After changing the type of cotton, experimenting with new labels and some other modifications, I was pretty excited how it ‘ll all works out.

But YES! Our new partner factory did a great job! The T-Shirts feel very soft, the new labels look gorgeous and they are fitting just ideally.

It feels really good to see such improvements on your own product.

Above a Snapshot, the very first fitting of our brandnew blanks….

To celbrate the official Start of Spring (21. March 2007) all Tees in our Online-Shop are down to only 15 EUR (from 23 EUR). Special prices are valid until 07. April.

And by the way… In April we will launch 2 brandnew tees. In our german blog you’ll find further informations. Sorry, at the moment we’re just to bussy to keep our blog up to date in 2 languages….

All three books, 100% Cotton, 200% Cotton and 300% Cotton, are available on Amazon.

Enclosed some abstract out of the 200% Cotton Book:

• “The T-Shirt has been used as a medium for provocative, entertaining or nonsensical graphics and messages since the 1960s. This book celebrates designers who continue to use it as a vehicle for their art. 200% Cotton feautures work by a disparate group of independent and uncompromising designers, and presents and inspiring snapshot of the current state of global creativity.”

No doubt, a very interesting reading and must have for all T-Shirt Enthusiasts!

Our myspace url: http://www.myspace.com/fashion_bandits

A few words, why we decided to be on myspace from now on. Off course it’s just another great marketing opportunity - watch out: there are over 150.000.000 folks hanging around at myspace, no doubt, the worlds biggest social network. Thus, there might be some interesting people, worth to know and network! Potential customers, designers, artists, other T-Shirt Projects… A wide range of interesting contacts.

Yes, our profile page… I know, it’s not super exciting right now, but I guess it’s not the worst thing to keep it simple and basic at first. We gonna add some nice beats, videos etc. more from time to time. Certainly, the big myspace monster eats your time! There is so much functionality and so many user profiles to discover. Be patient, you will see our Buddylist growing and growing.

I can already say, that it was worth to set up our profile! “Borat” the man himself is already our buddy! LOL. I am still waiting for the confirmation of the “Suicide Girls” (yummie). But hey, I am an optimistic guy and pretty confident, this hot chicks wanna hook up with us - for sure!

Cu on myspace!

They integrated an mini equalizer, using a technique called “Electroluminescence”! On the projects about page, there is the following information:

• “The TQ, or T-Qualizer is an amazing little item, produced by a company called FlashTech. The basic principle of this unique technology is that when music is playing, the TQ will pick up the beat of the song and react exactly like the graphic equalizer on your stereo.“

Check it out yourself. Enclosed you find a video demonstration the whole thing:

Awesome Idea and again it show that there is tons of potential in a simple piece of cotton.

fashion bandits says: We love T-Shirts!

1. How to reach customers and how to define the target group.
2. How to market the T-Shirts.
3. Strategies of market the website, which has very often an important role, especially for small independent labels.
4. Find retailers and know how to deal with them.
5. Planing the production process (Where to buy/ produce/ print your tees).

Today we hava a look on the importance to show one’s colours. Don’t hide your project, or like “brand eins” in it’s article “die Zufallsfischer” is saying:

Note: translated version - the original text is in german:

• “It is essential to leave the attic with your product. Introducing it to other people, take their feedback serious and eventually consider to change the product once again. Go to places which are popular among your customers. Get in touch with producers. Network with like-minded people. Show presence as much as possible and laying out baits, which eventually attracts more and more people.” …

Moreover, be self-confident. Professor Fueglistaller continues:

• “… and get started with all of that, even you are just 90% happy with your product“.

In my opinion some really valuable points are provided here. Any comments on that?

