The Story of theGecko Beach Design:A major seller at surf shops, Nordstroms, Macy's and more -- we ran different versions of Gecko Beach for over 10 years, as it was one of our best sellers. The design itself was hand-drawn -- and it's one of the things that really makes the original Gecko Designs so different. We honestly believe that through the process hand drawing the art (versus creating it digitally on a computer in a few hours) the small imperfections, which helped to capture the soul of the art. The hand drawn element captures "The Soul" of the artist.
Back then, the artist would go surfing, draw a little, smoke a little, surf a little, draw a little -- and wind up with their final sketch. The process would take over a week. Then, the artist would send the design via FedEx (the days before email). Gecko HQ 2 in California would receive the art, potentially make some notes or recommendations (changes to colors, etc) over the phone, and then Fed-Ex it back to the artist, where they would surf a little, draw a little, etc. -- then send it back with the changes made.
Gecko Beach is one of the Gecko designs that worked on EVERY color shirt. For our first go-around this time, we added it to black, white, grey and denim shirts for an extra "neon-pop!" Gecko Beach went through a 7 flash process, (a classic/retro shirt printing style that is not used often these days, because it is a more expensive printing process -- but it's what gives these shirts an all "new" dimension of color. People are so used to getting shirts "printed on demand" -- that these days we are all used to less quality and less color in order to produce shirts cheaper and faster. Not at Gecko! We spare no expense to make it EXACTLY the way you remember!
Gecko Beach Long Sleeve Tee Iced Mint (Blacklight Reactive)
Regular price
$34.95
/
17 in stock
Iced Mint Pigment Dyed Long Sleeve Shirt. 100% Cotton
BLACKLIGHTREACTIVE!
The Story of theGecko Beach Design:A major seller at surf shops, Nordstroms, Macy's and more -- we ran different versions of Gecko Beach for over 10 years, as it was one of our best sellers. The design itself was hand-drawn -- and it's one of the things that really makes the original Gecko Designs so different. We honestly believe that through the process hand drawing the art (versus creating it digitally on a computer in a few hours) the small imperfections, which helped to capture the soul of the art. The hand drawn element captures "The Soul" of the artist.
Back then, the artist would go surfing, draw a little, smoke a little, surf a little, draw a little -- and wind up with their final sketch. The process would take over a week. Then, the artist would send the design via FedEx (the days before email). Gecko HQ 2 in California would receive the art, potentially make some notes or recommendations (changes to colors, etc) over the phone, and then Fed-Ex it back to the artist, where they would surf a little, draw a little, etc. -- then send it back with the changes made.
Gecko Beach is one of the Gecko designs that worked on EVERY color shirt. For our first go-around this time, we added it to black, white, grey and denim shirts for an extra "neon-pop!" Gecko Beach went through a 7 flash process, (a classic/retro shirt printing style that is not used often these days, because it is a more expensive printing process -- but it's what gives these shirts an all "new" dimension of color. People are so used to getting shirts "printed on demand" -- that these days we are all used to less quality and less color in order to produce shirts cheaper and faster. Not at Gecko! We spare no expense to make it EXACTLY the way you remember!
Gecko World - SeaFoam Green - Classic Fit Long Sleeve Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
100% Ring Spun Combed Cotton
Classic Fit
Pigment Tee (A heavier, thicker cotton.)
Originally printed in 1989, we brought it back as a limited edition tribute to the great Eddie Van Halen!
100% Original Hand Drawn Artwork (The detail is crazy!)
Original unique front pocket logo design.
Over the years Van Gecko quickly became a cult classic... ...partly because people love Van Halen... partly because people just loved the hand-drawn design... and partly because nowadays, it is REALLY RARE to find.
We were not planning on remaking this one, but last week when we heard of the passing of Eddie Van Halen, it hit all of us pretty hard... and we thought we would do something RAD as a tribute.
"Primitive Gecko" Sea Foam Green, Double Puffed Ink Long Sleeve Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
6 in stock
Using our original retro printing methods, we created a Double Puffed Ink version of Primitive Gecko for a classic, authentic & EXTRA retro puffy 80's graphic!
