This article was originally written by Ray Masaki of Lowdtown (http://www.twitter.com/lowdtown) and posted on his blog: http://www.lowdtown.com/blog

This topic was suggested by my buddy and fellow New Yorker, Bryan of Doctor Hazmat, who I incidentally met after first talking to him via twitter. It’s certainly an interesting question, but unfortunately I probably hold a heavy lean towards the idea that technology has greatly helped the t-shirt community. But to be fair, I’ll try to look at both sides of the table.

I suppose when I first started looking into making t-shirts in high school (around ’06 or ’07), there weren’t as many online communities as there are now. I remember trying to find a printer for the first time through the local white pages. It wasn’t that there weren’t services online yet, I was just naive, so I only thought that crappy printing services like Cafepress and Spreadshirt existed. Of course, I was also very inexperienced at that time, so I didn’t realize that there were resources like t-shirtforums and it might have been a little bit before emptees started up.

However, as I learned more about design, and t-shirt design in particular, I became more and more involved in the online design communities, and religiously followed t-shirt design blogs. Technology, and the internet especially, make it easier than ever to market yourself. I can’t even imagine not having the internet as a resource, because I wouldn’t know where to start. I suppose I would try to find a local printer and try to get a better understanding of the processes or get an internship at a clothing brand, but with the computer, all of those resources are literally at your fingertips. With the addition of social media sites like facebook and twitter, as well as running blogs, it’s also easier than ever to market yourself.

To be honest, a way that technology has hurt the t-shirt community is that it almost made it too easy for people to make clothing brands. Any dumbass kid with a pirated version of Photoshop thinks that they can make a t-shirt and post it online nowadays. I wish it were a little bit harder, so that it would weed out all the shitty brands. But obviously, I stood in the position of a shitty inexperienced brand at one point, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to get off my feet without the help of online resources.

Another thing that I’ve been noticing lately is the homogenization of a lot of indie t-shirt blogs. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a problem, but it seems like a lot of the t-shirt blogs cover any and everything about t-shirts. I wish there was a bit more of a filter rather than posting every new t-shirt that’s released. So now, even if you do get coverage on a popular t-shirt blog, not only will it be at the bottom of the site by the end of the day, but also people just don’t care as much about one specific release, if there are hundreds of new t-shirts being posted daily. For that reason, I rarely ever look at t-shirt blogs anymore, and get inspiration from other sources. Just looking at art and fashion in general is a far better resource than seeing what Clothing Brand X just released.

That’s why I find that the older brands like Stussy, Supreme, Staple, 10.Deep, LRG etc. are so amazing. They had to go through the straight up hustle of selling from their car’s trunk or selling at shows and just spreading their name by word of mouth. They didn’t have mintees to post their latest launch on, or youtube to post their hype videos. It’s like when I think about how shitty rap and hip-hop has gotten. I feel like technology has made people lazier. With the internet, it’s possible for jokes like Soulja Boy to get popular, because they didn’t have to go through the hustle of impressing people at open mics and really honing their skills. Obviously it’s not easy to make a name for yourself or your brand regardless of what you do, but technology has certainly made it easier and has made people definitely more lazy… myself included. Gotta step my game up!

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

How has technology helped and hurt the t-shirt community?

I just put up a page for my book recommendations. You can check it out on the very top navigation of the site on the far right. Or you can just click here book recommendations

Also post some comments on the books I missed. I am going to go through and add some more in the next week and want to know of anything I missed.

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

Book Recommendations for Clothing Company Owners

Sorry about the lack of posts. I am going to try and write a bunch of articles myself about web design and different tools available on the web.

1. Splash Page

A splash page is the landing page of your site where it has a flash animation or just text that says “Enter”. A simple google search will show you tons of articles about why you shouldn’t have a splash page. There are two main reasons why a splash page sucks, it annoys customers and it is bad SEO.

Why does it annoy customers?
It’s basically another step users have to go through to get to the website they actually want to go to. They don’t want to watch your intro every time they go to your site. If you annoy a user enough they will just leave your site.

Why is it bad SEO?
Your landing page will probably have your highest page rank so having little content like text that says enter or an intro video will do little to get you hits from search engines.

