Are T-Shirt Communities A Rip-Off?

admin    T-Shirt Articles     Design By Humans, T-Shirt Designers, Teextile, Threadless, cafepress, crowdsourcing, spreadshirt, t-shirt communities

I love t-shirts, that should be pretty much apparent to anyone who reads this blog, and I alongside a vast majority of fans of t-shirt arts was excited by the development of Threadless and other t-shirt communities out there across the world. But, and it’s a big but, as with almost all business sectors, there’s good practice, bad practice, and quite a wide range in between. Now, I know how it feels to be ripped off, we have all, in our lives from time to time, experienced a “poor deal” at the very least, and sometimes downright theft. There are charlatans across the globe, pervading all kinds of product and service based industries, who’s sole intention is to grab your money and run. Fortunately the vast majority of companies realise that without long term customer loyalty there’s little chance of them going on a “rip off” rampage and getting away with it, not including those that have almost sole or shared monopoly of a retail sector, banking being a good example of bad practice.

As with the rest of the business world, the t-shirt sector has its “bad apples”, one of the first to come to my attention following an initially positive review here at Buy Tees was Teextile.com. They still remain the worst offenders in poor if not non-existent customer service, sending out t-shirts late, sometimes never at all, and even neglecting to pay their designers. Today I received another comment at my post Teextile – A Rip Off? which highlights all the crimes and misdemeanours of this relatively young venture into the world of t-shirt crowdsourcing. Here’s what the designer Warren Hart had to say on the matter:

“I let them use one of my designs ( SLF ryu shirt ) (http://www.fourninjas.com/shop/product/1006828) to sell in January of 2010. They have yet to pay me a dime for the amount of shirts they sold. In total they owe me about $300. For months I’ve asked and asked for my money and nothing. Just one sob story after another. They were quite rude to me as well. Now they don’t even respond. P.S. Tanga.com have ripped off my design as well.“

A few days ago I also received a comment from a reader complaining about the French t-shirt community site Wordans.com:

“Wordans has very poor business skills! I ordered shirts for a festival I was attending, their web-site claimed it would take 5-10 days and it took my shirts over 16 business days to reach me. When I cancelled my order they said they would not give my money back and I should have put a rush on my order even though I ordered with more than sufficient time!“

Now, despite the awful example of Teextile, perhaps the most crooked and conceited t-shirt community on record (read these comments to see why!), I might be blowing things out of proportion. Although I have a suspicion that most t-shirt buyers experiencing problems with customer service and shipping times may simply be on the receiving end of companies that are a victim of their own success. For every Threadless, Design By Humans, Cafepress and Spreadshirt out there, obversely there are dozens (if not hundreds) of failing t-shirt companies and ‘Print On Demand’ t-shirt sites, and it’s simply a matter of under-manning and underfunding. Without enough staff and a decent contingency fund there’s little most t-shirt companies, or any company for that matter, can do when demand outstrips supply.

Then again, I’d like to see a single instance of say a car designer, a commercial architect, or a governmental advisor in a quango who hasn’t received monies for their services. The truth is that certain t-shirt communities out there are getting a very bad reputation amongst designers, far worse than they will have garnered through a dissatisfied clientèle. Without design, the lifeblood of all t-shirt communities, there is no community, there are no t-shirts, no customers, no profits, absolutely zilch. It seems extremely short-sighted for any company, no matter what they sell, to cheat their own designers, do they think we are all fools?

The time is at hand, I believe, to stand up against the commercial bullies, the cheats, the crooks and the thieves in the t-shirt industry, and the best place to start is with the current worst offenders, Teextile.com.

Above is a button to include on your own blog, site, or social network page if you want to help stop this ever pervading problem. If you wish you can link to this post or http://buy-tees.net/2010/03/teextile-a-rip-off

or not, the choice is yours. I simply think it would be a good idea to make it clear that we’re not going to take this s*** off any t-shirt community again. In the UK we have something called Trading Standards that to a degree can guarantee customer rights, along with our own Statutory rights. In America the best they can offer is the Better Business Bureau which seems to be something of a voluntary organisation with little legal clout and a tendency to ignore those companies that haven’t signed up to their register. Useless.

