Popcorn Prints is a relatively new shop on the Spreadshirt platform filled with custom shirts and clothing inspired by furry little friends. Starting with guinea pigs and hamsters, Louise plans to cover all household pets. These kind of niche shops can become successful, especially when it’s run by an enthusiast. We wanted to hear about her experiences using Spreadshirt and here are the answers we got!

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

As a self-confessed guinea pig lover, I was looking around for a t-shirt for myself featuring guinea pigs and struggled to find one that I really liked. As it was just before Christmas 2011, I was also looking for a way to earn some extra money and when I landed on Spreadshirt’s site, it seemed a perfect way to solve two problems in one! The more I thought about it, the more I realised there was also scope to promote important messages and help to raise money for guinea pig charities.

How did you learn about Spreadshirt?

Once I hit on the idea of designing my own t-shirts, I read many reviews regarding the main t-shirt printing companies. Spreadshirt consistently appeared to outperform its competition on quality and reliability.

continue reading ‘Popcorn Prints – Clothing Inspired by Furry Little Friends’

Now, what is it that makes your shop and products so unique?

We’ve been aware of Spreadshirt for years now, and we knew that most shops offer quite interesting designs – but we wanted to come up with something special. We wanted to create t-shirts that did not only put the person wearing it in the limelight, but become the centre of communication altogether. In other words, we were looking for ways that got people involved with the design on a t-shirt. Then came the day when we took part in a workshop on a new technology called “augmented reality”. This extended form of reality makes non-existing objects look real as they appear in the environment of real objects. The question was: could be put it on a t-shirt? By printing 3D objects on a t-shirt, we were able to shift the communicational focus to the design itself, and the person wearing it became part of the scenery. This stimulates interaction between people commenting on the design and the guy in the t-shirt, who appears in a different form of reality. A lot of people take pictures with their smartphones or camera of people wearing our t-shirt designs, because they see something else in the design than the owner of the t-shirt. It would be interesting to put both parties in a room in front of a computer at a later point in time and ask them to comment on what they see – I’m sure you’d get completely different interpretations!

If you email your pics or put them on Facebook – e.g. as your new profile picture – you can receive those different reactions first hand. It’s definitely very interesting, and we’ve only ever got positive feedback. You should check it out yourself!

Since when have you been running your shop?

The AugmenTeeShirt shop has only been around since December 2011, but it has been met with great interest already, which is obviously fantastic.

continue reading ‘AugmenTeeShirt – Augmented Reality on T-Shirts – Interview’

Since when have you been running a Spreadshirt Shop, and what made you start it?

I started my GRIMY Spreadshop early in 2010. I’d already experimented with the Spreadshop system before though. Back then, however, I couldn’t really think of a concept that had not already been around.

What eventually gave me the idea to open the shop was a t-shirt design of mine that managed to come up first in an online t-shirt design contest. The little Grim Reaper character of the design embodies the core of this idea, and it turned out to be a bit of a hit. This is why I came up with the idea to turn it into a character to try and exploit its potential. I then created a few new designs and a website that is linked to Spreadshirt.

What’s your favourite design, and how did you find the inspiration for it? continue reading ‘Interview with Spreadshirt Shop Partner GRIMY’

The Dyton Brothers are a vlogging sibling foursome making videos for your entertainment! Just a few months into their YouTube channel, they’ve also set up a t-shirt shop on Spreadshirt claiming that buying a t-shirt will save a unicorn. We can’t confirm the truth behind this claim, but we did have a few questions about their videos, their mum and the Dyton Brothers Spreadshirt shop.

When did you start making videos and what brought you guys  to it?

Well, I actually started making videos, even before Nathan was born. I’d grab my mum’s camera and shoot a bunch of pointless videos with friends.

We even used to make stupid music videos. But in 2006, I joined YouTube and started vlogging. And later on, started making random sketches with Josh (the 19 year old brother).

Eventually we involved Zack and Nathan in our videos. So with what I learned, and what I believed people wanted to see, I decided to create a new YouTube account called ‘DytonBrothers‘.

How is it at home? I mean so many guys at once.. who helps mum the most?

To be honest, it’s pretty awesome here. We all get along 90% of the time, although Zack and Nathan fight the most. But we make each other laugh at least 100 times a day, and I’m not exaggerating at all.

Mum doesn’t have to do much at all, we all usually sort things out ourselves. I think the only thing she does is the washing and cleaning and on the odd occasion she’ll cook. 

continue reading ‘Shop Partner Interview with YouTube’s Dyton Brothers’

Hannah “Harto” Hart started vlogging back in March of this year – and it was a vlog niche that no one had yet mastered – drunk cooking. Her comedic and inebriated approach to cooking got popular and 9 episodes later, she’s built up a large community of fans. Crazy story, I know! We thought we’d ask her a few (sober) questions about her My Drunk Kitchen t-shirt shop, marketing and other shirt related stuff. Here’s what she had to say:

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

I started a YouTube series called “My Drunk Kitchen” and fans of it started asking me to make t-shirts. So I made a design available and was planning on doing all the shipping on my own but then..

How did you learn about Spreadshirt?

