They make absinthe, maple bacon and wasabi-ginger lollipops. No one will be "hard to shop for" after you discover this place.
The site itself is the world's most searchable anything ever - search by color, style, price, date, whatever. It makes Google look like the Dewey Decimal System. But the content is what's even more awesome - handcrafted everything, from bags and clothes to paper products to food to toys to whatever. You can even advertise customized things or request something with their "alchemy" tool. My favorite section is "geekery" - check out the jewelry, the steampunk and molecular stuff is awesome.
If you've seen someone with a superawesome, not-cliche'd shirt, chances are good it was a Woot! purchase. Their stuff is irreverent and intelligent, and the way the shop is set up - a daily Woot! only available for one day, plus the ongoing derbies - adds excitement and suspense. Yes, they've made online t-shirt shopping exciting and suspenseful. If only they wrote calc books too. Also, reading their job applications/descriptions makes me want to work for them.
I first found Rise Up! apparel in a store in Moab, a town where Mormons and hippies coexist peacefully. The profits go to charities that help children in third-world countries, which I think is pretty neat.
No, it's not the Discovery Institute's gift shop. It's more t-shirts. If you think conspiracy theories, fundamentalist Bible interpretations, or old-fashioned superstitions are amusing, you'll love these. They also sell SCIENCE! shirts too, which are awesome as well.
I really wanted a cityscape messenger bag for my laptop case, but the price was a little out of my range. Still, her stuff is fantastic (sperm and ovum coin pouch? YES.)
A little side note about American Apparel: A lot of independent t-shirt online stores print on AA stuff. I know some people refuse to buy AA because of Dov Charney's reputation for being a total skeeze, and I understand not wanting to fund such skeezery, but I am torn. AA is sweatshop-free, and their special brand of worker-mistreatment must be viewed as more "voluntary". With Charney's reputation so public, anyone who works there anyway has made a choice to enter that environment, whether or not I think that environment should exist or be tolerated to begin with. So by linking these stores, I am not supporting the AA boycott, because I prefer sexist treatment of voluntary employees to sweatshop labor. I will, however, take this opportunity to say I do not condone Charney's behavior. I also don't like their ads.
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