Logo

The logo is clever enough and easy to understand. Not being American, I had no idea which states were used to replace the letters “A” and “I” in the logo. My first guesses were Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, as they seem to be the states with some significance for Jesse but they didn’t match. I ended up doing a reverse image search on Google with the silhouettes. They are Alabama and New Jersey, respectively. I guess they were chosen as the most similar in appearance to the letters they are replacing rather than some personal significance.

Site Design

It is a very well designed site, simple and responsive. Jesse is a professional web designer so it’s no surprise that his website is well-designed. I do have a few criticisms, though. The first is that it not exactly clear what the purpose of the site is when you hit the homepage.

Of course, the website name gives you a hint and if you scroll down you can see t-shirts, but above the fold, you can’t see any. On some mobile phones or when using a tablet vertically, you might be able to see a couple of shirts. But even if you do see the shirts or make the correct deduction from the evidence before you, it is not immediately obvious what the purpose of the site is.

On the homepage, the visitor should know instantly what the website is about. So, while the beautiful American landscape has a nice impact visually, it is not really relevant and doesn’t really do anything. I would use this space to show people wearing the t-shirts that are on sale as well as making a clear statement that you can get t-shirts with any combination of states printed on them. Just choose your two favorite states and Go!

The simplicity of the selection process is great. The states are in alphabetical order and you can’t choose the same state on both sides by accident. When you click go, you are sent to a page with your shirt options. There are currently 7 design options.

Let’s go back to the homepage for a moment. When you scroll down, you are given another option and that is to start with a state. Instead of choosing your two favorite states at the beginning you can start with your favorite state and then try to pick a second.

There are fifty options so if you are looking for DC or one of the Territories, forget about it. I’m not sure that this is a needed feature but it exists and I think that it could be utilized to show the many t-shirt color options that are available. A page full of charcoal gray mockup t-shirts is not exactly enticing, It might also be a little confusing for some people who might expect pure Alabama t-shirt as it is not clear on the homepage what to expect. I’ll tell you now that the Alabama map silhouette t-shirt is not available.

And now back to the design options page. It suffers from some of the same issues except the t-shirts are maroon red and this time the t-shirt you see is actually available.

On to the product page which is again beautiful in its simplicity. The load time is very fast and you can pick out your size and color and add t-shirts to the cart easily. They show you the other six design options that are available for that combination below. You’ll need to scroll down. You can even flip the order of the design. I would highlight this feature more.

I would also add a size chart or a link to a size chart in the FAQ.  (Oops… No FAQ. )

Product Images

The product images are pretty good. They are mockups but I think that they give a good idea of what they will look like and with the increase in print-on-demand sites, mockups are pretty much the standard now. Some model shots or possibly even customer submitted images would be cool though. I reiterate that it would be a good idea to display some color variations.

Kelly Green T-Shirt

The T-Shirts

The designs are white ink on color t-shirts. White t-shirts are not available. There are basically 7 simple designs to choose from. They are not exciting but they serve a simple purpose and they serve it well.

The site was built to allow for every combination of state there is, if you are a math person that is 2,450 combinations for every design!

Each t-shirt comes in 46 colors if I counted correctly. That’s 46 x 2,450 which is about 112,700 different shirts and a demonstration of the power of print-on-demand services.

This Bella + Canvas t-shirt feels soft and light, with just the right amount of stretch. It’s comfortable and the unisex cut is flattering for both men and women. We can’t compliment this shirt enough it’s one of our favorites.

I’m not a big fan of Bella + Canvas t-shirts. They seem to wrinkle easily and lose their shape much faster than American Apparel. I also think that just having one t-shirt option is limiting potential sales. A lot of ladies won’t even consider buying a unisex t-shirt.

Shopping Cart

The shopping cart has a very clean interface with no text area for a coupon code so don’t bother looking. I would add the size to the shopping cart page to reduce the chance of customers ordering the wrong size (as there are no generally returns and we want our customers to be happy) and perhaps PayPal for people who don’t have credit cards or prefer not to use them online. To find out shipping details you need to add your shirt to the cart and I can tell you that while you can’t get a DC shirt, they will ship to DC. Sorry, Puerto Rico.

Shirts are printed in 2-3 days and shipping takes 3-5 days.

Navigation

I imagine that the reason I can’t find the FAQ or a size chart is that they don’t exist and if that’s the case, the navigation is simple and easy to understand.

SEO

I feel that SEO was barely even considered when setting up this store. The homepage has barely any text and not even the page title is optimized. The page title is simply “State of Shirts” and probably because of the generic quality of those words combined with the lack of backlinks, this website doesn’t show up in the first few pages of the search for that exact phrase.

