If you were a geek and a pop-culture enthusiast growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, you would know how difficult it was to get your hands on comic-books, video games, magazines, let alone merchandise during that time.
While today’s kids do have it way more easier in terms of availability, it’s still difficult to find a store that you trust. A lot of merchants/sellers consider the geek market a cash-grab, an easy way to push badly minted merchandise at ridiculous prices without any love for the pop-culture itself.
The Psychostore Website
One of the many things Psychostore has going for itself, is that its run by a single person Ishkaran (more about him later) who loves all those obtuse references, instead of a corporation for which the T-shirt is just another number in the inventory.
This is what I think separates Psychostore from the crowd. Right from the time, when you open the Psychostore webpage, the subtle nods to various anime, video-games, tech-crunch and movies is evident.
The home page is simple and shows you the products available right away, with their designs and prices visible without any click-through required. There are no fancy overlays, and pop-ups here and as a fellow web-designer I appreciated the simple and easy design of the website.
Once you click through on a design, the page loads to show you the front, the back and the actual logo that would be printed on the T-shirt. It also gives you a very well-written and witty summary of the story behind the logo/quote on the T-shirt which would be relatable to the fans of that particular genre. There is also a more longer and much funnier detailed description, which makes for good reading, if you have the time.
The Psychostore Order
If you are in a hurry however, you can just select the size, log in /create an account, add an address and you are good to go. The T-shirt gets shipped for free (i.e. no additional shipping cost) and gives you the option of COD (Cash On Delivery) in most areas. For all the other areas, the user can opt for an Online Payment. The logistics are pretty robust and the delivery times are usually between 2-3 days even for remote areas. One of our writer lives in Wani, Maharashtra and the T-shirt arrived after 3 days of ordering (for reference Quikr does not work in Wani).
The real fun starts though when the order is placed. The custom confirmation message that Psychostore displays for its customers will bring a smile to your face so I won’t spoil the surprise for you (hint: it has something to do with Minions). On the other hand in conjunction with your normal Order confirmation mail, you will also receive a mail which contains the 1st part of a story (which I am thinking is Ishkaran’s imagination, but I maybe wrong). The story is continued every-time you place a new order. While it’s not The Dark Knight, it’s a nice touch. Something which makes it stand out from the crowd.
But that’s not all. The T-shirt arrives in a cylinder, with a special hand-written ‘Thank You’ note from Ishkaran inside and an awesome comic-book panel like cover on the outside. The T-shirt themselves are wrapped in plastic and as advertised are 100% cotton.
Then there are the prices. Each T-shirt is priced at INR 499/- only, which is a steal anyway you look at it especially considering the price of other pop-cultured themed T-shirts available in the market.
It is noteworthy that none of the T-shirts are official merchandise and rather fall under the fan-art section. Further the range of the store s currently limited to T-shirts only (of which there are 23), but Ishakaran assures me that he is on the lookout for new designs especially from Overwatch.
The site also does not offer a ‘XXL’ size in the T-shirts, something which Ishkaran is also aware of and is working towards resolving it. If that is putting you in any kinds of doubts however, I assure you I am a large guy (38 waist and 44 chest) and the XL fitted me comfortably.
The Psychostore Experience
I enjoyed the product and the experience that came with shopping from Psychostore, and I believe so will anyone who wants to hook himself up with some cool nerdy swag.
Visit Psychostore and buy some DOPE T-shirts now
NOTE: Psychostore provided Coupons to IndianNoob so we can place order for 2 T-shirts for free.
Happy to know about this. will try. thank you