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Websites

Alternativeapparel.com
Founder Greg Alterman began hawking shirts out of his car, and today his online shop boasts 69 preshrunk varieties for women, and 30 for men (starting at $11). Though the brand’s moniker bears some resemblance to another tee retailer, his site carries a wider range of motif-bearing staples such as camouflage prints and houndstooth designs for girls and guys ($24). Their eco-friendly line Alternative Earth touts organic cotton and recycled polyester spun into heather grey V-necks and hooded tees ($24–$38).

Barkingirons.com
Named after a 19th-century slang term for pistols, this design collective crafts T-shirts (starting from $45) that harken back to the forgotten backstory of Manhattan’s underbelly. And its NYC-centric pieces are often sartorial history lessons in themselves. To wit: The all sorts long-sleeved V-neck ($45) was inspired by a Bowery dive where unfinished drinks were added to a can so that patrons could pay a penny for a glass of the leftover concoction. Though these vintage-feeling items are sold at high-end spots like What Goes Around Comes Around, this Web boutique stocks past editions marked down 25 percent.

Cafepress.com
Yeah, we’re sure you’re tired of your friends bugging you to buy crap they’ve designed on this online marketplace. But cafepress.com does carry gazillions of designs (text, graphics, cartoons, photos, etc.) that can be printed on a shirt, along with 20 quirky categories, including geek and technology, for wares by sellers other than your MySpace buds.

80stees.com
There was a time when our biggest concern was whether Gargamel could outwit Papa Smurf, or if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would ever realize they were taking orders from a giant rat. Ah, youth. Founder Kevin Stecko caters to our nostalgic yearnings with a line of tops inspired by ’80s pop culture (starting at $10) like Pac-Man ($20), the faux-vintage MTV insignia ($28) and original hair-metal band Mötley Crüe ($20).

Sharpshirter.com
Bethesda, MD-based Dan Lachman supplies tees for national apparel chain Up Against the Wall and sells his own collection at this website, where his artful array of designs ($22 for men, $23 for women) change every two months. The subtle, innovative graphics, dreamed up by an international roster of 16 designers, range from a bug’s exoskeleton to paper planes soaring, then plummeting from a leafless tree.

Tees.com
You won’t find the cutesy, contrived designs that seem to plague every tee emporium at this Illinois-based site, but rather sophisticated, smart illustrations rendered in soft cotton blends. New tees come in every week—the current crop includes a vintage Buddha bust and a politically charged gun-shaped American flag (both $20).

Tee-zone.com
For the past 24 years, Soho boutique BasicBasic has been an under-the-radar source for tailored tees. Its website, launched in 1999, carries even more styles than its brick-and-mortar digs. Log on to snap up unbelievably soft threads ($24–$86) from Splendid and budget finds by LAmade.

T-gallery.com
Though the designs tend to be canine-centric at this oddball online retailer, other categories include whimsical Norman Rockwell images and environmentally conscious themes. The more preshrunk crew- and scoop-neck tees ($10–$14) you order, the more you save, since you’ll nab 10 percent off a pair of shirts and 15 percent off when you buy six.

Threadless.com
Through an ongoing call for submissions, this online T-shirt community allows folks to upload avant designs that are voted upon by members and visitors. A percentage of submissions are selected for printing (winners receive a cash prize) and sold online (from $12). Not only are you supporting indie talent, but you’re guaranteed that no one will be wearing the same tee as you on the subway.

T-shirts.com
If you can’t decide among the thousands of vintage, music, novelty and ’80s-inspired tops available at this website, you can simply create your own. The user-friendly site makes personalizing a shirt easier than picking one up at a store, allowing you to browse or upload your fave images. The basic option snags you a Hanes Beefy-T made from 100 percent preshrunk cotton, while other styles offer Hanes and American Apparel canvases.