As you may know the Spreadshirt.com production facility is located in Greensburg, PA which is a short drive from Pittsburgh, PA - home of the Pittsburgh Steeler, Pirates and Penguins.  Tonight is game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Pittsburgh is buzzing with hockey excitement.  I have been thinking about hockey t-shirts for a few weeks ever since a friend asked for a playoff beard t-shirt (he has since requested 4 more) - so I thought a post on some hockey t-shirts is in order.  Here are 5 hockey themed t-shirts that I found around the internet.  If you know of some other hockey t-shirts please leave a link in the comments so we can check them out.

1. Puck Off - Canadians are Serious about hockey (via Spreadshirt Marketplace)

2. Playoff Beard Octopus - its too cute not to include on the list (via Spreadshirt Marketplace)

3. Detroit Tote from a T-shirt (via Etsy)

4. GLORY by Escape RealiTees (via Etsy)

5. Malkin T-shirt by Cahmpyinz.com (thank to the IheartPGH fan who sent in the picture)

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 “Favorite 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 Favorite Shirt” which includes:

• A picture of you in your favorite 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 favorite 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 one of my favorite Spreadshirts: one with a design from LA Lewis. If I had pictures of me in one of my many other favorites, I most likely would have linked to Amorphia Apparel, blend apparel, laFraise, Glarkware, Loukotka or The Tee Party. But, I hope that you guys are able to cover these and many more platforms and designers. Show us and your blog readers what great tees you’ve got!

NekkidTees knows tees, especially those geared toward the vastly young tee-wearing crowd. “Naked is natural; nekkid is naughty” is the slogan behind the hundreds of designs ranging from funny and party shirts to geeky and naughty shirts. Throw some police shirts and cute shirts into the mix and you realize that all “nekkid people need clothes too”. Tommy tells about the tragic events leading to his opening a shirt shop and NekkidTees’ tragedy-contrasting goal of making people laugh with shirts. The interview with Tommy from NekkidTees: continue reading ‘Cute and Naughty under the Same Tee - NekkidTees in Interview’

Just wanted to remind everyone that today is the first day of the 1-2-3 Free promotion.  Get 3 new customers to place an order in your Spreadshirt shop, in the next 2 weeks and you can earn a $20 coupon from Spreadshirt.

Click here for all the details!

We have added some great new products for you to customize for summer fun!  I am looking forward to see how you will customize the dress and the pocket tee!

1. Women’s AA Racerback Tank Dress
   Available in: White, Red and Black
2. Men’s AA Pocket Tee
   Available in: White, Black and Navy
3. Women’s Deep V-neck Shirt by Continental
   Available in: White, Peacock and Dark Pink
4. Women’s Scoop Neck Tee by Bella
   Available in: Black, Teal, Plum and Ocean Blue

Each month Temple puts together her best tips for your Spreadshirt shop for our newsletter. Past newsletters and tips are available here.

Whether you are a new shop partner just starting out or an existing partner looking to increase sales the new Spreaducation sectionis just for you!

Spreaducation is packed full of useful tips and tricks on three main topics, each helping you to set up a successful Spreadshirt Shop:

• Set-up shop:  provides advice for determining your target market, so you can design to meet the needs of your intended audience, as well as useful links to help customize your Shop Layout to be individualized for your style.
• Create products:   packed full of information on our Apparel, printing techniques, design and text options for creating products, as well as pricing information.  Need some help with creating vector designs? Then check out the Design Tutorials section.
• Market your Shop: a must read for all!  SEO tips, advertising your shop, and learning how and where your customers are coming from are just a few topics covered.

Be sure to check out the reference links located within the many subtopics of each section.  You can also catch some great stories from other Shop Partners about their experiences, marketing, and their target audience!

Happy Creating,
Temple

Spreadshirt Vector Graphics 101 is a comprehensive webinar about how to create and use vector designs within the framework of a Spreadshirt Shop. The webinar is presented live and participants are encouraged to ask questions and make comments. Vectors 101 will cover:

• differences between pixel and vector designs
• how to properly create a vector design to be used on products
• rejection-proof method of checking your designs before submitting for approval
• tips and tricks for creating effective vector designs

The first live webinar will be hosted on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 4:30 PM EST. You can register here.

“Yeah it’s great, but how can you make money with it?” In the last few weeks and months, the folks at Twitter have probably been asked that question more often than people behind any other online service. So, while we are all waiting for the 140-character giant’s big business move, our partner Twitshirt has jumped to the starting line and is at least showing twitterers how to gather some micro-cash with a little micro-blogging.

Twitshirt in a nutshell
Here’s how it works: register at twitshirt.com with your Twitter and PayPal account, and every time someone buys a shirt with one of your tweets - kerching! - you earn $1.00. Twitshirt also offers blog readers or other followers a few tools to help promote your tweetshirts. It might take a while before the first Twitshirt millionaire is made, but it is certainly enough to cover an ice cream cone or two this summer.

You asked, we listened.  The webinars have been going really well and we really enjoy showing you how to set up a Spreadshirt shop - but everyone has been asking about how to create vector graphics so that you can easily use the flex and flock printing with your own designs and logos.

Well - we have been hard at work and we are happy to announce the next webinar Vector Graphics 101.

Spreadshirt Vectors 101 is comprehensive webinar about how to create and use vector designs within the framework of a Spreadshirt Shop. The webinar is presented live and participants are encouraged to ask questions and make comments. Vectors 101 will cover:

• differences between pixel and vector designs
• how to properly create a vector design to be used on products
• rejection-proof method of checking your designs before submitting for approval
• tips and tricks for creating effective vector designs

Upcoming Vectors 101 Webinars:

• Thur., May 14, 2009 4:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT - Click here to register for this webinar
• Tue., May 26, 2009 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT - Click here to register for this webinar
• Wed., June 10, 2009 3:00 PM - 3:30 PM EDT - Click here to register for this webinar
• Fri., June 26, 2009 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM EDT - Click here to register for this webinar

Our CEO Jana Eggers recently met up with designer Daniel Casarella from Barking Irons in his New York studio. He revealed what designers should keep in mind when creating a good t-shirt design. He essentially points to three things which are important for a successful design:

1. Balance – how and where the parts of the design are placed on the shirt
2. Typography – the choice of font and its proper use to effectively communicate your message
3. Research – a good design should always be able to tell a story and stories are much easier to tell when you really know about the history behind it.

P.S. The Barking Irons apparel in our Exclusive Collection is still in stock and Summer is certain to bring along some great new additions.