The above is a screenshot of the Google search result for “stateofshirts”. While the meta description is said not to have an effect on SEO it does have an impact on the click-through rate.  As far as I can tell there is no meta description on the stateofshirts.com so this one was automatically generated by Google. The description should be clear and catchy. Of course, I doubt that many people will be searching for “stateofshirts” or even “state of shirts” so this won’t be an issue until the overall SEO strategy is resolved. Competing in the t-shirt market is tough but this seems to be a niche area with potential for domination.

I don’t know much about American states but each of the 50 states available could be optimized with text as well as the combined states. This could be done dynamically without much effort.

Of course, a blog one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site. Jesse could start by writing a blog post about why he loves two states, another about why his wife loves two and if they have any other friends in the same boat. I’m just brainstorming here but there might be states that are typically loyal to each other and those stories can be told. States that are known rivals could also be talked about but include exceptions to this rivalry. Another could be to offer free t-shirts/discounts or some other incentive for people to tell their stories.

List posts are a good way to get links and hits. Some ideas could be:

10 ways that Alabama is Better than Florida.
10 Reasons People from Oregon Love Texas

Selection and Pricing

The shirts are priced at $22.95 and are currently on sale for $17.21. Very reasonable. There are seven different simple designs to choose from for every combination. I think the selection could be expanded. Shipping for one t-shirt is $4.99.

Social Media

Official Social Media is non-existant. At least I couldn’t find it. Twitter, Instagram, interest, and Facebook could help drive traffic but of course, you need to spend some time creating content for them. I know Jesse has a personal Twitter account so I know he knows about social media but just looking at State of Shirts, you wouldn’t make that deduction. I mean, there aren’t even social media sharing options.

Conclusion

It’s a clean and simple site with a singular purpose. That purpose needs to be clear and work needs to be started on SEO and social media. The site needs more text and the visuals could be more varied.

Link: State of Shirts

Don’t forget to check out the other t-shirt site reviews.

State of Shirts Site Review

Kempo24 is an apparel, accessories, and home goods online store that ships from two locations in the US and from Latvia in Europe. They specialize in mostly one or two color designs with a graphic and some text.

We truly believe in the transformative power of illustration and design and their ability to reach people all over the world.
We want to remind about your childhood, make you smile or even reconsider a view.

Kempo24 T-Shirt Review

Two 100% black cotton t-shirts arrived in a plain white mailer a few weeks ago. The “Just like the moon” t-shirt is a two-color (maybe) print on a heavy cotton t-shirt by Gildan and the Digital at Heart design is on a light cotton t-shirt by BELLA+CANVAS. The print on Digital at Heart is light and soft in a white and blue ink. They were individually wrapped.

T-Shirt Design

The Digital at Heart design has the eponymous phase in a stylish white typography on the left and a circuit board-inspired heart image on the left. You know, where the heart is. It’s a clever design and well executed even if it doesn’t call out to me. It is something that I might wear but probably not something that I would buy.

The Just like the moon t-shirt shows different phases of the moon depicted in an almost golden ink interspersed with the sentence: Just like the moon, we all go through phases. This one doesn’t work as well as the Digital at Heart tee and is not really something I would wear.

It’s just a matter of taste, of course, and while neither of these t-shirts does it for me I would like so say that the print is soft and impeccable.

Branding and Extras

The only Kempo24 branding was a sticker on the white mailer that the t-shirts arrived in. The t-shirts themselves had only the brand labels on the neck of the t-shirt brands BELLA+CANVAS and Gildan. The Gildan is a tear away label.

Website

I could talk about the website in detail because I already have done a website review but you might as well just check out the Kempo24 Website Review. There have been a few changes since I last looked but they are restrained by both the shop platform and the chosen theme.

Pricing

At less than US$20  per t-shirts, I think that it is fair to say that they are a good deal for original shirts that are mostly not available anywhere else.

Wrap-Up

While these two t-shirts are not to my taste there are plenty of t-shirts on Kempo24 that are just my style. There is a variety of themes to cater to most interests and all the t-shirts are available in a selection of colors. They are reasonably priced t-shirts with impeccable prints on quality material. Take a look for yourself.

Kempo24: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Kempo24 T-Shirt Review

Deadcelebritee is a Los Angeles based t-shirt store specializing in creepy, geeky and cheeky t-shirts. Yes, many of the t-shirts feature tributes to celebrities that have shuffled off this mortal coil.

