93 Comments

I am sophisticated sports dad (thanks, homefield!) minoring in beer dad, pop culture dad, and concert dad.

Am I also a childless woman? Yes! Dad energy knows no bounds.

Expand full comment
author

Oh you’re a Dad, no question about it.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Gender is a social construct after all.

Expand full comment

Same energy here, sister!

Expand full comment

Lady Boatington!

Expand full comment

SIR! I came aboard on a weekend and saw I would see you again! Hey there friend.

Expand full comment

Homefield dad here.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

which category is DERTROIT BEISBOLCATS

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Endless pain with a side of irony. GO BEISBOLCATS

Expand full comment

Ooh I’ve got that one too! One of my all time favorites. Probably niche sports dad, no? They certainly didn’t run long, and that mural wasn’t very long lasting either.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Me, a list:

-Sports dad: how else can I let the world know that my team won the world series without the official shirt and matching ball cap.

-Sophisticated Sports Dad: No, I didn't go to Delaware. Why do I have a University of Delaware Band t-shirt, because I bought a subscription to this small T-Shirt company in Indiana that also supports my favorite podcast.

- Pop Culture dad: Hey, That's The Incredibles logo! I like that movie!

- Slightly Obscure Pop Culture: What is the USS Cerritos, and what is Cetacean Operations? Is he in the Navy? No, thats a Starfleet logo, he's just a Trekkie.

-Niche Pop Culture Dad: this shirt was only obtainable through a subscription or if you bought it within 24 hours after this episode aired, had a limited printing, and you only knew about it if you followed one of the creator's live blog. No one else in the world knows OSI and GCI Calamity Conference is or why you have a tshirt for it.

New category suggestion: Travel Dad! Shirt of places he's been. Like Buc-ees.

Expand full comment

Based on the number of Buc-ees T-shirts I've seen in the wild, including in the freaking DELHI AIRPORT, that is a valid point.

Expand full comment
author

This is beside the point, but I visited my first Buc-ees on the way back from vacation this summer (the one in Calhoun, GA) and I truly don't think I've ever been in a more crowded store even pre-COVID. It was like Black Friday.

Expand full comment

It's horrifying. The one on the way to Gulf Shores is always crammed overfull unless you happen by at like 2pm or 2am on a Tuesday. Gods help you if you try to go at condo check-in or check-out time...

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

*glances nervously at dedicated Homefield drawer in dresser*

Expand full comment

Who has room in the dresser for Homefield shirts? Mine took up too much room and got upgraded to the closet

Expand full comment

Polo shirt dad.

My wife has said of me that I am always, a). dressed like a cartoon character (in that I am wearing the same core outfit at all times), and b). that I am simultaneously over-dressed and under-dressed for every occasion.

Expand full comment

Dri-fit polos are the perfect shirt. Casual enough that you can wear them out and around whenever wherever, studry enough that they can withstand a fair amount of toddler abuse, and also versatile enough that you throw em on with jeans and you're not getting fired for wearing it to work

Expand full comment

A HS friend of one of my college roommates did the Doug, where he wore the same outfit every day for an entire year (shorts, vest, t_shirt, etc)

That's some weird ass shit.

Expand full comment

I mean, it does cut down on decision making, but...

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Reading this while wearing my 10+ year old UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs shirt that was purchased after I read an article about the weirdest mascots in college sports. I did not attend college there but let's be real who could pass up a shirt that had a jacked slug on the front? I guess this makes me a Sports Dad?

Expand full comment
author

It sure does. Your podcast microphone will be shipped shortly.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Ahem. Lotta Homefield - wearing let's go Terps today, Mines Orediggers yesterday. DVA tailgating - with multiple team colors! With me this getaway week: Lenny & Joe's Fish Tale 2015. A restaurant across from IKEA in CT, yummy food - deserved a Tee. I guess that is a slight off shoot of Niche Show - singular location restraurant/ place. I have a billion dive shop tees from long ago. Have a superb 17th St. Surf Shop at home. And charity runs - have a bunch of those tees. And funny things happened and some one made a shirt : Four Seasons Lawn Gritty tee for a singular moment when the world was cray.

Expand full comment

17th Street? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long, long time.

Expand full comment

So that is also a funny story. When I lived in Franklin I did not buy one because "they were too expensive". When I was back in 2018 I bought one because my ideas on expensive tee vs. wearable fun had changed.

