The 1991
Archive
In 1991, Bodypoint started sewing postural supports by hand in Seattle — belts, harnesses and straps for people who use wheelchairs. Our first catalog made its case with anatomy before product: a page of pelvis studies, the bone where posture begins.
The 1991 Archive is a look at where we started. We pulled the original artwork from that first catalog — the pelvis plates and the BODYPOINT DESIGNS wordmark — and printed it on a small run of tees. The artwork is from 1991. The shirts are new.
The plates
From the first catalog, 1991
Fig. 1 — Anterior
Fig. 2 — Sacral
Fig. 3 — Superior
It starts at the pelvis
Sit anywhere long enough and your body starts negotiating with gravity. For someone who spends the day in a wheelchair, that negotiation is constant — and it’s won or lost at the pelvis. When the pelvis is stable and level, the spine can stack above it, the head can balance instead of hang, and the shoulders and hands are free for the actual business of the day: pushing a rim, driving a joystick, working, eating, holding someone’s hand.
When the pelvis slides or tips, everything above it follows. The trunk sinks, pressure lands where it shouldn’t, and energy that belongs to your day gets spent holding yourself up instead. Most of what looks like a posture problem starts lower — at the hips. That’s why our first catalog led with bone instead of product, and why the first thing we ever made well was a hip belt. Ours was the first padded one; it became an industry standard.
Thirty-five years later, positioning is still all we do — supports for the pelvis, trunk, head and feet, designed, sewn and tested in Seattle to more standards than we’d ever put on a shirt. Different products, one idea: give the body a stable foundation, then get out of its way.
Get the pelvis right, and the body can get on with living.
1991
First catalog. First supports, sewn by hand in Seattle.
The padded hip belt
Ours was the first. It became an industry standard.
40+ countries
Still made in the same city, still ISO 9001.
Aug–Sep 2026
The 1991 Archive. Closes September 10, then back in the vault.
Why these two shirts
Positioning is our whole job, so we think a lot about how clothing behaves on a body — standing, seated, all day. That shaped two decisions.
Two cuts, no hierarchy.
The Unisex Boxy is a longer, relaxed cut with dropped shoulders. The Boxy Cropped is shorter and squarer — no extra fabric bunching at your lap when you’re seated, and no shirt that runs long if your torso isn’t the “average” the garment industry drafts for. Some people will pick it because it sits clean in a wheelchair; some because cropped is their look. Both are the point.
Nothing that scratches.
The neck label is printed on the fabric rather than sewn in, so there’s no stiff tag working on your skin — something you notice more when you’re seated against a backrest all day, and honestly, something everyone notices.
The artwork goes back in the vault September 11. If you want a piece of it, it’s $35, any size.
Shop the dropThe styles come and go. The standards don’t.