Let’s start with the conclusion, which is that simple prints done well sell best. I coordinate the merchandise for Farm Aid (farmaid.org) every year, Farm Aid works to support family farmers and they put on a yearly concert that features Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp and other artists who this year included…
My buddy KC Hruby has created a few imaginary designs in order to protect the innocent. Today’s subject relates to mock ups of designs and how one must imagine all the folks that might be eventually wearing the shirts. We have run into quite a number of instances where a perfectly innocent design was going…
Funny ad for sublimation I got in my email box today. “Which Do You Prefer?” I would say that most people over the age of 11 prefer the one on the left. Simple is usually better with clothing. Some people can rock a big yellow dashiki or a full color all-over super hero, but most…
It always is interesting to look around and see what people are wearing for printed t-shirts. The research is extensive at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival where close to 500,000 people of all ages will attend and most of them are wearing t-shirts. The general trends continue to be very simple designs, one…
Hey found two of our shirts had big public showings and even better, the displays were for good causes. It feels good to get something positive happening with some fabric and some ink slinging. There are a couple of great charities that my company Mirror Image works closely with: We print shirts for the Armenian…
I woke up to a Business Insider article about the decline of retail stores. They report that a third of malls are in danger of closing, and that visits to malls decreased 50% from 2010 to 2013. Noted at our industry shows, American Apparel will be closing their 110 retail locations and Abercrombie closing…
I live in Cambridge, MA and the last time I checked it was not part of the City of Boston. Some new t-shirts appearing at “our” new Target (really? in Central Square? Good luck unless they have a liquor store in there) store were designed apparently by a New York firm. How you could design…
Most of you reading this post are like me, you make your living selling and/or printing t-shirts. It is nice to remember that besides money we make people very happy with our work sometimes. I saw my old friend Matt Gauland yesterday and he talked about how he loves his piles of t-shirts. He recently…
We discovered a cool Union Ink product this week called Black Light Clear. It is transparent when printed but glows under blacklight. We printed a normal ink and then printed the clear over it. It glows under blacklight. Rave On!
Apparently a retail outlet got ahead of themselves and put out Falcon Super Bowl Champion merchandise before the game was over. The Atlanta owner came down to the field before the game was over to join the uh… celebration? These were not good moves. My company has printed lots of championship shirts and we have…
