xkcd

by **xkcd** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:00 pm UTC

The shirts have begun filling the apartment in the last few days. We're working nonstop to get them shipped out to you all ("we" being me plus whoever I get for intermittent help thoughout the weekend). They're being packed up and labeled and stuff at this very moment, and will start shipping out when the post office opens Monday.

I can't give any guarentees as to how many will ship on the first day and how many will wait until Tuesday or Wednesday, but I will be doing it as fast as humanely possible, subsiding for the next few days on nothing but beef jerky, Capri Suns, and cheap delivery pizza if necessary.

So: you will all be getting your shirts very soon! And if you order one now, it should ship within a week or two. Kurt, the guy who makes the shirts, is still catching up. He has done a wonderful job so far, getting me a ridiculous number of shirts really quickly, and we should be fully stocked by the end of the week.

by **Binary.Tobis** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:09 pm UTC

This is the closest I have ever come to buying shirts online. :cry:

You have me torn!

by **Shoofle** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 11:59 pm UTC

Why be torn? Buy the shirts!

by **Marrow** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:36 am UTC

As long as the shirts are not torn as well you can't lose.

by **kabobbob** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:29 am UTC

1st shirt i've ever ordered from a webcomic....i just couldn't live my life w/o the sudo shirt...i just couldn't

by **Heirtopendragon** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 3:30 am UTC

I wish I understood the sudo thing :-(

If it were possible to make the Escher bracelets, i'd buy one.

by **Teaspoon** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:33 am UTC

Heirtopendragon wrote:If it were possible to make the Escher bracelets, i'd buy one.

You mean that MÃ¶bius strip I made this morning is impossible?

Shit, sorry guys. I may have broken reality.

by **Heirtopendragon** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:09 pm UTC

I don't mean impossible as in can't be done. I more just meant that if it was possible to find a manufacturer

by **ebel** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 9:07 pm UTC

I'm sorely tempted to buy a tshirt. However I have one question. I live in the Ireland. Sometimes we'd have to pay customs and taxes when importing items from outside the European Union. This can be roughly 30% of the total cost of the item. I've only noticed this happening when an item is sent via a delivery company, i.e. UPS. It hasn't happened on the multitude of items (eg from Amazon, or other tshirts) when they are posted in the plain old postal system. If I were to order a tshirt, would it be sent in the post or with the likes of UPS?

by **yamamushi** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:31 pm UTC

I'm glad to read this. I bought a shirt 2 weeks ago, I was beginning to get worried :oops:

by **Natalie** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:11 pm UTC

I don't mean impossible as in can't be done. I more just meant that if it was possible to find a manufacturer

Good news. There is. These guys have told me that they will make them.

Here's the email I got back:

Dear Natalie,
We normally do not make them, but we are able to. If you give me some more
specifics about the order, I can give you some pricing. The minimum
quantity for orders of this nature is 500. If you have any other questions
or comments, please give us a call at 800-921-8661.

Thank you,
Devin Warnock
Custom Silicone Bracelets

So, it is possible.

by **xkcd** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 4:12 am UTC

ebel wrote:I'm sorely tempted to buy a tshirt. However I have one question. I live in the Ireland. Sometimes we'd have to pay customs and taxes when importing items from outside the European Union. This can be roughly 30% of the total cost of the item. I've only noticed this happening when an item is sent via a delivery company, i.e. UPS. It hasn't happened on the multitude of items (eg from Amazon, or other tshirts) when they are posted in the plain old postal system. If I were to order a tshirt, would it be sent in the post or with the likes of UPS?

I ship them via USPS -- the post -- so not a delivery company.

by **Charodei** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 5:09 am UTC

Teaspoon wrote:You mean that MÃ¶bius strip I made this morning is impossible?

Shit, sorry guys. I may have broken reality.

