The Mission Statement

• trippytaka is an Australian owned and operated clothing label with one goal; to provide Australian car enthusiasts with top-quality mens t-shirts featuring the coolest designs of their favourite cars.
  

The Story

• For more than 20 years, we searched for top-quality men's shirts with stylish designs featuring Holdens, Fords and Valiants. We've bought the odd one here and there, only to have the shirt shrink, fade, change shape or turn to cardboard after only a few washes. It's always seemed that if you're a car nut, clothing labels don't want to know you. Not anymore.
  
  Fed up with the lack of well designed, good quality car shirts, we decided to start trippytaka.
  
  Here at trippytaka, we're not trying to sell you an identity; you already live and breathe cars. We're just trying to sell cool shirts to the people who relate to them most.
  
  You'll notice that our designs focus on the features that make each car unique. It's our goal to showcase the beauty that lies in the small details; the lines of a '60s designed grille, GTS flutes, or a GT 'shaker' scoop. True fans will recognise the origin of the designs instantly as Monaro, Falcon, Torana or Charger, but it'll take most people a while to get it. And that's the point.

The Name

• trippytaka [pronounced "trippy-tah-ka"] is a poorly spelled reference to one of our favourite shows, Monkey Magic. The cult classic, which featured a really catchy theme song and laughably bad English dubbing, had a character in it named Tripitaka, a young male priest who was apparently played by a chick. Basically, our business is named after a ladyboy from a cheesy 80s Japanese TV series. Avid fans of the show might also notice that our logo is a derivative of Monkey's crown.
  
  Further debate on Tripitaka's gender can be found here: http://tr.im/DGw6 and here: tr.im/DGwb

  

The Team

• Andrew
  Andrew is the wordsmith of the team. A motoring journalist for the last 10 years, he'll be regularly updating the blog, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter for regular updates. You’ll find interviews with race drivers and key industry people, news, in the builds, feature cars, show reportage, photography and other random entries.
• Rhea
  Rhea is the visual creative behind the shirts. As a designer, she appreciates muscle cars from an aesthetic point of view, favouring their strong harsh geometric lines over the unimpressive curves of today's cars.

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• Fatty
  Fatty is the black cat Andrew and Rhea rescued from the RSPCA. He goes by various names, including Radioactive Man, Fatnuts, Fatsticks, Black Cat, and even Tripitaka.