Ernie Reyes Jr. and Sr.
Itβs hard to believe that itβs the 30th anniversary of the release of Surf Ninjas. To set the stage, the year is 1993: Michael Jordan retires from basketball after winning 3 straight championships, NBA Jam the arcade, DOOM on PC, Jurassic Park the movie are all released, and Tag Teamβs βWhoomp (There It Is)β is dominating airwaves.
Originally released in late summer of 1993, the film was written to give Ernie Reyes Jr. a lead role given his participation in the blockbuster hit TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze in β91. The film also featured Ernie Reyes Sr., Kelly Hu, Rob Schneider, Leslie Nielsen, and Tone Loc. While not an award winning story, the film still holds itβs nostalgic weight for early 90βs pop culture.
Peculiarly, actual promotional shirts that were created for Surf Ninjas were labeled as one size fits all t-shirts.
The filmβs marketing tactic of integrating the video game into the film may have boosted some sales but the rushed product proved to show by falling flat mechanically.
The design of the shirt is meant to evoke early 90βs Southern California surf culture, panel printed on tie dye, as well as reimagined unabashedly promotional merchandise. The movie posters had two variants of Colonel Chi:
However for the purpose of printing on tees, Colonel Chi was rearranged again to optimize real estate. The back are nods to the fictional location of where part of Surf Ninjas takes place and the catch phrase used throughout. Wrapping up Asian diaspora heritage month, this shirt will be available in sizes Medium-XXXL on Thursday 6/1 at 8:00 AM PST on THEWWW.XYZ Thank you for your support and encouragement as it continues to fuel these projects.