I want a Klein bottle. The real thing, a two-manifold in four dimensional space, not an approximation embedded in threespace. I'd really like to have a projective plane to put it on, but I just gave myself a headache trying to visualize it. Take an infinitely malleable square piece of paper, and draw arrows along the edges, pointing in opposite directions on opposing sides of the square. Now glue two opposite sides together, but twisted so that the arrows match up. That's a MÃ¶bius strip. Repeat for the other two sides, and you'll get a projective plane. I can get most of the way around, but something strange occurs at the twist. Even allowing the paper to pass through itself in three dimensions, I'm having trouble understanding what happens.

by **Heirtopendragon** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:55 am UTC

Natalie wrote:
I don't mean impossible as in can't be done. I more just meant that if it was possible to find a manufacturer

Good news. There is. These guys have told me that they will make them.

Here's the email I got back:
Dear Natalie,
We normally do not make them, but we are able to. If you give me some more
specifics about the order, I can give you some pricing. The minimum
quantity for orders of this nature is 500. If you have any other questions
or comments, please give us a call at 800-921-8661.

Thank you,
Devin Warnock
Custom Silicone Bracelets

So, it is possible.

that's Awesome! 500 is a lot though

by **Natalie** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:50 pm UTC

True, but the forum has 700 some odd people registered. Of course, only 367 of those have ever posted...

It may also be that some other company will have a smaller minimum order.

by **xkcd** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 1:23 pm UTC

Natalie wrote:True, but the forum has 700 some odd people registered. Of course, only 367 of those have ever posted...

It may also be that some other company will have a smaller minimum order.

The forums are a tiny fraction of the readers of the site; I would be okay with 500 bracelets. I might look into this, and if I do it, I'll send free bracelets to y'all for doing the research. Sound good?

by **Natalie** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:51 pm UTC

Sounds good to me.

I just got the following email from another company:

>>Thank you for your inquiry on Aero's line of rubber bands. In order to
>>give you appropriate information and samples, I have a couple of
>>questions. Would it be possible for you to give me a call? 800-662-1009
>>or 708-430-4900. Thank you again for your interest and I look forwarding
>>to speaking with you soon.
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve Rowe
>Aero Rubber Company, Inc.
>Phone: 800-662-1009

I told Steve that I was mostly just curious, but that someone else may be contacting him about these.

Cheers!

by **Tropylium** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:03 pm UTC

Charodei wrote:I want a Klein bottle. The real thing, a two-manifold in four dimensional space, not an approximation embedded in threespace. I'd really like to have a projective plane to put it on, but I just gave myself a headache trying to visualize it. Take an infinitely malleable square piece of paper, and draw arrows along the edges, pointing in opposite directions on opposing sides of the square. Now glue two opposite sides together, but twisted so that the arrows match up. That's a MÃ¶bius strip. Repeat for the other two sides, and you'll get a projective plane. I can get most of the way around, but something strange occurs at the twist. Even allowing the paper to pass through itself in three dimensions, I'm having trouble understanding what happens.

Ever seen one of those 3D models with the bottle passing thru itself? It's just like that, except it's a flat cylinder and curved thru the 4th dimension.

Personally I think a duocylinder, the un-twisted torus analog (same as the Asteroids playfield) would be neater; it'd be symmetrical and it has the curious property that it can be rolled around along exactly two perpendicular axes.

Or maybe just the grand antiprism, as long as I'm name-dropping 4D objects.

by **bluestocking** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:03 am UTC

Ooh, I hope my shirt has been shipped and that Royal Mail doesn't nick it!

Re: moebius stuff: I have a silver moebius ring, which is utterly fab. The people that make it have discontinued it, apparently, but I think there's still a few floating about. I love this ring -- brilliant design.

But it's not as cool as a WWED bracelet.

by **Binary.Tobis** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:07 pm UTC

Ok, I bought the science shirt. You are officially the first webcomic to break me.

Also the mobius bracelet sounds pretty sweet.

by **gotang** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:26 pm UTC

The bracelets sound like an awesome idea. If they get made, you can count me in! Oh and it looks like you'll be the first webcomic to break me and make me buy a shirt - I think I've got to get one of the Science t-shirts. Now all I need is some money...

by **twenty10** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:33 am UTC

what's the chance we can get some action shots of these shirts?

by **fjafjan** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:38 am UTC

I first read the previous post as "what are the chance we are gonna get some action in these shirts?"

