I thought it was a good time to take another look at our printing techniques – with a little help from our test lab. So today we will tackle the age-old question asked by many of our first-time customers: What are the differences between the printing techniques? Which technique do I use to get the results I want?

As supporters of flex and flock, we certainly stand behind our plot printing because it offers the best durability in the battle of Shirt vs. Machine (not to mention that it looks bang-on). The downside of this technique is that not everything is always doable on a t-shirt with three colours. That’s where digital printing comes into play, and specifically our Digital Direct printing technique.

But, before we take a look at the test lab’s results, here is some information about our experiment:

• We chose flex to represent all plot printing techniques. Nothing against flock, writable flex or special flex, but plot printing’s durability is consistent across the board. We could definitely do a test of just plot printing techniques if you are interested.
• We take our science seriously and as in all controlled experiments one should keep the variables to a minimum. Therefore we used one design for all three printing techniques. Of course, this one-coloured design does not highlight the colourful advantages of digital printing, but here we really wanted to look closely at durability.
• We should also mention that Digital Transfer normally has a slim white border around the design. This border is not visible here as it was possible here to cut the foil close enough to the design, thus eliminating the border.

For an even more detailed overview of our printing techniques, check out this great FAQ article. What hopefully comes across here is the difference between plot, Digital Direct and Digital Transfer, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each technique: continue reading ‘Printing Techniques Experiment - Test Lab #3′

Those who subscribe to the newsletter are already in the know – but it’s time to really let the cat products out of the bag. Just in time for the wave of summer heat, these new items are casual, let the air flow and show just that little bit more skin. In addition to our new Exclusive Line products, we have added two tops and a skirt for the ladies and a Henley shirt for the gents.

• v-neck on the front and back - Women’s Double V-neck Shirt
• Eye-friendly U-cut - Women’s Scoop Neck T-shirt
• A new sense of asymmetrical balance - Women’s Drape Hem Skirt
• Nonchalant and casual - Men’s AA Henley T-Shirt

It is hard to ignore how the situation in Iran has moved many. Politics, democracy, alleged rigged voting and a vast collection of opinions stand at the centre of it all, most loudly heard with the question “Where is my vote?” As we so often see in political movements, opinions make a very fast move to the t-shirt and here specifically green shirts.

Spreadshirt shop partners have also taken on this topic. The shops Iran’s Vote and Green Revolution give those who want to express their opinion the ability to wear their point of view across their chest in support of the movement in Iran.

Shirts have also made their way into the Spreadshirt Marketplace and we would like to support this movement and the spreading of opinions on shirts with a special discount. From now until July 6, we will donate £2 to Amnesty International for every order at Spreadshirt which contains at least one green product. Here’s how it works:

• Have at least one green product in your basket
• Enter the voucher code IRANSHIRT when going through checkout

We give away this nice Timbuk2 Blogger Bag which is part of our new Exclusive Line. Since we made some fotos with it, I wouldn’t say it’s really brand new - but as you probably can spot from the foto our model treated it well. The nice thing is: we have already preprinted a beautiful design on it. If you’d buy it in our T-Shirt Designer, it costs GBP 70.51. Also make sure to watch the interviews Jana (our CEO) did with Kevin McSpadden (CMO of Timbuk2).

What’s the deal to win it? Fairly simple: All you have to do is blog. Anything. Whether it’s about the Election in Iran. Or the Berlin Wall and Internet Censorship. About the new iPhone. Or about the T-Shirt Day. Fairly anything that comes to mind, shows the power of the blogs, and tells us you simply need this Blogger bag.

Participation ends next Wednesday (June 24th, 2009, 11:59 PM) - please leave a trackback to this blogpost so we can see you’re joining in. The winner will be revealed on Friday (June 26th).

With T-Shirt Day just around the corner we thought we would put together an interesting list of facts and numbers we’ve discovered lurking amongst the world of Spreadshirt. We unearthed some surprising and at times perplexing figures.

With all of that in mind, our number crunching market researchers have an open invitation to you all to make requests for more stats if the ones below haven’t satisfied your craving. As you might guess we sometimes can’t get around the fact of not naming some figures. Unless you are a professional football player, you wouldn’t want your monthly wages published out in the open either.

Spreadshirt’s world in numbers:

- The average number of people who handle a Spreadshirt product before it lands in the customer’s mailbox: 16

- The average number of hours it took a Spreadshirt product from the time of order to shipment in 2008 (including weekends and holidays): 36 continue reading ‘T-Shirt Statistics from the World of Spreadshirt’

The relatively-new-to-Spreadshirt.com 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 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-humoured nature. The interview with Dave from Glarkware: continue reading ‘Storied Shirts of Glark - Interview with Glarkware’

As many of you know we called out to the t-shirt world to organise 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: continue reading ‘Winning T-Shirt Parties - Where will you be on T-Shirt Day?’

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 customisable 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.

International T-Shirt Day is just a lucky 13 days away. What are you doing on June 21st?

As many of you might have already heard, we are celebrating the T-Shirt Day together with laFraise by putting on an “Open Runway” in Berlin where any t-shirt designer/lover/wearer can present their favourite tees to the world.

What you might have missed would be that you can also celebrate T-Shirt Day from the comfort of your own home. Rouse up your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues to honour your favourite tees with, say, a T-bone steak barbeque. Perhaps you could gather some of those shirts that you might not wear too often to give away to those who aren’t as well-off. Decorate your street with clotheslines filled with t-shirts. Maybe show off your t-style, regardless of the weather, with a short-sleeved jaunt through your town or city.

Celebrate T-Shirt Day in your own way by hosting an event and register the festivities on the website so others can perhaps join in.

Events have already been registered in the U.S., Norway, India, and Germany and we’re hoping that you’ll join in on the worldwide party.

P.S.  We will be raffling off 10 sets of 10 free t-shirts to 10 different participants who host their own T-Shirt Day event. To qualify, all you have to do is have a Spreadshirt shop and register your party the T-Shirt Day site by June 14th. We will select the winners on June 15th, notify them by e-mail and announce the winning events here in the Spreadshirt blog.

The complete selection of Amorphia Apparel’s designs is finally available for us t-shirt wearing Europeans. So what’s the big deal, you ask? Faster and cheaper shipping for fantastic shirts! Amorphia designer Jeremy Kalgreen has been making waves in the North American market for quite a while, continually expanding upon his at times ironic, enigmatic or witty approach to design. From its conception, the Amorphia family has now grown to four separate lines, each with their own niche-like target. There’s a little something out there for animal aficionados, (dis)believers in intelligent design, science buffs and pretty much anyone with a good sense of humour. Find the links to the shop with photos and design examples after the click. continue reading ‘Amorphia Apparel extends its reach - “Hey Europe, what’s up?”’