Come On In, The Water Is Fine

Camelbak ⇒ is a subsidiary of Compass Diversified Holdings ⇒ that makes drink containers with a specialization in wearable drink canteens. Camelbak was still an independent company based out of Petaluma, California at the times of donation and giving away.

I considered getting a water bottle made by Camelbak in the past, but never followed through. Fortunately for me, I was always able to obtain promotional water bottles in the nick of time thereby saving money. I currently use a purple Denali Air bottle. For many years until recently I drank from a blue Powerade bottle with nearly all of it’s paint worn off. I remember growing up with multiple co-branded Youngstown Pride ⇒/ Tamco {Safety Pride} water bottles that had leaky spouts.

Muddy The Water

The back design features cells of unknown origin talking to each other through speech balloons about intestinal ailments. As a layperson, I do not know exactly what type of cells are featured. If anyone knows what cells those are supposed to be, feel free to use the contact form or Free Shirt Archive Twitter ⇒.

Does Not Hold Water

I should have never accepted this shirt because of how much I loathed the image on the back of the shirt. The combination of lazy design on the part of whichever design firm got the Camelbak account mixed with my shame of one bad decision brings out some negative vibes. I do not like to bash or hold back; accepting this shirt put me in a position best avoided. Lesson learned. The reason that I accepted was because I did not want to hurt Donor Aunt Barb*‘s feelings when offered me this shirt. I realized that I could have refused in a calm, rational manner to ensure that the shirt could have been donated to someone else.

This shirt would have satisfied me much more if there were no back design at all. The vibe is very much of some designer somewhere trying to be funny to impress their manager instead of content that is amusing on its own merit. Juvenile humor can be funny if done with any inspiration whatsoever. Suspending information enough to allow the cells to think on their own is one thing, but when the cells are communicating to each other through thought that is even more of stretch which is not rewarded with any humor. Even reading those boring jokes is more difficult than it needs to be because the letters inside the speech bubbles are tiny and italicized. The tactic of introducing grossness is intended to inspire fear over a trivial issue that could be solved with soap and water.

Donor, Receiver, & Proofreader Brian* accepted when I asked him if would like to have this shirt, and I thank him for doing so. Yes, I know that this shirt is just supposed to be anything other than a way to expand the mindshare of a company selling bladders with attached straws. For me, it became something annoying. I think that Brian ended up wearing this as a work shirt which is better than it being in my collection.