We are a brand focusing on the Horror, Rockabilly/80’s, Tattoo, Sugarskull and Geek-tastic genres. We love all things creepy, geeky and cheeky! Because of this we often found it challenging to find cool threads to express our unique taste! We figured we wouldn’t be the only ones to have this problem.

Deadcelebritee T-Shirt Review

Now, this is a little embarrassing. I’m not sure when these t-shirts arrived but I’m pretty sure it was some time last year. It’s been in my closet for a long time and I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was something my wife got. So, my deepest apologies to the guys and girls at Deadcelebritee. I don’t have the mailer it came in for some reason. just the box and a pretty cool box at that. But I’ll get to that later.

There were two t-shirts in the box, one dark heather gray and the other shocking pink. Both of them are very light. The men’s heather t-shirt being a little lighter. I don’t know what the material is but the pink one feels like 100% cotton and the gray is more than likely a blend. The ink is reasonably soft.

T-Shirt Design

One of the t-shirts has an image of a winged devil lounging on the word BASTARD in a stylish deep red text. The quality of the design is impeccable and the text compliments the design both aesthetically and thematically. It’s not something I’d wear though, even if I didn’t have children who would be reading it and asking me to explain it.

The second t-shirt is black ink on a shocking pink shirt for girls. The design is a clever mashup of skulls forming the shape of a heart.

I think there is a market for these kinds of shirts but I am also sure that my household is not part of that market. I was a little disappointed that neither of these designs had a celebrity connection considering the name of the store.

Branding and Extras

The two t-shirts came in a very cool custom box and the t-shirts were wrapped in crepe paper. Each t-shirt was in its own clear plastic envelope. It was very well done.

They both have a card tag attached to the t-shirt with the store logo, some information about the t-shirt and care instructions as well as the store URL.

They also have a printed tag on the inside neck of the shirt with similar details.

They are hard to read but look good.

There were also two stickers in the box.

Website

The website is well put-together. It has a modern design without looking generic. The website design actually complements the style of the t-shirts, apparel, and accessories that they are selling. It is very easy to navigate and they use big clear images. With about 17 men’s t-shirts and 9 women’s, they don’t have a huge selection but if this is the style of t-shirt that you like, I imagine you will find what you are looking for. They also cater to plus-sized people. Their blog has left the building.

Pricing

Shirts seem to be in the $20 to $24 range is fair.

Wrap-Up

While the t-shirts are not to my particular taste, they are good quality and the design quality is impeccable. It’s not that easy to create awesome one-color designs but they have pulled it off. The t-shirts are also appropriately priced.

The packaging is awesome which would make for a great gift. They seem to be doing a good job here. Not much advice I can give but perhaps start up the blog, try to connect with like-minded people and increase their catalog.

Deadcelebritee: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Deadcelebritee T-Shirt Review

Kempo24 is an apparel, accessories, and home goods online store that ships from two locations in the US and from Latvia in Europe. They specialize in mostly one or two color designs with a graphic and some text.

We want to remind about your childhood, make you smile or even reconsider a view.
Our mission is to be able to design the things we love and the way we like to, while keeping the prices fair.
With every design we publish we want to tell you a good story.
Come sit down with us and listen to our tales.

Logo

 I like the logo. It has a cool retro and vintage look reminiscent of a wax seal. There are also shades of a Japanese stamp type seal which they might be going for because there is some Japanese text in the lower half of the logo. As I said, I like the logo but I think it works better in the larger sizes that you can see on their social media accounts that on the website. I would increase the size and center it on the page so people would really notice it in order to help increase brand recognition.

Site Design

In general, the site design is OK. When you arrive at the homepage, it doesn’t take you a second to know that this is a place where you can buy t-shirts and if you scroll down you can see that there are other products available too. But it’s very busy and the design rules are inconsistent. And even without scrolling down I can see at least 8 different font sizes with various font types. I really think that websites promoting/selling art should be as simple as possible and this is especially true for the home page.

This is from the homepage. It’s crowded, looks tacky and the t-shirt image is so small I have no idea whether I would like it or not. So basically I would need to click on each t-shirt and visit each t-shirt page (there is no preview) individually to check them out. If that’s the case, then we don’t need the t-shirt name or price on the home page. Unless there are a substantial number of reviews I wouldn’t put the ratings on the home page at all. The “Almost Gone”, “New”, and “Best Seller” tags are ugly and non-uniform which irritates me.

