Don’t feed the Bears is an, independent t-shirt label that wants to put a bear on the chest of every t-shirt wearer on Earth. Their flagship store is located in the Forum, at the heart of Sheffield’s bustling Devonshire Street fashion district.
“We design & print everything ourselves. We only print in small runs, to keep our customers looking unique, & avoid those embarrassing “we’re wearing the same t-shirt” moments. “
“Our offbeat, quirky designs are taken from mixing English eccentricity (pipes, tweed & moustaches) with pirate style eye patches and a good handful of bears! It’s a Sherlock Homes meets Long-John Silver approach. “
“The girls designs lean towards the ultra-sweet, with cute bows, buttons & sailor collars, while guys t-shirts feature retro toys, ‘Mr & Mrs Kidney’ & under done bear steaks. “
As well as the printed designs, they have a large range of one-off customised t-shirts with cowboy print pockets, Mexicana skulls , faux leather & bows for something absolutely unique.
Don’t feed the Bears are made up of couple, Lucy Spencer & Tom Young who have been designing & printing t-shirts since 2009.
Lucy is a Sheffield Hallam fine arts & textiles graduate with a keen eye for new trends & ideas straight out of left field. Tom is master printer & head of all things inky.
The name ‘Don’t feed the Bears’ was inspired by a road trip Lucy & Tom took across Europe in Summer ’09. “We kept seeing signs saying ‘WARNING: BROWN BEARS’ in the Austrian Alps, & ‘DON’T FEED THE WOLVES’ whilst driving through Croatia, and after some exhaustive brain storming, the brand was born.
DFTBs first opened a shop in Manchester’s Affleck’s Palace in 2010 before returning to their natural habitat of Sheffield a year later to open their current shop in The Forum.
Aside from designing t-shirts, Lucy makes a large range of leather purses, cute bow headbands & unique ‘I like you & I hate you’ jewellery which are all available online & in store.
Pop into their Sheffield Forum shop for the full DFTBs experience.
My favourite picks from the Bears are the Tea Party clutch, The Tourist tee for Men (because I’m not just about fashion for females!) and this cute velvet bow tee
My absolute favourite though as to be the quirky Did I mention Kittens? jumper
This is pretty much what the inner dialouge of my head is like on a daily basis!
How about you? I think you’ll also enjoy the jewellery…the “crap” necklace is calling me!
xxx
