Hide Your Arms T-Shirt

If you have been following @RudeRetro on Twitter you will know that I am off running for a bit because of my knee. You should also know that Andy from Hide Your Arms finally put his t-shirt on sale. He recently had a new logo designed, has a new website and a matching t-shirt. He has a store in both Storenvy and hosted by Big Cartel. They are selling the same t-shirt which makes me wonder how he manages the stock.

It’s a pretty sweet tee and a great color for the summer. I have to admit that I have been considering it but it’d be a little odd for me to wear it. On the other hand I’d much rather wear it than my own non-logo logo t-shirt. Hell, this blog doesn’t even have its own domain. I have been thinking about doing something about that for a while too but it’s a bit of a hassle.

Anyway, the HYA logo tee comes in girls (see above)  and boys American Apparel tees and are printed by the awesome Storenvy. And I bet it’s one of those t-shirts that just gets better as it fades. Shit, I’ve almost convinced myself to get one.

Lost Polar Beer T-Shirt is back!

Ian Leino sent me an email a while back to let me know that this Lost inspired t-shirt, which in its previous incarnation was sold at Teefury, was making its second appearance in his own Big Cartel hosted store.

I ripped this quote from host blog because it has some juicy details about the creation of this design:

Created entirely by hand with scratchboard, my newest design squarely inhabits the junction of LOST mythology and classic beer label design, executed in a vintage, hand-tooled style rarely seen in t-shirt graphics. Or at least I’VE never used it before

This t-shirt was popular enough at Teefury that even one of the writers of the show was wearing it. Not bad considering it was on sale for just one day.

I am a fan of Lost and am looking forward to seeing how it plays out. I hope they have some good explanations and conclusions.

New Limited Edition wotto T-Shirts

Wotto has added three more t-shirts to his own store which is hosted by Big Cartel. Check them out before it’s too late.

The man himself says they are VERY limited, never to be printed again.

I came from nothing

I came from nothing is the name of a t-shirt brand that interests me hardly at all. I’m not into zombies on tees as you may realize from the lack them on The T-Shirt Review. They do seem to be popular but they are just not my bag. This store seems to sell t-shirts that would be suitable for the kids clothing section in a discount store at Halloween and only then. I have seen quite a few of these type of t-shirts and I would say that while I admit that the designer(s) in I came from nothing have ability they are far from the best I have seen.

Two t-shirts did stand out though. One of course is instantly recognizable as a Wotto creation and it is my favorite tee in the store.

This next t-shirt below, I admit that I don’t really like it but the design work is very cool. The colors and the illustration are not something that works for me on a shirt but the ferocity of the panda is almost tangible. I would imagine that this tee may even give some kids nightmares.

From what I can see, there are 17 different t-shirts available all at £20 a pop and the store is hosted by Big Cartel. Check out I Came From Nothing for all your Halloween tee desires.

Apart from the tees I think the store needs a lot of work. There is no logo to speak of. There are tons of links (aka leaks) leaving the store to places like Twitter and MySpace. I think it’s cool to have the links but they shouldn’t really be a part of the menu. The menu is for navigation of a site and if done well will keep people there. This store is just begging people to leave the store which is not really something you should be doing. You never hear of bricks and mortars stores hiring deejays to play across the street or around the corner from their stores.

Holebrain – It’s a start

Holebrain is the err… brainchild of one Will Peterson. I don’t have much information to go on here as some people don’t put much effort into marketing themselves… but I am guessing that Holebrain is based in the UK as they have their Big Cartel store set to British pounds. British pounds…really? I mean who still uses British pounds? [About 60 million British people! Editor]

Hold your horses! My investigative team were able to dig up some information about the inscrutable Will Peterson.

• He pulls Squeegees for a living.
• He designs & prints tees for his clothing line – Holebrain Apparel.
• He sells Holebrain in St Nicholas market in Bristol most weekends, and if you are from around those parts he’d like you to come and say “hey”. Otherwise he doesn’t want to know you. (We have yet to confirm the last statement).

