Up and Coming Brands: As of October 2011

I’m a search-a-holic. I spend countless hours searching and researching ideas, brands, fashion, sports, design, art, and just about anything I think of. All of you medical professionals (who would obviously reading a sneaker blog) can thank me for making this great discovery that will change the way we think about the human brain forever. I have diagnosed myself as a obsessive search compulsive. Besides making myself an oracle of useless, but interesting facts; I study other businesses in order to learn and grow from those who aren’t just talking it, but doing it. I have decided to share a piece of my personal search archive as it relates to independent clothing brands. I find so many of them so often and I’m been impressed with more than  a few. As a member of this minority group I find it necessary to shed light on some of the brands that have stood out to me.

Don’t Feed the Animals has based their brand on the concept that believes that “as humans we can no longer listen to the animal within us. To grow and prosper as a society we must break away from selfish thinking.” I don’t know how they’re going to get that point across through clothing, but I’m going to continue to check up on them and find out and you should too. [Side note: Their logo scares me]

I not only like this windbreaker but I like the styling of the model, plus it’s comes in this cool packaging.

Last Place is very similar to a brand also based in the Cleveland area, Illthy. Based on the meany references to the Ilthy on their blog, they appear to have ties somewhere or another. I personally like both brands becuase I’m a big fan of simplistic and clean illustration (you see I know those big words). However, unlike Illthy this brand does not appear to get their inspiration from the sports industry. As the name implies their brand represents those who start at the bottom. They “represents creative individuals everywhere who are making things happen without the spotlight of a glamorous city shining on them, but find it radiating within them.”

They appear to be releasing this Late Summer/Fall collection soon if it hasn’t dropped already. I personally like the general logo. I’d rock that on a shirt any day.

WORXlife is not your average clothing brand. They actually didn’t start out as a clothing brand at all.  They describe themselves as a “Creative Service Firm that deals with client’s graphic design, photography and other business needs.” In 2009 they branched out into a clothing line and it’s not your basic t-shirt line.

It’s obvious when looking through Worxlife’s collections that their background in graphic design allows to bring a detailed, as well as a vintage look, to their brand that includes a money clip wallet.

OK, so when I saw the brand Invizible Box I thought…….”really an invisable box?” However, after looking through the site I realized it was a pretty cool idea. The concept comes from not thinking inside the box and they also have this mime theme going on. They say they’re brand speaks for it’s self without word, much like a mime. Here’s how they describe it: “…we see the concept of “the box” as boundaries that an individual forces themselves within, thus presenting them with the dilemma of how they can overcome their “box” and think outside. That being said, we believe that true inspiration and success can simply come from “thinking inside” oneself, without influence or pressure from others.”

What I really like most about Invizible Box is the well-roundedness of the brand the theme is fit into pretty much every shirt design. Every detail of the branding from tags, to stickers, and the entire site all fit within the theme.

There many more brands that deserve a mention, but I will introduce them on a later date to save scrolling and because I don’t have the time to go into them right now. Until Next Time….

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Presale Starts Today!

The presale has officially started today. This is the first time I’ve ever done a presale, but I’ve gotten pretty good feedback thus far. So I’m pretty excited about it.

Just a heads up, the item in the store for the Three’s Tees Package doesn’t allow me to have more than one pull down menu (I’ve already asked Big Cartel about this issue). So when you order you will have to specify which size for each color in the notes section. This also means that you area allowed to mix sizes in the package as well. However you are not allowed to mix colors. It’s for 1 of each color. That’s all!

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Oh My: Air Jordan 4 “Doernbecher”

I know that these are for charity and that the kids from the hospital help to design the shoes. That’s great. I’m all for charity, it’s wonderful. However, I also know the the designers take the kids ideas and work them into something wearable for the shoe to actually be released to the public. That is all I will say on this subject aside from the standard phrase I always say to my sneakerhead friends: “They do this, but I can’t get hired by Nike? Smh.” That is all.

