Category Archives: Branding

Brand: Quality VS Quantity & Convenience

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steve-jobs-home-run-quality-quoteI got a message on my ebay site today asking why shipping was so high for the Tecknicolor X Breezy Hampton bracelets. First off, I don’t think $5 is high for shipping, so I’m not exactly sure what the real basis behind the question is. However, I’m always open to constructive criticism and I like when challenges arise,  because I see them as opportunities to get better and work smarter.

photo1gg photo2benI responded and after I did I realized that the reason I gave was one that needs to be emphasized more in my branding/marketing/advertising efforts. I’ve blogged about it and featured pics on social networks about my packaging, but I don’t know if I’ve actually ever explained why the amount of energy I put into the small details are so important.

photojun22181445It’s pretty simple really. You can buy a shirt (a bracelet in this guys case) from anyone. So, why choose to buy mine? What makes my product better than any other persons? I believe the answers to those questions cane make or break a brand. I don’t want to just have random customers who liked a design once upon a time, that’s not conducive with a lasting brand or brand loyalty. I want people to know that I’m always thinking of ways to give them a better product and the best experience with Tecknicolor.

photoaug10162249To show the appreciation I have for people believing in Tecknicolor enough to spend their hard earned cash on it I go the extra mile in my packaging and presentation. Everybody loves getting gifts and I want my customers to feel like it’s Christmas every time they open up a package from Tecknicolor. Most often each shirt comes in packaging that matches the theme of the shirt and usually includes some sort of gift or souvenir. Impersonal business is old school and not very relevant in this day and age. So, I also include hand written letters to each and every person that purchases something from the brand. photomar20170333I run this business with little to no help from anyone else. It’s just me investing the time, money and effort into making Tecknicolor a success. So, this seemingly elaborate form of packaging is a lot of work and takes more time to get shipped out than if I just threw a shirt in an envelope, but it’s worth it. The response I get back from customers is astounding and has allowed me to gain loyal customers who keep coming back for the high quality service that is missing in a lot of today’s businesses.

So, to answer that question about the $5 shipping cost, the value encased with the shirts I ship out is much grater than the actual price of the shirt or shipping. Purchasing from Tecknicolor is more than just paying for a shirt, it’s paying for a brand experience like no other and I hope that you all appreciate the extra effort.

Tecknicolor iPhone app Bookmark

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A while ago when I was browsing through the MKP blog, I saw this post. He figured out how to make his websites bookmark look like an app icon. I totally forgot about it until a few days ago, and remembered how much I wanted to do the same thing. So I did…..

You can follow the same instruction he gives in the pic at the top to get the icon on your phone: go to http://tecknicolor.com and add it to your home screen.

Webiste Redesign

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Don’t be alarmed at the store when you go to purchase the new All Gold Every Dream tee. I haven’t been hacked, I’m going through a redesign process. I’d like all aspects of my brands deigns to begin to seamlessly flow together. As you may or may not have noticed about my t-shirt designs, I’m leaning more towards more minimalistic clean designs. For the site I’m going with more greys, blacks and whites. I want the to give the appearance that the actual products are in Tecknicolor. I want the products to pop out of the basic, almost grey-scale design . The previous store layout was great and I loved it but it is now a part of a previous visual direction that I’m now moving away from.

You will also begin to see changes to this blogs design as well. Although you can see I was always into the black and white color scheme, I’m going to make the layout a little more simplistic in appearance. Keep in mind that I know very little about html, so it will be a slow process, but a process none the less.

Jordan Three’s Tee Review: FinestGearNYC

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This is my first t-shirt review done by an e-bay customer, FinestGearNYC. He purchased both the black (now sold out) and true blue colors of the Three’s Greatest Show on Mars tees. When he informed me that he was gonna do a video review, I was pretty excited. This might be a regular thing, if we can work something out.

I’ve never watched someone open one of my packages before. Does everyone just rip through the paper like that? Hey yall, I work hard on that packaging! lol.

Actually my packaging is one thing about by shirts that always  gets acknowledged. I get such great feedback about it, which helps motivate me to continue to go the extra mile, with every single tee. Yes, that’s right every single shirt is hand wrapped before it’s shipped. Plus I send a note and a lil somthing extra (not shown in the video) with each of them as well. Now I feel like I’m bragging,  but isn’t that the whole purpose of this blog in a way? This is why I’m a terrible sales person. What was I talking about again?

Check out FinestGearNYC’s other review videos, he’s a cool guy with a love for sneakers.

Lebron 9 Elite South Beach: Elite Dreams Shirt

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I hadn’t realized it until I started typing but, this will be my very first official non-Jordan based tee. It obviously was created to compliment the over-hyped and over-priced, Lebron 9 PS Elites, in the South Beach colorway, which will release June 2nd.  The theme, concept and execution of the design are all pretty simple.

The text is self explanatory, but I will now explain it anyway. At Tecknicolor I’m a big dreamer, that’s how this brand started in the first place, and I’m encouraging everyone to dream big as well. An Elitist by definition is a person or class of people who feel they’re superior to others. So if you were to dream like an elitist you’re dreams would be pretty darn big. Before you point it out to me (several people already have), the word Elitist is spelled ELITEST on this tee. I’m am well aware of the “misspelling”. The reason is becuase the shirts design was based on the popular street wear brand Fatlace’s Illest logo.

I am in no way trying to replicate the Illest logo, the Fatlace brand or any other Fatlace related logo’s. This is simply a parody of the brands famous logo. I have the utmost respect for the brand, what it stands for and the success it’s obtained. This Elitest logo is play on the concept of being the best at something.