Tags: Start T Shirt Business, T Shirt Marketing]]> http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/your-own-t-shirt-project-part-2-laying-out-the-bait/feed/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/your-own-t-shirt-project-things-to-consider-part-1-know-your-market/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/your-own-t-shirt-project-things-to-consider-part-1-know-your-market/#comments Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:21:01 +0000 Sven General T-Shirt IndustryStart T Shirt BusinessT Shirt Marketing http://www.fashion-bandits.com/blog-en/your-own-t-shirt-project-things-to-consider-part-1-know-your-market/ When I started fashion Bandits around spring 2006, I didnt’t had any clue how much T-Shirt Projects are already out there. Ok - I knew it’s pretty crowded already… But to be honest, I didnt expect that in fact the number of cool fashion labels is almost endless plus all the new fresh Ideas and concepts which are launching day by day.

But hey, no reason to get nervous. A) competition is good for business and B) if you believe in your own idea and keep on working hard and passionated there is no reason why your project should not succeed. But watch out! A few cute looking T-Shirts are not enough. There are some important points to consider:

Before we start, please note: This series is called “Your own T-Shirt Project” and will be structured in 4 parts 2 parts. In every part I will refer to the awsome article “die Zufallsfischer” (Issue 6/ June 2006), published by the german magazin “brand eins“. Because the original article is german I’ll gonna translate some paragraphs for you. If you are interested in reading the whole article you might use a translation tool, such as the google translator.

Let’s start - Part 1: Know your market!

brand eins is writing (translated version - the original text is in german):

• “The people holding their products in the hand and suddenly they notice: Actual, the only thing which is missing is the right market.” says Urs Fueglistaller, Professor for Business Administration at the University of St. Gallen and an expert for entrepreneurship. Actual. Only. It sounds like not imortant. But in reality exactly this market is the actual barrier. How to reach the target group? How to build up sales and marketing? How to organize the production process? What about the financing?”

Bingo! - they mentioned some valueble points. Especially many of the small T-Shirt Projects out there have great Ideas, but no substantive experiences about how to market their products. How to find customers? How to increase traffic on the website? How to deal with wholesalers and even more important how to get them interested in the product? Also the production process: an important aspect. Is it better to use decentraliced concepts like Spreadshirt or Cafepress (which means they take care about manufacturing the t-shirts, printing, shipping etc.) or will it be more appropriate to keep control over such primary processes?

A lot of important questions. Everyone who’s really serious about launching such a project should spend some time to finding the right answers.

In Part 2 I will discuss the fact that it’s important to be present: go out there, the whole world should see your t-shirts! (the continuation will be published during the next 2 days)

Tags: Start T Shirt Business, T Shirt Marketing]]> http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/your-own-t-shirt-project-things-to-consider-part-1-know-your-market/feed/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/la-fraise-european-tour-just-started/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/la-fraise-european-tour-just-started/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:00:43 +0000 Sven GeneralCommunityCrowdsourcingDesign ContestLa FraiseSpreadshirt http://www.fashion-bandits.com/blog-en/la-fraise-european-tour-just-started/ La Fraise, a french T-Shirt Content Contest Website (similar to Threadless), was taken over in July 2006 by Spreadshirt. After the deal Spreadshirt announced the internationalisation of La Fraise. Now - 6 month later, the Exciting Commerce Blog (german) and HipHipUK (english) posted, that La Fraise expanded it’s operation to several european countries:

For the time being there will be a launching in Germany, England, Finland and Norway.

Screenshot lafraise.de blog - the new german team

A few words about La Fraise: La Fraise has a strong and active community in it’s background (approx. 75.000 users). The company was founded by Patrice who was able to build up the site to be the 2. largest T-Shirt Design Contest Project on the internet. The whole thing started as a blog project - Patrice, a passionate and charismatic blogger always understood how to inspire his people. Consequently, the company and it’s founder are strong connected (=which will be a challenge for the new La Fraise Crew). Similar to Threadless the business model is an ongoing t-shirt contest. Users can submit their designs, there is a public voting by the community - the best/ winning designs get printed.