What we really need is an independent body, funded by all the major t-shirt sites as mentioned before, i.e Threadless, DBH, Cafepress, Spreadshirt etc. This body would essentially provide a seal of approval for new and old t-shirt communities, including a ratings system that is recognised world-wide by the industry and the buying public. The ball is in their court now, who knows, if we all stand together on this it might just happen.

Gateway T-Shirt by Rob Dobi

    T-Shirt Designers, T-Shirt Reviews, T-Shirts     Design By Humans, art shirts, full bleed, rob dobi

It’s been a good few years since we featured Rob Dobi‘s work, perhaps one of the greatest artists in the t-shirt industry right now, he’s gone from strength to strength in style and ability, and his choice of subject matter has leant more and more towards the surreal. For those not familiar with his work read ‘Full Bleed Ahead‘ for the full low-down. If you want to see what’s he’s been up to then check out his site at FullBleed.org, however I have to feature one of his most recent creations which has just won it’s rightful place amongst the hallowed halls of Design By Humans. It’s called the Gateway T-Shirt, and speaking personally it’s absolutely beautiful!

An absolutely incredible design oozing sci-fi and fantasy all over the place. I love the extremely delicate use of halftones in this piece, deceptively simple and filled to the brim with a sense of wonder. I think this must be Dobi’s best work yet. It’s available for both men and women for $19 however they’ve sold out of small size tees for women :/  Still you can get yours at http://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/detail/6190.

Whilst I’m at it here are three classic designs redesigned or as he describes it ‘reset’ available at Rob Dobi’s own store FullBleed.org.

Forever Longing T-Shirt available here.

Paint It Red T-Shirt available here.

Work Is For The Birds T-Shirt available here.

Rob Dobi’s client list has exploded over the past few years, just before I scarper check out these big names…

Amazing!

A T-Shirt Forum For A New Generation

admin    T-Shirt News     Design By Humans, T-Shirts, Threadless, advertising, cameesa, discuss, illustrator, photoshop, screen-printing, t-shirt design, t-shirt forum, talk, tee shirts, woot

As Liz from PopCultureTees.com – the creator of the brand new t-shirt forum TeeDesignTalk.com told me the other day – “one forum (no names mentioned :p) out there is definitely the big boy of the industry – but I’ve always considered them more of an industry forum than a designer forum. When I was working in the screen printing industry, they were my first stop for technical questions…. not so much for design questions. They are definitely grumpy! I think that with all the people who are participating in sites like emptees and threadless there’s a whole new set of people who are interested in t-shirts, but coming from an entirely different direction. They’re the people who are design cool stuff, not t-shirts for schools and churches.”

I couldn’t agree more with Liz and hopefully you are also in agreement, we need to step up the evolution in the world of t-shirts and reflect the massive developments in our industry, it’s true that since the emergence of sites like Threadless.com there has been a noticeable key change in the attitude and culture of both designers and consumers of the beloved tee. read more

Tee Fury – Tee Today Gone Tomorrow!

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Design By Humans, Tee Fury, Threadless, limited editions, one day only, t-shirt design contest, t-shirt sale, teefury.com, uneetee

Hell hath no fury like a t-shirt scorned. If you want what TeeFury.com have on offer you had better hurry, they offer a unique ‘one day only ‘service, selling some truly incredible tees from a diverse stock of the highest quality t-shirt designers.

