Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo announced the winners of its annual UT Grand Prix T-shirt design contest on Monday, with the winning designs “launching soon online and in all stores.” This year’s theme was Pokémon, so of course there are some adorable designs hitting the shelves.
The contest, which launched in October 2018, tasked talented Pokémon fans across the globe with designing graphic T-shirts inspired by their favorite ‘mons. The winning design, by Li Wen Pei, is titled “Ocean King” and features three Magikarp and their evolved form, Gyarados. Check it out!
In second place, a fan who goes by mizukilobyte designed a clever vision test with the hieroglyphic-like Pokémon Unown hiding among the symbols. The third place design finds our favorite electric mouse in vacation mode, leaning against an Alolan Exeggutor with sunglasses and a tropical drink. Designer Emily gave it the incredible nickname “Pikachill.”
The three winners will each receive a cash prize ($10,000, $2,000, and $1,000, respectively), plus an invitation to the awards ceremony in Japan and the 2019 Pokémon World Championships.
Those three winning designs aren’t the only new Pokémon tees coming to Uniqlo, though. While the designers won’t receive prize money, several “special selections” from the design contest will be produced as well, and they’re good. Here are a few of our favorites.
As a big fan of Ditto, specifically Ditto as other ‘mons, my personal winner is this shirt starring a literal pile of Dittos.
There’s no word yet as to when the shirts will be available — the landing page just says “launching soon” — so if you need us we’ll be over here refreshing Uniqlo’s site over and over again.