Here is some more info
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-convince-a-client-they-dont-need-a-splash-page
http://www.webdesignforidiots.net/2009/02/why-you-should-dunk-your-splash-page/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/11/splash-pages-do-we-really-need-them/

2. Header is to big

There is a term called “above the fold” which they use in the newspaper industry. It refers to the location of an important news story or a visually appealing photograph on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Most papers are delivered and displayed to customers folded up, meaning that only the top half of the front page is visible. Thus, an item that is “above the fold” may be one that the editors feel will entice people to buy the paper.

In web design we use a similar term called above the scroll. This refers to all the information the user can see without scrolling down. You want to use this area for your important content. When you have a huge header it makes the user scroll down every page to get to the content they are looking for. Use your space wisely and make sure your important content is above the scroll.

3. Product pictures are too small.

There are a lot of e-commerce systems out there and default themes for shops that make the product pics so small. If you are selling a shirt the images are more important than your description and should take up most of the space on the product page. Make your product pics big!

4. Typography

There are tons of problems I see with typography on the web but I am just going to comment on readability. Your text must be easy to read if you want someone to read it. One problem I see a lot is the text color doesn’t have enough contrast with the background. By the way the most readable text is black text on a white background. I have left many sites that have white text on a black background because it hurt my eyes after a while. If you only have a couple lines of text its not a big deal.

Another readability issue I see is there are too many characters on a line. According to a classic rule of Web typography, 55 to 75 is an optimal number of characters per line. Research done on smashing magazine showed that the average on websites is 88.74 characters per line (maximum). Having too many characters makes the user forget what line they are one when they go to the next line of type. If you have a 900px website and your content goes all the way across the 900px this text is going to be hard to read. Have a sidebar or break up your text into 2 columns.

There are tons more typography rules for the web in this article.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/20/typographic-design-survey-best-practices-from-the-best-blogs/

5. Music auto playing on site

Don’t do it! I have left so many websites and never returned because I couldn’t figure out where to turn off the music. Don’t annoy the customer and make them listen to something they don’t want to. If you want music make it so the user has to click the play button.

Thanks for reading my article I do web design for clothing companies at Double Dragon Studios and if you need any work done check out our site and fill out a our contact form.

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

Top 5 mistakes in ecommerce design

Paypal has a lot of different options but it always seems like you will never use most of them and it is difficult to find the ones you want.

Today I got a paypal payment to the wrong email. I did a bit of research and found that you could connect up to 8 emails to the same paypal account. This is very helpful if you run different companies and want to process everything through the same bigcartel. I got a payment to my Double Dragon Studios email from Eric Terry at Linty Fresh and did some research and found I could connect that email to my main paypal account.

1. Login to paypal
2. Click on My Account
3. Click on Profile on the far right of the sub menu
4. Under Account information click Email
5. Add your other emails and paypal will send you a confirmation email

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How to connect multiple paypal emails – tutorial

This question comes up a lot and I think it really needs an article about it.

I remember printing my first shirt, live every week like it’s shark week, and I was asking the same question. I asked people what sizes I should order and I also unwisely asked what size people wanted to buy. I say unwisely because I asked it on emptees and not everyone that answered was my market or would be my customer.

It isn’t as simple as someone telling you how many shirts to buy. It depends on your market the design and a lot of factors that are really hard to calculate when you are buying your first print.

TEST THE WATERS!

I recommend buying the minimums. Most times this is 36-50 shirts sometimes even lower. The worst thing you can do is order shirt sizes that don’t sell and you have tons of stock left. Whatever you do don’t print more shirts because you get a discount. When you have the customers and know the sizes they order this is fine but it is disastrous if it’s your first time printing.

Do the research

I think your best bet is to talk to similar clothing companies. A lot of them might not respond but a lot of it is how you talk to them. Talk about how you like their clothing line, how you are printing your first shirt and don’t know what to get, how you are doing something similar and want their expertise, and I think most importantly give them a reason to help you. I send out shirts to a lot of people that have helped me and it’s always great to get gifts. Make them want to help you!

1-2-2-1

This is a breakdown of small to extra large that a lot of people use. They get twice as many mediums and larges as smalls and xl’s. I find that what I sell is usually more on the smaller side so I get more smalls and mediums, and less larges and xl’s then this breakdown. Really every market is different so you have to test and use your data to reorder.

Another thing is I always like to order 1 or 2 2XL’s or x-small. These don’t sell very well but your customer will appreciate you for carrying their size.

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

How many shirts should I print?!

