Why ASMR T-Shirts?
WHISPERHUB
(Sue Dorrens)
When we decided to build an ASMR store there were lots of reasons and we thought it might be fun to tell you about them.
Who doesn’t love t-shirts?!
Luckily I live in a city where jeans and a t-shirt gets you by almost everywhere and in fact the vibe in Edinburgh is always very casual but most importantly, there’s such a variety of people that anything goes – especially around festival time.
I had bought a couple of Game of Thrones t-shirts as they were on sale and I’d been really loving the series. Subconsciously I must have realised, that in wearing them, anyone who also liked Game of Thrones started talking to me about it.
Of course wearing a shirt with something to talk about on it is by far an original idea. In fact we see it everywhere today – people wear designs and messages that they are passionate about. Then the cogs began to turn – why not ASMR t-shirts?
ASMR is something myself and Evy (the other founder of Tingletastic) are really passionate about. We’ve been kicking around the community for a long time and have both used ASMR extensively to improve our sleep problems and help with mental health.
…we became friends immediately sharing many of the same interests from music to gaming.
Friendship
Now let’s jump to how Evy and I became friends. In 2011 I was working on an ASMR project at the time building a website to try to help people find ASMR videos with the triggers that worked for them.
At the time on Youtube, there were not many people making videos specifically for ASMR and the tagging of videos was usually quite obscure. I wanted to build a site to help promote ASMRtists (though of course they were not labelled as such back then) and to help the community find new content creators that were getting lost in the poor Youtube algorithms of the time.
The site I created was super slow and clunky and I struggled to get the functionality it needed as I was completely new to web design and I was finding wordpress tricky. The site was never particularly popular but what did happen was I started to connect with people who also loved ASMR and were looking to create and build.
One of those people was Evy Whispers. Evy is a very talented graphic designer, though she will never admit as much, and we became friends immediately sharing many of the same interests from music to gaming.
We’ve only ever met once in person when I managed to go over to Belgium to visit her in 2012 but our friendship has flourished through the years as we’ve both helped each other through difficult times and most importantly we always manage to have a good laugh.
Design
In 2018 Evy and I dabbled in designing gaming t-shirts and realised that we loved it. However, the subject matter soon got old. Games come and go and beyond the fun factor, there’s not much satisfaction there.
One evening we talked about what else we could do and Evy suggested ASMR t-shirts. It was like everything fell into place.
ASMR has helped us both tremendously through the years. Insomnia has been a big problem for me and watching ASMR videos helped so much. I even wrote a book about it but never published as constant bouts of poor health prevented me from seeing it through.
The idea of focussing on ASMR for our new project makes so much sense.
Design
In 2018 Evy and I dabbled in designing gaming t-shirts and realised that we loved it. However, the subject matter soon got old. Games come and go and beyond the fun factor, there’s not much satisfaction there.
One evening we talked about what else we could do and Evy suggested ASMR t-shirts. It was like everything fell into place.
ASMR has helped us both tremendously through the years. Insomnia has been a big problem for me and watching ASMR videos helped so much. I even wrote a book about it but never published as constant bouts of poor health prevented me from seeing it through.
Discussing ASMR
The ongoing problem for many who enjoy ASMR is that the people around them haven’t heard about it, or what they have heard is ‘brain orgasms’, ‘role play videos’, ‘sexy mouth sounds videos’ and of course these things send your average uninformed person running for the hills.
The other main obstacle is that yes, to someone who is new, what actually happens in an ASMR video is quite frankly ridiculous! Here’s a perfect example I found of Ellen De Generes when she reacts to one of Maria’s videos:
What has compounded the problem is the way the ASMR is sometimes portrayed in the press. ‘internet sensation’, ‘viral trend’ and ‘latest fad’ are all terms that to those of us who get what ASMR is all about are just completely misleading. However, with outstanding informative websites like ASMR University, the press coverage has improved dramatically in recent times. ….at last I hear you cry!
Most people who experience ASMR have done so throughout their lives and it’s only now through the power of the internet that a name has been assigned to it and subsequently a community formed around it.
By creating ASMR t-shirts we hope the ASMR community will embrace the idea of being more open about ASMR to those IRL and be a fantastic way to share with the uninitiated the amazing benefits to health and wellbeing that ASMR can bring.
Since getting my ASMR Addict Hoodie and Tingletastic signature shirt, I’ve been wearing them often and it has been just lovely to talk to people about ASMR. The reaction I’ve had has been super positive and it has inspired me to keep creating ASMR designs.
What has been your experience of talking to people IRL about ASMR? We’d love to hear your experiences.