Anyway, the t-shirts. From what I can see there are just 6.5 designs (0.5 is a small print on a hoodie’s hood) but they are pretty solid. Not my cup of tee but I’m a coffee drinker so that shouldn’t matter. Two of the designs work for me and are tees that I would actually pay for: How Modern! and Rock out with your clock out. They have a similar style as you can see and they are both damn cute. And they are only £8. [Yes. British pounds. Weren't you here earlier when we discussed this?]

If I were a betting man I would say that his style has been influenced by Greg Abbott and Wotto. I could say something like ‘the designs are like something the lovechild of that pair would produce’ except I am fairly certain that pair wouldn’t produce much of a lovechild.

One criticism I have about the website and it is a big one, is that f**king logo. I like the logo but come on, it takes up the whole page. Web design 101: don’t push the content down the page. Every time I click I have to scroll down to see what I want to see. Shrink that logo dude!

OK, so I have another criticism. Information: tell a story, even if it’s BS, to make people want to stay on your site and look around. Do something that makes people think it’s not just another tiny t-shirt store. I know there is an About Page but there is nothing to draw people to it. The designs have humor so I guess Will understands its power. He needs to apply it to his site too.

Holebrain is a new brand off to a good start but to do well on the web you have to get noticed. To get noticed you have to make people notice and that is marketing. I have a feeling that marketing for the web and for the Nails Market on a Saturday might require different strategies.  Good luck!

Review: The Originators

The guys at the Originators sent over a few tees a couple of weeks ago that I am only getting around to reviewing now. Sorry guys. I was pretty busy back then and that was topped off with having a virus on my pc that led to my websites getting hacked. I think all is back to normal but I have to say that McAfee sucks. Hopefully I will remember that when my three year subscription runs out sometime in 2012. Anyway, back to the Originators.

Before I talk about the actual t-shirts I’d like to mention that the Originators just recently opened a bricks and mortar store. It’s great to see web businesses make it in the real world. Hopefully it works out for them.

This flagship store is in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles and exclusively sells Originators’ clothes, skateboards, and more.

The Originators Store LA is located at:
142 N. Hayworth Ave.,
LA, Calif. 90048

The purpose of the Originators brand (apart from profit) is to tell the world about the early years of hip-hop and the people who founded the movement. The founder, Adam Bach, previously considered making movies to tell these stories but the proposition seemed too daunting so instead he started this t-shirt brand (or so the story goes). The Originators is not simply profiting off these hip-hop legends though:

Every Artist involved in this thing, is under a per-unit licensing deal, so the Artist makes money on every shirt sold bearing their name and likeness. This was very important to us when setting up the company. I wanted the Originator to make money as the company made money. They do well as we do well, and that’s the way it should be.

I don’t know much about hip-hop past or present but if that’s your thing or you are interested in learning you can find out more on the Originators website. They have since branched out into different genres but hip-hop history is still the heart and soul of their business.

As I have mentioned numerous times, I am not a big fan of logos on t-shirts. I mean if you pay for the t-shirt you shouldn’t have to advertise for them too. The Originators tees don’t shy away from branding, with two of their tees having both a sew on patch on the front bottom and a printed logo on the sleeve. To be honest though, in this case, it adds to the t-shirts. And it’s not like you are marketing a big planet-raping mega-corporation.

The t-shirt on the left is a well placed photographic image of who I assume is Jo Jo, the original b-boy. It’s a pretty sweet t-shirt and really captures the spirit of break-dancing. The tee on the right is an example of how The Originators are branching out into other areas with a graffiti style I Heart Tokyo design. This tee doesn’t really do anything for me and being in Japan is something that I wouldn’t wear in public.

This t-shirt has a small target audience. Yankees fans. It’s a nice take on a pretty common design. They have added their own style and it works. For some reason this t-shirt was smaller than the others even though it is marked as a large, like the other two. I might just keep this one for myself.

The tees were all made of quite heavy material. I don’t know what blanks they are using but they look pretty durable. I don’t know if they are ideal for summer weather though. The tees come with a hang-tag giving details about the images but unfortunately they were unable to provide images of them so I can’t show you what they look like.

They have a pretty big selection in their store which uses the Big Cartel shopping cart.

