NOVA [definition: “a sudden burst of light”]
ALL-DAY
STREETWEAR,
REDEFINED
EXPLORE
What makes NOVA different?
NOVA [definition: “a sudden burst of light”]
A t-shirt takes more abuse than anything else you own.
Sun, sweat, a hundred wash cycles, being balled up in a bag for a week. Most tees quietly give up: the neck goes wavy, the black goes grey, the print cracks.
NOVA was built backwards from that. We started with what fails, then engineered each part until it stopped failing.
One tee that does all of it.
240 GSM of combed ringspun cotton, knitted loose enough to move and heavy enough to hang straight off the shoulder. It drapes instead of clinging, and it does not go see-through in sunlight.
Reactive dye bonds pigment into the fibre instead of coating the outside of it. Sixty hot washes later the neon is still neon, not the sad grey ghost of a neon.
A 4% elastane grid runs through the body so the shirt gives where you move and snaps back where you do not. No stretched-out elbows, no dropped hem after a week.
Puff ink laid down in three passes gives the graphic real height you can feel with a thumb. It flexes with the knit rather than sitting on top of it, so it does not crack, peel or go crusty.
The neck is where a tee dies first. Ours is a separately knitted 2x1 rib, set with a twin-needle and locked with a shoulder-to-shoulder tape. It cannot stretch out along the seam, because the seam is not carrying the load.
Cheap tees are pigment-dyed: colour is glued to the outside of the yarn and washes off it. NOVA sits in a reactive bath for six hours, forming a covalent bond with the cotton. The colour is now part of the fibre.
Every metre of fabric is pre-shrunk under steam and mechanical compaction before a single panel is cut. The shrinking happens in our factory instead of your dryer, so the shirt you take out is the shirt you put in.
Knit, dyed, cut and sewn in one building running on its own rooftop array, with the dye water recovered and re-used on site. One roof means no freight between stages and nothing lost in a subcontractor chain.
Four processes, none of them cheap.
A tee that survives is not a better cotton. It is four separate decisions where the industry default is to save nine cents: the collar, the dye, the wash, and where it is sewn.
Each one adds cost. Together they are the difference between a shirt you keep and a shirt you use as a rag in a year.
This is where the $58 goes.
Not sure which tee is right for you? Here is the honest breakdown, spec for spec.
Graffiti · Unisex · 240 GSM
Measurements are the garment laid flat, in inches. NOVA is a boxy unisex cut: take your normal size for a shoulder-seam fit, size down one for cropped and roomy.
Five layers, engineered as one.
Most tees are a single knit with dye sitting on top of it. NOVA is a stack: a combed face yarn for handfeel, a reactive dye lock that bonds pigment into the fibre rather than coating it, a 240 GSM interlock core, a 4% elastane grid for recovery, and a ribbed collar backing that stops the neck going wavy.
Independently wash-tested at 60°C against a standard 180 GSM retail crew. Reactive dye bonds to the fibre, so NOVA keeps 97% of its original colour density where a coated tee has lost more than half.
Four hidden magnetic anchor points across the chest. Swap the patch, change the shirt. Nothing sewn, nothing permanent, nothing that peels off in the wash.
EXPLORE PATCHESFour magnets are sealed inside the chest panel between the core knit and the backing, so you never feel them. Patches clip on from the front and hold through a full day of movement. They come off before a wash in about two seconds.
It is a boxy unisex cut, so it runs about half a size larger than a standard fitted tee. If you want the shoulder seam to sit right on the edge of your shoulder, take your normal size. If you want it cropped and roomy, size down one.
Yes, and it is the thing we test hardest. Reactive dye bonds into the fibre rather than sitting on it. After sixty 60-degree wash cycles NOVA measured 97% of its original colour density against 41% for a standard retail crew.
It has not in testing. Puff ink is laid in three passes with a flexible base coat that moves with the knit. Wash inside out and skip the tumble dryer and it will outlast the shirt.
Under 2% in length. The fabric is pre-shrunk with a compaction wash before it is cut, so what you take out of the dryer is what you put in.
96% would buy the NOVA again.
The only tee that survived a summer of gigs.
Wore it maybe forty times, washed it hot every time because it deserved it. The lime is still the lime. My other neon tee went grey in a month.
Boxy without being a tent.
I usually hate boxy cuts on a tall frame but the length is right and the shoulder actually sits on the shoulder. Took my normal size and it was correct.
You can feel the print with a thumb.
The puff has real height to it and it has not cracked once. I did tumble dry it twice by accident, which I am told is a crime, and it was fine.