Help Joe Find the Best Shirt Ever

October 22, 2014 9:14 AM

Joe Archibold, 12, is hunting for a specific polo shirt. He has a little less than a year to find it, and he needs your help. It has blue, white and gray stripes and a blue collar, and it's pretty much the best shirt ever. Joe has the same shirt in size small and medium. He needs a large, to be able to keep intact his now five-year tradition. Joe has worn the same shirt for every school picture since second grade. (Related previously.)
posted by aka burlap (19 comments total)

It is incomprehensible that this article does not include a photo.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:23 AM on October 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

I see several school photos of Joe in his polo shirt at the very top of the article...
posted by muddgirl at 9:24 AM on October 22, 2014

Incomprehensible because it does in fact include several photos. Though they are really quite similar to one another...

damn it, muddgirl!
posted by Naberius at 9:25 AM on October 22, 2014

Here's a link with a pic.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 AM on October 22, 2014

In fact, now that the small and medium no longer fit him, he has passed them down: to his nephew, Harlan...Right now, Harlan's only 1, but Joe is certain the shirts still will look great by the time Harlan starts school. Plus, Harlan's dad already has committed his son to continuing the blue polo school pics tradition, Joe says. Now Joe needs that size large, for both him and Harlan.

If you need me, I'll be dead from cuteness over in the corner. Thanks.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:25 AM on October 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Yup. It's just their mobile version that does not have a photo. It replaces all the pictures of Joe and his shirt with a giant pic of the article's author. Weird.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 AM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, that is a pretty awesome shirt.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:26 AM on October 22, 2014

Yep, that would be the picture...
posted by Naberius at 9:26 AM on October 22, 2014

UPDATE: It appears the shirt has been found in XL.

Aw, shoot. I kinda wanted Metafilter to find it!
(sorry for photo weirdness with the link!)
posted by aka burlap at 9:27 AM on October 22, 2014 [6 favorites]

After all, a tradition is where an inside joke becomes law.

Is this a common quote? It's kind of genius.
posted by rouftop at 9:31 AM on October 22, 2014 [13 favorites]

That story made my day.
posted by elvissa at 9:41 AM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

This kid needs to learn to straighten his collar.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:53 AM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Metafilter - because the blue is the best shirt ever.
posted by Chuffy at 10:01 AM on October 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Aw, see, and passing it down to the nephew is what seals the deal. Don't just find the L for Joe, find it for the future of the blue shirt class photo.

Here I sit trying to wrap up a proposal to the Board of Regents to please give me some funding, and this kid is putting me to shame with that ask. He's better at this than me.
posted by rlk at 10:37 AM on October 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

It'd be neat if whatever company actually made the shirt saw this, and thought, "Wow, this would be a great PR stunt, to set this kid up with sized shirts for life."
posted by xedrik at 11:47 AM on October 22, 2014

Im setting an Outlook reminder for this story in 5 more years when Joe graduates, Class of '19
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:47 AM on October 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

I was once able to provide a similar service... I work for Nike, developing new models of shoes. One "on the side" project I've been lucky enough to do was creating a special shoe for a 10-year-old boy as part of a long-running fundraiser (for the past 10+ years, Nike has worked with kids from the Doernbecher Children's Hospital here in Portland, letting them design custom shoes, actually bringing them into production, then selling and donating all proceeds to the hospital... ~$8 million dollars raised so far.)

Anyway, one of the main stories with Cooper's design revolved around a favorite pair of shorts he'd had. Nothing special, just a cheap pair of brown plaid shorts... but it was one of those things he was always wanting to wear, even digging it back out of the dirty-clothes hamper. He'd finally worn them out, and they'd made their way into the family's rag pile. But once this shoe-design opportunity came, they dug the torn-up shorts out of the pile and cut out a swatch of material. You can see the pattern prominently featured in his concept sketch, along with the swatch.

Our efforts to find a similar material (that was suitable for shoemaking) were fruitless, but we were able to replicate it by scanning and extending the original, and printing this onto a better material. I was pretty satisfied with the final results.

The shoes were officially unveiled at a fancy event, where the world gets to see them for the first time. Cooper himself had already gotten to see them, but we had one more surprise for him and his family... I'd reached out to some coworkers on the apparel side of things, and gotten new shorts made for him. Not just one pair to fit him now, but additional pairs in increasing sizes all the way up to adult XL! Brought the house down... one of my favorite career moments... good times.
posted by rodeoclown at 2:04 PM on October 22, 2014 [137 favorites]

That's fantastic, rodeoclown.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:19 PM on October 22, 2014

I did something similar- once I realized that the shirt I had my passport photo taken in had started to fray at the edges, I put it up in the closet and only take it out for when I need an ID photo taken, and when I travel out of country. I figure it will help get me through custom/border crossings a little faster, or at least give the gendarmes a good chuckle as they throw me into a hole somewhere.
posted by mcrandello at 4:31 AM on October 23, 2014 [3 favorites]