Modern Vespa

Over in General Discussion, we had a brief moment where Modern Vespa Merch was available. Alas, it was too good to be true -- Amazon ganked all of the products I had made available in one swell foop, probably because of the word "Vespa" in our name, and on our logo.

So, the next move seemed obvious to me: make something obscure and ridiculous for the NSM crowd.

Riffing on my very favorite award, I present to you the Not-So-Modern "Ham Bet" T-shirt. Suitable for wiping down engine cases, settling wagers between friends, or just letting the world know you're weird and obscure. It's even priced at the International Standard Unit of one double sawbuck.

Available now in a wide variety of colors and sizes! But since I can only introduce one new product per country, per day via this particular merch system (don't ask) it is only available in the US. Tomorrow I can add one more country. If you're not in the US and in the unlikely event that you desperately want one of these and can't live without it, let me know in this topic and I'll tally the votes.

MV Ham Bet T-Shirt
MV Ham Bet Long Sleeve Shirt
MV Ham Bet Sweatshirt
MV Ham Bet Pullover Hoodie

Just ordered! I know how fast these Amazon deals last. 🤣

Hamazing!

I don't always place wagers, but when ham is in play, I'll get in on the action.

jess, aside from ham, would any of the other awards merit immortalization via shirtening?

Well, pass on the yellow boots...unless they offer a low-quality tee to print it on.

Would need to be a spittle stained wife beater.

I'm bummed I missed out on the MV shirt, but I'll proudly rock my NSM Ham shirt

Giggling at the word "shirtening" Gah! You read my mind! I was about to post a picture of the yellow boots in response!

But seriously, it's a fine question. Very few of the awards will stand up to being blown up and printed on a T-Shirt, and some of them I would have to obtain commercial rights in order to turn it into merch. The Ham Bet award was an easy one because I own 100% of the rights. The main hurdle was getting it blown-up to the necessary size (about 5000x5000) without looking like crap.

I would consider making a shirt for Going Plaid if there is interest -- and with the consent of Birdsnest and whoever made the artwork.

With an abnormally large pocket on the front and it has to be two colors.

That would be a no-brainer!

+1

Will dig around for the 60/8 art.

Yes yes... made fromm 2 different shirts poorly stitched together. Silver trim(read: chrome) on the neck and sleeves.

My only worry on that one is that could get taken down because it bears a passing resemblance to the Yamaha logo.

Didn't Mike P do the stickers? Maybe he has it?

Someone has got to make that shirt and wear it to a rally. Maybe print a winged Piaggio logo on it too.

Or the Danmotors run-in instructions.

Merch great idea!
Site logo and url on there anywhere? or whatever you can get away with?

People might think its some kind of old school butchery with meat instead of similar kind of thing with Vespas.

It might get be problematic (see: Yamaha logo).

Nope. Amazon Merch has already made it clear that they won't accept anything with the word "Vespa" in it. I don't see the problem with that.

Line drawing of a vespa?

Maybe sub out the tuning forks with crutches? Or kickstart levers?

Untested at this point. But the t-shirt above is the version I'm going with regardless -- it's already up and I can't change it -- only delete and start over. And since I've already had all of my previous designs unceremoniously nuked, I'm not in a particular hurry to test the boundaries further.

60/8s would be awesome!!!!

Just curious - did they provide a reason, or did they just reject all the designs containing the word "Vespa"?

Theoretically, the words "Vespa Moderna" and a cartoon image of a wasp would just be the Italian for "Modern Wasp", with an appropriate image. Nothing to do with scooters...

True, and the use of "modernvespa" in a URL is also 100% within the realm of Fair Use, but if you think Amazon give a damn about anyone's IP but their own, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

When you have minimal input in a mandatory meeting and MSPaint.

It could be better. I also considered making the conrod snapped.

I Like it. Definitely need a snapped con-rod. At least *I* do!

Maybe this?

I'm in for one in red. It goes nicely with the meat.

My ham has left the building. ETA is Friday to my front door.

We are expecting you to model for us, then.

Maybe I am missing something, or just missing obvious sarcasm. But how is that not going to infringe on Piaggio's IP? It's got the Piaggio logo right on it!

Aye, Captain. 🫡

More like this:

^^^ I like it, you are giving me ideas... eGads, I was hoping the abbreviated badge lurking within the proud wings with no Vespa mention would qualify somehow, but I can see they apparently reject whatever they please and likely now have you red flagged.

But just a quick search of Amazon shows me that if I want scooter shirt merch w/ my brand on display shows me that they have overlooked other criminals where I can get my fix.

This is a classic problem with merch vendors -- uneven application of fuzzy rules. In all the listings I've looked at (granted, not exhaustive) it seems to be that the word "Vespa" is allowed to appear in the graphic, but no mention of the word "Vespa" anywhere in the listing. This is in spite of the fact that these designs do show up when you search for "Vespa T-shirt".

So, yeah. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They didn't give me a specific reason for the removal. It might have just been because I listed "modernvespa.com" as the brand -- which seemed to me like something completely reasonable, since that is in fact our brand.

I'm frustrated too, but don't have a lot of information to go on and don't especially want to get my account permanently and completely removed.

But only the bodgy parts, not the actual remains of the vespa under it.

bodge wings
bodge crashbars
yellow boots
red horn button
glove box
chrome 5 point hub covers
chrome license frame with the flap at the bottom
...

Ham on!

Glorious.

I mean... truly.

Clothes really do make the man!

Lookin' sharp, Rob

Mine should arrive tomorrow, but I doubt I'll look that good in it.

What a Ham-bone!

That's awesome Rob

That is exceptionally ridiculous.

Which pleases me.