The business of political T-shirts

Seasonal surge: Prama printing a political T-shirt at his company in Jakarta. Prama says that his orders at least triple during election season. — The Jakarta Post/ANN

POLITICAL parties employ fresh strategies to gain new supporters and voters during each election season. One method is to promote their candidates through the humble T-shirt as a wearable advertising medium. These shirts depict the candidate’s face, campaign promise and election number.

The phenomenon is not new. In the 1980s, British fashion designer Katharine Hamnett established herself as the doyenne of political shirts.