Two New Tees from Wotto

It’s a big day for British t-shirt designer, Wotto, as he not only made and put up for sale his own t-shirt he was also selected as the winner at t-shirt contest site, Bang Bang T-Shirts. This is his first win at Bang Bang T-Shirts for which he will receive £125 although he has had a t-shirt printed by Bang Bang t-shirts before. He didn’t win the contest in that case but I imagine they reconsidered his entry after realizing how popular he was and that not only would Wotto deliver some sales, he may also attract other people to the site. Anyway, the new t-shirt, which is not available for sale yet is called Making Predictions. As they say, watch this space. (Probably better to watch Bang Bang T-Shirts though.) If I remember correctly all tees are just £10 including shipping to anywhere in the world.

I think the bigger news here though is that Wotto has started selling his own t-shirts using a Big Cartel store where he has already been selling buttons and artwork. The t-shirts are available in Mens and Womens from S to XL and they are printed on American Apparel. Here is the blurb from his store:

Marvellous Musical Marvin is a beastie who likes playing music and squeezing little beasties until they squeak!
The First wotto tee, exclusive to this shop and very Limited Edition on Black. Large print on black American Apparel.

He says it’s a limited edition but let’s hope he has a bit of success and is able to expand his line. The title of the t-shirt gives me some hope that this is indeed the plan:  Limited Edition Wotto Tee No.1 – Marvellous Marvin.

Back in Black T-Shirt Store

I came across this store (Back in Black T-Shirt Exhibit) yesterday and the thing that really caught my attention was the “Sponsored by Design by Humans” logo. Design by Humans seem to be expanding their business but it difficult for me to figure out what they are doing. Recently they announced a partnership with $9 T-Shirt store TeeFury and now I see they have something going with this store here which uses the Big Cartel shopping cart system.

Here is my theory. Design by Humans are doing well and they have some friends who are also in the t-shirt business and they want to help them out a bit and are thus lending their support. It would be a mutually beneficial relationship as DBH will produce the t-shirts but TeeFury and now Back in Black will provide more sales outlets. This is all conjecture of course.

Anyway this new store, Back in Black, has a nice selection of what seem to be one color designs each available on a selection of t-shirts. There is even a Jimiyo t-shirt there. Another cool thing about this store is that there is information about the artists too, so if you like their style you may be able to find their other artwork and t-shirts. A lot of the shirts have a similar style, like the Jimiyo skull shirt below, but there a few exceptions, one of which you can see below.

Fuel for Design: Start your own t-shirt business

Fellow t-shirt blogger, Gino Orlandi, has just released an e-book titled Fuel for Design, A Powerful Guide to Starting Your Own Clothing Line. On the books website he mentions that starting a t shirt business has never been so popular. This does seem to be true as online t-shirt stores seem to be popping up everyday and if you include shops on the PODs like Cafepress and Zazzle we might find that new stores are appearing every few minutes.

The title of the book and the claims that are made on the website about it are almost enough (still considering) to make me buy it. I have reservations though because I’m not sure that the author really has the necessary knowledge or experience to write such a book. On the one hand he’s a t-shirt blogger so he will have gained some knowledge of t-shirts and their trends from that but he has only started blogging about t-shirts this year so the aforementioned knowledge and experience is limited. Also he has experience starting his own t-shirt business but, assuming he is talking about his Big Cartel store, he hasn’t actually launched it yet.

I spent countless hours researching and planning my own t shirt line, making sure it was done right and I have decided to share everything I have learned while running my own blog and t shirt line with others.

I think he should have waited a year or more before finishing this book and then he would have some real business experience. Unless this book gets some endorsements from people with experience in the t-shirt business I guess I’ll be holding on to my $37 for a little while longer.

Success with Cafepress.com is a similar guide was written by Daniel Clark about how to be successful at POD service Cafepress. He had years of experience with Cafepress when he released this book and also got a lot of help from other shopkeepers. Combined with the low cost of setting up a Cafepress (or other POD) store, this book may be a much better entry entering the t-shirt business than Fuel for Design. Time will tell though.

Success with Cafepress.com is $27.99 + shipping for a book you can hold in your hands. Some sections may be a bit dated at this stage as it was published over 2 years ago. Fuel for Design is $37 for an ebook.