Patterns and forms can be found just about anywhere. Take a look around the room and I bet you can find a number of examples of natural and man-made patterns. They often get ignored. Not at ctrl-clothes.com where these modern, abstract forms are front and centre. The triangles, squares, lines and shapes are certainly fresh and original, and remind me a little bit of a mix between my geometry class and class trip to the modern art museum. Give the Tunnel? shirt a good long look and you might get lost therein: certainly works brilliantly as an eye-catcher. But, shirts aren’t the only things greeting you at ctrl-clothes: you are presented with quite the innovative, interactive store front (based on a Manchester street – see below). Here’s the interview with Ben, the man behind ctrl:
continue reading ‘CTRL Clothes – Modern, Abstract Patterns Make Their Way onto Shirts’

May the best-selling shops win! We’ve prepared a little contest to help you boost up your shop sales before the holiday season really takes off. If you sell well in November, you could win some great prizes. We’ve also set up three different prize groups to make sure that even the smaller shops have the chance to win something. All you need is one sale, and you’ve qualified for a prize!

• 100+ sales: 5x exclusive newsletters to your customers (consultation with the winners, created and sent by Spreadshirt).
• 50-100 sales: 5x free flyers for your shop (our graphics team will create the flyers in consultation with you, your logo and your designs. We will then send the flyers to the 5 winners).
• 1-50 sales: 4x help re-designing your shop-layout (e.g. we will create graphics, banners or teasers specifically for your shop).

We will randomly select the corresponding amount of winners from all of the Shop Partners who fall into each of the categories. We will then contact them via e-mail.

Hold your horses – that’s not all … of course, we would like to help you increase your sales: a 15% off everything in your stores would be a good start, don’t you think? This promotion runs during the same time as the above-mentioned contest 9.11 – 23.11 (brilliant, aren’t we?) The voucher code is: NOVEMBERSALE.

This voucher code is valid for the entire contest period from 9th to 23rd November 2009 and gives your customers a 15% discount on all products. You are free to use the ad banner which our graphics team put together for you. You can find out more information about this promotion in the forum.

Happy sales!

I am sure that I am not the only one in this boat. Tomorrow is Halloween. I don’t have a costume. I have been told I won’t be let into the party without one. This happens every year. Add to the fact that my girlfriend wants me to get rid of some old clothes – presto! Two birds with one stone: it’ll be a do-it-yourself Saturday afternoon!

I am kind of leaning towards the octopus hoodie from Instructables (shown above). It certainly involves some sewing skills, a few hours of spare time and a hoodie you are willing to shred.

I’m not the trick or treating type anymore, but for those out looking for some candy, this t-shirt trick-or-treat bag from Craftzine is a great way to impress those candy givers (and get you more candy)!

Bargainlist also offers some great cheap and scary last-minute costume options, like dirty laundry, bat or mummy as costumes. All certainly plan B worthy.

Worst case scenario: I’m not in the DIY creative mood tomorrow, and perhaps you aren’t either. There’s always the one-minute-last-minute ninja mask. Yes, that will be it! I just have to remember where I left my samurai sword. Instructional ninja mask video after the click: continue reading ‘Costumeless for Halloween? Last Minute Apparel Costume Ideas’

Some of you might have answered this question in a recent customer survey: how many of the products which you buy at Spreadshirt are meant as gifts for others? I’ll spare the drum-roll and get right to the answer: a little less than half of our customers intend to give the products they purchase at Spreadshirt to someone else as a gift. We have some very generous customers, I must say!

With the biggest gift-giving season just around the corner, we thought we would make it a little easier for our customers to find the gift they want. We have a brand new Gifts page! We’ve given them an interactive flash teaser to play around with and get right to the very category and gift they are looking for. There are six categories to choose from, each with sub-categories, allowing you to find gifts by price, gifts in one size (accessories), gifts for family and friends or gifts for holidays.

We invite you to take a look at the pages, and if you think that one of your products would fit well in any of the categories, then let us know! Go to this forum thread and let us know the category, design ID, link and product image for your suggestion.

What do Neo Rauch and spreadshirt Marketplace designers have in common? Correct, they both create artwork and offer them up for sale! Given, the commissions on the Marketplace don’t usually rake in $1 million of Brad Pitt’s money, but rather “only” £1.43 on average. But don’t give up on the Marketplace just yet: compared to Rauch’s work, these designs can be sold more than once, namely 23,131 times (the current record holder “I heart” design). That’s how the top 100 Marketplace designers are still able to earn an average of £540 per month. Take that Neo!

But how do you make it into the top 100 and become the next Damien Hirst of the spreadshirt Marketplace? continue reading ‘How do I become a successful Marketplace designer at Spreadshirt?’

To save the shop partners amongst us a little time in preparation for the upcoming holidays, our graphics team put together two lovely winter-holiday-snowy-and-sparkly background images for you.

You can simply download these from our Flickr page or right click and save the images. Then you can upload them to your user area and select it as your shop background under “Profile – Shops – Shop Layout”. If you go the extra step and set your theme to “Winter” under the “Selected Design” drop-down, you will be sure to get your customers whistling their way into the holiday shopping mood!

For those of you looking to personalise or customise more than “just” a shirt, our Exclusive Line is just the place to look for elegantly unique apparel. Our four new Winter Exclusive products are sure to raise some eyebrows.

• Women’s Hannah Trousers by IVEE – you can go just about anywhere with these versatile trousers – from yoga to shopping trips and everywhere in between.
• Women’s Zoe Jacket by IVEE – combines well with the Hannah trousers and provides an elegant, yet sporty look.
• Commute 2.0 Messenger Bag by Timbuk2 – I love Timbuk2’s bags – durable, practical – and now customisable! This bag will make your trip through the airport a breeze. Check out the video below.
• Men’s Bowry Hoodie by Barking Irons – This hoodie is a prime piece of apparel and a joy to wear. I was able to slip on one of these after the photo shoot and I sure felt like I was a throwback from the 19th century.

As you may well know, these products are available in limited amounts: “first come, first served”!  A sweet video of the Timbuk2 bag in action and some more model photos after the click:
continue reading ‘Hot Winter Exclusive Line Additions Now Available’

Our October Trend Report dealt with seasonal trends for our unisize products, a.k.a. one size fits all most. Our market researchers Torge and Henrik took a closer look at how these products sell throughout the year and shed some light on our customer’s buying habits.

Unisizers, that is products which only come in one size, are loved by our customers. It would be almost too obvious to point out that the chances that these products don’t fit are relatively small, and therefore the aprons, bags and other accessories are seldom returned. These babies work excellently as gifts and make up more than a third of all Spreadshirt orders. These stats are not always consistent throughout the year: we also found out that seasonal marketing trends can really influence the sales of these accessories.
continue reading ‘Trend Report – Seasonal Trends and Top 5 Unisize Products’

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′