First thing’s first… what the hell is Fluc? It’s part of FlucMedia.com‘s burgeoning online empire, a mobile social network and advertising service that pushes geo-location targeted advertising as the next leap in advertising and it makes sense. You can read their about their aims and goals here. Most people have been burned by mobile (aka cellphone for the USA) subscriptions, no matter what they’re giving away, if the offer isn’t in your area, or even applicable to you, you’ll probably never make the same mistake again.

But Fluc want to change that, but what do I know, I don’t even have a mobile phone, maybe I’m scared of brain cancer, or maybe I just hate phone calls, who knows, but if anyone is objective enough to review their t-shirts, it has to be me. That’s what we’re all here for after all, great t-shirts and great reviews (hopefully).

Fluc.com only opened up their t-shirt store last week (a scoop at last?), and they’ve already sold out everything, yes they literally are flying off the shelves. So you’ll have to wait a while before you can get your orders in (there aren’t even any ‘buy buttons’ right now lol). I had a quick word with Tim Davis, the designer (and sole non-tecchie) at Fluc.com to get a little more info on his work, he was totally chuffed that I’d even asked. This guy has too much humility for his own good, if you want to see a perfect t-shirt brand development in action, visit their shop at Store.Fluc.com.

I am usually the first to shun branded t-shirts, I never got into all the branded sportswear around when I was at school, and I still ignore most branded fashion to this day, apart from my Converse boots (I like the stars on the heels okay?), but the word ‘Fluc’ fortunately/unfortunately (depending on your moral compass) rings of expletives and sexual vulgarity. It’s such a refreshing change from the usual corporate fodder out there, offending the public can be a good thing, if you get it right. Fluc certainly have

Fluc has always had a great graphic style (down to Tim) and due to demand he took on t-shirt design as a side project to their main technology site. If their customers hadn’t asked for this, the t-shirt fashion industry may have missed out on this talent, which would’ve been a big shame!. The whole collection only took a few weeks to design, and many hit low and hard, there’s pithy and then there’s totally in-your-face and Tim has a knack for the latter. Fluc is a fantastic word to play with, I’m almost envious of the guy. He should expect a lot of fans and enemies in equal share over the next few months, but before the moral majority kicks in, remember the word ‘fluc’ doesn’t actually mean anything. If you think it’s rude, perhaps it’s your dirty mind you have to contend with. last few weeks and basically designed some t-shirts that I thought would look cool with the Fluc brand name.

Funnily enough, Tim Davis, in his own words, ‘is not a designer by nature’ but loves design and UI (user-interface) work. I asked him how the company came up with the word ‘Fluc’, for the brand, and it seems it was just pure inspiration. He was looking for a cool brand name that would easily roll off the tongue that was only 4 letters long for instant recognition.

The 4 letter restriction made it pretty tough, he started Googling dictionary terms with four letters and then began to create combinations of letters – Fluc eventually struck him as a great and cool name that no one had taken. Of course, any associated 4 letter domain was going to be pricey – so he ended up negotiating fluc.com for around $400 bucks about 2 years ago during the Xmas season and was totally stoked. The owner wanted $5K originally, and when he offered $400 – he sold it as he wanted the cash for Xmas. Tim, that was jammy, I mean how on earth did you knock them down so far? Obviously a very convincing guy all round.

I did ask for a few photos of the actual tshirts, but as I’ve mentioned earlier, they don’t actually have any tshirts left in stock now and it didn’t really occur to me that all of sudden a heap of people would want them, but we have to be patient, the store has hardly opened its doors yet!

Now don’t freak out on me if you want one now, Fluc.com are planning to print up and sell a whole heap more tees very soon, so you’ll have to make do with the pics for now. Ok, see you all, I need some sun, I’m going to fluc off to the beach for a bit!

“Marty McFly: Calvin? Wh… Why do you keep calling me Calvin?
Lorraine Baines: Well, that is your name, isn’t it? Calvin Klein? It’s written all over your underwear.”

Historically uniforms are for war, not entertainment, and rarely for the purposes of fashion.

Perhaps with the exception of the Swiss Guards…

But asides this weird exception, uniforms might display an insignia, or word, their battalion, their country, a flag, their rank, but never the clothing manufacturer, or rather yes, but in a small internal tag the size of a thumb, just above the washing instructions, but never in enormous bold letters across their chest. When clothes jumped in price and slumped in quality, they exploded with choice, most brands were either out of the reach of the everyday person on the street, or not worth advertising. The price made all the difference. brands became a status symbol for fashion, however unlike almost any other product, it can literally take over until all you are wearing is a word.

I remember things swimming along rather nicely in the eighties, I was at school, some kids were still wearing hand-me-down flares, everyone had a Parka jacket in the winter, the sixth formers donned army surplus jackets as some mild form of resistance against the school and of course the uniform. I spent the last two years at my Grammar School wearing tight black jeans, we all broke the rules in some way or another. Then came along Fila, soon followed by Nike and even a resurgence of Adidas gear (which had become seriously naff by the end of the Seventies).

I was a little older and wiser, I joined the freaks and bought jumble, wore Kung Fu shoes and DM’s and forgot about it for a while, still the trend grew. Brand names seem to be an excuse to produce absolute crap at the lowest possible prices, because the kids would pay anything for the right brand name. Soon the poorer kids were rushing down the markets with their mums – buying cheap fake copies of everything under the sun. They were ridiculed by the rich kids, the Jocks as the yanks would say, they word sports clothing anyway, now they just wore it all the time.

Fashion had been reduced to a word, and that word was advertising. However many arguments I had over the years I couldn’t compete with flashy TV ad campaigns and world famous sports stars. The truth is most heavily branded clothes are made as badly as their copies, no one in their right mind would want to advertise anyone anywhere for free these days, the logos are shrinking again, there are even companies who pay you to wear their clothes (refer to EyeEarn post) and what’s more I’m relieved.

Welcome back originality, individuality, and death to the herd mentality! One of my pals on the net Tony Piro of CalamitiesofNature.com is a great cartoonist – I think this piece says it all.

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