This collection exists because our community asked for it. People kept telling us how hard it was to find relatable shirts about living with ongoing illness and disability, all scattered across the site with no ...
This collection exists because our community asked for it. People kept telling us how hard it was to find relatable shirts about living with ongoing illness and disability, all scattered across the site with no single place to look. So we made one. Tees, jumpers and hoodies about the realities of chronic illness and disability, including classics like My Back Hurts and Surviving Purely Out Of Spite. All designed by our team and printed to order in our Sydney studio.
A lot of this range is for the spoonie community, the people rationing their energy and explaining for the hundredth time that yes, they are tired, no, sleep does not fix it. Designs about fatigue, flare days, and the specific humour that gets people through it. These are made to be relatable rather than inspirational, by people who would rather laugh about it than be told to stay positive. If you have ever survived purely out of spite, you are among your own here.
Much of chronic illness is invisible, which is its own particular frustration: looking fine while feeling anything but. Some of these designs put the invisible stuff into words, a way to say it without having to explain it again. Wearable shorthand for the things that are exhausting to keep describing. For the people who are tired of looking healthier than they feel.
The rest of the collection is about disability as identity rather than tragedy. Designs made with disabled people in mind, that treat the subject with humour and matter-of-factness instead of pity. We worked these out with our community rather than guessing, because the difference between a shirt that lands and one that grates is whether the people it is for actually had a say.
The collection runs across regular and oversized tees, hoodies, long sleeves and tote bags, all unisex, sizes XS through 5XL, printed to order on AS Colour blanks in Sydney. The blanks are soft, pre-shrunk, and chosen with comfort in mind, which matters more than usual when sensory comfort and easy wear are part of the point. They are Amfori BSCI audited, Better Cotton Initiative certified and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified. Made to order, nothing mass produced.
Spoonie is a term people with chronic illness use for themselves, drawn from spoon theory, the idea that living with illness means starting each day with a limited number of spoons of energy and having to choose carefully how to spend them. Our chronic illness collection is made with the spoonie community in mind, with designs that are relatable rather than inspirational.
They can be, with one caveat: the best gift here is one that makes the person laugh in recognition, not one that frames their illness as something to overcome. These designs are made to be relatable rather than inspirational, so they tend to land well with people who are tired of being told to stay positive. If you know their sense of humour about it, you will know which one fits.
Every design is drawn, printed and shipped from our studio in Sydney, developed together with our community rather than designed at them. We print to order on ethically sourced, comfortable AS Colour blanks, with free standard shipping on Australian orders over $85. Production takes up to 7 business days before your order ships.