That’s me being harsh but here’s my advice. Get rid of all the text for these products and increase the image size by about 3 or 4 times so that the shoppers can see the design clearly and will know if they are interested without having to click on the links. Frankly, if the shopper is interested in the product, the price (within reason) will not be a deal breaker. And people already know in general how much t-shirts cost. If you want to have “Almost Gone”, “New”, and “Best Seller” tags, overlay them on the large images.

The homepage slider needs to be re-thought. I like the Ashton Kutcher quote. It’s relevant but the first image should definitely clearly feature at least one of the products available in the store. And it should be clickable so that the shopper can easily find the featured product. There are also strong arguments for just removing sliders from your website. I’m not going to get into it here but you can Google it to find out what I am talking about.

Later on the homepage, there is an image inviting you to join the mailing list and if you click on it a form slides on to the bottom of the page. They should have just put the form directly on the page where people and enter their email and click send. And I recommend offering a coupon for first-time buyers. Or simply for joining the mailing list if you can afford it.

The t-shirt selection page is full width and responsive but those images are just too small even on a 27- inch widescreen monitor.

The product page is not bad but could be better. When you click on the image to get a closer look, it’s not easy to understand how to get back to the details. I think that it would be better to have images that are already big enough to see the details so you don’t feel the need to click on them. Or perhaps one of those rollover effects that zoom in on the image. The latter is not a solution for mobile visitors though.

Product Images

The product images are pretty good. They are mockups but I think that they give a good idea of what they will look like and with the increase in print-on-demand sites mockups are pretty much the standard now. Some model shots or possibly even customer submitted images would be cool though.

The T-Shirts

As mentioned above, most of the designs are one or two color graphics with text. None of the t-shirts really stood out. I didn’t see anything where I thought to myself that I must have it but they are mostly the type of t-shirts that I like to wear. Simple, clever and non-pop culture. They do have a few vague pop culture references but there are a variety of themes to cater to different people like cat-lovers, coffee addicts, and err.. fishermen.

I didn’t look at every t-shirt in the store as it is tedious to open every page in the browser to get a closer look. Yes, this is my way of reiterating that the thumbnail images need to be much bigger.

I know that they use both Gildan and Bella+Canvas t-shirts but I guess they might use other brands too, depending on where the t-shirts are produced and shipped from and other factors.

Shopping Cart

The store is powered by Shopify and it has a great shopping cart. You can pay by credit card or Amazon. The shop prices are in Euro by default but you can switch to various currencies including USD but I noticed that when you get to the shopping cart, it reverts to Euro. It’s not a problem for me but just something that you should be aware of when you are checking the total including shipping. And I’ll mention here that the shipping cost of €4,32 (US $4.99) for one t-shirt to Japan is awesome. It’s slow but I’m patient.

Navigation

The navigation is well done and it’s very easy to find whatever you are looking for both on PC and mobile versions of the site. On the PC version, the dropdowns even reveal some sample products that you might be interested in.

SEO

This is a tough area for almost any website but the competition in the t-shirt industry is fierce so SEO is particularly difficult to do successfully. I’ll talk about a few things that can be worked on, though.

First of all the home page title is Unique Fashion & More! Find creative Thirts, Mugs, Poster & Gift Ideas. For SEO benefit, I’m sure misspelling T-Shirts doesn’t help but let’s imagine that the spelling is correct. Then the page title is accurate. What it says is what you get but the problem here is that these are not terms that people search for. I think that text would work better as a meta-description than as a page title. The page title is vitally important for search engines whereas the meta-description is just what the search engines i.e. Google might choose to display under the link to your site. It might have an impact on the click-through rate. The phrases “creative t-shirts” and “gift ideas” are OK but it will be very difficult for a small site like this to compete for those terms.

Look, it’s going to be difficult to rank for any generic terms and Kempo24 already ranks for his brand so not much work needs to be done there. I would work on writing long and detailed descriptions of the designs using long tail keywords or phrases. For example, for the following t-shirt design, the phrase “cats world domination” or something similar could be used in combination the word t-shirts. There are already some results for that but I think they are not so strong and I think that with a bit of creativity, Kempo24 could rank for that term easily enough.

Of course, a regularly updated blog would help get traffic to the site, too. Kempo24 has a Tumblr but it’s not that easy to optimize for SEO purposes and I think it can be used in tandem with a regular blog.

Selection and Pricing

There are about 60 designs, so that’s 60 different t-shirts as well as a host of different products. That’s a decent selection for an independent store. And the designs cover a variety of topics so it’s not a bad place to go for gift shopping. At less than US$20 per t-shirt the prices are very reasonable and, as I discovered, the shipping fees are also reasonable, even international shipping.

Social Media

Kempo24 has a pretty good social media following. They have over 15,000 followers on Instagram, nearly 1,000 on Facebook. They are also active on Pinterest and Tumblr. Curiously, there is no Twitter account that I can see. Possibly because the @kempo24 handle had already been taken.

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

Wrap-Up

Kempo 24 has a good selection of t-shirts that cater to a lot of interests even if the designs are somewhat generic. They are reasonably priced and the shipping rates are pretty good too.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmxgQayHJxh/

I recommend tidying up their website by simplifying and removing unnecessary elements. Above all, make the images bigger and clearer. The mockups are nice, clean and realistic but lack personality so Kempo24 should consider adding images from their Instagram account like the ones above or below this text.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmp-JiZH_Sv/

Link: Kempo24

Kempo24 Site Review

Bowl Busters is a US-based online business specializing in bowling themed t-shirts and apparel.

We stand by the thought that bowlers deserve amazing, original and funny bowling shirts, which are created exclusively.
That’s why we made a choice to open this store and focus on bringing unique, fresh and funny products for bowling fans. Our designs offer a rich variety of choice; from bold to simple, from kinky to hilarious.

Bowl Busters T-Shirt Review

This black 100% cotton t-shirt arrived a few weeks ago in a plain white mailer. It’s a Gildan Ultra Cotton. Made in the Dominican Republic. It’s a heavy cotton t-shirt more suitable for cooler seasons than hot. Maybe good for the air-conditioned bowling alleys that would be frequented by someone who would enjoy wearing a shirt like this. It’s a four-color print of almost impeccable quality and very soft, unlike the t-shirt fabric it self which has a light course feel to it.

T-Shirt Design

It’s basically a humorous text design that says:

Bowling puns are right up my alley.

And a bowling ball with four pins below the text, just in case you didn’t get that it was about bowling. The best I can say about the design is that it’s OK. I wouldn’t buy it and not just because I am not into bowling. I don’t think they typography choice was very good. I don’t think bowling when I see it. The t-shirt is telling a joke which means that every time you wear it you are telling the same joke. How many times do you want to tell the same joke?

Branding and Extras

The only branding was the Gildan care label. Even the mailer only had the name of the company as the sender.

Website

The website is clean and easy to navigate. It’s not obvious though that it is a t-shirt store when you hit the homepage. You need to actually read the text or scroll down to know what the site is about. I love the image of the bowling alley. The colors are great. But that’s not helping sell t-shirts. The store is built with Shopify. There are 21 designs available in both men’s (G200 Gildan Ultra Cotton T-Shirt) and women’s sizes (G200L Gildan Ladies’ 100% Cotton T-Shirt) as well as a small selection of colors. I guess they use DTG and print on demand.

It’s all bowling humor so if you are an enthusiast then you might find something you like. I think the t-shirt that I received had one of the weakest of all the designs available. As you can see from the selection above, the other t-shirts have a much more distinct bowling vibe.

Pricing

All the t-shirts are $21.99 which is OK I guess. A fairly standard price for an online t-shirt these days. I feel like the designs are on par with something that would be sold at K-Mart or somewhere like that where the t-shirts would be about $10 but at least with these t-shirts you can be sure that 10,000 other people aren’t going to be wearing the same shirt. And the quality might be a bit better.

Wrap-Up

This particular t-shirt is not to my taste and I don’t think the design matches the theme. There are some better designs in the store but nothing that really stands out. If you are a fan of bowling puns though, then this store is for you.

Bowl Busters: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Bowl Busters T-Shirt Review

Colour is Sound is a Brighton, England-based t-shirt store that specializes in t-shirts inspired mostly, but not exclusively, by British indie bands. 

We’ve been creating original t-shirt art silk-screen printed by hand since December, 2015. Made in Brighton, we dare to be different- fusing art, ethics, fashion, music, conceptual design and stylistic innovation to sell ethical clothing and wall-art inspired by some of the most influential music ever made.

Colour is Sound T-Shirt Review

This medium-sized charcoal gray t-shirt arrived in a branded cardboard box a few days ago. It’s a light cotton and slightly loose-fitting t-shirt made in Bangladesh by the Continental Clothing Co.

An ethical British business; all our garments are made from 100% combed cotton jersey and endorsed by the Fair Wear Foundation, our T-shirt boxes are 100% recyclable.

It’s a soft cotton tee with an original 4-color design on the front in plastisol (correct me if I am wrong) ink. As is often the case on dark t-shirts, the ink is a little thick in order to maintain vibrancy but not in a very noticeable way. Still, it’s a soft and comfortable t-shirt with a decent cut.

T-Shirt Design

T-shirt Art inspired by the insurrection in Paris 1968 which so influenced the lemon and paint game changer which was the Stone Roses first album. Art freed from the frame.

I know of the Stone Roses but I am not all that familiar with their music. I do know that I am supposed to be grateful for them for paving the way for other bands I did use to listen to in the 90s. The t-shirt design is pretty cool, though and it is definitely something that I could wear. It looks like the cross-section of a lemon with hand grenades for seeds with one red hand grenade possibly representing an explosion emphasized by the paint splatter. Perhaps a Stone Roses fan could enlighten me in the comments.

Update ( I have been enlightened.):

The lemon was used on the first Roses LP. Inspired by the story told to Ian Brown ( Roses singer) by someone who was present in Paris in 68, that they used to suck lemons to counter the effects of the CS Gas thrown at them by the Police during the state of emergency declared by the French Government.

The blue white and red paint splashes represent the French flag and the art of Jackson Pollock whose work so heavily influenced John Squire (Roses guitarist and creator of the bands artwork)

(The fist is a tribute to the Situationist’s who were heavily involved in the civil disobedience movement of 68. The Roses, like the Happy Mondays and Joy Division are from Manchester in the North of the UK- these bands all featured in our Northern Lights series 1, 2 or 3. Series 1 sold out and will never be reprinted – so those who have them have a collectors item!

There is also a logo print on the arm. Looks pretty good. Not sure what the “fight the power” fist is about, though.

This is not the t-shirt for me simply because I am not a Stone Roses fan but if I were a fan of the Stone Roses, this is exactly the type of t-shirt I would want.

Branding and Extras

On the t-shirt, there is the sleeve logo as seen in the photo above. It’s OK but unnecessary. On the neck, there is nothing but an M tag and on the inside seam near the bottom of the t-shirt, there is a Continental logo tag along with some care details and the Fair Wear Foundation logo. The t-shirt arrived in a simple brown box with the Colour is Sound logo in blue. It looks pretty good and would look a little classy if you were to send the t-shirt as a gift. Better than a plastic mailer, for sure.

When I opened the box I was greeted by a card with details about the t-shirt design and a Colour is Sound logo button (badge). It looks good. The button is also professional looking.

The description reads:

Thank you for purchasing our original t-shirt art. This limited edition design classic is silk-screen printed by hand and is inspired by the Stone Roses, one of 3 designs taken from our ‘Northern Lights Series 3’ collection.

There was also a letter and a photo of the founders (I think). But this was information for the review. One thing I noticed in the letter that I thought was funny was the line:

Have a wonderful Festive break and may 2018 bring you smiles and high fives all round.

Of course, the 2018 was probably a typo but it could also mean that they have already written off 2017 and they wouldn’t be the only people.

Website

They have a beautiful website. One thing that I would change is to either add infinite scrolling or add all the products to one page and use lazy-loading. We can only see 6 products per page. One other thing I would definitely change is the dark filter over the images when being viewed on smaller screens. You don’t want to make potential customers squint.

I guess the darkening of the background is to ensure that the text is legible but there has to be a better solution.

There are 20 t-shirts which make a pretty small selection but they are all excellent and original designs. I’d love to see them expand their selection. They have a blog that is not used simply to promote their products but to talk about what they love, which happens to be music. Great! I love it when people understand how to blog. Posts like that are much more likely to drive customers than promotional drivel.

Pricing

The shirts are £29.00 each which is about US$36 at today’s exchange rate.  They are not cheap t-shirts but I think in the UK, no one would blink an eye at the price. And if you consider that they are using fair-trade cotton and not mass-producing you might consider it a good deal. And it’s unlikely that you’ll meet someone on the street with the same t-shirt as you.

Wrap-Up

It’s a nice t-shirt with an original and interesting design. They have a beautiful, modern, and well-maintained website. They have a small selection of t-shirt but in an interesting niche. If I were them, I would try to get some licenses to create official designs because then they could really take off. Most official designs suck and Colour is Sound could show them how it should be done.

Colour is Sound: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Colour is Sound T-Shirt Review

XCLUSVE is a small online apparel store based in Los Angeles, California.

We are a new high end streetwear brand dedicated to bring on fresh style.

 XCLUSVE T-Shirt Review

This t-shirt arrived last week all the way from sunny California to sunny Okinawa. It’s a black 100% cotton t-shirt. The printed label says “Made in America”. I don’t know for sure but it feels like an Anvil/Gildan t-shirt. It’s a little heavy and not all that soft. On the other hand, the ink is surprisingly soft considering the white and red is so vibrant on the black t-shirt. It’s a little bit shorter, heavier, and looser than a standard American Apparel t-shirt.

T-Shirt Design

There is a logo on the front of the t-shirt but the main design is on the back, so I will focus on that. The white and red colors look good on the back and the composition of the design works. The content of the design, however, has no meaning for me and therefore doesn’t interest me. It might spark a conversation but if I were wearing it and someone asked me about it I would just say that I don’t know what it’s about.

In the triangle, there is the word U.N.I.T.Y. which they are using as an acronym for unorthodox narcissistic idols takedown youth. U.N.I.T.Y. is crossed out in red ink with handwritten style text printed above. It says Xclusve. Does this mean they are insinuating that unity is not quite as positive as it is perceived and that it should be replaced with exclusivity? I don’t know. The text to the right of the triangle says blood in red. I don’t know what that could mean either.

OK, I’ll be direct here. I don’t understand the design. I have a feeling it’s just garbage with no real meaning (feel free to enlighten me). I live in Japan where they love to put English text on t-shirts. The meaning is not important but rather how the words look or even in some cases what the individual words mean. If I had seen someone wearing this in my neighborhood, I would have just thought to myself “there we go again with the nonsensical English t-shirts”.

It’s a generic logo t-shirt. I have a feeling that these guys created the logo first and then started to think of t-shirt designs. The problem with this strategy is that the only people interested in the logo are the people who design them. You need to make a name for yourself before you start trying to sell logo t-shirts. Or perhaps make t-shirts of such exceptional quality that people are buying them for the cut or the fabric. This t-shirt doesn’t adhere to those criteria.

Branding and Extras

The t-shirt has a pocket-sized logo on the front and another logo on the inside neck along with the care instructions. Attached to the t-shirt with gold-colored thread and safety-pin, there was a small paper tag with the logo on it but nothing else. It doesn’t really add anything.

There was also a logo sticker included in the plain white mailer that the t-shirt arrived in.

Website

XCLUSVE are using the Shopify platform for their store. Shopify has lots of great themes but I guess they decided not to use them. The website is easy enough to navigate and has lots of white space, which I normally like, but in this case, it just looks like no effort was put into it. The homepage is a splash page of a blurry low-resolution image of their logo. The product page which has only five items doesn’t even use standard image sizes. The selection is basically a bunch of logo t-shirts.

There is a blog that seems to consist of tags rather than content. If they think that will help get visitors, they know nothing about SEO.

This is the tagline:

DON’T BE AVERAGE LIVE XCLUSVE…for members only

It makes no sense.

I could go on but I’m sure you get the drift.

Pricing

The tank tops and t-shirt are $25 – $30 and the long sleeve shirts are $40. If you are interested in this t-shirt I guess the price is OK.

Wrap-Up

The t-shirt I received is good quality and the $25 price point is OK. The composition of the design is fine but I really don’t know what it’s about or who the target market is. The name of the store is XCLUSVE but I don’t know what’s exclusive about these t-shirts. Anybody with $25 plus shipping can get their hands on one. The website looks like a work in progress and the blog is worse than a joke because it’s not even funny. My favorite thing about XCLUSVE is the girl’s hair in the first image of this post. She has really beautiful hair.

This has been a harsh review but I’m being honest as promised. If this is what to expect of XCLUSVE,  I think it is doomed to failure. If they really want to succeed in this business they have to make some serious changes.

XCLUSVE: Website | Facebook | Instagram

XCLUSVE T-Shirt Review

Skully & Friends is an online t-shirt store that puts kids art on t-shirts and sells them.

Our designers are little funny mysterious creatures from this planet. We often call them children.

Skully & Friends T-Shirt Review

This t-shirt arrived at my apartment a few months ago. Just before I moved to a new house. Add a new baby to the mix and it’s probably easy to understand how it got misplaced and the Skully & Friends t-shirt review got delayed for so long. Still, I apologize to the guys and gals and Skully & Friends.

The Angry Potato t-shirt arrived in a simple white plastic mailer from California. I guess it’s possible that that is where Skully & Friends are based. It’s a military green t-shirt, size medium.

This is a classic tee made of 100% ring-spun cotton. The thick material provides this shirt super soft, light and comfortable fit. Pre-shrunk to make sure your size is maintained throughout several washings.

The material is not too thick or too thin. It’s a nice t-shirt. Made in Honduras.

