The DNA of the HTMC T-Shirts

Our T-Shirts, with the HTM logo, have been produced by the club for about fifty years.  Here is the history of how they have evolved over the decades.  Shirts over the decades are in the attached photo.

Long time club member and true kupuna, Thelma Greig, was a very creative artist and photographer. She designed our first logo with Mt. Olomana in the center of the design.  She learned how to screen print and sponsored an event at the clubhouse in the 1970’s when the first T-Shirts were made.  Members brought their own T-Shirts and Thelma provided the screen which featured the club logo in a circle.  She then printed the shirts for those present.  The design was printed on the front of the shirt so that the logo could be seen when the shirt was worn.  If it were on the back of the shirt, a backpack would cover it while hiking and the idea of advertising the club would be lost.  Thelma perfected the artwork for future T-Shirts still including the Mount Olomana peaks.  

In the beginning, the shirts were printed on natural or yellow shirts.  This was recommended and followed for the first printings.  The circle logo was used.  Various commercial printing shops were used over the years.  In the beginning of T-Shirt production, we used 100% cotton shirts.  Over the years we have vacillated between 100%cotton to 50/50 (cotton/polyester), and Capilene.  This changed with the different printing companies we used and where they got the shirts.  Shirts have come from Malaysia, Sri-Lanka, El Salvador, Mexico and the U.S.A.

In the early 1990’s I got involved with the T-Shirt project.  I had been to New Zealand and went on the Milford Tract.  I liked the design on a T-Shirt I had bought there and shared it with Thelma.  She also liked the design and adapted it for the next T-Shirt printing.  It is the one with the boots under Mt. Olomana.  Thelma added more ferns to reflect our islands.  This was printed on the front of the T-Shirts.  

For a few printings, we only offered T-Shirts.  There was interest in other items so occasionally tank tops and polo shirts were planned.  When Donna Davis-Brown was President, she wanted to have hooded sweat shirts for sale and they were offered.  The Capilene shirts were available in both short and long sleeves.  The design for polo shirts featured a modified logo on the front chest and for the Capilene  a return of the circle design on the back, still featuring Mt. Olomana.  

The processing of the T-Shirt orders was done by volunteers in the club. It started with an order form in the HTM media.  A few styles and colors were listed and the buyer sent in the order to include cost of mailing if they were off island.  Then, the composite orders were contracted with a shirt shop.  The distribution was made at the trailhead or clubhouse events.  Several helpers no longer live in Hawaii.  Jennie Chadbourne holds the record for offering the most choices of shirt types and colors when she honchoed the project. 

Offshoots of the T-Shirt project were several:  Thelma adapted her original logo to be produced as a patch.  It is still produced and available today.  The Trail Clearing crew designed their own shirt and patch and had it produced  

You add to the history of your own shirt with every trail you hike.  Happy Trails!!

Joyce Oka, HTMC Member since 1969