100% Cotton
Pigment-Dyed Sea Foam Green -- The Primitive Gecko design looks AMAZING on this color! The contrast of deep hot pink pocket logo and the deep 80's green create unique "feel good" colorway.
"Primitive Gecko" 80's Berry, Double Puffed Ink Long Sleeve Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
Using our original retro printing methods, we created a Double Puffed Ink version of Primitive Gecko for a classic, authentic & EXTRA retro puffy 80's graphic!
100% Cotton
Pigment-Dyed 80's Berry -- The Primitive Gecko design looks AMAZING on this color! It's a super rad and unique color-way that you won't stop wearing and it goes with sooooo many combos!
Gecko Surfari - ELECTRIC MANGO - 80's Double Puffed Ink Long Sleeve Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
6 in stock
One of our most popular "secret shirts" colors to date -- "The Electric Mango" -- is BACK! For the first time ever in LONG SLEEVE & Double Puffed for those chilly winter days! It's not a weird "construction orange" -- it's a super bright 80s neon orange that is perfect for anyone longing for the old school 80's look and feel!
ABOUT GECKO SURFARI - PUFFED-INK, ELECTRIC MANGO, ONE-OFF
Gecko Surfari is a design that we used early on in our relaunch and it sold out in every color and release that we had. We only re-released Gecko Surfari this time, because it's such an iconic design from the 80s, that we wanted to use it while printing our rare, limited edition, color-changing HYPERFLASH shirts -- but the design looked soooooooo good (better than it ever had before, now that our retro printing system is all tuned up and humming, like it was way back when) that we thought we'd make the nostalgic Gecko Fan's happy with this long-sleeve one-off.
WHY THIS PUFFED-INK SHIRT OOZES WITH NOSTALGIA LIKE NON-OTHER
This shirt is "DOUBLE puffed" for the first time ever, which gives it a distinct quality that I personally haven't seen or experienced since 1985, when I was 6 years old --- it is saturated with nostalgia.
When I first saw this new "puffed" reprint of Gecko Safari that Team Gecko assembled -- this sounds crazy -- but I honestly almost started to cry of happiness, because I was struck with memories that I didn't even know I had from long ago. I was blown away!
Specifically there are 2 details about this shirt that personally struck me. The first was the detail in the color on the title "Gecko Safari." The color we used is an accidental corral color -- we didn't do it on purpose, and may not be able to reproduce it again -- the paint just hadn't totally mixed yet -- so, it was a happy accident and it's a rare color that I used to love, but don't see much of on shirts anymore.
The second detail is the depth of the ink around the Gecko's sunglasses. It is so unique and I literally had a flashback to 1st grade! I remembered having shirts with graphics that were so puffed, I would just sit at my desk and stare at the shirt all day and poke at the "3-Dimension" quality, stretching and squishing the ink, wondering "How did they do that?" It brought up all sorts of happy memories about mom and that time of my life that I thought I had forgotten about. If I was to have known that flash forward 34 years, I'd be working with the ORIGINAL Gecko Hawaii crew, it would have blown my mind!
THE MOST AUTHENTIC 1980s SHIRT MADE IN 2020:
CREATING 27 LAYERS OF DETAILED, QUALITY, RETRO, PUFFED INK, COLOR & DIMENSION
To go deeper into the quality of how this shirt was produced -- we used what we call "The Monster." It's a huge screen printing machine that has over 18 stations. THIS VERSION OF GECKO SURFARI USED 12 STATIONS! Each station layers another layer of ink and is "flashed" -- a process that used high density light to dry each layer in seconds. Nobody does this anymore for several reasons:
1. These machines are expensive.
2. People generally print using a printer and print on demand.
3. Even if a company had one of these machines, they generally don't have hand-drawn artwork that requires so much detail. Plus 12 layers of puffed ink can get EXTREMELY expensive, because it uses a lot of electricity, ink, and takes a couple of people to prep it.
