Item Title: "Da Nacional" T-Shirt
Year: Potentially released from 2004-2010, with a deadstock sale in 2024
Designer: Unknown
Details: Black t-shirt featuring a sunburst graphic emerging from behind clouds, with the words "Da Nacional" in a script font. One version is in a muted cream/black and another in a blue and pink gradient.
Notes: The design is inspired by a sign in Portugal that reads Da Nacional, photographed by Pirlouiiiit on July 6, 2004. The photographer sent the image to The National, who incorporated it into their merch.
The t-shirt may have been re-released around 2010, as the photographer posted the image on Flickr on April 16, 2010.
Another version of the shirt with a smaller graphic was printed on dark heather gray American Apparel 50/50 shirts, which were popular for band merch in the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s.
In 2024, The National sold a limited quantity of deadstock Aqua Da Nacional t-shirts exclusively to Cherry Tree members. It appears these were not a reissue, but were true vintage deadstock from an earlier production run, printed on Screen Stars blanks from the mid-1980s. Only large and extra-large sizes were available, further indicating they were leftover stock rather than a re-release.
During the Zen Diagram Tour in the fall of 2024, The National seemingly resurrected the design again on black tote bags for a merch pop up at Vavava Shop in Mexico City.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4