Expand full comment
founding
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

This weekend my own father was gushing about Homefield shirts (“they are just so comfortable and the designs are hilarious”), unknowingly about to receive a new Youngstown State edition as a gift from me. I have spread the homefield gospel, yet am far away from fatherhood, I think that makes me a Sophisticated Sports Dad

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

I feel like I’m happiest in a ringer shirt without a logo, just because I don’t want to have the conversations with someone who is way more into whatever than I’ll ever be. (“Yes, it’s a Tottenham jersey, no I haven’t seen that game from ‘83, I was not alive, yes I am a fan no I don’t have strong feelings about the academy...”)

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

My wife is wearing a University of Hawaii Rainbows Homefield shirt today, and I'm wearing an Austin Peay Governor monocle shirt. Did we attend either of these institutions of higher learning? No. Will we wear other shirts this week that are not are alma mater? Yes.

Expand full comment

Go Peay!

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

I've was embracing dad life at least a decade before I ever had a kid because I've always had a drawer of free t-shirts that I find myself wearing more and more because they fit well and seem to last.

I'm talking about a Red Cross shirt after donating blood, an Earth Day shirt from some event I don't remember, the shirt launched by a mascot at the game, golf outings, fun runs, three shirts from companies that don't exist anymore. The list goes on. Slap your bank's logo on a Gildan and in the back of my head a voice will say, "Ooh, I can wear that while I do yardwork or run errands, can never have too many of those."

Expand full comment

This - I definitely fall into the "Chaos Dad" shirt grouping - but that's mostly because my shirts are all old playing/coaching shirts, shirts that were gifted to me, or otherwise free t-shirts.

So, when I go from a Kenyon baseball shirt to a Pierogisaurus shirt to a "Run, Ride, Roll 'n' Stroll" shirt, it isn't out of some sort of sense of style - that's just the next shirt that was clean in the drawer.

Expand full comment

“ He is wearing a t-shirt for a sports team, yes, but he does not actually support that particular team; he just thought the retro-styled design was really cool.”

Good morning, Homefield Apparel peeps. And never mind this vintage Goldy Gopher shirt I’m wearing.

Expand full comment
author

I’m wearing a Bevo shirt today. I don’t even like Texas.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Look. It's an anthropomorphic rock wearing a fur coat and holding a pennant. What don't you understand about it?

Plus, it's comfy.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

My UC-Irvine Anteater basketball shirt is in constant rotation.

Expand full comment

When they stop making shirts of animals surfing, I'll stop buying them. Have I ever surfed? No. Just something about the concept, I'm here for it.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Getting a knowing nod from other Dads for my band t-shirts makes me feel alive. Yes, guy in line with me to get bagels, we both dig The Mountain Goats. Have an awesome rest of your day.

Expand full comment

I am sad, a lot of my concert tees are either too small (Sorry Reba, gorgeous tee you are) or problematic as I don't fly with ideas that performer/musician espouses now, which I did not know or ask ~15-20 years back. Many of those got gone but I do have a tee shirt problem.

Expand full comment

I got similar reactions to a Kenmore Square/Fenway themed Guster shirt while in Disney World a few weeks back. It truly is an awesome feeling.

Expand full comment

I am, in order: Concert Dad, Sophisticated Sports Dad, Niche Pop Culture Dad, Sports Dad, the Slightly-Obscure Pop Culture Dad, and Chaos Dad, and if you replaced Beer Dad with Coffee and/or Record Shop Dad, it'd be in there too.

I have a lot of t-shirts, as working from home has virtually eliminated my need for anything else. I contain multitudes.

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

either chaos dad or niche pop culture dad here, given that I have a wide berth of graphic tees, like hte Cobra Dave Parker "boys boppin'" one, a stylized-as-the-Phillies "unionize the minors" tee which is about to become obsolete thanks to the minors unionizing, and the Monopoly Man as Gandalf with arms outstretched saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS GO"

Expand full comment
Sep 7, 2022Liked by Scott Hines

Here's my tip: make sure you have a absolutely *hideous* shirt that your family hates in the pile at any given time. Put it on before going out and when everyone is moaning "oh, god, dad looks like a hipster doofus," and "that saying wasn't funny back when it was new," "come on, my friends are going to be there, dad, the neck is all stretched out" etc etc then you can "compromise" and go back upstairs and put on any other comfy dad t-shirt you like: win-win.

Expand full comment
author

A shirt decoy. Brilliant.

Expand full comment