So, they’ve decided to launch at the very end of the summer, not the best time to do it but with the 24/7 365 days a year online world at their fingertips it shouldn’t hold them back too much. It’s run by a talented and very friendly couple Gary and Louise from their base in Hamilton, Scotland, a true cottage industry indeed, or should that be croft? They’re probably working from a spanking new industrial unit but it’s nice to dream of them weaving their own cloth by a loch with deer tapping at the door for a little bread and gravy. Sorry, Chris is away for a few days at Bestival in I.O.W so I’m feeling a little poetic and forlorn today.

Anyway, on with the tees, there are three available right now and they are, I promise you, blinding designs, definitely a great start to what could be a rather exciting collection. Every tee is fair trade and is screen printed by hand and they’re offering an amazingly competitive shipping rate, a flat fee of £3 anywhere in the world. Wow.

Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee

There’s definitely a cultural/age crossover going on between Gary and myself. I too read the Beano in my most formative years, although I quickly defected to Marvel and DC, comics like Viz definitely revived the British “funnies” tradition in the world of comics. The Crash! Boom! Blat! Tee celebrates the under appreciated art of the comic book sound effect. When something does it’s job well, most people ignore it, it feels so natural you don’t think twice about it. This is one of those instances. I for one have always recognised the powerful iconography of this near “invisible” art form. A nostalgic graphic bonanza available for £22 in all sizes at the store.

Diamonds Tee

I was born a year after the release of the legendary Beatles album ‘Sergeant Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band’, my parents were very very young and my earliest memories are of SPLHCB being played over and over again. I did something very similar with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in my teens, although that involved consuming something stronger than Farley’s Rusks. FFS (the brand’s acronym explains everything) offer up a very appealing semi-abstract design influenced by the classic tripper tune ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, John denied the association with acid (L.S.D) but come on, just listen to it and tell me it isn’t. The Diamonds Tee does two things I love, and at the same time, it’s the ultimate visual mash up printed on a cotton tee. Taking inspiration from the tripped out hippy culture and mixing it up with vector graphics synonymous with arcade games of the early 80′s (a la Asteroids, Tempest etc.). This t-shirt rocks, and then some. Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Girls Girls Girls Tee

Nothing to do with the awful Mötley Crüe hit this sexy number offers more than first meets the eye. Ooh cheeky. If you want to shock your mum, once she’s found her reading glasses and inspected your washing, then this is the tee for you. It might not help you pull on the dance floor but you will earn the respect of other drunken pervs at the bar :p Seriously well drawn, beautifully in fact, it looks like this was originally an ink ‘n’ wash drawing. Far classier than the subject implies… Get it for £22 in all sizes here.

Keep up to date with all the goings on at Frog Faced Souply at their blog, Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to guarantee avoiding being lined up against the nearest wall and shot by a revolutionary firing line, should the day come that the world governments finally lose it and the people rise up and take back everything they can get their hands on, including their human rights, land, and the means of production from the Bourgeoisie then PT is probably a good bet. Although I’m not as hot on Marxist theory as I was in my student days I’m sure that PT count as part of the merchant classes and hence members of the bourgeoisie but I wouldn’t hold that against them, I mean who actually toils in the fields these days, that’s what combine harvesters are for aren’t they?

Okay political opinion and jokes aside I have to admit that most political t-shirt designs out there combine to make a rather dour affair all round, essentially they haven’t changed much in style, colour or quality since the 1960s “Ban The Bomb” and Che Guevara tees you’ll spot in most grainy footage of the political rallies at the time, but PT have managed to do the impossible (or so many have presumed), they’ve combined fashion, humour and politics to form a particularly groovy collection.

Here’s a few of my faves available at their store right now:-

Devolve – Pro Bike Cyclist Tee.

This rather funky pro-cyclist tee features one of my all time favourite words – “devolve” – if there’s one thing I know the human race is going to have to do either by choice or by calamity it’s learn the meaning of devolution.

Which thinking about it is rather apt seeing as it’s just one letter away from revolution.

Essentially there are quite a few problems staring the human race in the face right now and one cure-all for a good proportion of them is the humble bicycle. Everything from the oil crisis (I don’t care how cheap petrol is right now it’s still running out) to pollution to the destruction of the ecology through everything from road building to out of town shopping malls is caused by the car.

