Vintage nu-metal T-shirts have hit all-time high sale prices over the past year. Slipknot tees are up, Disturbed tees are up, Korn tees are up, but a particular Deftones tee has established itself as the holy grail of nu-metal merchandise: the Deftones “Around the Fur” cover art shirt. This shirt sold for an astonishing $2,500 in May on eBay, a staggering price considering there are eBay sales recorded at $799 in October 2023, $50 in June 2018, and just under $15 in 2009. This coronation as nu-metal’s most desirable shirt can be attributed to a few factors: the shirt features a woman in a bikini, the band has recently blown up on TikTok, and Deftones have some of the greatest depth and lasting influence of any band in the alternative-metal genre.

Deftones was formed by Chino Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham, and bassist Chi Cheng in Sacramento, California, in 1988. Moreno, Carpenter, and Cunningham attended high school together and became friends through the local skateboarding scene. The members cite thrash metal, hardcore punk, and new wave as early influences. At the time of their early high school jam sessions, Carpenter was listening to Anthrax and Metallica, while Moreno was interested in Bad Brains and The Cure. You can hear these influences in their early work, “Adrenaline” and “Around the Fur,” which featured heavy, aggressive tracks with both melodic sensual vocals and throat-shredding screams.

Many fans would argue that Deftones are not nu-metal. Even though they are lumped in with nu-metal artists like Korn and Slipknot by the industry, the broad diversity of sound and style sets Deftones apart. Though you likely wouldn’t be faulted for labeling their first two albums nu-metal, there is something special about the way the band’s sound developed over time. We asked Denzel of Metropolis, a serious collector of Deftones merchandise, about what makes the band so unique: “Over the years, their music became more digestible, and they began diversifying the style of their music, ranging from a little bit of trip hop with their self-titled album, to screamo with Saturday Night Wrist, to shoegaze with their later projects in the 2010s.” This characteristic of always exploring has earned them the moniker “the Radiohead of metal.”

The nu-metal aesthetic has aged to the point that it sounds nostalgic instead of out of fashion, and Gen Z has latched on. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have played a significant role in bringing bands like Deftones back into the spotlight. This resurgence has introduced them to a whole new generation of kids who were either too young or not yet born during the band’s original peak. This bump in exposure has doubled Deftones’ monthly Spotify listeners. When browsing an algorithm-based endless-scroll social media platform, you might just see a thirst trap set to the 10/10 banger “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away).”

The first Deftones thirst trap, though, is the cover art for the album that put them on the map: “Around the Fur.” The cover features a photo by MTV’s Jackass videographer Rick Kosick. The photo was taken at a jacuzzi party hosted by the band after a studio photo session. Kosick didn’t think much of it at the time; it wasn’t posed or planned. “I just happened to take a photo of a girl at, like, 4 o’clock in the morning. I don’t even know who she is—she was just a groupie, I think. I just saw her big tits and was like, Damn, I gotta photograph this.” That one impromptu photo planted the seed that 20 years later would become the big tee in vintage.

Looking into the near future, other Deftones shirts will make good investments and continue to rise in price. Most of the other tees can still be found for under four hundred dollars, and in particular, the White Pony era shirts will likely see a steeper climb in value as the year 2000 drifts further and further away.