Oh humurour missreadings how i adore thee

Painfully expensive intenational shipping tho

Is there any way to pay with a meastro card btw? :S
Curse my young age and whatnot

by **MightyMouse** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:13 pm UTC

Just set up a paypal account using the old maestro card, I did it with one and I haven't had any problems.

The international shipping isn't that much considering, and you know it's worth it

by **Heirtopendragon** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:29 pm UTC

xkcd wrote:
Natalie wrote:True, but the forum has 700 some odd people registered. Of course, only 367 of those have ever posted...

It may also be that some other company will have a smaller minimum order.

The forums are a tiny fraction of the readers of the site; I would be okay with 500 bracelets. I might look into this, and if I do it, I'll send free bracelets to y'all for doing the research. Sound good?

Yay, there is hope for creation. w00t!

by **rattlehed** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:56 am UTC

Got my shirts yesterday, sweet, thanks a heap, love em, you rule.

by **Jack Saladin** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:00 am UTC

On the subject of shirts; it is an almost disturbing fact there is a complete lack of clothing featuring raptors.

I propose something similar to this: http://xkcd.com/c87.html , or alternatively some new design designed specifically to be a design for shirts. Involving raptors.

I would buy ten.

... If I had ten torsos. As it is, I would buy one.

by **Misc** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:54 am UTC

Hi, just a word about women's sizes: if you are hesitating between two, take the bigger one, they are pretty small. I took a medium, I don't regret it, it fits, but looks like a small honestly.

I was wearing it at my birthday party, everyone liked it, it gave me an excuse to talk about the COBE experiment.

Tell me if I need to remove the image, I am so used to broadband now...

by **Verysillyman** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:54 am UTC

I don't think anyone would want you to remove the image

by **Peshmerga** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:23 pm UTC

Will post pics of "Just shy!" in size Small once I receive it

by **MightyMouse** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:41 pm UTC

I was wearing my science one in my college bar the other night when I realised that the people behind me were discussing the COBE data would count as rigged since it was normalised against a black body source. The joy of academia.

by **Jack Saladin** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:45 pm UTC

We need a post-pics-of-you-wearing-your-shirt-thread?

Also raptor shirts, damnit!

by **Misc** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 9:55 am UTC

You can get the utahraptor one from here http://www.qwantz.com/merchandise.html.

by **Jesse** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:31 am UTC

Got mine yesterday, will photo myself wearing tomorrow.

by **rik** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:44 pm UTC

I read in one thread that Ryan would be happy with someone else selling the WWED bands if they could be made, and then I've read in this thread that he's getting quotes. Now I'm confused as to what the current situation is, so let me muddy the water some more.

I've just asked a company here in the UK to quote for 250 to be made in Pantone Process Black, with the twist to be suppied 90 degrees from the writing, and the join, in any, to be 180 degrees from the writing, and that the writing should be debossed.

If they can do it, I'm expecting a cost in the range of maybe 2 or 3 GBP per bracelet. This would drop with numbers, of course, the next boundary being 500. Getting an official "hell yes we'd sell these" could be handy in dropping the price.

I'll check status again when I get a response frmo the company.

by **MightyMouse** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:18 pm UTC

Now I want the raptor one as well. Darned international postage making it hard to justify buying one at a time, I'll just have to wait for another one to come out.

/sigh

by **MightyMouse** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:22 pm UTC

Also, maybe it's too hot all year round in Australasia or the US, but any chance of getting these on sweatshirts (I refrained from saying jumpers as I'd fear being laughed at)?

by **Jesse** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:34 pm UTC

I wouldn't mind a raptor sweater.

I think in England a sweater now refers to a different item of clothing than a jumper though. Jumpers tend to be thicker and woolen.

by **Ephphatha** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:35 am UTC

I don't suppose there is any way to buy these shirts without using paypal? I have no interest in ever setting up an account.

by **Jesse** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:57 am UTC

I was once like you, but was forced to set up a PayPal account to get some cheap parts from my computer. Now it's indispensable to me and I wonder what I did without it.

xkcd

Shirts

Shirts

Gotta get a shirt

European Union

Re: European Union

moebius ring

t-shirt size

Raptor T-shirts

WWED bands...

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