Now I know there’s a lot of you out there, and this includes a vast majority of Americans, who are going through a range of expressive gestures right at this moment. Be it rolling of the eyes, a shrug, a clenched fist or an angry click of the mouse onto the nearest sexy sports car site, but think about it, is it worth dismissing this timeless piece of perfect mechanics simply for a quick thrill of speeding around the block until you reach the nearest traffic jam? The bicycle offers everyone a wealth of opportunity, be it fitness, a cleaner environment, a healthier bank balance, more nature and less tarmac, you name it this simple piece of machinery will (if we’re lucky) most likely contribute to a better life for all. Available in brown (see image), b/w and black and pink. Now get on your bike and save this grubby old world!

Keep Speech Free Tee.

I’ve featured the front and back of PT’s Keep Speech Free Tee. In case you haven’t heard of Mario Savio he was a student leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and besides the act he was an important figure in civil rights history this is a rather funky (if a little basic) design that caught my eye. What I particularly like are the punk/futurist graphics, simple lines created at particular angles have an enormous amount of impact (as did Avio’s speeches). Plus the fact that PT haven’t rammed the message home by cluttering the front, if you’re not in the mood for an uprising you can simply slip on a jacket and cover up the full lowdown on the back of this tee. But whats’ most important is that if we didn’t have rights to free speech (which by the way I am not even sure if the UK does have them or at least not to the extent that the USA does) then you’d probably be reading something more like…

I love the government – the latest government approved t-shirts come in black or white and avoid the clutter of slogans and/or images. Except for this one – “Order is Unity”. Oh are we not a happy breed? So contented, so grateful that our government can speak for us allowing us to work (silently) for the greater good. This has been a New World Order approved advertisement for government issue t-shirts available at your nearest civil obedience centre – available at 50 lashes – maximum one t-shirt per family unit.

Share a Shower Tee
Who said saving the environment can’t be sexy? If you find them kick them in the butt won’t you? Here’s a novel idea, an ecological t-shirt that doesn’t feature a bird flying or a tree or a rainbow. Thank god(ess) for that.

I’d like to see this collection grow, and I don’t know what they’ll end up replacing all the old Bush tees with, I mean I know he was jerk but he’s been a veritable goldmine for the t-shirt industry up until now :p Let’s just hope they won’t fill up the store with a load of Obama tees, I mean he seems like a nice guy but well perhaps presidential tees aren’t exactly the right direction for a revolutionary t-shirt site like Proletarian Threads. They also offer some fair deals on shipping from only $2.50 for up to $20 in tees, (although I can’t tell what the international rates are :/) and they seem to be rather laid back on wholesale charges, if you run a local action group I’m sure they’ll take it easy on you – hey even offer a fund raising kit! Almost all of their tees start at just $14.99 and if you get bored of political fashion there are plenty of links to music and books in the same vein. All of their prints are made with non-toxic inks on 100% cotton sweatshop-free garments so that should rest your conscience a little further! Anyway if you’re up for a bit of major political upheaval and want to bring down the bourgeoisie for the 21st century you know where to get your tees now don’t you?

Buy 1 t-shirt and get 30% off at checkout. Use offer code – SAVEARTH
Buy 2 or more tees and get 50% off at checkout. Use offer code – FALL50

Their titles include ‘Lasting Liberty‘, ‘Support Local Farmers‘, ‘Open Mic‘ (about free speech) and ‘Protect US‘ amongst others.

Some ideas are more direct than others, I particularly like the following tees – ‘Model Nation‘, ‘Green Light‘ and ‘Birds on a Wire‘. I love the ‘Airfix‘ style plastic model ideas for the all the states, pop them out and stick them together to make a nation. Green Light uses a wonderful style and motif for its design and offers a message hope for all, and Birds on a Wire is simply a classic, one of my all time faves at BOTF.

Get down to BrandOfTheFree.com now and check out the rest of their cool libertarian tees, theyr’e good for you!

“When you buy a T-shirt, what do you get? A bit of warmth? A bit of cool? How about real change? When you buy Lightning Fast clothing, you’re helping transform communities. That’s because we channel 50% of our profits into projects that are proven in helping children and families escape a cycle of poverty. At Lightning Fast, we’re about combining the love of cool with the love of change. It’s a virtuous circle. You get great design on organic, fairly traded clothes. And people from Romania to Swaziland to South Africa, UK, are given a hand to build sustainable lives.”

I had a brief chat with Steve on the phone and was very impressed by the aims and objectives for LightningFast.com – for a start LF donate a whopping 50% of their profits to charity which in all honesty puts many other charitable t-shirt companies to shame! What’s more Steve who runs LF and is also involved with the Lightning Fast Foundation (LightningFast.org) doesn’t take a penny for his own wages – he earns an independent income and works for free at LF.

