FOIAWEAR — FLYING WITH SHARKS / A Plan for Every Outcome Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 022

It is 1961 and you are a U-2 pilot at 70,000 feet — double the altitude of a commercial airliner, moving north of 500 mph. Your job is covert reconnaissance over Asia. The Agency has planned for every outcome, including the one nobody wants to picture: a water landing in shark-infested waters.

So in 1968 the CIA ordered 50 Shark Screens. Designed by Dr. Clarence Scott Johnson of the Naval Undersea Research and Development Center, it was a pocket-sized, vacuum-packed device — about the size of a pack of cigarettes — that unfurled into a large protective bag. A downed pilot would inflate the tube around the opening, climb inside, fill the bag with water, and float with only his head above the surface: a low, bulky silhouette with no dangling appendages for a shark to mistake for a fish.

When researchers found sharks approached dull colours far more reluctantly than bright ones, the Office of Special Activities issued a one-line service bulletin: paint the underwater portion flat black. It could save your life. Tested against dangerous shark species in the Pacific and Atlantic, the Shark Screen was judged "the most effective shark attack deterrent yet tested" — and it doubled as a sleeping bag, tent, stretcher and solar still.

The artwork is a stylised tribute — the U-2 high overhead, the waves, and the black Shark Screen riding low in the water beside the fin. It is not a technical diagram.

This shirt is offered in both dark and light garment colours — the scene in copper on Black, Espresso and Navy, and in a matching dark-ink print on Mustard, Flo Blue and Ivory.

The QR code on the front opens the CIA's article on the Shark Screen, the source for everything above: https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/flying-with-sharks-a-plan-for-every-outcome/

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency or the United States government.