Ian MacKaye is more than just a guy who’s fronted important, influential bands like Minor Threat and Fugazi and started Dischord Records. He’s also been a vocal opponent of huge corporations like Ticketmaster, refusing to play venues where ticket prices were too expensive for his fans to afford. And unlike many other labels, you won’t see shirts, hats, buttons, posters and other band-branded merch on the Dischord website. So it surprised some when Urban Outfitters recently began selling licensed Minor Threat shirts for the not-punk price of $28.

MacKaye explains to the Washington City Paper that he decided to allow some third-party company to license the Minor Threat brand for official shirts because he was sick of chasing down bootleggers, like the ones who sold a ton of fake Minor Threat shirts to Forever 21 back in 2009.

“It’s not a political thing for me,” MacKaye explains about the decision. “I just don’t give a f*ck about T-shirts.”

The other big questions about these new shirts involve Urban Outfitters and its less-than-pristine reputation for where it sources its products, and what about that $28 price tag?

“Do I think it’s absurd? Yes, I certainly do,” admits MacKaye, who doesn’t think too highly of people that will pay that much for a T-shirt. “Motherf*ckers pay $28, that’s what they wanna pay for their shirts.”

We’re actually hoping that this spins out into a whole new sphere of Minor Threat merch, with everything from car fresheners to lunchboxes (with matching thermoses, of course), beer cozies, and life-size Ian MacKaye fathead stickers for your wall.

[via AVclub.com]

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