The Pokémon hype is sky-high recently due to the world premiere of Detective Pikachu in theaters. Aside from the great praise of the successful live-action Hollywood movie adaptation, Uniqlo, a popular Japanese clothing retail store, held Global T-Shirt Design Competition in which this year’s theme is centered on this popular growing franchise. The winning designs will be produced as part of the company’s line of limited-edition graphic shirts.
The competition collected more than 18,000 entries. The 24 lucky winners and their winning designs were then announced to the public. Each entry was carefully judged by the following key people: Nigo, Uniqlo UT Creative Director, Tsunekazu Ishihara, The Pokemon Company President and CEO, and Ken Sugimori, Game Freak Inc. Managing Director. These limited edition shirts will be released in Japan retails stores this summer.
Check out the awesome designs that made it. Who knows, these designs might hit international retail stores soon!
Runner Up is Mizukilobyte (Japan) – Unown (will only be sold for Men’s sizes)
Third Place goes to Emily (U.S.) – Featuring Alolan Exeggutor and Pikachu in a summery vibe design. (sold for women and kids’ sizes)
Other designs that made it are the following:
Imomushi from Japan. This design will only sold in kids’ sizes.
Chan Man Ho Henry from Hong Kong. Only exclusive as kids’ wear.
Gary Chen from Taiwan. Only available for women and kids.
AJ Hateley from U.K. Only available for kids and men sizes with different color options.
MiekoNeko from Hawaii.
Kevin from South Africa
HVNN from the Philippines
CTRLD from the Philippines
Summie Lee from Hong Kong
kodai from Japan
Dana from the Philippines
Ayumu Kato from Japan
MIH from Japan
Rensoconese from Argentina
Liezl Ronquillo from Australia
Kariki Hajime from China
Nimbus from Peru
Ned Garrett from Australia
Cody Cearly from Denmark
Lee Jaesung from Korea
CKien Yap from Malaysia (only be made for men and kids’ sizes)
The shirt design that won first place in the competition is the one titled “Ocean King” by Li Wen Pei from China. The winning design will also be available as apparel in the latest Pokémon games.
While the winning design seems quite awesome, there is a bit of controversy as the said entry was reported to have already been used by the contestant as a smartphone design and sold as a counterfeit shirt design on the market. If these claims were true, his design might be disqualified as Uniqlo states in their competition rules that all designs must not have been published or sold previously.
We can’t wait to see these shirts out in Uniqlo stores very soon!
Source: Soranews
