The Story Behind 'The Climber' Tee — Designer's Notes
This is the first of an ongoing series we’re going to do about the slogans in our catalog — where they came from, what we were going for, and the design choices that landed each one on a tee. Up first: The Climber Tee, which has been on the brand from day one and is still the piece our friends ask about most.
Where the slogan came from
“The Climber” started in a group chat — the same kind of unhinged 2am group chat you’ve definitely been in if you’ve ever lived in NYC and dated. Someone in our group had just exited a situation with a guy named (we’ll change this) Marcus who lived on a notable upper-floor walk-up in Bushwick. Someone else replied “is he climbing the social ladder, climbing the building ladder, or climbing your particular ladder right now?” The whole thread spiraled. By the end of the night, half a dozen of us had been re-categorized as “climbers” of various definitions, and the term stuck.
What we liked about “Climber” was that it does the same thing in three different registers at once — career ambition, social ambition, romantic ambition, and a fourth we won’t put in print. The shirt works whether you’re closing a Grindr conversation, closing a deal, or climbing a fire escape on a Tuesday because you forgot your keys. It’s specific and unspecific in exactly the right ratio.
The typography decision
We went back and forth on how to set “The Climber.” The early drafts had a thinner, more delicate weight — almost editorial, like it was the cover of a queer-lit magazine. We killed that direction because it read too apologetic. The point of the slogan is that it’s confident; the typography needed to match.
The version that shipped uses an Oswald-derived display weight that sits heavy and tall on the chest. The “The” is significantly smaller than “Climber” — about 35% the height — so the eye lands on the verb first. We let the kerning sit slightly tighter than default because tight kerning reads more aggressive, and “The Climber” should read aggressive. The print is centered front, sized so the slogan takes up roughly the upper third of the chest area. From across a Bushwick warehouse, you can read it. From across a brunch table, you can read it. From across a subway car, you can read it.
The placement choices
This is the kind of decision that designers obsess over and most customers don’t think about consciously, but it’s one of the more important ones. We tested:
- A small left-chest mark (rejected — too apologetic, looked like a corporate uniform).
- A pocket-sized chest print (rejected — same reason).
- A back print only (rejected — the slogan needs to land when you walk toward someone, not just past them).
- A full-front bleed (rejected — looked like a band tee, lost the typography refinement).
- The center-front placement we shipped (kept — reads cleanly at distance, doesn’t fight with layered jackets, photographs well from the front).
The current placement is a deliberate compromise between “loud enough to read across a dance floor” and “subtle enough to layer under an open denim shirt without disappearing into the fold.” That layering use case mattered to us because Bushwick rooftop weather is unpredictable and most of our customers are layering by 11pm.
The base garment
We print The Climber on Bella+Canvas ring-spun cotton, the same base we use across the BLA tee line. We chose this for three reasons:
- Print quality. Direct-to-garment printing works best on cotton-rich fabrics, and ring-spun cotton holds the saturation we want without a heavy hand on the print itself. The slogan should feel like it’s part of the shirt, not stuck on top of it.
- Wash durability. Bella+Canvas blanks survive 30+ wash cycles without losing shape or fading the print materially. We wear-test our own pieces, and The Climber holds up.
- The drape. The shirt sits cleanly on a chest without clinging weirdly. Size up if you want oversized; the cut is true to size for a flattering, slightly-relaxed fit.
We’re print-on-demand, so every Climber Tee is made the moment you order it at a certified Printful facility. No deadstock, no warehouse, no fast-fashion guilt.
The ideal Climber Tee outfit
We’re going to give you the recipe because part of the fun of these design notes is being explicit:
- The Climber Tee, true to size or one up if you want oversized.
- High-waisted denim or cargo shorts, depending on season.
- White or off-white sneakers, beat-up Vans, or slip-on canvas. Slides if it’s August and you’ve made peace with August.
- A trucker hat (preferably the Sparkle Limited Edition if you want to go full BLA).
- An open denim shirt or camp shirt as a layer for transit weather.
- A chain. One chain, not a stack.
Wear that combination on a Saturday in Bushwick or a Sunday brunch in Hell’s Kitchen and report back to us. We’ll be wearing the same thing.
What’s next in this series
We’re going to keep doing these — designer’s notes for The Wide Open Tee, The Bottom Line Sweatpants, The Sprinkle line, and the Limited Edition drops as they come up. If there’s a specific piece in the catalog you want a story behind, the brand inbox at hi@bottomlineapparel.com is open. The whole catalog is at bottomlineapparel.com, and The Climber Tee specifically lives here.