They offer a new screen-printed limited-edition tee every 24 hours for $9 however you can only buy a maximum of 3. They print on high-quality “regular-fit” tees that are made of 100% ringspun cotton. They pay each artist $1 per shirt sold AND the artist keeps full rights to their design. After a design’s 24 hour stint at Tee Fury the artist can sell the design anywhere they like. They charge $2 US and $7 Worldwide shipping. read more

Top List of Threadless Clones aka T-Shirt Vote Sites

admin    T-Shirt News     Design By Humans, Threadless, dbh, designbyhumans, emptees, t-shirt ratings, t-shirt vote, t-shirt voting, t-shirt voting sites, threadless submissions, threadless votes, threadless.com, uneetee

Yes it’s another list, it’s not just the fact that ‘top lists’ seem to rank so well on Google but that this one has been bugging me for a while. I’ve been looking for the perfect t-shirt voting site for ages, something that offers high prizes, fair rates and provides most of the publicity themselves. There isn’t one out there, I’ve seen so many of these sites relying on popular members rather than fantastic designers to boost their profile. Besides there are so many good t-shirt designers out there not getting the kudos they deserve, it seems to make more sense to set up your own t-shirt voting/fulfilment site rather than submit your designs, which probably explains why there are so many on this list! read more

Paperwork T-Shirt by Paul Baines

admin    T-Shirt News     Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, Design By Humans, Paul Baines, T-Shirts, designbyhumans.com, paperwork, t-shirt contest, t-shirt design, water colour

Yes, yes, I’m submitting to DesignByHumans.com again, no I’m not a glutton for punishment, I know I’ll probably get very few votes, but who cares, it’s all good. Matt from DBH support has put my mind at rest, (see the last post), and be assured I will keep pressing them to improve the comments system. However we’re both here, and for one thing, and that’s t-shirts.

The latest submission to Design By Humans, it’s called Paperwork and I believe its pretty much self-explanatory. It features a two characters wrapped in newspaper, one sweeps the road, the other is homless, the two share a moment under a sky-filled faux-water colour ticker-tape parade. I could push the whole eco argument again, but in all honesty this is more an exercise in the pointlessness of life than ecology. To be more accurate, the pointlessness of many of today’s society’s mechanisms of control, order and general management. Those who have little clear up those who have most, those who have nothing are cleared out of sight, and those with everything can’t see the trees for the paper.

{Has been accepted by DBH – VOTE FOR PAPERWORK HERE!} read more

DesignByHumans.com – Complaint Received and Dealt With Thanks!

admin    T-Shirt News     Design By Humans, arts, comments, designbyhumans, designbyhumans.com, individuality, success, support, t-shirt design, voting

I woke up today and was most gratified to receive an email from Matt of DesignByHumans.com

“First off, I apologize for the negative encounter you had with one of the members of the community. We try our best to promote a positive atmosphere here at DBH but sometimes there are those who choose to spoil the fun for everyone. We have since deleted ********* comments on your design as well as on some other artist’s designs. Thanks for calling our attention to this.”

read more

Design By Humans – Comments by Jerks

admin    T-Shirt Marketing, T-Shirt News     Design By Humans, cancel designbyhumans, design by humans sucks, designbyhumans, designbyhumans.com

I know you must be thinking what the hell am I doing? If today hadn’t gone so badly, what with an Internet Explorer incompatibility with Lightbox.js (a fancy photo widget for WordPress) and a bout of sickness from three cats (yes all over the place it is), I’d probably have held my horses. However the final straw was one idiot at DesignByHumans.com – I won’t point you to his account because I really don’t want to give guys like this any more promotion than they deserve (which in all truth is just about zero). There are two ways to make it in like, rise above or push every one else face down and climb over them. I prefer the first option, and maybe I’m losing my faith in human nature, but it seems a lot more fall into the second. read more

Amsterdamned @ DesignByHumans.com

admin    T-Shirt News     1960s, Amsterdam, Bob Masse, Design By Humans, cannabis, hippie, hippies, hippy, psychedelic, stoned, t-shirt, t-shirt design, t-shirt design contest, trip, weed

I have finally had my Eggheads T-Shirt submission accepted at DesignByHumans.com – if you’d like to show some support come and vote for it here.

I had a very friendly exchange of emails with Taylor at DBH who reassured me that my style suited their site’s creative ethos to a tee, essentially the mistake I had made was nothing to do with the quality of my work but rather the placement of the images on their t-shirt template. My advice is the less coverage a design has over the spread of a shirt, the higher you should mount it. I notched my design up a few inches towards the armpits and resubmitted the design with a resounding success. I’ve even completed a second design – see the image below! read more