A brand factory experiment in interactive shirting

FLIP-UP LAB

The word is printed as two cut rows. Unfolded, it reads as strange symmetric glyphs. Pinch a horizontal pleat that hides the band between the cuts, the top half lands on the bottom half, and the shirt asks you a question about your adult life:

“TAXES?”

The vision judge's top pick. It passed the gate with a fold tolerance of 4.08 mm, so a sloppy pinch still reads. Work the control and watch the pleat close.

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
model: seedream-4.5

Fold control — drag to pinch the pleat

Unfolded — strange symmetric glyphs. Nothing to see here.

THE DROP

Every print the factory ran, on its garment color. Hover or tap a tile to pinch the pleat and read the question. Filter by the model that drew it or the verdict the gate gave it.

55 prints passed the gate and a vision judge. 16 more passed the gate but leaked the word to a human eye, so they were cut.

Showing 55 of 55 prints. Hover or tap a tile to fold it.

LAWYER?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.19 mm
taste: 4/5

LAWYER?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.12 mm
taste: 4/5

LAWYER?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.02 mm
taste: 4/5

LAWYER?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

LAWYER?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 2.94 mm
taste: 4/5

LAWYER?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.07 mm
taste: 3/5

LAWYER?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

MONDAY?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.09 mm
taste: 4/5

MONDAY?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 3.91 mm
taste: 4/5

MONDAY?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
taste: 4/5

NAP?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.09 mm
taste: 4/5

NAP?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.09 mm
taste: 4/5

NAP?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
taste: 4/5

NAP?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.05 mm
taste: 4/5

NAP?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 3.06 mm
taste: 4/5

OVERTIME?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.02 mm
taste: 4/5

OVERTIME?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.05 mm
taste: 4/5

PARKING?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 3.05 mm
taste: 4/5

REFUND?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.11 mm
taste: 4/5

REFUND?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.13 mm
taste: 4/5

REFUND?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 3.05 mm
taste: 4/5

REFUND?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.03 mm
taste: 4/5

REFUND?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.03 mm
taste: 3/5

REFUND?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.17 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.05 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.11 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

SNACKS?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.10 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.01 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.07 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.11 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.15 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.15 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.06 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.02 mm
taste: 4/5

SPOILERS?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 94%
tolerance: 3.04 mm
taste: 3/5

TAXES?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.03 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

gpt-image-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.05 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.07 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.12 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.04 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.10 mm
taste: 4/5

TAXES?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.08 mm
taste: 5/5

THERAPY?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.21 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

ideogram-v3

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.09 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.06 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

recraft-v4.1-flash

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 3.97 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

flux2-klein-9b

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.14 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

gpt-image-2

fold read: 86%
tolerance: 4.06 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

nano-banana-2

fold read: 100%
tolerance: 4.09 mm
taste: 4/5

THERAPY?

pass

seedream-4.5

fold read: 86%
tolerance: 3.05 mm
taste: 5/5

HOW THE GATE MEASURES IT

The gate measures; it never judges taste. Each print is read flat and folded by OCR, pinched sloppily four ways to find its tolerance, and checked where the ink meets at the seam. Four numbers, four thresholds. Miss one and the print goes back for review.

Folded read: ≥ 0.80; Pinched shut, the word must actually read. OCR match against the target word.
Concealment: unfolded match ≤ 0.60; Laid flat, the print must not give the game away. Neither the whole print nor either row may read as the word.
Fold tolerance: ≥ 2.5 mm; A sloppy pinch still has to work. The pleat can ride shallow, deep, high, or low by this much and the word still lands.
Seam continuity: IoU ≥ 0.55; Ink above the cut must meet ink below it, so strokes join instead of jogging at the seam.

Note: thresholds are calibrated on a shipped reference flip-up print.

MODEL BENCH

Which image models can actually draw a flip-up that survives the gate. Same words, same mechanic, scored the same way.

Takeaway: Never ask the model to draw the cut: 0 of 36 direct attempts survived. Let the model draw one line of lettering and let the compositor cut it. FLUX.2 klein 9b kept 71% at $0.008 per keep; gpt-image-2 cost 120 times more per keep.

Model comparison: images drawn, gate verdicts, judge keeps, keep rate, and cost
Track	Model	Images	Pass	Review	Fail	Judge keeps	Keep rate	Cost	Cost / keep
lettering	flux2-klein-9b	24	17	6	1	14	71%	$0.144	$0.008
lettering	ideogram-v3	24	14	8	2	12	58%	$0.720	$0.051
lettering	nano-banana-2	24	14	10	0	10	58%	$1.920	$0.137
lettering	recraft-v4.1-flash	24	11	12	1	9	46%	$0.168	$0.015
lettering	seedream-4.5	24	11	8	5	8	46%	$0.960	$0.087
lettering	gpt-image-2	24	4	16	4	2	17%	$3.960	$0.990
direct	recraft-v4.1-flash	6	0	2	4	–	0%	$0.042	—
direct	flux2-klein-9b	6	0	0	6	–	0%	$0.036	—
direct	ideogram-v3	6	0	0	6	–	0%	$0.180	—
direct	seedream-4.5	6	0	0	6	–	0%	$0.240	—
direct	nano-banana-2	6	0	0	6	–	0%	$0.480	—
direct	gpt-image-2	6	0	1	5	–	0%	$0.990	—

flux2-klein-9b

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 17
review: 6
fail: 1
judge keeps: 14
keep: 71%
cost: $0.144
cost / keep: $0.008

ideogram-v3

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 14
review: 8
fail: 2
judge keeps: 12
keep: 58%
cost: $0.720
cost / keep: $0.051

nano-banana-2

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 14
review: 10
fail: 0
judge keeps: 10
keep: 58%
cost: $1.920
cost / keep: $0.137

recraft-v4.1-flash

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 11
review: 12
fail: 1
judge keeps: 9
keep: 46%
cost: $0.168
cost / keep: $0.015

seedream-4.5

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 11
review: 8
fail: 5
judge keeps: 8
keep: 46%
cost: $0.960
cost / keep: $0.087

gpt-image-2

lettering track

images: 24
pass: 4
review: 16
fail: 4
judge keeps: 2
keep: 17%
cost: $3.960
cost / keep: $0.990

recraft-v4.1-flash

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 2
fail: 4
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.042
cost / keep: —

flux2-klein-9b

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 0
fail: 6
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.036
cost / keep: —

ideogram-v3

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 0
fail: 6
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.180
cost / keep: —

seedream-4.5

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 0
fail: 6
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.240
cost / keep: —

nano-banana-2

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 0
fail: 6
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.480
cost / keep: —

gpt-image-2

direct track

images: 6
pass: 0
review: 1
fail: 5
judge keeps: –
keep: 0%
cost: $0.990
cost / keep: —