Now, here are some of the causes they promote and support.

Bulembu, Swaziland. An abandoned, HIV-hit town ripe for rebirth.
Bulembu, a town in Swaziland with heart and vision, is redefining and rebuilding itself. Abandoned by the mining industry, citizens were driven out and left with nothing. A community further ravaged by AIDS, orphans and babies are abandoned daily. Yet, business and social development entrepreneurs see potential in Bulembu and its spirit. They see a self-sustaining, thriving community. Today, they are bringing health, orphan care, education, commerce and hope back to Bulembu. With Lightning Fast, you are investing in Bulembu and breathing life back into this community. Connect with the town at www.bulembu.org

Palm Tree Centre, S. Africa. Orphanage and foster home in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
A vision of Mrs Ros Visagie is to extend her already successful fostering service by building a home to raise children orphaned from parents dying from AIDS. The home will provide a safe, secure environment for children from damaged backgrounds to develop into fully functional members of society. The key ingredients are: family love, discipline and awareness of their ethnic birthright. Today the land for the new home has been bought. The Lightning Fast Foundation will financially support the building project.

Oradea, Romania. The first generation of gypsy children have been educated.
Poverty and lack of education is rife in Romania. But it is the vision of Alastair Forman, a church leader in Farnham, UK, to draw alongside the people of Oradea to help them out of poverty, poor health, spiritual depravation and ignorance. This is done through financial and practical commitment to support Romania pastors and their families and to enable Mustard Seed Romania to develop programmes for orphaned children and teenagers, destitute elderly and those living with disability. The relationship is 8 years old and already seeing the first generation of gypsy children receiving education. Lightning Fast is committed to directing profits into the transformational work being done by Alastair, his church and the pastors in Romania.

LF go so much further than most charitable t-shirt stores it’s almost impossible to encompass all they do in one review, however here’s a few more facts:-

• Extremely Ethical, Fair Trade, Organic T-Shirts. Where possible, at every stage of the process, LF ensures that people and the environment are always put before profits.
• LF pay a fair price for all outsourced products whilst ensuring that all producers get a good wage and good working conditions.
• Sustainability is a watchword for LF, ensuring all theirs and related practices do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• By 2015 Lightning Fast’s aim is to build eco-factories in their partner communities in order to directly help clothes makers.

Here are some more images of their latest t-shirt designs including Fast Boy and Tattoo :-

For the sake of objectivity I wouldn’t say these are the most exciting designs I’ve ever seen, although as far as charitable tees go they are some of the best. If more t-shirt designers were as driven by humanitarianism as they are by monetarism perhaps we could witness a zeitgeist in charity t-shirts, something I’d be willing to be part of. After all we can’t all be rich, and seeing as so many of us on this planet are so poor, perhaps the time is right for more designers to wear their ethics on their sleeves.

I believe that what Steve needs now is a lot more attention and offers of help from everyone involved in the industry. Perhaps LF could run a t-shirt design contest, I don’t think anyone would expect a prize considering the circumstances, and besides there is always the fame, glory and of course great karma from helping out at LF. I think Steve should approach the biggest names, such as the designer Glenn Jones from Glennz.com, the t-shirt crowdsourcer Threadless.com and the ginormous T-ShirtForums.com for a legion of industry big-wigs to get this show on the road. Famous designs, famous designers and a whole heap of promotion is what is needed next.

If you want to help Steve and his cause then either buy a t-shirt, promote the site as much as you can, or offer up your best designs, I’m sure he’d appreciate everyone’s support in this. Now get down to LightningFast.com pronto.

Since the late 90′s The Netherlands have been campaigning for ‘clean clothes’, i.e clothing created ethically and with fair workers’ rights no matter the source. FWF regularly inspect source suppliers across the world, including human rights’ hotspots such as India, Indonesia and Romania.

In 2003 FWF presented itself to the public and the garment industry with the message: “we are ready for it” and then started recruiting companies who were willing to subscribe to the Code of Labour Practices. FWF is an independent non-profit foundation. Their independence is guaranteed by a board in which leading organisations have a seat. These are companies from the garment industry such as Modint, Mitex, trade unions, reps from the Clean Clothes Campaign and charities such a Oxfam. All of the organisations are in one way or another involved in labour in the garment production.

FWF was set up in the Netherlands. At present FWF has members from the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The majority of companies that are affiliated to FWF are Dutch. However the aim is that FWF officially becomes international. When this happens, international stakeholders will also be present on the Board and the Committee of Experts.

Eventually FWF are aiming to provide an alternative to the Fair Trade logo, the more the better I’d say:-

FWF aims for a collaboration with similar organisations that work towards an improvement of labour conditions through a Code of Labour Practices.

In 2003 six international front runners started a project called Joint Initiative on Corporate Accountability and Workers’ Rights (JoIn). The objective of this collaboration is to learn from one another, to develop joint methods and to investigate possibilities for further collaboration.

The following six organisations make up JoIn:

* Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)
* Fair Wear Foundation (FWF)
* Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC)
* Fair Labor Association (FLA)
* Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)
* Social Accountability International (SAI)

Most people in the fashion industry have very little influence on an individual basis, but perhaps collectively, with enough effort the t-shirt community (and beyond) may be able to change the future for the better. I’d urge you to visit the links shown above and see how your company can help further the cause of worker’s rights and human rights in the world of fashion.

Here’s a quick rundown of Ecogear‘s amazing ethical and environmental credentials:

- recycled materials in pre-consumer cotton clippings and recycled water bottles( 65% cotton and 35% recycled PET )
– least water and energy needed to produce the fabric
– no bleach or dyes used. Their colours are from the first life cotton clippings.
– no land use for agriculture or need for deforestation
– for their printing processes, instead of being back end conscious and filtering all wastes, they are front end conscious and only use dyes that are either organic or water based.No PVC, pthalates or APEOs.

Ecogear was founded by Robert Hii, a veteran of the Toronto design and manufacturing community. With over 20 years experience in the garment industry and related manufacturing experience from China and Bangladesh, it was his sole drive to bring the most earth friendly apparel to market using all his connections in the industry.

Ecogear do more than any other company to try and ‘close the loop’ on ethical t-shirt production and manufacturing and that’s a fact. The only thing left as far as I can see is distribution, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t find a way around that in the end – who knows sailing barges and pack mules maybe? :) Here’s what EG have achieved so far in a relatively short time, revolutionising the eco t-shirt industry with such ethical business practices as these.

Ecogear only works with suppliers and contractors that they know and trust. Child labour is not an issue in Canada. All our suppliers and contractors are within a 15 km radius in Toronto and we make unannounced visits all the time. The contractors do not use child or forced labour and practise job equality for women.

Ecogear has an open and regularly checked fair pay policy. They carry out periodic checks on all their contractors’ wage records. The current minimum wage in Toronto Canada today is $8.75/ hour. As part of their unannounced visits, they always ask for up to date records, not only when the contractor is working on ecogear items but for their entire working week. The present average wage for any persons at any contractor for ecogear stands approximately $10.50/ hour.

Ecogear offer fair workers’ representation as part of the ideology behind this highly committed community run organisation. Input from workers and employees is always heard whether it pertains to working conditions or a product quality. Bonuses are in place for their employees and it’s based on company performance, which drives our their employees to treat the company as their own.

Ecogear products use exclusively 100% recycled fibres from pre-consumer cotton clippings and recycled PET from water bottles. Their clothing comes with a 99% recycled sign, the 1% being the new polyester sewing thread that they use. Their main and care/content label is an iron on type which is made from organic inks. Their graphic tees use either an organic ink heat transfer or water based direct screen print. Both are declared free of PVCs and pthalates.
Their hangtag is printed on recycled paper using soy inks. It is attached to the garment with a raw sisal cord and a safety pin which is big enough that it will be useful if one chooses to reuse it.

Ecogear do not use any ecologically damaging chemicals in their production process. Their fabrics do not contain heavy metals, formaldehyde or other dyestuffs with unknown affects on people. The finishing processes do not contain PVC, which is a suspected carcinogenic. Their printing processes are PVC and phthalate free.B oth of these chemicals have been proven to have a slow release when the consumer washes the clothing at home. Pthalates have a really destructive effect on water creatures.

Ecogear work closely with various groups that protect the animals, the environment and educational groups that encourage the world’s youth to have more respect for Nature. They use their profits to assist major environmental groups in their fight to preserve the lands, waters and animals.

Ecogear offer a dodo dollar scheme which is only redeemable by donating it to their preferred list of environmental groups that belong to 1%fortheplanet.

WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

Algalita focuses on ocean research and environmental restoration of the world’s oceans.

The Toronto Zoo which has a big focus on conservation and we’re helping their fundraising drive.

Environmental Defence fights for Canadian issues.

