As some of you reading this are most likely aware, Found Item Clothing was accidentally inspired by a late-night screening of the 80’s cult classic, Real Genius. Chris Knight, the film’s rakish and eccentric lead (portrayed by a young Val Kilmer), exhibits some real sartorial flair; every one of his assorted tees is offbeat and sui generis, a perfect distillation of his character’s personality, quirks and all. In any case, the initial success of two shirts from that flick — I Heart Toxic Waste and Surf Nicaragua — yielded two more — International Order For Gorillas and Summer Games 1984. 50 shirts (give or take a few) and three websites later, the rest, as they say, is history…
Bringing this thread full circle, then, we’re proud to announce the Roy Rogers shirt, the fifth gem from Real Genius to receive the royal FIC treatment. As the last remaining shirt from this film to be recreated and the end product of 5 years of dogged trial & error, it marks something of a company milestone. (On an aside, let’s hope that rumored sequel sees the light of day sometime in the near future, with a batch of fun new shirts in tow). We are nothing, if not thorough… extremely thorough.
What is the crazy design all about? I can’t really speak to that with any authority, though I did read online somewhere, that growing up, Kilmer and his parents were neighbors with old Roy. An homage, perhaps, to a show biz icon? Meta-commentary on the mythic American West? A tribute to the Olympic ethos? We may never know, but we can forever speculate.
As with the majority all of our projects, we’ve worked really hard to reproduce the detailing and the rich color palette (note, in particular, the rich, off-human zombie hue). Befitting of such an excellent design, Roy Rogers is printed on high-quality, white American Apparel blanks, which are soft and comfy to the touch (unlike zombies).
I leave you with a standout clip from the source material: