Loic Le Meur is an entrepreneur and blogger based in San Francisco.  His newest startup is Seesmic - which is bringing video to online communication.

Here is an interview with Spreadshirt CEO Jana Eggers, yes she is wearing a Spreadshirt shirt,  about customization.

Okay, so I am not Oprah, but we can still have a book club of t-shirt books.  I found this book on the Urban Outfitters Blog.  The T-Shirt Factory is a book of 300+ shirt designs from Beams Ts.  Beams T is a t-shirt company in Japan that is know for shirts designed by artists all over the globe.  Acording to HolyCool’s post the book also comes with a CD rom of flash animation that allows you to create your own shirt.  I would interested in seeing some of the art in the book and on the CD.

One of the reason’s I like these books on t-shirts is that they highlight the fact that t-shirts are a relatively inexpensive way to make a major statement that you can wear.

Know of other t-shirt books that are worth a look?  Please let me know - leave a comment or email lpa@spreadshirt.com

Well it is starting to feel a little like spring here in Western, PA. I am getting excited for outside activities and I have seen more people out on their bikes. Biking Toronto has a nice little Spreadshirt shop and they are friends with Spreadshirt on Facebook (you should be friends with us too!) - so I was happy to get their update about Bike Friday. I think they have a great pro-bike, pro-Toronoto shirts - a cool variation of the I heart NY shirt.

Bike Friday is held the last friday of every month to promote bike riding as a safe and environmentally friendly transportation alternative. These types of bike rides are held all over the world, often called Critical Mass. You can check out this page to see if there is a ride in your city.

I am sure this next sentence will make you laugh or possibly cringe.I can’t resist adding a dash of 90’s culture to this blog every once in a while. I think I first learned about Critical Mass from watching the Real World San Francisco - I know the show covered the infamous Puck on a few bike rides.

Another cool thing I learned from the Biking Toronto page is that there is that biking can get you free coffee on Bike Friday. The cafe Alternative Grounds gives out free coffee if you wear your helmet. I think this is a neat idea to promote biking.

I would love to see some other pro-bike t-shirts from other cities - please share! Has anyone created a t-shirt for Critical Mass? I would also be interested to know if you love or hate the Real World

Here is a quick peek at some of the new items we have that will be available in April.

1. Unisex Organic Heather Tee by Alternative Apparel. colors: heather black, heather chocolate, heather green, heather red, heather oatmeal, and heather navy
2. Women’s Short Sleeve Bamboo tee by Jonano. colors: cream, ice blue and petal pink
3. Women’s Plus Size Organic Tee by LAT’s. colors: black, pink, white and light lime

I came across this blog because the author wrote a nice post that mentions Spreadshirt.  Hard Knox Life is a blog by Dave Knox who is a brand manager at Procter & Gamble and this is his blog about branding.  If you are interested in branding and some of the popular brands around today - Dave offers some great insights from a brand managers perspective.  If you are new to branding I think this blog is a good place to start - it isn’t filled with too much marketing lingo so it is pretty easy to follow.  I like that he has a category called Brands I Love - I think it is interesting to read what a brand professional thinks about brands.

March Madness at Spreadshirt! - Have you filled out your bracket yet?   Maybe we should have a t-shirt lovers bracket?

To celebrate - we are offering FREE SHIPPING (*$5 off any shipping) on all orders over $25.

Use coupon code MARCHMADNESS or in Canada CADMARCHMADNESS.

I was going over the shop settings with someone today and they asked me “what is RSS?”  This is one of my favorite questions and I LOVE rss, but it is also one of the hardest things to explain in one sentence.  I have made many attempts at trying to explain RSS and blogging - it took me 3 months to “get” RSS thanks to my friend Dave who never gave up on explaining it to me.

Well thankfully the guys from Creative Commons have put together this nifty 5 minute video that does an amazing job of explaining RSS in a quick convenient format.  If you are new to RSS, I think you will find this helpful.

Of course I didn’t forget that today is St. Patrick’s Day - I thought I would mark this very joyous green occasion here on the blog by showing off some of our shirts in celebration.  This is my friend Pat on right.  Pat and 20 of his closest friends were sporting these fantastic t-shirts on Saturday morning, they started the festivities off at, oh 8 am for a pre St. Patrick’s Day Parade celebration.

Pat and his friends have been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day for years, in college they made t-shirts for their annual party.  Since many friends we reuiniting back in Pittsburgh for the weekend Pat called me up about some t-shirts.  Pat was going for the beer can label look and luckily he let me talk him into adding the silver flex to the design.  The silver and white on green look great.

Please share your St. Patrick’s Day t-shirts with us! Leave a link in the comments or email me lpa - at - Spreadshirt.com.

I have started to follow the blog, Pro Blog Design, which has some great ideas for thinking about and improving your blog. The latest post, 6 Tips to Make A Great First Impression, offers some great ideas for your blog, and I think these tips can really help you think about how your shop looks. The first 3 tips can definitely be applied to a shop:

1. Appearance. This is the cosmetic part of your blog. The biggest challenge is to make it attractive! The appearance of your blog includes your logo, the colors, the fonts, and many other elements. This is a part of your design that will require lots of time, but it’s worth the extra effort.
2. Usability. The more usable your blog is, the better the browsing experience will be. A usable blog is user friendly. If your blog is well presented and well structured, they won’t have to search anything and you will win points!
3. Clarity. Remember that a confused visitor won’t stay on your blog for a long period of time. Being clear is very important. Try to be explicit when you are presenting something on your blog. For example, insure that your section titles match with the content of those sections. This is something very basic, but so important!

At the bottom the author links to some other posts about first impressions. I think this one, What a First Impression Must Show, also offers some great ideas for thinking about how to improve your shop. This post looks at 2 important questions:

1. What this blog is about.
2. What this page is about.

I think you can also apply this to your shop - is it clear what your shop is about?

We have lots of tools and tips to help you improve your shop. You can check out the Shop Admin section of the Spreadshirt forums. You can also check out the category here on the blog for Setting Up Shop.

What do you think is the most important think to know about setting up your shop? What has worked for you? What didn’t work?

Since today is March 14, which in numerical format is 3.14 - it is Pi Day! Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world and bloggers here at Spreadshirt. The Spreadshirt German blog has a little contest running match the employee to their gadget.

Here in the US I have created a few Pi items for the occasion - yes we have a Pi symbol for you to use.

I created a track jacket with 3.14 on the front and the pi symbol on the sleeve. I like to think of this as a subtle geek chic.

Other ways to celebrate Pi Day - Wikihow has a whole page of ideas. Which includes watching the movie Pi and getting married on Pi day to show that your love is forever. I love that people make Pi Pies (and cakes and cookies) - there are tons on Pi Day photos on flickr including some homemade Pi Day t-shirts too.

PHOTO: Pi Day shirt, bec.w via Flickr

PHOTO (top): Apple Pi, OrganicVeggie via Flickr