It’s the most wonderful time of year. No, not Thanksgiving. Not even Saturnalia. Nope, not the new Hess Truck. It’s time for The Autopian to unveil its annual member shirt, this time with a rotary theme. If you become a new member or renew your membership this will be heading your way.
Membership is a cornerstone of The Autopian, as it provides a stable form of support that allows us to operate and avoid stuffing the page with so many ads that you can no longer read the page. It also keeps us accountable, because we care about readers more than any specific advertiser.
When we talked about launching membership it was extremely important to Beau/David/Jason that people feel like they’re getting a ton out of it. Obviously, this starts with adding great people to our team to increase the quality and quantity of our writing.
For members, this also means you get something, every year. We decided early on that Vinyl/Velour/RCL members wouldn’t just get a shirt the first year, they’d get a new design every year they’re a member. Something collectible. If you’re an existing Vinyl/Velour/Rich Corinthian Leather member and you have auto-renew enabled, you don’t need to do anything to get this badboy:
This year’s shirt celebrates automotive strangeness. In particular, the NSU Ro80 and its front-mounted dual-rotor Wankel motor mated to an unnecessarily complex transmission driving the front wheels. It’s also orange. This is important! We have an eight-year plan for shirts that’ll make collecting them worthwhile (we hope).
So, if you’re a Vinyl/Velour/RCL member and you renew, and your renewal date is after 12/7 then this is your shirt. If you have a renewal in the next week or two and are waiting on your Lego shirt (plus pin) don’t worry, that’s coming as well. In addition, from 12/7/24 to 12/7/25 our plan is to also send a special Pontiac Aztek pin (or another pin) to add to your collection.
If you’re a renewing Velour member we also designed a license plate frame that you’ll get with the pin and the t-shirt:
We are still finalizing the design of the license plate frame, but it’ll be something like this. If you want to make sure you’re going to get this, you can check your account to see if you have auto-renew enabled. FYI, if you renew as a Cloth member you won’t get a shirt/pin, but you still have access to our juicy, exclusive content. The goal is to get this merch out as soon as we can, but it’s a lot of stuff and we have to wait for all of it to show up before we start shipping.
What If I’m A New Member?
Congrats and thank you! If you’re a new Cloth annual member (here’s the rundown of all the member “tiers”), you get a year of membership for just $50, which we think is a great deal. This brings with it access to an exclusive member email, admittance to a special Discord room, and the ability to read “Member Only” posts (exclusive content) on the website.
If you become a Vinyl member ($100 a year) you’ll get all the above plus a new t-shirt, SWAG giveaways, and a members-only bumper sticker. At the Velour level ($250) you’ll get all that plus a sweet sweet badge for your car and a birthday drawing/bot from Jason. Plus Trivia nights!
At the Rich Corinthian Leather level ($1,000), you’ll get another badge, rust from one of David’s cars, extra merch drops, and the ability to get a private tour of the Autopian/Galpin car collection.
If you do join and sign up soon our goal is to ship these items before Christmas if we can, with the caveat that we can’t control the weather or random other disruptions. If you sign up you’ll also be qualified for the next big secret signup perk, which we’re currently finalizing (so if you see it in the next day or two just know that if you order today you’ll still get the special perk).
Can I Give This As A Gift? Can I Send This To Someone Who Loves Me And Ask Them To Give It To Me As A Gift?
Absolutely!
Please note that, for practical reasons, we’re only doing annual subscriptions as a gift. If you’re a commenter these should be able to be activated by you and tied to your current commenter account:
- GIFT CLOTH ANNUAL – $50
- GIFT VINYL ANNUAL – $100
- GIFT VELOUR ANNUAL – $250
- GIFT RICH CORINTHIAN LEATHER – $1,000
By the way, if anyone actually gifts RCL we will send an extra member shirt for whomever made the gift as a thank-you bonus.
That’s it! Please enjoy the new shirt and ask about membership in the comments below. If you’re a member and enjoy your membership also please chime in below! We’re always looking for feedback, too! The big thing is: We want to keep making great content for you, on a website that’s fun and easy to read.
I have to admit, I’m kinda disappointed that you didn’t put a REVVING Onan engine on the shirt!
I was guessing SAAB v4.
I feel like you guys need to do the standard Youtube car guy thing about now and offer the Aztek as a Raffle item, you get one entrance for every 5 bucks spent on merch or something.
Hah! Hmmm….