No doubt, the existing community and a wide range of already printed T-Shirts will be a jump start, when entering the new foreign markets. Not bad so far…

But for all that, in my opinion the expansion plans wont be a bed of roses for the guys of Spreadshirt/ La Fraise. Patrice, La Fraise’s retired godfather, is not any longer part of the business management - as far as I know, he was only kind of an interim consultant for the first few months. First of all, without Patrice, one of the previous main factors of success is missing. Also there is a big questionmark, if it will be possible to transfer the current concept to different countries.

Additionally, force the expansion of a community is just conditionally possible. Usually such a project is growing organically. It’s up to the users out there, if they accept the idea or even better spread the word. Especially the aimed target group tend to be quite idealistic. The creative folks will expect the right spirit and authenticity. Especially Spreadshirt, which often has the reputation of a virtual copyshop, printing all sort of stuff, is not very popular among some of these people. I guess especially in this combination that might be an important point - and I am sure, the spreadshop guys are aware of that.


Screenshot derby.spreadshirt.net - the page will be merged with La Fraise soon

Indeed, it can be fairly challenging to launch such a service. One example is “The Derby“, Spreadshirt’s first attempt to establish a Designer T-Shirt Contest (mainly in Germany).

Although Spreadshirt could access it’s huge designer community (the creative part of their shoppartners, “open Logo” und “TheDraw” users) the project never really rocked. In my opinion one reason for the La Fraise takeover.

Conclusion:

It remains exciting. Let’s see if the new La Fraise Crew can conserve the originally La Fraise Spirit and even more important, tranfer it to other countries. One bonus might be the recrution of Adam Fletcher, author of the HipHipUK Blog, who already has access (at least in the UK) to part of the targeted people.

However their will be still enough oppurtunities for the small independent labels/ projects out there. Often able to move faster, loaded with great ideas and inovations they tend to give a more authentic impression. “A Better Tomorrow” from germany or “Teetonic“, based in the UK would be such examples. However, good luck to all parties concerned.

Tags: Community, Crowdsourcing, Design Contest, La Fraise, Spreadshirt]]> http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/la-fraise-european-tour-just-started/feed/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/hello-world/ http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/hello-world/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 05:00:51 +0000 Sven Generalfashion Banditst shirt blog It’s done: We have launched our new weblog and it’s time now to write the first post. You can find some information about myself (=the author) and the purpose of this blog, on the “about the blog” page.

Allowedly, I am not a totally newbie, also I’ ve never written a blog posting by myself, I am an frequent reader since quite a while now - preparing myself for my own coming out



Some of the blogs, I am visiting daily you can find here, here and here. But to be honest, despite of that I feel a bit nervous right now. It feels like a stage-fright, even though the stage is just virtually here. However, I guess it might take a while, until I’ll find my own blogging style - like in real life, practice makes perfect. And please consider, I am a german dude, the main blog is operated in german language - but since the german t-shirt blogoshpere is quite limited (at least during this time), I’ve decided to run the whole thing bi-lingual. I hope this enables us to share our opinions and thoughts with a greater audience. Thus watch out ladys and gents, I am not a native guy… My english might be suboptimal from time to time - I beg you pardon

But back to the topic: I want to post here about the T-Shirt Industry, my own experiences and impressions, which I could gain since the time I launched fashion Bandits.I ll try to keep you up to date concerning interesting news and trends, and also I keep my eyes on some other T-Shirt Companies out there. I will talk about how challenging and tough it is to build up a t-shirt brand and attracting people to the own site. Altogether this should be a place for open and honest discussions.

Completing I want to drop some lines about what I am expecting from this blog… Off course one reason is to get some publicity for the own label, website and the blog itself… would be dishonest to deny that. However, even more important is the exchange of Ideas with other people out there. That’s the only way Ideas can grow.

In this spirit, have fun on our blog and feel free to discuss with us - we highly appreciate it!

Tags: fashion Bandits, t shirt blog]]> http://www.fashion-bandits.de/blog-en/hello-world/feed/