Where were you 20 years ago today? At my ripe age of 8 on 9th November 1989, I can only remember sitting down at dinner with the TV on and my dad saying very earnestly: “Pay very close attention, this is a very important day in history.” We then watched people standing and cheering on top of a wall that really didn’t have much meaning to me at the time. Despite my father’s words, I wasn’t up to par on my world politics and I continued on with my careless and free 8-year-old life.

Now that I am living in East Germany, hanging out and working with those whose lives were most certainly changed 20 years ago, it’s a great time to look back and reminisce on the past two decades and beyond. Of course, we would take a look and see what our Marketplace has to offer:

If you are looking for a good overview of the 20 year anniversary, you are sure to find plenty on the BBC or Guardian websites. I would also point you in the direction of some great East German jokes which were collected by West German spies. My favourite:

“What would happen if the desert became communist? Nothing for a while, and then there would be a sand shortage.”

Where were you 20 years ago?

We’re back again with yet another hot product review from our October Twardrobe series. You may think “another one?”, but it’s nice to have customers talking about our products here for a change (rather then me!). Henning is our next winner and he designed, ordered wrote a review of the above-pictured Men’s Organic Shirt from Continental Clothing. It seems our Twardrobers like to take pictures of their pets and the shirt (see below). Here’s what Henning has to say:

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Henning and I wear exclusive shirts from “HASENFARM – Manufaktur für Fellersatzstoffe” (loosely translated as HAREFARM – Manufacturer of Fur Substitutes). continue reading ‘Twardrobe Feedback: Hare Farms and Organic T-Shirts’

The first of the Twardrobe feedback has arrived! Steffen was one of the winners of the October edition of Twardrobe and got (instead of the requested Men’s Organic Shirt from Continental Clothing) our Anvil Recycled T-Shirt. Let’s get straight to his feedback:

Who are you and what do you do?

I am one of the Twardrobe winners and I write about things I win.

What do you like about how the shirt looks? continue reading ‘Twardrobe Feedback: Cats & The Recycled Shirt’

I know that Twitter twordplay has had its hype, but we’ve had the Twordrobe series running for a while now and we all know not to change tworses in midstream. But you can make the horse better! We’ve decided to improve upon the Twordrobe idea, namely with more shirts and products which already exist in our apparel range. All together we are offering 8 products up for testing.

For the gentlemen:
- Summer Shirt from Continental Clothing
- Organic T-Shirt from Continental Clothing
- Henley Shirt from American Apparel
- Recycled T-Shirt from Anvil

For the ladies:
- Scoop Neck T-Shirt from Bella
- Summer T-Shirt from Continental Clothing
- Organic T-Shirt from Continental Clothing
- Sleeveless Shirt from Continental Clothing

And here’s how it tworks (ok, I’ll stop):

1. Write a Tweet applying to test out your favourite product from the Twarbrobe shirts listed above. Simply reply or retweet with @spreadshirt and #twardrobe in your tweet. We’d be even happier if you referenced this blogpost, e.g. use this link: http://bit.ly/twardrobe (so your followers know what this twardrobe is about).
2. We will select the winners on 21st October 2009. If you win, you will receive a voucher for the product you chose.
3. Create the t-shirt in our T-Shirt designer with your favourite design, redeem your voucher during checkout and complete the order.
4. When the shirt arrives, try it on!
5. Send us a photo and your feedback/thoughts/review of the product.

Let’s review that again: apply, order, wear and review.

Your feedback will then be published in the blog. So get tweeting, the deadline for applications is in 2 days (21st October)!

Today is Blog Action Day, a world-wide annual event where blogs focus on one specific issue to increase discussion about it within the community. This year’s Blog Action Day (with more than 8,000 participants) focuses on climate change, an issue which will affect us all, if it hasn’t started affecting us already.

Every product which is produced has an effect on the environment. T-shirts, and especially the cotton they are made from, are undeniably one of the many, many products contributing to climate change. This can be seen in the short video “Rebel with a Cause”, which I posted back in September. 200 grams of cotton can use up to 5 tons of resources throughout its life. That’s not what you normally think about every day when you put on your shirt. These resources are what we need to start considering when we consume just about anything.

