It's not meant to be harsh, really. Like I said, I got the theme, but when you see a black shirt from a bit of a distance with a bunch of visible white spots on it, what do you think? You notice the effect up close, but the effect is lost once you're, I dunno, 15+ feet away from it. On a shirt, the effect just didn't translate, to me anyway. I wear plenty of black shirts ('tis my favourite color) and I sweat easily, so I know a thing or two about sweaty black shirts, haha.
I did like the second one a lot better because the effect was contained within the striping pattern, and I thought the black being used looked very sharp. You know, a "black" black, if you will. I like when the shade of black being used is a firm one.