redline wrote: so this would be an unofficial t-shirt?
Yes that's correct. Last time I looked, SEGA lost the trademark to Shenmue last year after failing to use the brand for such a long time. I believe Yu Suzuki made a claim for it, but I wasn't entirely sure how it played out. So the trademark and copyright is all up in the air at the moment.
However, none of this matters with Gametee as all of their designs are inspired by video games, and in no way infringe on any copyright held by any company.
Is your concern that the money for the T-shirt won't go towards a Shenmue project? Or that the design would be taken down if put into production?
In any case, this is just going to be a cool way to show your passion for Shenmue, and represent the game you love in a unique way. I've seen a handful of Shenmue T-shirts out there, but they're all very bland and generic. The most common one being a black T-shirt with a white "シェンムー" across it. How dull!
The petition currently has 37 signatures and some fans on Twitter have taken to tweeting the link to get more support. If you haven't signed already, here's the link:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gameteeshenmue