Buying In - (Page 11) buying in 11 apparel, and Hustler was there, too. American Chopper, the television show, had a big space, as did Fender guitars and Lowrider magazine—one of several brands that offered a working bar, live events, and DJs. Lowrider, as far as I knew, was just some specialty publication for fanatics of a particular style of car, but now sold apparel as well. Kung Fu Inc. had shirts promoting the scabrous antiauthority clip-art comic Get Your War On and the indie-chick pornography brand SuicideGirls. Old Varsity sold college-wear. An endless number of television shows and movie properties were represented, from Adult Swim to ESPN to The Redneck Comedy Hour. One of the biggest booths was stuffed with Tshirts and other apparel carrying the symbol of John Deere, the maker of heavy farm equipment. Then there was X-Lab, distributor of shirts that say things like “Fuck the Fucking Fucks.” Now that’s purple. Finally, there were T-shirts that simply advertised consumer products. Coastal Concepts had Burger King and Reese’s Cup shirts. Logotel had shirts for Kellogg’s, Hostess, M&M’s. There were Moon Pie shirts. Others had Ford, Dodge, and Chevy shirts. And if you are still imagining that you are thirsty, there were shirts for 7UP, Mountain Dew, RC, Dr Pepper, A&W root beer, Miller High Life, Corona, Guinness, Budweiser, even Hamm’s and Mickey’s. A company called Brew City offered up the “subversive” versions that assumed brand literacy in order to mock it, by way of emblems like Schitt, in the style of the Schlitz logo. Eventually, I turned a corner and was confronted with the Che booth. Here, in a fairly large and lavish display, a company called Fashion Victim was peddling to interested retailers a huge array of shirts, banners, and other items featuring the
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