…Spreadshirt contacted me and asked if I wanted to use their site instead!

How did you come up with the idea of doing your own “kitchen show”?

Well, I was apartment-sitting for my older sister and talking with my old roommate over video chat. I found a bottle of wine (which my sister likes to tell me “was not free, just not paid for by you…”) and decided to make a cooking show for former roommie. I made it, posted it online, and then…well, then all this wonderful stuff started happening!

How many videos do you create per month? Do you always design t-shirts according to each video?

I try to make 1-2 episodes a month. I like to design the t-shirts after people start telling me what their favorite parts of the video are.

continue reading ‘Interview with Hannah from My Drunk Kitchen’

We had a little chat with our shop partner Daisychain – who likes playing around with the meaning of words and sees his customers as people who can read between the lines.

What inspired you to open your shop, and for how long have you been running it?

Some of my mates encouraged me to open my own shop. I wear the t-shirts that I design myself, and when quite a few people asked me where I’d bought the t-shirt I was wearing I decided to use Spreadshirt’s platform to sell my designs. When I started in early 2011, it was only my friends who ordered, and now I sell a lot of designs through Spreadshirt’s platform.

Where does the name Daisy Chain come from? continue reading ‘Spreadshirt Shop Partner Interview with Daisychain’

What inspired you to open your iluvumore shop, and for how long have you been running it?

All my life I’ve been a creative person. In the beginning I painted on canvas, and later I started designing all kinds of things (i.e. lamps). Recently I got into creating designs on the computer. A few people told me ‘Why do you not design t-shirts?’, so 8 months ago I realized my first idea.

But I wasn’t too happy with the products at hand and limitations as far as logistics and selection of designs were concerned. This is how I got to Spreadshirt. I’ve been running the iluvumore shop for 5 months now, so I’m not exactly what you’d call an old hand. Still, my impression is that Spreadshirt provides a relaxed and hassle-free platform. I get my inspiration from impressions I collect in every-day situations and have no problem turning them into nice street-art products here. I also love what the designer Bansky does, and I think that is reflected in my work as well.

How did you find out about Spreadshirt?

I first heard about Spreadshirt through my web-space host.

How much time do you invest in your shop, and do you create designs yourself? continue reading ‘Shop Partner Interview with iluvumore’

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

I think that drawing t-shirts could be a great way to be brilliant.

I’ve always had a passion for customized tees, since I was a baby. I had fun picking up coloured pens and drawing on shirts, or printing my designs using rudimentary transfers that my mom fixed with the iron!

Then, I started to work as a graphic designer and a whole world made of vectors and pixels appeared in front of me! So, I decided to open my Spreadshirt Milktees shop last September.

How did you learn about Spreadshirt?

There was a time in which I was searching for a way to start “my own label”. The step from Google to Spreadshirt was, effectively, quite short

How much time do you invest in your shop? Do you create designs yourself?

Oh, being a freelance graphic designer gives you a lot of free time. I spend so much time drawing my graphics, but most of them quickly find their way in the bin.

I’m so strict with myself!

I use to create ‘em by myself, but every design is “critiqued” by my sweet-half Irene <3

Where and how do you market your shop and make it well-known? continue reading ‘Shop Partner Interview with Matteo from Milktees’

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

The Cartoon Movement is a community of international editorial cartoonists and fans of political satire. The Cartoon Movement is part of The Video Journalism Movement (VJ Movement), an organization dedicated to the promotion of video journalism and press freedom. Our motivation to open a shop is twofold. First, we’re always looking for new and creative ways to show how cool editorial cartoons are, and printing them on T-shirts is definitely an exciting new way to share them with the world. Second, part of our mission to contribute to the future of editorial cartooning. All the cartoonists in our network are professionals, making a living (or trying to) by drawing great cartoons. We feel this profession deserves support, and that’s why we pay our cartoonists for every cartoon they publish at Cartoon Movement. To continue doing that, we of course need to generate some funds as well. Having a shop where people can buy our cartoons on a t-shirt helps us to continue what we’re doing, and it gives our audience a chance to literally show their support for editorial cartoons.

We launched our shop on May 3rd of this year, so we’ve only been running the shop for a short time. The reactions we’ve received since we opened the shop have been very encouraging, and people seem to like our designs a lot.

How did you learn about Spreadshirt? continue reading ‘Interview with Cartoon Movement’

Poker has sure seen a rise over the past decade or so – from online platforms to the classic round with friends. With all of that interest, you could imagine that there would be a shop partner or two out there looking to serve that niche with poker related shirts. Poker t-shirt club is one of those partners – touting a nice integration of their Speadshirt poker t-shirt shop into their website and their own set of models wearing their shirts. Learn how these guys got set up and what tips they have for other Shop Partners. Feel free to ask them even more questions in the comments!

What inspired or motivated you to open a shop and how long have you run the shop?

It started out as a hobby, both me and Hofit (the other half of poker t-shirt club) have been playing around with Photoshop ever since we can remember. After a few years of “designing for the drawer”, we decided to take it a step further and open our own shop. We’ve been running Poker t-shirt club since 2010.

continue reading ‘Ace of Clubs – Interview With Poker Shirt Club’