CPAWs which fights for forest conservation and we had a major victory last week when the govt was pressure into preserving 225000 sq km of forests of their province.

Woodstockfas.org – an animal sanctuary.

OHVEC.org who are fighting the US govt. and big coal companies in an effort to stop them blowing up the Appalachian Mountains for coal.

If you’re thinking of setting up your own organic and ethical t-shirt label, I’d highly recommend you visit Ecogear, they are most certainly a potential leader for the next generation of the t-shirt industry. Mmm… feel that good karma!!

I’ll tell you where the beef is, it’s creeping up behind you and aiming to actually form a real network around you, before you’ve even had a chance to close that browser page. Exaggerations aside, I am in the midst of building a few more t-shirt-related sites to pique your interest and eventually trap you in my Axis of T-Shirts – where no t-shirt creative or fanatic may ever escape alive.

Two things before I continue, firstly I am in a silly mood, Friday evening (woot?), old habits do die but the urge to freak out and groove the weekend away always hits me hard by the Summer nights. Secondly, well secondly I really need to lay off the italics. You may be feeling a little dejected right now, no one likes a tease, you want pages of content here everyday, and why not, you deserve it, you managed to find my blog after all (which is no mean feat – come on hurry up SEO guy!) – Yes I have an SEO guy – I found him at DigitalPoint.com – if you’re anything or anywhere close to a Webmaster (is that word still around? Shouldn’t we all be playing Dungeons and Dragons then? I never have but I have been told it’s great – by the geekiest geeks who’ve never seen the light of day). So, SEO (Search Engine Optimization …ooh), not my thing but it must be done, if I ever expect anyone other than you and me, and the cats here to read this blog, and they only like the pictures. I need the blog ranked, but that will take time, in the meantime there’s a few tricks up my sleeve.

On my travels on the Net I’ve come across a few niche t-shirt areas that haven’t as yet been conquered by the likes of Cafe Press and SpreadShirt. Firstly there’s the deal about fuel, it’s getting more and more expensive every single day, I mean if I was rich I’d be betting on it rising further, but I’m not, because whenever I do have a chance to do something like that I start thinking, woah, this is kinda bad Karma! The Stock Market is just a betting shop anyway, it’s just their bets are so widely spread and the horses take so long to ride in that most laypeople become confused and eventually disinterested – I know it sounds Marxist – it probably is – but money really sucks – I wish there was some way we could all avoid it – but I’ve had that argument with too many people too many times to bother worrying now. It seems like we have to make it until the world’s run out of everything and there’s nothing left to buy – then perhaps I’ll get a few nods in my direction. Until then let’s get on with the dirty old man of culture, business…

So what and why am I setting up other sites, shouldn’t I focus purely on the blog for a few months? Well I’m sure there are experts who say I’m spreading myself too thin (on toast even) but in all honesty a blog gives some immediate impact for most ideas, products, people, as long as you have some good content and don’t fill it with Buy This or Sign Up to That! Sure I sneak in a few affiliate links here and there, I don’t try to hide them – I know you can with Javascript but what the hell, it’s hardly a pocketful of coins by the end of the year for most affiliates out there. Besides I don’t network, well not properly, I have a habit of keeping in contact with people I like rather than those that are useful but have infuriating personalities, or worse, none at all.

Essentially I need to pull everyone in and on board, I can’t make enemies, I can make friends, I can’t ‘do marketing’, but perhaps eventually I won’t need to worry about that part of the process, it’s all ground-up they say, they, those magnificent experts of every field imaginable, the one’s that write newsletters on the dot every week, some even write books about it, how boring. I wish I could love marketing, but deep down I hate it, and so do most people I like, it’s just an end-of-the-world thing I s’pose – I’m sure it will all blow over, we’ll be running cars off our own farts and eating from Star Trek Replicator booths, sure it will mainly taste like farts, but at least it will be free (as long as you serve the damn Federation). I wonder how many other easily distractable people are finding it more difficult (than usual) to concentrate on business at the moment? I had a dream, it’s kinda freaky, but character was so laboured I can’t get it out of my mind. I’m sitting at a desk and an old Don (I mean the Dreaming Spires kind not a Mafia boss) is pointing at four lines on a blackboard. Food War, Fuel War, Bio War, Earth War. Great, I’d prefer to think of it a flashback induced by too many repeats of awful 1980′s Sci-fi movies than portent and prophecy, I’m the sort who’d just sit down and close my eyes and hum if I knew the end was imminent (I mean 5 minutes imminent), I couldn’t manage it more than a short while before I’d get bored and want to get on with something more productive. Human nature is a funny old thing, stick with what you know, till the end, that’s evolution for you.

