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Closest Thing We'll Get to Seeing ID Sketches on a T-Shirt: Patent Drawings, Courtesy PatentWear

By Rain Noe - November 30, 2012

in Object Culture | Accessories

I loves me some patent artwork, and so does a company called PatentWear. The California-based company, which has quietly been around for nearly 20 years but has just started selling online, takes some of history's more interesting product design patent drawings—bike derailleurs, climbing gear, firearms, tools, toys, musical instruments, you name it—and prints them up on T-shirts.

Each of our designs takes as many as forty hours to produce, from initial research through the design and art production phases, and finally, to printing. We use an eco-friendly water-based ink process that is long-wearing and, with a with a slightly muted tone, it perfectly captures the essence of our vintage patent art designs—some of which are based on patents that date as far back as the early 1800s.

As you can see the linework has been gussied up with color to give it some pop, and the results are pretty catchy. Funny to think that at one point in the products' development process these drawings were jealously guarded secrets, and now you can parade around with them plastered all over your torso for 22 bucks.

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Mark Nowotarski (patent agent)

11 years ago

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Very cool. The Campy derailleur brings back fond memories of bike touring in high school..... sigh.
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db

12 years ago

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Interesting they would pick the french patent for Campagnolo's Gran Sport derailleur. The first was issued in 1949 in Italy for the twin cable version like in the French patent. He later got another Italian patent in 1951 for the single cable version, which is the derailleur used by Fausto Coppi to win the 1952 Tour de France.
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