Zero Balance: The Print About Going Anyway

In this article

• What is on the Zero Balance print
• What are the coordinates on the Zero Balance print?
• How to read a coordinate pair, if you want to
• Why Zero Balance is louder than In Balance
• The three Zero Balance colourways
• What white does to the Zero Balance print
• Where it sits between the other two
• Fabric and fit of the Zero Balance tee
• Looking after a white printed tee
• Frequently asked questions

Zero Balance is about the period where the number in your account set the ceiling on what you were allowed to want, and you went anyway. It is the loudest of the three balance prints. On the back, next to the type, there is a set of coordinates. We do not explain them.

Every brand has a print that argues. Zero Balance is ours.

What is on the Zero Balance print

Type across the back, and next to it a set of coordinates. All of it on white, in three colour combinations.

That is the whole design, and the two halves are doing different jobs. The type is the statement. The coordinates are not a statement at all, which is exactly why people ask about them.

What are the coordinates on the Zero Balance print?

They are coordinates.

They point at a real place, and the people who recognise it recognise it immediately. There is no key printed underneath the print and there is not going to be one here either.

Look them up or do not.

That is not evasion for the sake of mystique. A print that explains itself has already stopped being a print and become a caption. Half the reason the coordinates work is that they are inert to almost everybody who sees them, and land hard for the few who do not need telling.

If you want to look them up, nobody is stopping you. That is the point of putting them on a shirt rather than a sealed envelope.

How to read a coordinate pair, if you want to

Since we are not going to help with the answer, here is the tool.

A coordinate pair is written latitude first, longitude second. Latitude runs north and south from the equator, longitude east and west from the prime meridian. Modern notation is usually decimal degrees, and in western Europe the longitude is a small positive number while in the Americas it carries a minus sign. USGS explains the notation about as plainly as anyone does.

Paste the pair into any map and it will take you somewhere. What you make of the somewhere is not our department.

Why Zero Balance is louder than In Balance

Because it is about a different moment.

In Balance is about giving yourself room to be off. It is reflective, and the print is correspondingly quiet: a figure and a struck-through word.

Zero Balance is about the part after that, where being off has consequences and you keep going regardless. That is not a reflective print. It is a stubborn one.

The distinction matters because the two are often bought together and Zero Balance is not a louder version of the same thing. One says *this is allowed*. The other says *it cost me and I did it anyway*.

The three Zero Balance colourways

All three run on white, and they are not the same shirt in different shades. The second colour changes the volume.

White with green. The calmest of the three. Green reads as a considered choice rather than a reaction, and this is the one you can wear to things where you would rather not explain yourself.

White with blue. The middle setting. Blue is the least loaded colour on the shelf, so the type does the work without the colour adding to it.

White with red. Not calm. Red on white is the highest contrast combination we print, and on a shirt about going anyway it is not a subtle choice. If you want the print to argue, this is the one.

What white does to the Zero Balance print

White leaves nothing to compete with.

On a dark shirt, type and a set of numbers become a texture. On white they stay separate objects that you read one after the other, which is how the print is meant to be taken in: statement first, coordinates second, and then the pause where you decide whether to care.

It also means the shirt is unforgiving. White shows everything, and a print about a period with no money in it looking pristine forever was never the idea.

Where it sits between the other two

Three prints, one idea, three volumes.

In Balance is the origin. Lady Justice without her blindfold and the word balance struck through: look at it directly, and allow yourself to be off. It was the first tee the brand ever made, and it runs in jet black and anthracite.

Zero Balance is the loudest. Nothing left and you went anyway.

Balanceside is the quiet one. Greek statues down the side seam with the word balance set between them, said at a volume you could take to dinner.

Choose by how loudly you want to say it, not by which one photographs best. They are the same argument at three distances.

The founding story underneath all three is on the about page, and it is not a marketing angle. It is what happened.

Fabric and fit of the Zero Balance tee

250gsm cotton, cut regular to semi-oversized, with a full size guide on every product page.

That makes Zero Balance a heavyweight tee rather than a standard one, where a typical high street tee sits between 130 and 160gsm. At 250 it holds its shape instead of clinging, works on its own from spring through autumn, and sits flat under a sweater. The collar also survives longer, which is the part of any tee that fails first.

The rest of the range is in tees and the full collection is in the shop. What is reduced sits on the sale page.

Looking after a white printed tee

White is the least forgiving colour we make and the rules are simple.

• Wash at 30 degrees, inside out. The print never touches the drum and it does not fade.
• Wash it with other whites. Obvious, and still the way most white shirts die.
• Never tumble dry. It shrinks slightly and roughens the fabric permanently, every time.
• Never iron directly on the print. Iron around it on medium.

Frequently asked questions

What do the coordinates on the Zero Balance tee mean?

They point at a real location. We do not explain it on the product and we are not going to explain it here. Look them up or do not.

Is Zero Balance the same print as In Balance?

No. Same theme, different print and a different point. In Balance is about allowing yourself to be off. Zero Balance is about carrying on once being off has consequences.

Which colours does the Zero Balance tee come in?

Three, all on white: white with green, white with blue, and white with red. Green is the calmest, red is the loudest.

What weight is the Zero Balance tee?

250gsm cotton, cut regular to semi-oversized. A standard high street tee is usually 130 to 160gsm.

Which of the three balance prints should I start with?

Choose by volume. In Balance is the quiet, reflective one, Zero Balance is the stubborn one, and Balanceside is the restrained one on the side seam.

Why is the print on the back?

Because a back print is read by the people behind you rather than the person you are talking to. You are not performing it, you are wearing it.