Back to the elusive point of this post, The Axis of T-Shirts will comprise of your beloved Buy Tees blog, and 2 more sites in the making…

TshirtPrinter.org is a t-shirt printers directory (pretty self-explanatory domain name there), as I may have explained before I’m aiming to offer free featured advertising to all Organic and Fair Trade t-shirt printers, so if you are one of the few, sign up here for a free upgrade, (yes that was marketing, did you see it?). My aim is twofold, firstly to encourage more people to use local t-shirt printers wherever possible, this should cut down on the industry’s carbon footprint enormously. I use Spread Shirt and Cafe Press amongst other sites and I’m going through a rather deep cycle of guilt at the moment. There I am putting my recycables in their correct bins and then the next moment I’m contributing to world pollution from the comfort of my own desk. So this is some small recompense to the world until I can get my junk together.

What’s more I’ll be featuring Fair Trade and Organic T-Shirt Printers for free, that should further redress the balance, and every t-shirt printer receives a free lifetime local listing anyway, so should be rather good Karma all round there. Eventually I’m hoping for an enormous database of t-shirt printing resources from around the world, (if I play my cards right). It should help my blog’s Google PR (although I’ve read that doesn’t mean much nowadays), furthermore I should make quite a few contacts in the organic/fair trade t-shirt field, (filled with flowers it is ;p), and then I have another domain name to help unify them, learn from them, join them myself. Sounds like a hippie version of The Borg, but don’t worry, it’s just an ethical co-operative of t-shirt printers around the world who’d like a little more exposure. If the traffic continues to improve here should be a year or so before the site is ready, OrganicTshirt.net.

In the meantime I have another mini-site in the making RateTshirts.net which is really just a little bit of fun. If you’re a t-shirt designer and you want some immediate feedback on your latest design, this site should be up and running in the next few weeks! It’ll be another “hot or not” t-shirt sites like many others except for one thing, a terrific domain name! It should rank well (eventually) if I promote it enough. You maybe wondering what’s with all the domain names, what’s the Axis of T-Shirts? It’s just a network, something that many site owners used to build way back when, I remember being on the Net (briefly) in the early 90′s and noticed how all the networked sites seemed to rank better. Nothing has changed.

Take T-ShirtCountdown.com (please take it), they have a lot of high ranking pages, tons of traffic and they’ve been running or years. I forked out $50 last month to try out their banner advertising (what was I thinking?), as you can expect the response was lousy. Most of their traffic is geared towards getting their friends to rate their tees and slate their competitors’ designs all in one quick sweep, and then they’re gone. In truth it’s hardly more than a top list script, the more hits a site brings in, the higher their banner climbs until they’re above-the-fold on a PR5 homepage (which must be a big incentive to funnel those clicks through each month). The only problem is they’ve not sharing that PR, I’m careful to at least give each reviewed site at least one do-follow link, I’ve only got a lousy PR1 (link to me – go on ;) but I still share. As a leader of a religious cult once told me (I thought I was making jewellery for a bunch of hippies – turned out the MD was the ‘Living Master of Love and Light’) – Share Your Knowledge and Gain More. Sort of like Spring Cleaning for the brain I suppose, I don’t know why I took that one on board, the rest was utter claptrap, but that one stuck. So I’m sharing.

I don’t pass out PR to affiliate links, or Flickr, YouTube, or anything else mildly corporate, hey don’t need it. Another site that has Google PR coming out of its ears is the aforementioned T-ShirtCountdown.com – a very successful Google PR5 t-shirt top list, but why? Their Axis of T-Shirts of course!

Here’s their axis – T-ShirtCountdown.com – T-shirtforums.com – T-shirtlinks.com

Now normally a dash in the domain name can work against you, as in “Buy-Tees.net” has lower importance from the outset than say “BuyTees.com”, however I’m convinced that with enough decent content and the support of your good self I can overcome those initial limitations. In this case things are different, namely the word “t-shirt”, which is in fact the truest form of the search term, ranks well with Google. However it doesn’t fair so well in social bookmark sites that use spaces rather than commas for tags. Either way it’s a pretty strong axis, except that no one would normally associate the term “countdown” with “t-shirt”, so I checked the backlinks and found that the highest PR site linking back to each of these sites, was each other!