Source: Nice Kicks

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1 of 1: Stealth 3′s Tee Design

This is a one of one shirt, designed in colors that compliment the Stealth 3′s. A customer requested this colorway and he is now the only person to own one. It will not be a part of any lines or the 3′s tee’s package. However, I decided to share since I enjoy the different greys all together in one design. It was pretty cool to be able to get this done for him at a local print shop, since it’s so hard to find anyone who will print one shirt for you…But it ain’t cheap.

It kinda takes me back to my customizer beginnings. I still often have the urge to put an idea onto and sneaker and all white shoes still call my name when I see them for cheap. Till next time…

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Three’s Tees Presale: Details

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Three’s Tees Design Process

Photo credit: Daniel.Lam

Well even though I designed the shirt to go with the Retro Jordan 3′s a year ago. I still remember what brought me to the final design you now see on the soon-to-be-for-sale tees. I always say this, but in the sneaker culture there are so many variations of sneaker related tees that it’s difficult to find the balance of relevancy, creativity, consumer appeal, and current trends a shirts design. I think I speak for all of use sneaker type designers (customizers, web and graphic designers, and clothing and accessory designers) when I say that the best thing we can contribute to the sneaker biz is first being the person we sell to. A lot of us are able to  find the balance I spoke of and create great designs becuase we’re not just selling something to people who like sneakers. We’re selling you something we’d buy ourselves (and if no other brand is, I am).

So as a usual a part of my design process I began sketching out ideas as they came to me. As you would imagine, one of the first thoughts I had was something elephant related since the shoes feature elephant print [I won't go into the fact that the print is continuously called cement print when cement print is actually a whole other thing]. Elephants make me think of the circus so, that theme became a part of the brainstorming. This is a bad sketch (most of my sketches are), but I think the elephant was supposed to be on a ball or something circus-like. I honestly don’t remember the exact direction of this particular drawing or why he’s in a circle.

I was thinking “lets make an elephant Jordan-type figure.” Mr. Elephant (why does everything have to have a name?) was gonna be Mars Blackmon/Jumpman which would have fit in with the original Tecknicolor logo which is now Sheepy as Mars. I was dead set on having his trunk look similar to Jordans arm in the famous free-throw-line-dunk. However, after thinking this concept through I realized I’ve seen way too many characters mimic Jordan poses, including in my own brand. I also hadn’t totally abandoned the circus concept. His ears are unusually big for a reason and if you can read the words at the top, they’re from a related song to an elephant that has big ears.

I really loved that phrase, so I decided to try and work into the design somehow. I’m not the best and incorporating typography into designs. I want to be, but I’m just not. I was actually stuck on this particular style of the design for a really long time. However, in my usual design process I woke up in the middle of the night with what I felt like was a much better idea and spin on the same general theme.

I send and resend these pics to my team of people who are totally unaware that they’re working for me for free and get feedback until I finally get something that I think is a good balance of me and something other people can appreciate. So as I’m sure you’ve guessed this is the design I woke up in the middle of the night for. I sent it to the peeps and got the type of feedback I was looking for (actually one of them hates the circus, so they were ignored) and this, the first design of the 3 three’s tees package, was officially born.

I hope you enjoyed yourself on this Tecknicolor journey of design. Until next time, good night and good luck (sorry, I say things that don’t matter or make sense).

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Presales? What’s That About?

I’m pretty new to the whole presale concept as far as the Tecknicolor brand goes. So for good measure and for those of you who may not be completely familiar with presales, I decided to say a little bit about it before you partake in the first of what may be many Teck presales.

I knew about presales, but I wasn’t completely comfortable with using the system for my brand. This was mainly becuase I was so new to the t-shirt game and I didn’t think I would get as many sales as I could just selling from pre stocked inventory. What made me actually take the whole presale thing into consideration was observing the brand Illthreads. First of all they have great products with dope graphics, and they’re masters at marketing and sales via Tumblr. They also use their tried and true presale method for most, if not all, of their shirt releases. There’s a page on their site that explains the whole process from beginning to finish. They explain it a such a simple and easy to understand way:

Have you ever tried to reserve a video game? Have you ever booked a plane ticket or concert ticket? Well Illthreads™ uses a similar method called pre-orders, which is when you reserve your merchandise now to be received at a later date.

