For this year I set out to find something really off the wall. Really different. After some searching I was forced to conclude that runners are just a very conservative bunch. It’s really hard to find a wacky running shirt. And, what wacky ones you can find typically have a decal which would be horrible because it wouldn’t breathe at all. After a bunch of internet searching I learned that it is possible to tie-dye polyester. I ordered special dyes. I had Brainsport bring me in an all white Sugoi running shirt. And, last night I made my attempts. I did two shirts.
This is shirt #1 – It’s an Adidas running shirt with black sides. I wasn’t sure what would happen with the black part of the shirt. Because of the black sides I thought some sort of tie-dye stripe would be the way to go (as opposed to a swirly pattern).
This is shirt #2 – It’s a Sugoi all white running shirt. On this one I intended to try the traditional tie-dye spiral. Thanks to Ian from Brainsport for finding this one.
The internet has LOTS Of advice on tie-dying but I had to be a little creative with these shirts because polyester has to be simmered for one hour in a dye-bath (unlike a cotton t-shirt that can be dyed in minute by simply squirting the dye right on the dry shirt).
I tied the shirts in what I thought would be decent patterns and I started with purple – I did the top half of the Adidas in purple and one half of the Sugoi. You can see in this picture that I had to rig a method to keep one half of the Sugoi shirt out of the dye-bath. I suspended it from the pot handles.
The final results turned out to be WAY better than I hoped.
Shirt #1 – The Adidas. I call this one “Purple Rain.”
Shirt #2 – The Sugoi. I call this one “Iron Spiral.”
Which one do you like best? Hating both of them is a perfectly valid point of view.
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