I suck at SEO, but even I can see the correlation. essentially building one “authority site” and forming a network of similar sites around it creates a high Google PR network. Now even though I’m coming to the conclusion that PR doesn’t matter, many t-shirt printers still do, and so I’m hoping to gain traffic and PR from an eventual stream of reciprocal links, even directory links to my t-shirt printers directory, then spill some of that PR and traffic towards organic and fair trade sites, some of which may in be part of the OrganicTshirt.net co-operative. Perhaps I’m dreaming, who knows, either way it’s good to have some kind of marketing strategy, even if you do hate selling. The truth is I see it more as a Public Relations campaign than advertising. People rely on me for various free services, they pass the word around, and I eventually have an audience for my co-operative. It could work, if I can tap the blogging/social bookmarking sector instead of the traditional “top list” and “banner exchange” market I may just have a chance.I’ve already managed to add a few bookmarking links to TShirtPrinter.org. I can look forward to a few more dreary weeks of data input, filling the database with a global/local directory of major cities. It’s taking longer than I thought, but the script doesn’t respond well to MySQL imports, and so I’m doing it all by hand (gulp). At least you can suggest categories and so there’s always the flexibility there.

Like I say, I’m no expert when it comes to marketing, I just feel that sharing my thoughts on the subject, my plans for the future, and a few not-so-significant discoveries I’ve made along the way, might be of help to someone out there in the same position. Something I’ve found very useful for a little instant fame are the more specialist “creative’s social bookmarking sites. I’ve mentioned a few before but I have recently joined a particularly friendly site for artists at IndieRepublic.com.

They provide some excellent support in all aspects of selling your own art, fashion, design, you name it! Plus they give you a free badge like the one above with my ugly mug on it to scare away the punters.

Iv’e always felt “if you build it, they will come”, is that from the Bible or a Stephen King novel, don’t tell me it’s from “Field of Dreams”, I really don’t want to build my business on the back of a Kevin Costner script.

I was immersed in a “PHP programming hell” of my own making, desperately trying to install a directory script for TshirtPrinter.org* , when a very welcome distraction arrived in my inbox from Brett Novick of DistrictCotton.com. Brett wanted me to bring everyone’s attention to the latest round of their Ethical T-Shirt Design Competition – The theme is ‚ÄúBig City‚Äù, and it will benefit a very worthy cause, the charity “Brooklyn’s Trees Not Trash.” You can vote for any of the designs here or if you’d like to submit a t-shirt (read the guidelines first buddy!), you can email them here. This May/June the contest will benefit Trees Not Trash in Bushwick (or East Williamsburg) – Submissions are accepted until June 20.

The Prize is $300 cash, plus a $100 gift certificate to DC, plus $250 every time they reprint the shirt.

I can actually markup a few personal Karma points with this review, even reviewing this store is making me feel less guilty about the state of our environment, human rights, and the general collapse of civilized society. If only more people like Brett and his people could consider “higher priorities” than hard and fast profit margins, we’d have a far better time on this planet. The world, mainly thanks to the Net, works in mysterious ways these days. The commercial successes of the Internet Age have at the very least left the establishment dumbfounded, be it YouTube or Google (even that began as a few guys in a garage with a pile of old university servers). I can feel it in my bones, here’s a vanguard in action, a trendsetter, someone who sees the same vast chasm of an opportunity available to forward-thinking ethical teeshirt designers

District Cotton – NYC based apparel manufacturer featuring socially and environmentally responsible clothing, utilizing innovative materials from recycled mosquito netting to old vinyl billboards. They are dedicated to providing high quality organic streetwear, a percentage of their profits to a range of deserving charities and non-profit orgs., and yet commercially their designs are absolutely gorgeous, it is great to see ethical people with “smarts” and a true eye for good design, taking on the big ‘n’ dirty global fashion labels! They have a growing and dedicated (if not fanatic) consumer base, I can see big things on the horizon for District Cotton, working from the ground up they still have a way to go, but even at this early stage they are offering designers a chance to hop on board with them

Bikes Not Bombs! Winning Tee Design at District Cotton
Designed by Dylan Kahler right here in NYC, 10% of the proceeds of this limited edition print will benefit Bikes Not Bombs in Boston. Printed utilizing our new PVC-free process on our signature 100% organic cotton blanks.
Factory Farming Stinks! Winning Tee Design at District Cotton.
Designed by Erin Hessler of Vancouver, Washington. Printed on our signature “tagless” black fitted T. 10% of proceeds to Northeast Organic Farming Association.
Designed by Frank Chlarson of Costa Mesa, California. Printed on a raw cotton Fitted T with “tagless” label. 10% of proceeds to Northeast Organic Farming Association.

