be the only one to get two designs selected:

Though I'm not sure how I feel about realistic Star Fox. Not to mention ditching half of Team Star Fox for team Star Wolf.

I think I prefer this Star Fox shirt from JcPenney I have:

It's $12 or 2 for 10 right now.

This reminds I still néed to get this Zelda shirt from JcPenney as well.

It's sold out online which isn't a good sign

Tommorow I'll look for that and this Mario from Macy's:

Aldo here's a Pikmin shirt I got last year from Hot Topic I think looks nice:

 

[Gradon]

I have a mighty need for that Animal Crossing one.

 

[Tagyhag]

That DK Taiwan shirt looks great, shame it's men only.

Why is the 3rd place one only for kids?

What kind of adult would wear a shirt that busy? It seems like a great kid's shirt.

 

[Dabanton]

16,000 entries and those were the best selected.

There seems to be a very garish design taste for the people who choose these T-shirts so it seems designers go for that look. It's a shame as their UT pop culture T-shirts used to be so good. But they all been infected by obvious tacky designs for the last few years.

 

[samred]

I am tempted to go for that one of Donkey Kong crawling into a pocket, even if it's not actually a stitched pocket.

I also think it's bonkers that they didn't produce a woman's cut of that 3rd place Legend of Zelda tee.

 

[Caim]

Second and third place look nice.



Women? Psshaw, I want this. The Animal Crossing one too, even though I've never played any of the games.

This is the best one!

 

[Rickenslacker]

I really like the Lichtenstein Peach.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

16,000 entries and those were the best selected.

There seems to be a very garish design taste for the people who choose these T-shirts so it seems designers go for that look. It's a shame as their UT pop culture T-shirts used to be so good. But they all been infected by obvious tacky designs for the last few years.

In your opinion, what would be a design that wasn't tacky?


We don't have Uniqlo stores in my part of the world, but I always imagined it was sort of pop-kitsch H&M'ish?

Would it be wrong to say that by its very nature, a store like Uniqlo having T-shirts is essentially about making a statement? Which is totally fine.
I love Adventure Time, and if I get an Adventure Time T-shirt, is there any possible way that it wouldn't be tacky?

The holy grail of T-Shirt pop culture shirts seems to be (?) making them clever. 15 Years ago, you'd go to T-Shirt Hell and get one of those "if you're reading this, you' bla bla", and then that evolved into memes like "keep calm and [insert meme symbol]", and now we're moving through this ironic post-hipster maximist period where you wear pizzacat and other ugly-on-purpose designs as a hip and ironic statement.
But one thing that never goes out of fashion is nostalgia. I have a basic simple Superman T-Shirt. The real blue color wit the classic logo, and I still get so many comments on it. I think nostalgic symbols often get more of a pass- If you had a shirt that just said Atari, Nintendo, Pac-Man or something, I'd think it would be considered less garnish that some of these, where the whole shirt is a mural, or form-figure motive or something like that.

I've been thinking about this a lot because I really enjoy the things I used to love. One of my friends have 80s ninja turtle and 90s power ranger t-shirt, and they genuinely make me smile. Nostalgia is really powerful, but I don't know if there is any way it isn't tacky, simply because having a product/brand/symbol on a t-shirt in and of itself might be tacky? And maybe that is okay.

 

[Atheerios]

Welp, there goes my money for ARMS. Give me 4!

 

[Mista Koo]

Are these available for a limited time? I really like the Vib-Ribbon Pikachu one and the DK pocket one.

The winner is a pretty smart one, even though I don't think it's something I'd wear. Would be neat to have a Luigi version (quick and dirty):

 

[plufim]

That second place splatoon shirt is hot stuff.

 

[Hackworth]

Second and third place look real good, first is okay I guess. If I was buying one I'd definitely buy the second place entry.

 

[kulapik]

Any way we can order these from Europe? We don't have Uniqlo here

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Nvm, I am blind.

 

[Xun]

There's some really nice designs there.

 

[Lord Frieza]

Where do you even buy these

 

[Boss Doggie]

That 2nd place and Magikarp. I want them, hope the Uniqlo here stocks them.

Where do you even buy these

Uniqlo

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

not feeling the grand prize winner

where did marios hat go, m'princesses

 

[woopWOOP]

If the DK Arcade one had an actual pocket there I would totally get it

 

[SatoAilDarko]

If the DK Arcade one had an actual pocket there I would totally get it

Yeah. It being just printed on makes it a lot less impressive.