# RELOCATED

> Moving to another city is a bigger event than most occasions that get merchandise, and it gets none. A bootleg tour tee with the two places on it is the format that fits.

August 17, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/moving-away-shirt

People throw a party when someone moves away. There are speeches, occasionally a card, and then
that person gets in a car.

It's one of the larger events in a life and there's no object attached to it at all.

## Why the tour-shirt format?

Because moving cities is structurally a tour: two venues, a date, and a crowd who won't see you
for a while.

The bootleg register — arched distressed capitals, a coarse halftone image, a bowed second line —
carries exactly the right amount of self-mockery. `RELOCATED` over a halftone skyline with
`EAST TO WEST` underneath treats a life change as a press release, which is funnier and truer than
anything sincere would be.

Same reason it works for
[a wedding](/stories/wedding-party-shirts): the format's grandiosity is the joke, and
the affection underneath it is real.

## What are the two places?

The one being left and the one being arrived at, in that order.

Order matters. `EAST TO WEST`, `MANCHESTER TO LISBON`, the old area code to the new one — the
sequence tells the story and the direction is the content. A shirt with only the destination reads
as a travel souvenir; a shirt with both reads as a departure.

The more specific the naming, the better. Neighbourhoods beat cities; a road name beats a
neighbourhood.

## Who's it for?

Both sides, and the two versions are different.

**The person leaving** wears it in the new place, where nobody knows what it means. That's the
good version — it's a private marker among strangers, and the year on it does something to them
later.

**The friends staying** wear it as a joke about being abandoned, which is the funnier version and
the one that usually gets ordered in a small batch at the party.

There's no minimum, so both can exist without anybody committing to a print run.

## Is a skyline the right image?

It's the default, and usually the weakest part.

Skylines are generic — most people's relationship to a city isn't its downtown. The stronger
version swaps it for something local: the shape of the coastline, a specific building, the transit
map, the bridge, the hill everyone walks up.

That's the same principle as
[drawing the route rather than the destination](/stories/travel-memory-shirt). A skyline
belongs to a city; a specific corner belongs to the people who lived near it.

## What about the date?

The moving date, small, at the bottom.

It's the detail that converts a joke into a record. Ten years later, the joke has faded and the
date is the reason the shirt is still in the drawer — which is what happened to every tour shirt
that survived.

## Does it work for a smaller move?

Across a country, definitely. Across town, it becomes a different joke and a better one.

`RELOCATED / TWO MILES` is funnier than any long-distance version, and it's exactly the sort of
thing a group of friends would make about somebody moving to the next neighbourhood and acting
like it's an expedition.

The format is robust in both directions — grandiose about something big, or grandiose about
something trivial. It only fails if it's sincere.

## Should the friends' names be on it?

On the back, small, or not at all.

A list of names turns a garment into a leaving card, which is
[the thing this format exists to replace](/stories/farewell-gift-for-a-coworker). If the
group wants to be on it, a small back print keeps the front usable.

The front should stay a joke about a move, not a memorial to a friendship group.

## How do I get one made?

Give the two places at [JustOG](/), the date, and what image belongs to the place being left. Pick
a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order
and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop).

They threw you a party and gave you nothing to take. This is the thing to take.