The US Spreadshirt Blog

What Happened to Bubbles the Chimp? And other chimp t-shirts for ape fans too.

2009-07-09T14:59:29Z

I saw this little clip on CNN last week and thought it was pretty cute. Bubbles was Michael Jackson’s pet chimp and with all of the coverage of his funeral this was a nice change of pace and informative about the lives of chimps too. Currently Bubbles is living at the Center for Great Apes in Florida. You can read more about Bubbles on his extensive wikipedia page.

You can order the CNN headline t-shirt for this too “Bubbles the chimp lives the retiree life.”

Speaking of chimps, I did a quick search in the Spreadshirt marketplace and found some fun chimp designs…

Burgundy Cheeky Chimp Sweatshirt

Chimpanzee Trapezee

Kelly green Ape-el i-pod Sweatshirt

Skirting the Issue - Skirts and Dresses for Summer at Spreadshirt

2009-07-02T17:27:03Z

Its officially summer, and that means it is officailly too hot for pants! We hae got you covered - literally (and you need to be covered - especailly when you are on an airplane). Well at lease for the ladies we have some great skirts and dresses that often got over looked by our fantastic t-shirts.

Newest in the collection is the Women’s Drape Hem Skirt - made of a super soft bamboo blend - this skirt is a little longer than our Roll Down Skirt.

Here is a not so great photo of the Drape Hem Skirt and the Roll Down Skirt - both are size small - but I wanted to show the difference in length.

Also new for the summer is the Racer Back Dress - which is from American Apparel and is made out of a fine jersey cotton - this is perfect for hot sumer days or throwing over your swim suit on the way to the beach or the pool. Don’t forget we also have a Cover-up/Sleep Shirt too - it is a v-neck t-shirt that is longer than your average shirt so it can be worn as a dress.

Celebrating Mediocrity

2009-07-02T08:41:07Z

One of my favorite parts about the Internet and working for Spreadshirt is discovering the unique websites that have been created on nearly every topic under the sun. One of the newest Spreadshirt shop partners is MyLifeIsAverage aka MLIA. MyLifeIsAverage is about sharing the averageness, mediocrity, normalcy, mundanity of every day life. Anyone can submit average statements about life and the community can vote and comment on the statements. Each MLIA can be ordered on a t-shirt and some of these are pretty average and pretty funny.

Here are a few that I think are pretty funny…

#85987

Today I found a penny on the floor I thought to myself “Find a penny, pick it up all the day you’ll have good luck.” I looked at it and decided not to, it was too dirty. MLIA.

#86029

Today, after someone said something funny on AIM, I replied “ROFL” even though I was still on my chair. MLIA.

And I am ordering this t-shirt because I did this today (I guess my life is average

#15569

Today, I opened the fridge. There was nothing I wanted to eat in there. After 15 minutes, I opened it again. There still wasn’t anything I wanted to eat in there. MLIA

Photos from T-shirt Day Boston!

2009-06-29T15:18:10Z

So we tried to plan T-shirt Day around the first day of summer with the hope of sunny, blue skies - we had rain, we had wind but that didn’t stop us from celebrating the T-shirt!

We had a great turn out for International T-shirt Day last week at the Daily Catch in Boston, MA. A big thank you to Max and Maria for rolling out the hot chocolate to keep everyone warm!

Check out the slide show below of these great photos from the party and check out some photos from t-shirt day celebrations around the world!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

More Webinars! Spreadshirt Bootcamp and Vector Graphics 101

2009-06-25T17:52:41Z

Take a break from the heat and spend some quality time with us this summer. We have just added some more webinars to the schedule for both the Spreadshirt Bootcamp and Vector Graphic 101 webinars.

Spreadshirt Bootcamp

Vectors Graphics 101

Reminder - International T-shirt Day is June 21, 2009!

2009-06-19T16:53:38Z

Just a quick reminder that T-shirt Day is almost here! We have some great events planned for Boston and Berlin and there a bunch of t-shirt day parties that are being planned acorss the globe.

Boston
- RSVP on Facebook
Berlin
- RSVP on Facebook
Everywhere else - check out this google map of t-shirt parties across the globe

Follow t-shirt day on twitter @tshirtday and shrare your pictures on flicker add the tag tshirtday09.