The design, as mentioned above, was created by a child and that’s what it looks like. Well, either that or a pretentious artist. I was actually able to guess it was a potato before I researched it so well done, kid. My guess was actually “potato monster” but I like the title “angry potato” more. The ink is soft and smooth. I can’t find fault with the quality.

But let’s get back to the design. I get that parents love their kids’ artwork despite the lack of skill or perhaps because of it? And I could appreciate wanting a t-shirt with your kids’ artwork on it. I’m just not sure that people want other people’s kids’ designs on their t-shirts. Basically what I am saying is that I couldn’t see myself buying one of these t-shirts.

Branding and Extras

There were no extras with the t-shirt and there is no external branding. On the inside neck, there is a logo printed above the size and care label. It looks good. On the white mailer, there is a Skully & Friends sticker.

Website

They have a very clean and modern website that is of course fully responsive. There is lots of white space and it’s easy to navigate. There is plenty of text about what Skully & Friends is about and as a bonus, they provide a very cool service which is to convert your child’s artwork into a t-shirt design and onto a t-shirt. It’s called My Skully.

My Skully is really your Skully. Well, your kid’s Skully drawing up his/hers own unique weird friends and stories.  This art is way too awesome, funny and weird and deserves a better life than to be shafted into the abyss of the “memories” drawer.  Luckily, for $37 (15% off when you order 3 or more shirts) you can immortalize these masterpieces on a Skully and friends shirt!

They don’t have a big selection of designs. About 15 or so including logo tees. But as I said before, I don’t think many people are interested in having other people’s children’s artwork on their t-shirts. I would focus on the My Skully aspect if I were them and promote that as a service rather than a product. On the homepage: “You child’s art as fashion!” Or something more catchy. I would emphasize how they edit the artwork to make it suitable for large prints and that the quality would be much higher than if they just tried to upload it to some print-on-demand service themselves.

Pricing

The tees retail for $32 which I think is a little high. On the other hand, My Skully t-shirts at just $37, which I think is a pretty good deal.

Wrap-Up

The t-shirt and print are good quality but the design does nothing for me. (Sorry, young artist.) I think Skully & Friends should promote their art service and focus on that business rather than trying to get people to buy these designs that looked like they were created by children (they were). Price is a little high for a t-shirt and design that has no meaning for most people.

Skully & Friends: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Skully & Friends T-Shirt Review

Expression Tees is a New York-based online t-shirt and apparel store. They specialize in text tees featuring slogans but there are also some pop culture references and other themes like politics too. (If that sounds familiar, it’s because I wrote exactly the same thing in the Expression Tees Site Review. )

Do you want the best, newest, funniest shirt designs on the web? Expression Tees has what you are looking for. Expression Tees opened for business with one focus: wowing our customers with trendy designs and even greater customer service.

Expression Tees T-Shirt Review

A black t-shirt arrived in the post quite a while ago but as I was moving to a new house and expanding my family, this review got delayed. It’s a medium black 100% cotton t-shirt. I don’t know where it was made or who made it. There was no care label attached (which may be illegal). It’s a heavy cotton suitable for cooler climates.

T-Shirt Design

The design, as you can see, is a very simple text design that says “I CAN’T ADULT TODAY”. The print is quite thick but it for white to be as vibrant as this on a dark t-shirt, it needs to be thick. The print is crisp and clean but I think that I would be touching it too much and picking at it.

Branding and Extras

There is no overt branding on the t-shirt, which is great. On the printed label on the neck, there is the text “EXPRESSION” beside the size. It’s very neat.

Included in the mailer were a few business cards on nice stock. I don’t know what to do with them.

Website

The website is not bad and they are continually working to improve it. They have a huge selection. You can read more about it on the Expression Tees Site Review.

Pricing

The t-shirts are marked as $17.99 each which is not bad but they are marked down to $7.99 at the moment, which is a great price.

Wrap-Up

The t-shirt design isn’t remarkable but the quality is top-notch as is the t-shirt itself. The pricing is OK but the sale pricing is fantastic.

Expression Tees: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Expression Tees T-Shirt Review

Get all three tees at Snorg Tees now.

Link: Monster Hunting Kit | See No Strange | Waffles & Things

80s kids had some fun hobbies. I haven’t seen Stranger Things yet but I guess these are the tools that the kids use to hunt the monster called the Demogorgon.

Speak no strange, hear no strange. The “see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” concept has been adapted for fans of Stranger Things.

Waffles & Things. I’m not sure what part waffle play in Stranger Things but they do play a part.

See lots more Stranger Things T-Shirts on the Shirt List.

$12 Stranger Things T-Shirts at Snorg Tees