Hi guys Jon Kruse here from how to start a clothing company. Today I’m reviewing a new e-commerce store system called storenvy which offers a free stores to everyone. It is most similar to big cartel which charges  $10- $20 a month for it’s services but also includes a bunch of social networking stuff  to get your site seen.

Big cartel vs Storenvy

• Bigcartel
• There are only two things that big cartel has storenvy beat on. One is that you can use cnames on bigcartel and use your own domain.  The other is big cartel lets you have multiple pages you can edit and storenvy doesn’t let you add any extra pages besides the faq and contact pages. The downside is you have to drive all the traffic to your site by yourself and it costs you $20 a month for their best plan.

• Storenvy
• First and foremost it’s free and you have to love free. They have up to 5 pics per product, on bigcartel it would cost you $20 a month. The stats they give in the admin panel are great, even though you should be using google analytics to track all your stats.  I really like how easy it is to design a site in css and there are a couple sites that have started customizing their stores. Check out my site I did for my clothing line Shred and check out this site for Fashion Loves People. Storenvy has social networking to get you traffic and make sales. Finally I’ve spoken to the guys that work behind the scenes and they are passionate about what they’ve created and plan on making a lot of improvements.

What the owner of Storenvy had to say.

“Storenvy doesn’t want to be just another online store system. There are hundreds of them out there already and have some of the same problems. They require you to drive all traffic to your store yourself, they only offer fulfillment, or made for only stores who are well established. On top of that in this day in age the internet is all about being social. Storenvy wanted to fix all of those problems and build the first Social Store Community.

Shopping Features.

• Buy from multiple stores at once all shipping from different locations around the world. Pay all stores at once with one checkout.
• Shoppers have the ability to browse between all stores at once by different product categories. From Apparel, Jewelry, Music, Books, Housewares, Toys and more.
• Markets are a group of stores with similar interest. Example being handmade, Metal bands, & clothing companies. Shoppers will be able to see all stores in each market along with browse all products, and a forum to discuss what they find.

Social Features

• Shoppers have the ability to make their own user profile/user account. With this they have the ability mark items they find on Storenvy as favorites, share with their friends, follow a store, leave comments, chat on the forums, and follow their friends and see what they are doing.
• When you follow a store you find out whenever they add new products.
• When you follow another Storenvy User you find out what they are favoriting, and comments they are making to help you find out about new and interesting items they discover.
• Shoppers also have the option to share your favorite products they find on their facebook wall. (we are setting up Twitter integration right now as i type this)”

Storenvy is a great start for what looks like a very bright future. It doesn’t have big cartel beat on everything just yet but they also have a lot of things bigcartel doesn’t  have like a free system with social networking. I just made the switch last week and am really happy with what storenvy has to offer.

Also besides their e-commerce stores I know about storenvy because of their printing. There are lot of people out there that can vouch for their printing and really it’s the best printing/service I have ever gotten from a screen printer.  Large oversized prints, bright colors, and everything is super soft (no big piece of plastic here). Storenvy is offering 75 cents off American Apparel printed shirts until December 1st. I’m not sure if they still do this but when I first talked with them about printing they offered to send me a sample shirt, just ask Nick. Go to the storenvy printing page by clicking here.

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Storenvy: Free online store review

What is networking? Why is networking important? Why am I writing this and how does it have to do with Too Legit? All of these questions will be answered in the following Facet of Legitimacy.
Let’s say that you need to find a job. You spend hours and hours and come up with a resume that highlights everything you have ever done. You go to the local stationary store and buy some really nice paper to print your resume onto. After this, you drop off your resume to several local businesses that might be interested in employing you. Do you realize how many applications for employment all of these businesses get? Do you understand what your chances of getting employed are? Your chances are slim. A much easier approach lies on the inside. If you know someone on the inside of the company, business, or corporation, they will most likely not have a problem helping you out by recommending you. This would save time, money, and energy on something as simple (but important) as getting a job. And how would you get “on the inside”? Through networking, of course! This is just one example of the wonders good networking and contacts will have.
So what exactly is networking? Networking is the act of meeting new people in a business or social context. Networking is something that everyone experiences pretty much daily. Meeting someone new at the coffee shop in the morning or going to a conference and trading business cards. Networking sets up future interactions and mutually beneficial relationships among two or more people, businesses, or institutions.