Storied Shirts of Glark - Interview with Glarkware

2009-06-23T15:12:02Z

The relatively-new-to-Spreadshirt partner Glarkware is no newbie to the t-shirt universe. His almost daily re-introduction of designs and addition of new gems are almost sure to induce a spout of laughter or spontaneous brow-raising. As the slogan “Storied Shirt Jobbery” forewarns, each of Glarkware’s shirts is coupled with witty, ironic, informative and entertaining stories. Dave, the man behind Glarkware and the numerous other Glark Industries pursuits, talks about his move to Spreadshirt, gives us a quick lesson on Canadian pronunciation and graces us with his good-humored nature. The interview with Dave from Glarkware:

Where are you from and where do you live now?
My hometown is a little place called Thorold which is near Niagara Falls but I’ve lived in Toronto, Los Angeles and I’m currently calling New York City home.

What do you do, other than t-shirts?
I’ve gone through a few careers since the 90s. I ran my own interactive agency (as we used to call them back then) doing website design and online marketing and work there led to a few vanity projects which took on a life of their own. The biggest of these was a TV recap site called Television Without Pity which we ran for almost 10 years before selling it to NBC. I’ve recently taken up photography which has been really fun.

How did you come up with the name Glark?
A friend of mine from university used to do a comic called Blik which was full of weird made up names and sounds. When it came time to choose a handle (more 90s talk!) for my online a-doings I aped his style and came up with something in that vein that didn’t appear on any search engines (though it has since become a name of a unix script… stupid eggheads!)

How long have you been designing t-shirts?
Wow, I guess about 10 years now. I started designing stuff for a friend’s wholesale apparel business back during the fake retro businesses shirt craze (remember that?) and had some stuff appear in stores like Urban Outfitters.

What is the difference between American and Canadian t-shirt culture?
Well, in Canada we called them shiurts. Other than that it’s about the same except Americans don’t understand all our references to Timbits and giggle way too much when we tell them how to correctly pronounce Regina.

When and why did you move to Spreadshirt?
In May 2009. Back in Toronto we would pick up stock from the local printer, we turned the 3rd floor of our house into a warehouse for shirts and we went to the post office every day after packing orders in the morning. Now we’re in New York City and living in an apartment the size of a postage stamp so that way of doing business would have cramped our style a bit. Now with Spreadshirt handling production and fulfillment it has really given me more time to design new stuff and start new projects.

What is your shop’s target group and how do you market your shop to them?
I think we have a lot of pop culture-minded people following us from the Television Without Pity days and I still have ads running there thanks to my Jedi negotiating skills, but it’s mostly been word of mouth. One of the great things about partnering with Spreadshirt is that I’ve finally had time to start drawing up an expanded marketing plan. I feel like such a grown-up now.

What do you like about Spreadshirt and what could we do better?
I like not having to worry about. We are a small outfit by design and sometimes there were not enough hours in the day to keep up. Passing on responsibilities to a trusted partner to free up time to concentrate on design and marketing has been a godsend. I would like to see more shirt colour choices and colour parity between men’s and women’s shirts of the same make (e.g. American Apparel).

Where do you get your ideas for designing? What happens before a shirt lands on your site?
Almost everything just happens organically. I’ll be watching TV with my wife and some snarky comment becomes the start of a conversation that leads to a shirt design. There’s a shirt on the site called Swedish Mafia: Efficient But Deadly that was born when a friend from Chicago couldn’t figure out how his local Swedish bakery was getting rid of so many horrible baked goods every day. We knew the answer. It’s was obviously a mob front.

What’s your favorite shirt?
Oh man. I’m not going to do that thing where I say I can’t choose just one. I hate that. I’m going with Bigfoot vs. Abe Lincoln because I’m a big fan of both Abraham Lincoln and the ridiculous.

Have you ever seen a stranger wearing one of your shirts? What did you do?
Since I’ve moved to NYC I see them all the time. This is Glarkware Central! I will stop you and give you a long awkward hug and without explaining myself I gently whisper in your ear “thank you my friend” and walk away.

Where are your favorite stomping grounds on the world wide web?
I’m always on Flickr.com looking for inspiration for my photography. Following up on the Bigfoot vs. Abe Lincoln shirt, there’s a couple webcomics I really enjoy these days. The Abominable Charles Christopher is absolutely amazing and Thinkin’ Lincoln is right up my alley. I also run a site called Damn Hell Ass Kings that collects stuff from all our talented friends.

Following your slogan “Storied Shirt Jobbery”, each of your shirts has a story behind it. Why?
All our shirts really do have a story behind them. They all started life as some toss-away remark or weird idea and we try to capture something of that in the copy.

Do you really love irony?
That’s a typo. We love ironing.