I observed this whole process, watched fans of the brand sell out each shirt design, and even submit photos of themselves proudly rocking their Illthreads gear. I thought hmmmm…….. this really works. Because they keep their blog updated so frequently, even when unexpected situations come up, such as misprints or something, all paying customers can feel as ease with sending them their hard earned cash. All they have to do is just visit the sites to be reassured that their products are on they’re way.

Then there is the best part of presales: No excess inventory sitting around! This saves a ton of money that can be put towards more products, giveaways, site upgrades, marketing, ect.  You don’t have to worry about how many shirts to print up or how many of each size. You can make a decent amount of sales and still maintain the limited edition-ness of your brand. Overall, it’s a great set up for a start-up line, especially if you have already established a customer base.

WARNING: YOU MUST BE TRUSTWORTHY! You will never get repeat business from customers who have had bad experiences with your brand. Ripping people off, lack of communication, terrible customer service, and empty promises….are quick ways to destroy your business and news travels fast.

So presales aren’t just for sneakers, plane and concert tickets anymore. They can apply to probably most products and services out there. So this is my little piece of business advice, as well as my explanation of the next Tecknicolor shirt releases for the fall/winter seasons.

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Three’s Tees: Presale Date Announcement

Shikes!

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Jordan 3 Tee’s: Not so New Designs

My updating has been pretty sporadic to say the least. I tend to update my tumblr much more often. However, I have not abandoned this blog, sneakers, fashion, tees or anything else I’ve thrown on this site in the past few years. I have actually been working on more than a few things. One of the recent and soon to be major sneaker releases of 2011 are the Retro Jordan 3′s. So far we’ve seen the white/cement and the True Blue’s (my personal fav).

Coming up this labor day weekend the Stealth’s will be released and of course in November, as usual, the Holiday Jordan releases will  include the black/cement colorway. [There's another release that's more important but I'll save that for another post.]

I designed the tee you see above in the different Jordan 3 colorway’s last year. If you’ve ever read this blog you’d know that I usually make it a point to release shirts right along with the release date of the shoes. However, I had some back inventory for the Cool Grey Gucci Wings tee. I was set on getting those sold before I started piling on new shirts. Now that I’m pretty close to reaching that goal and the black cements are dropping soon, I’m ready for the tee next release. Ahhhhh, the joys of running your own business.

So this is how this is going to work:

I am going to set up all three tee’s separately and as a package deal, as a pre-sale item in the store. The opening and closing pre-sale dates for the Jordan 3 Tee’s will be announced soon here, on Twitter, and on Facebook. So if your not following me, now’s the time to start.

There are more updates to come on the on the designing process and concept of the 3′s Tee’s the Concord’s, a new custom tee concept, and the intro Sheepy tee. That is all for now.

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90′s Gitano as High Fashion Trend?

I was looking for a type of messenger bag on one of my usual online product searches when I came across a familiar looking bag. It’s by Alviero Martini, and the print is called Geo Classic. The name of the bag wasn’t familiar and the $635 price definitely wasn’t, however, the print was. I have a bag I bought from Target in the 90′s by the now defunct brand, Gitano, with the exact same print. I don’t remember what I (my mom, becuase I was a kid) paid for it, but I know it wasn’t anywhere near $600.

The new and now fashionable version of this vintage bag has been a carried by all sorts of celebrities since it’s release, which I think was around 2008 or 2009.

I usually only carried the bag on trips and only when I ran out of room in my usual unfashionable duffel bad (I never buy real luggage). Now I’ve got a new appreciation for the vintage piece of my 90′s childhood and intend on keeping it in good shape.

My real question is: Do people know where this old time world map print came from, especially the celebrities dishing out thousands of dollars on the luggage? I also wonder if my bag is worth anything now and if it is. How much? Either way, I think it’s pretty cool I own one, which is whole reason I blogged this.

The moral to this story: Throw nothing away.

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