Networking comes in many different shapes and forms. For example, networking with potential clients and customers differs from networking with potential resources and manufacturers. Being knowledgeable of the different types of networking and how to network within each will definitely show positive results. In the end, you will have stronger contacts and a better platform with which to run your business off of. In the next few paragraphs, I will go somewhat more in depth into each type. However, due to the broad scope of networking, it would be almost impossible to include all the information available.

Social Networking sites are extremely important when it comes to networking. Personally, social networking sites are the reason for Too Legit’s existence and are what continue to keep it alive. The most popular social networking sites to date are: Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, in terms of overall users and traffic. All 3 are invaluable resources that are key to almost any business’ success in this day and age. The ability to connect and communicate with people all over the world in a matter of seconds has made networking online extremely easy and important.
Be professional and know who you are talking to at all times. It’s the little things that count. Using correct grammar and punctuation could be the deciding factor of whether or not you get that manufacturing account you have always wanted or that interview on a prestigious blog. I have talked with people who use subpar English and they definitely do not impress me. Think about it from the big business’ perspective: You are looking to do professional business with someone and they are talking to you as if you were their old friend from high school. Not cool at all.

Twitter: Twitter is a free, real-time short messaging service that allows people from all over the globe to connect and read about what others are doing. I use Twitter on a daily basis and it allows me to quickly send out information to a large group of people (followers) and lets me see what is going on with them (following). For any established or upcoming business or brand, I HIGHLY recommend you sign up for your own Twitter account today and begin using it. I cannot explain how many contacts I have gained from simple 140 character interactions with people. A more detailed article about the use of twitter and its benefits can be found on the BA blog here.
MySpace: Over the past year or so, my activity on MySpace has decreased substantially. Partly because I find MySpace annoying due to the fact that it is crawling with spammers who have no desire to connect; only to gain the most friends, (I don’t understand the thrill of having a million friends that don’t know you, but whatever floats your boat) and secondly because I don’t really go on my personal MySpace very much either. However, for an upcoming brand, MySpace can be a valuable tool. You set up a page with your brand name, pictures of your products, info on the brand, and maybe a link or two to your website/webshop and you’re good to go.
Facebook: I look at Facebook as a MySpace 2.0. It has all the functionality of MySpace, but is cleaner, faster, and overall, more refined. Facebook allows you to create a fan page of your business, brand, cause, etc. and suggest to your friends that fan page. People who aren’t your friends can also “Become a Fan” and follow updates that you make along the way. There are no crazy layouts on Facebook, but you can still include pictures of your products, links to external sites, and a brand bio.
By no means are these the only social networking sites. There are easily hundreds of sites you can join to get your business out there. A couple of them are Digg, Flickr, DeviantArt, and LinkedIn. Each of these has a specific genre or theme to them. For example, Flickr is all about pictures, DeviantArt is about art/design, and LinkedIn is about business. (All of my social networking links can be found at the end of the article.)
Other good online resources include forums and websites directly related to your business. Since my major focus is fashion and clothing, I found sites such as the forum on Hypebeast.com, the forum on Lurk99cents.com, tshirtforums.com, and the talk and resource areas on emptees.com very valuable when it came to meeting new people, discussing my product, and collecting contacts.

Networking in person can be a lot more complicated and difficult than networking online for several different reasons. First, when you are online and are “posting” information, sending e-mails, and interacting with others, you are able to type out what you would like to say, edit that, and then send it. In person, that is not the case. Someone asks you something and you respond right then and there. Being careful about what you say and how you say it is very important because someone’s reaction will be completely different depending on how they hear what you are saying.
In addition, it’s harder to pick up on tone of voice online because, well, you aren’t hearing them say it, you are reading it. Your tone means a lot, so that is something to watch out for. Coming off mad or overly sarcastic can lead to a negative interaction between you and a potential contact.
If you go to an event or conference, be sure to take along some business cards to handout to potential clients and contacts and other information about who you are and what you do. It would be stupid to go to a conference without having anything to leave with someone. You have to understand that people converse with a ton of people at these sorts of events. Without something to trigger their memory when they return home, there is no way they will remember you.