That plate frame looks good, but I just set my auto-renew to take me down to Vinyl this year. I like to support the site, but I couldn’t justify continuing $250/year while also engaging with the site less (not because of the writers, just because of my own circumstances). Admittedly, I also don’t feel like the Velour is really worth the extra $150, except feeling like I’m providing additional support for the site (which, of course, is the main point of the tiers).
I love the 2024 shirt, in principle. The reality is that the print is so thick, the shirt stands up on its own. Consquently, it’s gone entirely unworn.
Also, very shortly after joining, memberships were offered at a discount.
So … still undecided as to whether I’ll join again.
I’d love to support y’all and have something special to show for it; but, I dunno … In addition to the above, the vibe here has changed.
Hey HOF,
Interesting about the shirts, that’s the first time I’m getting that complaint Our original shirts we thought the print was a little thin so we do err on the side of having the shirts being able to last multiple washes without serious fading.
Old printer/seller of silkscreen tee shirts here. Some inks are like plastic that sit on top of the fabric. The ink will outlast the shirts but it’s uncomfortable if it covers a large area. Other inks are more like dyes that soak in and are breathable There are of course a range of inbetween inks. If you do halftone patterns or line graphics , the thick ink is less objectionable in terms of comfort.
Thick ink over thin ink areas , think Andy Warhol, works well.
For what it’s worth, I agree with Ham. I also thought the printing was thick and stiff. But I prefer the faded look over the cracked look, so I tend to prefer the thinner prints for both looks and feel. I shy away from wearing my year 2 shirt because I like the print and don’t want the thick printing to crack, mostly. (It’s entirely possible it won’t do the cracking. It’s been a long time since I was a regular graphic tee wearer, so I could be wrong about how this type of print wears.)
Most of the cracked printing T-shirts you see were printed that way, which I think looks stupid myself, but apparently my tastes are the opposite of what’s popular.
Same. I like the fade.
And, as Hugh said, the plasticky thick print can be uncomfortable. On the Autopian shirt it’s like a breastplate (at least with the 2024 design on an XS shirt).
Gaah, I just got my shipping notification, which is good, but it’s before December so it’s going to be another Lego shirt. Which is fine, but I really like the new one…
Got my 2024 shirt a month or two ago, love the colour.
Odd question but I got 2 shipment notifications. One was the shirt, the other a day or two later still says “shipping label created, waiting for pickup.” Any idea if this was a mistake or if it’ll actually ship one day.
If you got your shirt it’s probably a mistake and two labels were printed by accident.
Matt, Please share this story with Jason.
A few months ago I got into 3D printing and printed up some TPU key tags with the Autopian logo and showed them to Jason. He said they were cool so I told him about how I wanted to print some Autopian License plate frames. Then I realized my Bambu Lab X1C could not print something that large without all kinds of hassle. So I did some research and found that the Creality K2 has a large enough volume to print plate frames so I ordered one. They were on back-order so I waited until I received it today. I got all excited about how I was finally going to be able to print those frames and blow Jason’s mind with my coolness. Well, before jumping on a lengthy business call I decided to check The Autopian one more time and saw this article. I won’t describe in detail what I’m feeling right now, but just say that I’m feeling pretty fucking stupid yet again. I give up. I feel like throwing out the key tags, the Hazelnut creamer, and my membership. Jesus, I’m such a fucking fool.
Don’t feel bad! One for the front plate and one for the rear. Can you send me a photo? Also, I got another idea related to this.
Matt, perhaps we should talk. I’m actually astonished. I only saw your reply because I was going on to un-renew my membership. Like WTF guys and gals? Wouldn’t it just be easier to slap me in the face? I’m sure my reaction comes as a complete shock to you all because you never even gave it a thought. That’s exactly the point and a recurring theme it seems. I’m too fucking embarrassed to go on.
I getchya.
What about other merch for the store????
You are missing the holiday gold mine for gifts for all of us members from our significant others
I know. We’re behind on that.
Will the plate frame be MA-compliant?
I’m not sure of the exact rules, but frame needs to leave the text at the top and bottom of the plate visible.
IMO, I like the orange more than the current pinkish red.
I really love the faded red color as it’s unique compared to the standard boring tshirts colors. I hope this orange is heathered and more muted than a safety vest, else it will be relegated to the bottom of my drawer.
GT40 colors. orange and robins egg blue. very nice.
It appears Terry Tate: Office Linebacker took out Matt before he was able to finish his thoughts on this post.
I like the shirt. It’s weird. And I’m being told weird is good!
I haven’t seen the Terry Tate videos in a while. Watching those when I get home tonight.
When you kill the Joe, you make some mo!
That’s first day shit, baby!