I believe what we’re witnessing is this phenomenon wherein people see it fairly easy to buy into that nerd lifestyle. By definition, it’s a bit of a ragtag confederation of disparate individuals and elements, and as such the “secret handshake” ain’t so secret. Nerds are beginning to represent a sort of punk rock-flavor brand of anti-hip that is almost bulletproof. With geek chic, anything that’s nerdy marks the conspicuous consumer as bearing a keen self-awareness as an outsider, while anything that’s cheesy can be easily laughed off as ironic. It’s a sub-culture that is almost uniquely accessible; anyone can sit at the geek table.

But here’s my question: Who are the posers trying to convince that they have nerd coin—nerds, or non-nerds? What’s the benefit of convincing nerds you’re one of them, and is this different from the benefit of convincing others you’re kind of nerdy?

Tela:
Good points, and I love the Bohr model anecdote. (But if it’s good enough to tattoo onto Dr. Manhattan’s forehead, it’s good enough for me.)

Church:
Also a good point. Hence we see a disproportionate number of stories about sci-fi coming up on (not-officially-geeky) news aggregators, and why there is more information on Wikipedia about the X-Men than about many foreign nations’ governments.

Re #1: There is a difference betweeen visibility and sales, at least to some extent, and it’s hard to say for sure without knowing sales figures. My feeling is that gaming shirts are a big chunk of the market, but some of what is driving that is general crossover between computer geek and gamer geek. Gamer geek t-shirts also frequently have a more aesthetic, bright color / logo type of look, which is also more accessible and popular.

Re #2: “User generated content” or “crowdsourcing” is obviously a big part of the Web 2.0 trend, where websites of all persuations are trying to engage their readers / customers / users by providing something more interactive. I think this pops up more and more now as a general theme and I don’t know that geek t-shirts are ‘extra’ suited for this trend more than other topics. I think however there are many different levels of approaching this… hardcore users will always make suggestions whether or not there is an ‘official’ mechanism for doing so. On the other end, a site like Threadless is intrinsically structured around providing an interactive experience to users around contributing and rating. In the middle of that range, this type of thing can often run along a double-edged sword.. either not enough participation to make it worthwhile, and/or turning off designers by coming off with too much of a “work for hire” feel.

Re #3: Very true. My feeling is that this is actually a cross-over between what I would call “retro 80’s”, which has been popular for some time now, and the early days of the computing and gaming eras, like Atari and so on. I think the 80s nostalgia is big now amount younger people who didn’t live it the first time around, and additionally, ‘geek’ is a lot less negative to them as a label in general.

Re #4: Speaking from the science side of things, I think there is some crossover but not too much yet. Obviously the ‘computer/gamer’ side of geek far outnumbers the science side thus far, just in terms of general accessibility and the number of people who participate as part of their professional lives vs. hobbies. As for ‘timelessness’, there was a funny anecdote on one of those science tattoo discussions. Apparently a physicist got a retro-style atom tattoo on his leg, and the next day was playing on a sports team with other scientists. Someone approached him and said, “the Bohr model? Please.” or something to that effect. I thought it was pretty funny to get dissed for having the ‘wrong’ atomic model tattooed on your leg.

At the same time, these things serve as a cultural barometer; the fact that I’m not the only guy with a D20 tat, not to mention the fact that others with them actively sought me out, really says a lot about the social cohesion that these things afford. Sure, they can be a shameless cash-in for those not in the know who simply want a little of that nerd coin, but they can also serve as touchstones or, perhaps more importantly, personal affirmations of one’s inherent geekitude.