FF35th Anniversary T-Shirt Collaboration with Uniqlo

Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo paired up this spring with Square to collaborate on a series of T-shirts celebrating Final Fantasy’s 35th Anniversary. One T-shirt for every main title, from Final Fantasy I all the way up to the yet-unreleased Final Fantasy XVI, were sold. As a limited-edition item, the shirts all sold out so fast that apparently, they are restocking one time only next month!

Let’s take a look at Final Fantasy VII’s T-shirt. Before we get to the design, let’s explore how it was promoted by Uniqlo itself. Here’s the FF7 T-shirt description on “Uniqlo Today,” a news article about the T-shirt collection.

Once upon a time in Midgar, the battle of Cloud and Sephiroth, one of the most brilliant villains in video game history, raged. The design showcases some of the most important scenes of the story, including Midgar, Cloud, Aerith, and, of course, Sephiroth.

Uniqlo website

Right off the bat, the description calls out Final Fantasy VII’s holy trinity: Cloud, Aeris, and Sephiroth. Pretty neat! But that’s not all. Uniqlo’s UT webpage describing the page has a different description. It doesn’t name drop our girl Aeris.. but it features an in-game image of her alongside the T-shirt photos.

The T-shirt itself is black with its image on the front chest area. It features a grid-like collage of screenshots from the game interspersed with character key art. What can you see?

From the top:

• Sephroth’s key art
• Screenshot on Midgar highway, after the motorcycle chase. Pictured: Cloud, Aeris, Barret, Tifa, and Red XIII
• Tifa’s key art
• Midgar art
• Screenshot of Aeris at the start/ending of the game
• Sephiroth and JENOVA in the Nibelheim flashback
• Cloud and Aeris’s reunion in the church
• Cloud laying Aeris to rest in the Forgotten City
• The Planetarium in Cosmo Canyon, with Cloud, Yuffie.. and Aeris!
• Cloud’s key art
• Aeris’s key art

So in total, Aeris appears on this shirt six times. (Cloud himself only appears fives times!) This shirt sure emphasizes how important Aeris is to the Final Fantasy VII game.

I managed to order mine, by the way, on the day they were released, and it came in the mail a few days later. (I ordered the Final Fantasy X T-shirt as well, and since I bought two, I also got the promotional set of Final Fantasy playing cards. Hooray!)