HOW TO PERSONALIZE YOUR PUFFED INK SHIRT TO MAKE IT LOOK VINTAGE
1. This shirt is "Pigment Dyed." Pigment dyed shirts have a unique quality as they are extra colorful and bright to start, but the more you wear them and wash them, the more they begin to fade. If you wear it a lot first before washing it, the fade will happen in the areas you naturally engage with the most. If you wash it after one wear, the fade begins to happen along the stitching of the shirt.
2. These shirts are 100% cotton, so they shrink just a very tiny bit. That causes the ink to move with the fabric... but the ink doesn't shrink, so that is when the puff can raise even higher, or can be "pulled and stretched" and start to crack. The more you crack it, the puffed ink can begin fall and break off, giving it that super vintage look and feel -- the kind that "digitally printed" shirts try to duplicate, but looks super fake vintage.
3. That being said, Gecko Hawaii uses the top of the line inks, so these shirts won't crack for along time unless you pull and stretch them, or wash them over and over again 10 times in a row after each wear.
What you're left with is probably one of the most authentic mid 1980s puffed-ink reproductions on the market, using an iconic hand drawn design from the 80s, on a shirt color that was super 80s, printed with the same machines from the 80s, by the same team from the 80s!
THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM SHIRTS IN THE 1980s IS THAT IT WAS PRINTED IN NOVEMBER 2020!
Gecko Blend - Light Purple- Puff-Ink Long Sleeve Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
26 in stock
ABOUT GECKO BLEND LIght Purple- PUFFED-INK, PIGMENT ONE-OFF
Gecko Blend is a design that we used early on in our relaunch and it's been sold out for months. We only re-released Gecko Blend this time, because it's such an iconic design from the 80s, that we wanted to use it while printing our rare, limited edition, color-changing HYPERFLASH shirts. We chose the light purple color, because in the late 80s when this design first came out, light purple was one of the most popular colors for men and women -- and now, it's coming back into style BIG TIME! We also added a puffed front shirt logo in the day glow neon red puff!
WHY THIS PUFFED-INK SHIRT OOZES WITH NOSTALGIA LIKE NON-OTHER
This shirt is "puffed" for the first time ever, which gives it a distinct retro quality that is VERY hard to find--- it is
saturated with nostalgia.
\HOW TO PERSONALIZE YOUR PUFFED INK SHIRT TO MAKE IT LOOK VINTAGE
1. This shirt is "Pigment Dyed." Pigment dyed shirts have a unique quality as they are extra colorful and bright to start, but the more you wear them and wash them, the more they begin to fade. If you wear it a lot first before washing it, the fade will happen in the areas you naturally engage with the most. If you wash it after one wear, the fade begins to happen along the stitching of the shirt.
2. These shirts are 100% cotton, so they shrink just a very tiny bit. That causes the ink to move with the fabric... but the ink doesn't shrink, so that is when the puff can raise even higher, or can be "pulled and stretched" and start to crack. The more you crack it, the puffed ink can begin fall and break off, giving it that super vintage look and feel -- the kind that "digitally printed" shirts try to duplicate, but looks super fake vintage.
3. That being said, Gecko Hawaii uses the top of the line inks, so these shirts won't crack for along time unless you pull and stretch them, or wash them over and over again 10 times in a row after each wear.
What you're left with is probably one of the most authentic mid 1980s puffed-ink reproductions on the market, using an iconic hand drawn design from the 80s, on a shirt color that was super 80s, printed with the same machines from the 80s, by the same team from the 80s!
THE ONLY THING THAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM SHIRTS IN THE 1980s IS THAT IT WAS PRINTED IN NOVEMBER 2020!
Forbidden Wall - Black Long Sleeve, Puff Ink, Pigment Tee
Regular price
$34.95
/
9 in stock
100% Heavyweight Ringspun Cotton
Pigment Dyed & Retro Puff Ink Graphics
The Forbidden Wall "Classic Black" Long Sleeve is the perfect winter shirt. Great for layering, thick, soft AF, black shirts always look hardcore/rad, the puff and neon have an intense retro color pop, and it literally goes well with EVERYTHING -- especially some crisp jeans. It will most likely turn into one of your "go too" shirts -- because it's cool, tough, not too overtop, but at the same time it grabs attention.