So why is networking important? As Albert Schuster, president of Network in Philadelphia, once said, “Networking offers another avenue to reach vendors, customers, future business partners… It allows you to present yourself and your networking objective in a much more personal way than an advertisement, promotion, or an online resume can.” Without a strong network of friends, family, contacts, and clients, your business will ultimately fail. In order to be successful, you must have help from other people. Meeting new people and connecting with them will definitely help you in the long run.
When talking with someone, whether in person, over the phone, through e-mail, or by any other means of communication, be sure to be human, and more importantly, be yourself. The worst possible thing that you could do is make someone feel as if they are just another number in a vast list of contacts you have sitting on your desk. Creating a personal relationship will enable you to stand out and rise above the noise. In addition, if you put up a false persona of who you really are, the value of your connection will usually decrease. Being genuine is a top notch way to win true friends, valuable resources, and goes hand in hand with the ultimate goal, being successful. Moreover, being genuine is, in large part, one of the main ideals that Too Legit was originally based upon and continues to build upon.
Lastly, I want to make a point of never being lazy. Networking is most effective when you do it constantly and consistently. You need to network when you don’t really have to. Yes, networking is a lot of work and takes time, but once you have successfully made contacts, it is very valuable and rewarding. In addition, make sure you engage people as often as possible. Don’t wait for them to get back to you on a call or e-mail, call them first!

At first, networking wasn’t a large priority for the brand. I would design the shirts, get them printed, and try to sell them. That was it. I thought it was just a simple market. You make something that the consumer wants, and they buy it. That is not totally incorrect, but there is a lot more to it. Since then, I have grown a greater appreciation for the powers of networking. Through the Too Legit Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, I have accumulated many contacts and friendships that have been useful already and will continue to be useful as time passes. Anyone can have a clothing brand and sell a few t-shirts to their friends and the local crowd, but a good brand has a national or even global following. The only way to reach out to the people not directly in contact with you is to network.
Although networking online is not the only way to network, it comprises the bulk of how I network. As the brand is still young, I have not attended any shows to date. However, in the next few months that will change and I will most definitely meet new people and create new contacts.

All in all, I can’t stress it enough that creating mutually beneficial relationships that are meaningful and personal is one of the most, if not the most, important aspect of creating and expanding a business whether it be a clothing brand or not. Sign up for social networking sites, actively connect, and be able to describe who you are and what you do to any person that might walk up to you.
I doubt very many people read through this whole article as it is rather lengthy. And even so, I have left out a lot of things and will probably write a Networking Pt. 2 post at some point. This is the first Facet of Legitimacy to date so please leave comments or message me with any feedback you might have. I want to make this series as informational and as helpful as possible. I know that I’m not some big brand, but I do feel that I have a small bit of knowledge that I’d like to share with people.
Thanks for reading.

-Chris
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/toolegitclothes
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Too-Le…ng/79830493302
MySpace – MySpace – Too Legit Clothing – 17 – Male – SAN JOSE, California – myspace.com/toolegitclothing
Site – http://www.toolegitclothing.com
Shop – http://shop.toolegitclothing.com

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

Networking for clothing lines

Tim Toomey from Assault Blog and Assault Shirts talks about how to get SEO results without spending a lot of money.

He gives some great tips for keyword strategies, blog strategies and coding strategies.

That video was done for watchteev.com

Post from: How to start a Clothing Company

SEO for Apparel and T-Shirt Companies

SITE DESIGN

• Use clear, simple navigation.
• Use your main page to promote best sellers, specials and products you want to highlight.
• Cross promote products by including links to similar items on product detail pages.

PRODUCT PHOTOS

• Use photographs of your product instead of graphic mock-ups whenever possible.
• If you have printed tags, custom sew-ons, or branding prints in locations other than the main print, show photos of those too.
• Show large images of your product.

GARMENT INFORMATION:

• Tell people what brand of shirt you’re printing on.
• Include size charts for all your garments.
• Is your garment 100% organic? Made in the USA? Pre-shrunk? Washed by the hands of 1000 angels before being printed? Tell your customers about it!

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

• Offer returns (or exchanges), promote the fact that you do, and provide detailed terms.
• Have a detailed FAQ and keep it up-to-date.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

• Have an “About Us” page and talk about your company. Be funny, be serious, just don’t be boring
• Start a mailing list and include options to register on your site and as part of the check out process.

Full article at pop culture tees.

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How to Make Your T-Shirt Shop Stand Out and Sell More

Looking to improve your monthly tee shirt business sales and conversions? Well you have come to the right place, because today’s article is all about improving your tee shirt business! We have put together 10 great ways to fine tune your site, which will help ensure you make the most of your precious traffic.

read the entire article by following the link 10 ways your t-shirt business can improve

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10 Ways Your Tee Shirt Business Can Improve