Red Earth Road Warrior.

Size: M
Where: Kauai

Why: I'd been looking for a nice red dirt/earth shirt, and this one had a giant embroidered chicken on it.



Comment: There are conflicting stories as to what exactly the deal is with all the chickens on Kauai - some will tell you that they were all freed from farms during a hurricane, others will tell you that imported mongooses were able to take care of the chickens on the other islands while the mongooses intended for Kauai never reached land because one of them bit the hand of the dockworker through the crate as it was being unloaded and he accidentally dropped them into the ocean. Whatever the real story is, Kauai is overrun with wild chickens. Seriously. They're everywhere. You can't turn around or walk more than 40 seconds without tripping over one, or having one trip over you. They're pretty cool, and actually more than a little bit scary.

I read that they've been dying off in droves the last couple years. At first people suspected that they were being poisoned, but I believe the consensus was reached that their population had simply reached the point where something like this just naturally happens. I haven't been keeping up with the story, so I don't know if any new theory has been proposed, or any cause discovered.

Like the wild chickens, red dirt (or red earth) shirts can also be found all over Kauai, and all over Hawaii. They're shirts that have been dyed with the naturally occurring red dirt found all over Kauai and the other islands. The resulting color, as you can see, is as deep and earthy as it is vibrant and rich.

The thing bleeds like a motherf*er though. I handwashed it the first time, I was so afraid that it would turn all my other clothes burnt orange in the wash. I figured I'd do this the first few times until the color set and stopped bleeding, then I could just chuck it in the machine with everything else.

It's been 2 1/2 years, and the thing still bleeds just as bad as the first time.

I don't know that the color would actually come off on all my other clothes. I don't really want to find out.