ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I’m not being overenthusiastic when I say that Upper Playground makes me proud to live in the Bay Area. Sure you can get Cal Bears shirts everywhere you look, but what about a hoodie that namechecks some of the best places to get ice cream and cake (Fentons and Merritt, respectively) in Oakland? If you’re feeling nostalgic for the gold coast San Francisco you never knew, Jeremy Fish has a brand new Barbary Coast shirt (shown above). Upper Playground’s got over 5 pages of shirts and gear depicting SF iconography by locals like Jeremy and Sam Flores and international fans like Jeremyville. If you’re not from the Bay Area, no matter: UP has more than 500 items by designers like Jeremy, Sam, David Choe, Alex Pardee and Estevan Oriol that fuse fashion with fine art. We’ve been big fans of Upper Playground and love that they really focus on the artists, whether that means sponsoring Ignite What’s Next, collaborating on the innovative Obama poster series or releasing both highbrow and lowbrow merch.

In honor of their tenth anniversary, UP’s first ever “thank you” sale begins today. The sale is good for 50% off on everything in stock at their retail stores and website. With shirts, hoodies, hats, socks, books, toys and housewares by Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Estevan Oriol, David Choe and Alex Pardee, there’s never a better time to stretch your dollar. We’re talking mugs for $6, shirts for $12, New Era caps for $22.50 and hoodies for $30. Yes, everything in stock is on sale. Upper Playground is open 24/7 on the www and has stores and galleries in San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, New York and London.