Dogpatch Press

This shirt is one of a kind and 16 grand. If it sells, the seller will have 17 kittens.

Vintage graphic t-shirts from the 1960’s-90’s routinely sell for hundreds or a few thousand dollars. Old fans might want to check their closets, because Ebay has some with furry graphics, like a $300 Cutey Bunny shirt from 1983. Then there’s this eye-poppingly iconic treasure:

Ultra Rare ConFurence Zero Event Shirt! Furry Convention Shirt!

This is an extremely rare event shirt for what was the World’s first Furry convention. It was Hosted in a venue in Costa Mesa, California in January 21-22 of 1989, and only 65 people attended. The event itself was more of a pre-convention, to see if anyone was interested in attending such events. As a result of being the world’s first exclusive Furry con, and with such low attendance, any sort of merch from the event is incredibly rare.

The $16,000 price is on par with the most expensive t-shirts ever sold. A previous record was set by vintage shirts for the Grateful Dead that sold for $15-18,000. It’s hard to think of what to compare this furry grail to. The Shroud of Turin? Putting this enchanted shirt on your body could feasibly transform you into your fursona in real life. It seems like one of the most formidable furry artifacts you could possibly own, next to the first known fursuit at a furry convention — the sexy Bambioid fursuit worn by Robert Hill at Confurence Zero.

Is the price insane? Or could there be a suspiciously wealthy furry who would rather set their money on fire than lack this treasure in their dragon hoard?

Ebay seller Akumaskill has nothing but this shirt for sale (but he is legitimate, with 100% positive ratings since 2008.) Dogpatch Press reached out to learn more.

(Dogpatch) What’s the story of the shirt? Cleaning out your closet? Gotten any offers?

Hi there. Story is in the description. This is the real deal. Yes, I have gotten offers.

It’s a rare and interesting item and people might like to know more! How about a quick intro about you, and what interesting things do you collect or have? 

I used to be a security guard for a flea market in Los Feliz, CA. I’ve been a vintage collector since 2007 and usually collect tshirts and Vinyl LPs. While working at the Los Feliz flea market, I got to know and befriend a lot of the vendors who were young sellers of vintage clothing. I would show them pictures of shirts from my collection, and they would come to me for help identifying vintage pieces they had just picked up or traded for, so I got to be a part of that community even after I officially stopped working there as their security guard.

Can you say how you came to own this iconic shirt, and more about the history of it?

A little over 2 years ago I decided to visit some friends selling at the flea market, and while I was shopping around, I came to a booth of a young man and he had several shirts that had furry art on them. I liked the art, so I ended up buying all the shirts he had, and he was very happy to have made the sale. Only afterwards when I met up with my friends did I notice that some of these shirts were true vintage, and I noticed the year printed on the Conference Zero shirt. I couldn’t believe that it was from 1989. I had another shirt from a convention in San Francisco that had a cute skunk girl from Pal Con 1991. Also had another Confurence 9 shirt from 1998. I just thought they were cool shirts and that’s solely the reason why I bought them. One of my friends immediately offered to buy the lot from me for 100$, but I politely declined because now I was interested in finding the history of these shirts.

Through my research I discovered who the Artist was (Steve Martin) and that the fursona was an original character that one of the founders of Confurence had created in the mid to late 80’s, based off a weasel like mammal called the Marten*, so maybe he got a kick out of his friend Martin drawing Marten. The original pamphlet handed out at the con also features the art on the shirt, and this shirt has the dates of the convention on it. Plus I have researched the tag on the shirt and it is period appropriate.

I would love to do my own Q&A with the original artist, Steve Martin, but I read that he is a very private individual. He is one of the legendary founders of the furry community.

Do you have a reason to sell now, and what sort of interest is it getting?

In terms of offers, I have gotten a handful of offers in the low hundreds for it, but I do constantly get messages of people interested in the shirt and how I authenticated it, asking where I got it from. I have a guy that has begged me to put the shirt for sale as an auction about 6 times. Either way, as I am primarily a collector that’s in it for the love of the game, I have no worries if this shirt sells or not. I’m very quite content being the owner of it. I’ve grown fond of the cute art. If there comes about a furry museum or something, I wouldn’t mind having it curated there.

– akumaskill

The value of pricelessness.

Counterfeiting and forging collector-bait is a lucrative scam. It’s funny when memorabilia shows up with carefully aged looks but a claimed signature by someone who was already dead when the piece came out. So, is this shirt really real and recognized by the people who made it back then?

Dogpatch Press reached out for verification from archivists of Confurence.com who represent the founders. At first they were confused if shirts were ever made from this design. They checked old VHS footage, and saw that indeed, a few people were wearing shirts with this design at Confurence Zero in 1989.

The shirt would be a great fit for a museum. It’s an idea that has been raised many times like with past stories about a Furry Hall of Fame (2008), Furry Walk of Fame (2013), If there was a Museum of Furry, theatrical “Panto-Animals” would be a major exhibit and What will the National Mascot Hall of Fame mean for furries? (2015) Too bad that furries don’t have a credible or supportable museum yet.

Imagine buying and wearing this at a convention now. Who goes to a furry convention in a garment worth over 4 figures… oh wait…

A fursuit isn’t comparable to a printed shirt, with all the custom artist labor to make one, but think harder about the pricelessness of an icon. If the most valuable creation of furry fandom is its network of conventions, this singular shirt represents the origin of it all. Of course it’s worth $16,000 if someone is willing to pay that. Until then, it remains a lucky find of one collector who doesn’t care if it sells, and not a corporate asset. If he started with money in mind, it seems to have inspired personal interest in fandom. Isn’t that the spirit of what we’re here for?

Update. A second shirt owned by Confurence founder Mark Merlino (RIP) may exist. Blessed holy relic!

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