Word Up To Wordans

Antoine the co-founder at Wordans.com t-shirt community gave us a shout at Buy Tees for a review. The site is in many ways a pretty straightforward Zazzle or Cafepress clone, except for a few vital differences. Sure the site design is clearer and friendlier than many of its competitors out there (which there are more than a few now), and yes there’s an English and French speaking version for all the Euro t-shirt fans and designers seeking something just that little bit different than the norm. But what struck me immediately about Wordans is the fact you’ll find no trace of tacky mugs and mouse mats and gawd knows what else their competitors like to dabble in. What’s more they actually have some really decent designers under their wing, and they make sure you know it! Read more

Chill out with Threadless in Iceland!

Threadless.com’s business timing couldn’t be better, sure it may just be the grizzled old cynic in me that can’t resist pointing this one out, but have you heard about the state of Icelandic’s economy these days? On average their prices for everything from hotels to food to shopping and bars are down around 40% compared to last year. So even if you don’t win their latest competition, it shouldn’t break the bank if you fancy popping over there for a while. Still it’s always nice to get a freebie, and with the latest theme of ‘Threadless Loves Travel’ you’ll have a pretty wide remit as far as design briefs go.

I’ve just got back from Morocco so the wild and frenzied culture of North Africa is still spinning through my mind, but to be honest you could choose anywhere and anything, be it the Great Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of China, an Amazonian adventure, a flight into space, I’m not sure if time travel would count (although I’d be game - would be handy for the lottery numbers).

Whatever you fancy creating for the contest make sure you submit your work by their deadline for entries on October 22, 2008. Their contest is sponsored by Icelandair, action sports accessories company Dakine, IES Abroad (Institute for the International Education of Students), and even the band Calexico, are each making it possible for the best design to take to the skies in style. The creator of the winning design will receive a bounty of travel goodies including two round-trip tickets to Iceland on Icelandair, a $1k credit to a travel site of his or her choosing, courtesy of IES, a Dakine Split Roller 90 Travel Bag, and a personalized song, written by Calexico, inspired by the winning design.

Cameesa.com - Crowdfunding Fashion.

Here’s a new crowdsourcing t-shirt site to add to the fold (the more the better) called Cameesa.com - however there seems to be one distinct advantage for Cameesa supporters (aka customers) compared to other grander operations like Threadless and DesignByHumans and that’s the fact that they actually reward them for their efforts.

Essentially for the first time fans and artists can be in business together. Each artist issues 50 ‘parts’ (shares) per design, parts cost $20 each which totals $1000 per t-shirt. Together, the artist’s supporters have to raise $1,000 to get the design of their choice fully supported. Each part earns the supporter 3 cents per sale, and each supporter receives a free limited edition t-shirt as part of the package.

The artist earns $500 for each fully-supported design, plus a free t-shirt and a whopping $2 per sale to top it off. Read more

Political T-Shirt Elections at CollarFree.com

CollarFree.com are on a mission to make politics ‘more friendly’ and I wish them all the luck in the world, but I have a sneaking feeling they will be in a minority. On a commercial level I can completely understand what they’re doing, they don’t want to cut their target audience in half, i.e anyone in the world who both buys t-shirts and has a political opinion, which is quite a few I’d surmise.

However most people with a political opinion don’t particularly like the opposition, I doubt that many Americans out there who’d vote for Obama would have any kind words for McCain and vice-versa. The truth is electoral politics lives and breathes the antagonism of difference, without it the debate becomes stale, although it could be said that parties in power immediately switch to a politics of indifference in an effort to avoid being torn apart by the arguments of an unsatisfied and even angry electorate. I can’t think of a single political campaign that hasn’t sunk to the depths of bickering, sniping, and personal insults that CF obviously want to avoid. Read more