Tag Archives: tees

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!

Three’s Tee’s 3 Sites Giveaway

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In the spirit of the “Three’s” theme, you will be able to win one shirt each of the three major social networking sites: Tumblr, Facebook, or Twitter. So that means there will be three winner, one per site. Here’s how the contest works:

Tumblr

  • Follow Tecknicolor
  • Reblog this contest post
  • Enable your ask box so that I can message you when you win.

Twitter

  • Follow me on Twitter @tecknicolor
  • RT the message about the give-away, and you will be entered to win your tee.

Facebook

  • Friend me @ Tecknicolor and like my page. You have to do both to qualify
  • You will receive a message when you win.

The winners will receive, their choice of  ONE (not all three) of the “Three’s Tees” shirts.The shirts are available in S, M, L, XL, 2XL, & 3XL.

The contest will end November 13th @ 9PM EASTERN TIME. Your free shirt will be shipped to you when all the shirts are finished being printed. Please contact me with any questions. Good luck!

Up and Coming Brands: As of October 2011

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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….

Presales? What’s That About?

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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.