Useless fact: The original Illest logo was actually based off of the popular (although I never paid attention to it until Tiger Woods dad came on the scene) golf brand Titleist.

I feel like this design is straight to the point. I tend to be a little overly creative but a few people on my review team are making me thinking in simpler terms as it relates to design. I think a lot of my designs will begin to lean in this direction.

I do plan on purchasing the Lebron’s, which will make them my first pair. The interesting and kind of dumb thing is that since I wear kids sizes the ones I’ll own won’t even be considered, Elite’s. That’s the whole bases of my design, yet it won’t apply to my own shoes. Oh Nike, why do you do these things? Anyway,  the shirt is up for presale in the store right now. The shirts will be ready to ship the week of June 4th.

I Love My Competition

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I got an email a while back from a great customer and fan of the brand who’s even offered to help me out in some areas who. He brought up the fact that he’s cool with the owner of Bobby Fresh, Robert Preston and wondered if there was a way he and I could work together. He was like well I know he’s your competition but I know he would love your work, or something along the lines of that.

There’s a guy I met in Finishline a few years back, Terrence. I was doing the Cool Grey Jordan tees and I wanted to see how the greys matched up to my design. He went and brought out the, not yet released, shoes for me to take a look at. He also asked a few questions about they brand and said he might pic a tee up from the site. He’s a super cool dude and even though he doesn’t live in MI anymore we’ve still been keeping in touch via social networking sites. He’s now started his own brand Aviation Bay and ever so often I’ll give my two cents on designs and business tactics. He saw a packaging post on Instagram and asked if he could use the idea for when he ships he’s tees out.

Pepsi's Collaboration Promotion with Doritos

I don’t have any issue with “competition”. Maybe for bigger more established brands with stock options and 401k plans it’s cool to hate another brand or have a strict “stay away from them” kind  of attitude, but that’s just not how I get down. When I see another brand doing something awesome, it fuels me to do the absolute best I possibly can, I want people the raise the bar and I love working at reaching and even raising it myself.

I love what Bobby Fresh is doing, he’s helped me to realize what a huge market is out there for us sneaker lovers. Let’s be totally honest, I’m probably not very much competition for him anyway. He’s way more established and probably funded than I am right now. If Bobby Fresh called me up tomorrow asking me to work on some designs or collaborate or whatever, I’m down! Maybe from a traditional business standpoint that’s a bad way to see things, but in sneaker culture the whole “I’ll get mine, you get yours…. buy for $160, resell for $1000″  attitude is helping to make the culture we’ve grown to love one you darn near hate. I can’t get with it.

When Terrence asked if he could use the same packaging technique I did, I said of course. I don’t think we should blatantly steal a brands designs or concepts and act like they’re our own, but that’s not what he did….He straight asked for my permission to use a packaging technique, which isn’t all that unique in the first place. I want his brand to succeed just as much as I want mine to; if we can both exchange ideas to help one another get there then lets do it. The term “self made” is an oxymoron, no one is self made. No one has ever gotten anywhere alone and no one wants to be alone at the top.

Photo Credit: Heavier

We all know that the love for sneakers fuels a lot of revenue and in my opinion there’s enough to go around. If you’ll buy one limited edition tee you’ll buy three, becuase when do you have too many shirts to rock with your newly purchased shoes? You don’t! If we thought that way we wouldn’t be buying multiple pairs of shoes in the first place. I’d even promote another sneaker related brand on my site, I’m that confident in the fact that it’s perfectly ok to work together to make each other better.

Making my dreams a reality is intertwined in helping other peoples dreams become a reality. It’s not a gimmick, I’m dead serious. I LOVE MY COMPETITION!

The Shirts are Here!

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The shirts are in and I’ve just finished inspecting them. I’ve learned the hard way that you ALWAYS inspect every single tee, no matter how many you’ve ordered. It seemed too tedious to me at first, but in the past I have definitely stumbled upon some less the high quality tees way after the fact. So, for  all of you who preordered, I will be shipping out tomorrow.

One thing you may notice about the KREAM Anonymous tees, is that inside label is different. I used to iron on labels and it only featured just one size. Since I’m small brand running on a tight budget, the iron on option, although not the most convenient, was more cost efficient. After taking notes from a few other brands I keep up with I realized I could go with the bespoke-ish option of having all sizes printed on and circling the correct size by hand. It still gives a personal touch but saves much more time.

Old Label

I’ll be posting up pics of the special packaging that these shirts will come shipped in soon. Based on the fact that I always ship with some form of food or candy, I’m sure you can guess how these will be shipped.

 Here’s an up close photo of the cookie chain.

When are the Three’s Tees Shipping?

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To everyone who won the contests and ordered through the presale your shirts are coming soon. A mishap came about and I wasn’t able to pick up the shirts today, but they are finished and will be shipped out shortly. Of course I will be keeping you updated with any additional information. The pic above are of the packaging supplies ready to be used as soon as I get the tees in hand. Thanks for your patience.

What’s it Like to be Michael Jordan’s Son?

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Heir Jordan is a new site that, as the video shows, is going to give us a glimpse into the life of Michael Jordan’s sons, Marcus and Jeffery Jordan. I guess they’re capitalizing on the hype that surrounds them based on their dad and from the looks of this video they’re going to include sneaker features as well.  I saw this video on Nice Kicks first and I saw a lot of negative comments. If they don’t mind the slight invasion of privacy, then I don’t see what’s wrong with actually giving the people what they want and are going to ask for anyway. Everybody represents their own personal brand in someway or another (yes even you and me). The hype around them is never going to go away, so their personal brand has almost been partially created for them. As a business minded individual this seems like a natural progression into them creating their own sense of self, professionally, personally, and as I said, business wise. Also the name is pure genius.