I’m very very tempted to enter the latest competition myself! It’s a great way to put something back into the Global Community and of course the money would come in handy. This store uses a perfect variation of the Threadlless theme; let the people design, let the people decide, let the people wear. The vital difference is that District Cotton use Fair Trade Organic Cotton T-Shirts, they are one of a very few t-shirt labels seriously considering the impact they have upon the environment, and I wholeheartedly think they should be applauded for that.

I’d love to see more designs on offer, but of course that will depend on all of you. Unlike sites such as Spreadshirt.com, District Cotton has a far simpler submission process. They accept both Adobe Illustrator (Vector) and high quality Jpeg files at a resolution of 300 DPI (dots per square inch). Most laptops with Photoshop can easily handle that, so if you’re a dab hand at design but have never considered t-shirt design before, or if you’re an old pro who wants to give something back, here’s your chance!

Now I’m torn, shall I get back to the PHP (gulp) or get on with my submission for DC’s “Big City” T-Shirt Design Competition? I’ll have a coffee and then decide, but I’m sure you can guess which direction I’m leaning… It’s fun, it could be profitable, and it’s sure to clear my social conscience for the day. Let’s all go down to District Cotton and clean up the T-Shirt Industry’s act once and for all!

* TshirtPrinter.org – a new site I’m hoping will increase the use of local t-shirt printers by t-shirt designers and in some small way reduce our industry’s carbon footprint.

Firstly, I have been looking at the business ethics of my distributors, and to be honest they leave you mostly in the dark when it comes to the whys and wherefores of both their garment manufacturers and their own printing technologies. Although I have found a solitary ethics statement from SpreadShirt who do seem to want at least appease the growing anger against unfair trading practices and environmental pollutants.

The real problem for people like me is we can only use what is out there. I used to be a Web/Graphic/Print designer, I never considered what ecological damage was done after I was paid my dues. Besides I don’t drive, I work from home on a MacBook which however much damage it may have done to the environment, it is far less than any car out there. I don’t have paperwork either. Infact the most damage I do is boil a kettle now and again. I recycle, I’d like to recycle more, I’d love to buy more unpackaged or brown paper bag packaging that can be made from wood pulp from previously recycled paper.

However now, even though I’ve hardly started, I have to consider the ethics of a new industry, where companies of great power and wealth pay my $1 commission and wash their hands of any further commitment – leaving me in a pickle. For a start the world is in recession, or just about, and people are starting to worry about their bills far more than the environment yet again, as usual everything is reduced down to a profit margin.

Whilst browsing the t-shirt news out there I came across a UK company called T Shirt & Sons – Europe’s first certified organic cotton t shirts using Fairtrade suppliers and yes ecological water-based inks for their screenprinting … I am not in a position to pay for bulk printed t-shirts nor the space to store, or budget to market, package, ship my designs. I’m not a businessman at heart, I am learning as fast as I can (for dear life), however if I could afford the independent route then I’d be stocking tees from T Shirt & Sons for all my print orders.

Instead of closing the page, I wrote a short letter congratulating Andy Lunt, the man behind this progressive and inspiring company, if there’s anyone I want to work with (one day, if my sales ever justify the costs), it would be Andy. He is totally on the right track, I’m sure as the economy recovers this market will literally explode in the faces of CafePress, SpreadShirt and others. There should be no such thing as a $9.99 designer t-shirt, but you can buy them. I am a hypocrite, I work with the enemy, I could say I am changing the old order from the inside, but I am not, I don’t have the economic clout, the reputation or business acumen to convince multi-million pound corporations to change their ways, nor the world at large, but it sticks in my throat when I think I’m contributing to the problem. Survival is an awful thing, but people have to earn a living.

I continued to write, hope he didn’t mind the pitch I sent, (we’ll see), I simply proposed his company look into creating an ethical Fairtrade/Eco t-shirt fulfillment site, as with CafePress and Spreadshirt, or Zazzle, Printfection, RedBubble, and many more, with the vital difference that his service could tap into the fast developing ethical consumer market (about time too).

I offered any help for free, regarding design and branding, I don’t expect a reply, but if I do I’ll probably sing this guy’s praises again soon! Anyway, if you’re an independent t-shirt designer who can afford to stock tees, then please do consider a better way of doing business and get your t-shirts printed at T Shirt & Sons.