1. Buy Organic Cotton T-Shirts
Our organic apparel assortment has grown to more than 10% of our entire product range. Buying organic means that less resources and chemicals are used in the production of the cotton. Companies like Continental with their EarthPositive products take this even an extra step further providing “wholly ethical” textiles: 100% organic, fair trade, low carbon during production, environmentally friendly materials, low water footprint and low carbon footprint (reduced by 90%).

2. Recycle Shirts
Every product has a life cycle and shirts are no exception. Your favorite shirt will get a hole, the print can fade (but, not flex or flock! ) or you simply don’t wear the shirt anymore. You don’t have to throw it away. Create a shirt blanket, shirtain, shirt seat, frame it or one of these 50 other t-shirt recycling ideas. Donate the shirt. Use it as a rag. Just don’t throw it away – it’s not good for your karma and not good for the environment.

3. Use less chemicals / Wear shirts more than once continue reading ‘5 Ways T-Shirts Can Fight Climate Change: Blog Action Day 2009′

“Spread-X” is an internal training series which we run here at Spreadshirt where our employees spread their specialised knowledge to their fellow colleagues.

These events occur about once a month where the theme covered and participation is completely voluntary. Our fellow Spreaders in offices in Berlin, Paris, Boston and Greensburg can join in on the Spread-Xs via video conference.

Tomorrow at 4 p.m. BST (5 p.m. CET) we will be having a Spread-X about the topic “Social Media” led by fellow blogger Tobias Huber who will be talking about how you can use Social Media to strengthen your brand.

We would therefore like to invite you to join in on this event and watch Tobias’ presentation as we stream it live on Twitcam. The link for the stream (where you can also comment via Twitter) will show up on www.twitter.com/spreadshirt shortly before the presentation starts. (That is, if it all works like we’ve imagined it to :-))

The presentation will cover the following topics:

• What is Social Media (about)?
• How does Social Media impact communication?
• Why is Spreadshirt using Social Media?
• How is Spreadshirt using Social Media?
• What do you have to do with it?
• What else do you want to know?

See you tomorrow!

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?’

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 official start to summer is just a little less than a month away, well and warmly accompanied by the International T-Shirt Day.

We want to make sure that as many people catch wind of this celebration as possible and are able to plan their own festivities (some ideas which came to mind: Boston Tee Parties, Dry T-Shirt Contests, etc.). So that’s why we are starting off another Blog Safari with the theme “Favourite Shirt”. The idea would be to promote t-shirt designers you might know or expose up-and-coming t-shirt labels and get them some publicity which they might not normally get.

If you aren’t familiar with a Blog Safari, here’s how the whole thing works:

We are calling for all who love t-shirts and want to participate to publish a blog post next Monday (June 1st) with the headline: “My Favourite Shirt” which includes:

• A picture of you in your favourite shirt,
• A link to that shirt’s designer/shirt label/shop where you bought it (if the link is available).
• A reference that the International T-Shirt Day will be celebrated on June 21st 2009.

That means – grab your favourite tee out of the dirty laundry, take a pic with your webcam and if you are better at editing images than typing, go ahead and use the T-Shirt Day Banderole on your image.

It would be really great if you passed along the word so we can cover the widest selection of different shirt designs possible.

P.S. Above you can see me in my favourite Spreadshirt: one with a design from LA Lewis. If I had pictures of me in one of my many other favourites, I most likely would have linked to seen., Design By Humans, laFraise, Looky Looky, Top Dollar, Long Clothing or Rockers NYC. But, I hope that you guys are able to cover these and many more platforms and designers. After the click you will catch a glimpse of the Powley shirt which I am wearing today: continue reading ‘Blog Safari for International T-Shirt Day: My Favourite Shirt’

Shop partner Romibello’s question yesterday as to whether our servers were down unfortunately had to be answered with a “yes”. Our provider was faced with a power outage and, more specifically, its aftermath. That’s why we were sitting there with our hands tied behind our back and crossing our fingers hoping they would get the lights back on a.s.a.p. in Cologne.

Our platform was back online in the late afternoon, but there were still certain parts of the site which were having hiccups. As of now, there shouldn’t be any more problems. Since power outages can sometimes bewilder databases, there may be a few odds and ends on our platform which could appear as a result of yesterday’s outage.

If anyone comes across any irregularities – just comment here. We’ll gather them together and forward them to the right people. Thanks for your understanding and, once again, sorry about what happened yesterday.