All-over print dartboard shirt: three darts strike the red bull of an old board while a lamp glows in the top right corner. On the back, a trio of darts lies on a rough wooden shelf; the sleeves show dark planks.
Product description
This dartboard shirt brings the corner of an old taproom onto the fabric: a plank wall, a board that has clearly seen its share of league nights, and a single lamp giving just enough light for the last throw. Three darts sit tightly grouped in the red bull, as if someone has just closed out the round with a perfect shot. The picture covers the chest, the back and both sleeves, and it needs no slogan, number or name. Anyone who loves the game will recognize the scene straight away, because this is how it looks in countless taverns, clubhouses and basement bars.
The board fills most of the chest and is seen a little from the left, so its thick, dark rim shows along the left side, worn and covered in scratches. The segments alternate between a pale sand tone and a deep, sooty brown, while the double and treble rings switch between red and a faded olive. Fine silver wires divide the fields. The outer ring carries small wire holders but no readable numbers, only a few scratched marks. The light fields have a fibrous, cracked texture, and the whole surface looks well used. At the bottom the board reaches almost down to the hem.
The darts come in from the right and strike the center at an angle. All three points are buried in the red bull; the barrels shine silver with engraved patterns, the shafts are dark and the flights glow red with dark panels. Because they sit staggered, their flights fan out one above the other just past the right edge of the board, pointing up toward the lamp. That lamp hangs in the top right corner: a dark metal shade with a glowing bulb, seen from below. Its warm light turns the planks beneath it orange and gold, while the left half of the chest stays in shadow. This contrast between glow and darkness sets the mood, like the minutes before closing time, when the only light still burning is the lamp beside the board.
Turn the shirt around and you are still in the same room. In front of the same plank wall, a thick, rough wooden shelf runs diagonally through the lower part of the back and climbs toward the right. Three darts rest on it side by side, slightly offset, points toward the lower left and flights to the right. Here you see the barrels up close: diamond knurling and grooves in the silver, cone-shaped points and a narrow silver ring on each dark shaft. The flights share the colors of those on the chest, red and a very dark tone, but here each wing is split diagonally. Near the top right a warm patch of light falls on the wood beside a knot in the grain. The sleeves show only the dark planks with coppery highlights; one has a small round knothole, the other a large knot ringed with growth lines. Seen as a whole, the shirt reads like a single wall of timber, and color comes only from the board with its red rings, the flights and the lamplight.
Wear this dartboard shirt on league night, to a tournament at the local, at the clubhouse or on the couch when the big winter matches are on TV. It suits the regular who has a spot at the bar and keeps his own set in a jacket pocket, the captain who writes the line-up every week and works out every checkout in her head, and the basement crew that has had the same board on the wall for years. As a gift for a darts player it works for a birthday, Christmas, a promotion to the next division or as a thank-you to whoever unlocks the room every Friday. Teams can order one for everyone, so your own pub wall travels with you to away matches.
Nothing is printed until you order; then front, back and both sleeves go through the press together. It is made of polyester with a touch of elastane, with a smooth surface, a medium weight and two-way stretch. The picture reaches into the seams, and because the palette stays muted (brown, copper, sand, red and the lamp's warm yellow), it looks more like a scene from a bar than like merchandise. If you want a dartboard shirt with atmosphere instead of a punchline, this one brings a quiet evening at the board.