Glarkware is bringing out new shirts every day, what do you have up your sleeve in the coming months for Glarkware?
Right now we’re reintroducing a lot of classic Glarkware designs including many redesigns. Once we’re done with that we’ve got some great new stuff ready to roll out and as fall approaches we’ll break out the hoodies.

If you were a t-shirt, what would you look like?
Medium. White.

Many thanks to Dave for the interview and …

Advice from Spreadshirt Shop Partner Tommy White

2009-06-16T16:16:57Z

Tommy White is the brains behind the t-shirt shop Nekkid Tees and has been very helpful over the years sharing his knowledge on how to set up shop with Spreadshirt.

I wanted to point out two posts on his site TommyWhite.com that I think are helpful but he has lots of good information so you should take a look at the site.

Winning T-Shirt Parties - Where will you be on T-Shirt Day?

2009-06-16T12:10:47Z

As many of you know we called out to the t-shirt world to organize their own t-shirt celebrations and register on the T-Shirt Day website. We promised to equip 10 of these parties with sets of 10 t-shirts – and we shall follow through with that promise. The winners hail from 6 different countries and, depending on where you might find yourself on June 21st, you could join in on one of these events or one of the many others registered on the T-Shirt Day site. Here they are, in no particular order:

- T-shirt Mania in Cleveland
Yes Clothing is putting together a cook out for their T-Shirt Day celebration and anyone who isn’t wearing a plain t-shirt is invited.

- Tee and Toast in Belfast on the Black Market
Belfast is joining in on the T-Shirt Day celebration and Tee and Toast invites you all to come to their Black Market stall where you can celebrate tees, creativity and the DIY spirit.

- Party at Shakes ‘n Shirts in Hamburg
Shakes ‘n Shirts is a new store in Hamburg which infuses a novel mix of shakes, smoothies and t-shirts under one roof.

- Hit the park in Oslo’s Sofienbergparken
This Crazy T-Shirt Day party is taking to the park (weather permitting) and a “good-spirited” water balloon fight has been promised (regardless of the weather!). The t-shirt capital of the world is sure to put on a good t-shirt party.

- T-Shirt Day in Westerland on the Island Sylt
T-Shirt Day will celebrated on the North Sea Island Sylt with a friendly game of beach volleyball – and the best team jerseys will “probably” get a special prize. We certainly hope so! The basic ingredients for the best outfit are on their way.

- T-Shirt Day at N 50° 37.562′ E 013° 10.742′
You will have to find out yourselves where exactly this t-shirt party is taking place. Simply grab your handy GPS device and meet up with these other geocachers. Be certain not to forget your favorite t-shirt.

- In Baden Baden
In Hauenberstein near Baden Baden, in the shadow of the Black Forest, the 3 best voted shirts will be awarded a prize!

- T-Shirt Summit in Italy’s South Tyrol
Katelein invites any and all fellow t-shirt-wearing hikers to join in on a real t-shirt summit. They will take to the Italian Alps in search of other hikers and their t-shirts.

- Party in Southern France with music and Best Hits
June 21st is the “Fete de la Musique” in France and it would make quite a bit of sense to put T-Shirt Day in the groove with some fine tunes. The web-radio Best Hits and the party can be found in La Turbie and on the net at best-hits-radio.skyrock.com.

We certainly hope the other parties in India, Legoland Berlin and elsewhere have a great time too! Where will you be on June 21st?

A Brand-new Template for your Spreadshirt Shops

2009-06-09T15:22:55Z

Once again, I must tip my hat to our community. A twitter message fluttered into our account over the weekend

SOAP shop software for the rest of the world http://spreadshop.cute-monstr.de

Second nature and curiosity about what Bejamin Vetter had in store preceded the click and the result was very satisfying. Benjamin claims to have been able to really make your Spreadshirt shop all yours – the template:

does not need iFrames
is completely customizable for your website
is based on the programming language Ruby
can be expanded upon and
is offered for free under the GNU General Public License.

We think this is fantastic and are planning to ask Benjamin a few questions about his work. So if you have any questions you would like to ask him, post them here by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Some of you might then be wondering about our new API and this year’s eventual switch from SOAP to REST. I don’t have any updates for you, but can definitely recommend signing up for the newsletter at developer.spreadshirt.net. But don’t let that keep you from trying out this new software - Benjamin has already mentioned that an update would be provided when this change occurs.

So for those who would like to give the software a try, go to spreadshop.cute-monster.de and download the source package. Enjoy and props to Benjamin!

P.S. Please be fair and acknowledge Benjamin if you end up using the template for your shop.