You read that title correctly — after nearly 4 years of hibernation, United Pixelworkers is finally back open for business on their sister site, Cotton Bureau. In their first blog post since they closed up shop in 2014, they explain where they’ve been and why they’ve returned:

[In 2014], CB just wasn’t mature enough yet as an e-commerce platform to handle the complexity of UP. Time has passed, however, and things have changed. CB has grown up a lot since 2014, and frankly, we need an in-house brand that can show off everything CB does nowadays. A brand that can support everything from tees to hats to pins to coffee mugs. A brand with campaign, in-stock, and print-on-demand products. A brand that people genuinely love, and can generate enough traffic to stress the system from time to time. If only we had a beloved brand sitting on the shelf that fit that description…

But most importantly, we just missed it. We missed the community. We missed designing products for ourselves. We missed that killer Aaron Draplin-designed logo. UP is what put us on the proverbial map, and has been more responsible for our success than any other single thing we’ve ever done as a company since 2009. We knew we couldn’t allow it to stay dormant forever. A few months ago, we quietly started asking around, seeing if anyone still cared, gauging interest in a UP reboot, and we were honestly surprised at the enthusiasm of the response. So we decided it was time.

And boy, are they hitting the floor running. To kick things off, they’re already offering a bunch of stuff you can buy or pre-order:

• Pre-order: Their classic “Standard Issue” and “Standard Issue Blackout” shirt collections, including options for tees, tank tops, pullover crewnecks, and in the case of the Blackout collection, a pullover hoodie — each emblazoned with the UP logo.
• In stock: A soft enamel pin of their logo ($15) and a 3.5″ x 5″ dot-grid pocket notebook ($5).

• On demand: Remember those “Local” t-shirts they used to sell, which featured 69 cities/states/regions/places to show off wherever you hail from? No longer will they have an issue keeping your favorite one in stock, because now they’re printed on demand:

  Whether you’re from New York or Newfoundland, Austin or Boston, the Triangle or the Moon, you can now rock your local UP tee. And for the first time ever, you can snag your city on a tank top or hoodie as well. If your city/country/region is not represented yet, circle the wagons and yell at us on Twitter (Oakland, CA and Columbus, OH have already made strong cases for their inclusion).

This was all very exciting news for me to hear, and I’m still geeking out about it. I still have old Pixelworkers shirts in my closet that I’d love to see new versions of, particularly the “Darker Blueprint” one designed by Chris Glass. (Hint-hint, UP!)

Go check out United Pixelworkers’ new online store and keep an eye on it for more developments, of which I’m sure there will be many.