I usually ‘wing it’ when it comes to t-shirt reviews, preferring not to get to bogged down with subjective ideas from designers and focus on what I see the way I see it, sure it’s not particularly objective but it can be informative for both the label and the general t-shirt fan to see a different point of view to the traditional bog-standard interview format. However I have to admit I cheated a little when it came to the name of this particular brand, Nicole co-founder of 410BC enlightened me to its origin – “410 BC stands for the year Democracy was restored in Athens. The Athenians were at war, but they managed to restore their own institutions by fighting for what they believed in. We chose that name because it resonated with us strongly. Through the company we promote conscious consumerism and fighting for what you believe in. We believe in supporting artists, sending a positive message, only using sweatshop free and organic cotton tees and giving back to our community.” A rather admirable mantra for any fashion brand I am sure you will agree.

The company have definitely stuck to their roots from day one, unlike many brands in the market they like to stay as connected with their audience wherever possible, from their humble beginnings they have certainly picked up plenty of good habits, constantly pushing their positive message and encouraging public interaction all the way. Do have a read of their blog if you have a moment – there are some great fashion, style and other features going on there and whilst you’re at it check out their LookBook which features plenty of photos of past customers donning their marvellous clothes. Plus of course you can also meet and greet 410BC via Myspace, Flickr and see their latest vids at Youtube – oh and check out their latest contest too!

However ethics asides what’s as if not more satisfying for me is that their creative stance is as powerful as their ecological one with a cornucopia of great designs available at the store, an ecelctic range of sources and ideas for their particularly unique style, and to top it off a rather fabulous website to showcase their work. Let’s take a trip to 410BC and see exactly what makes them so special in the market today…

Save Me From Technology Tee

Unfortunately I can’t link directly to any 410BC tees as they’ve embedded the links but all of them (along with a whole range of clothing and skateboards) are available at their store. Save Me From Technology is available for men and women at $20 in sizes small to large (up to x-large for the guys), I do particularly like this design, it reminds me of quite a few New Wave album covers of the alte 1970s and early 1980s as well as a few magazines at the time such as i-D and The Face. The iconic style at the time infused the last generation of expert photo-montage artists (before the arrival of such software applications as Photoshop) and a hankering for shock value to get a message across as quickly and powerfully as possible. I feel the same kind of vibe is going on in this t-shirt, possibly the trendiest and most stylish political comment t-shirt of all time, I have to admit I am in full agreement with its sentiment. Ironically, unless you don’t mind living like a hobo you’ll have to be pretty well off to escape the clutches of overbearing political and corporate interests around the world. I’ve always wanted to live a more basic lifestyle without the need for all this technological garbage we have to wade through these days. But if you’re not connected to the hive we call society you won’t make money, and without money you’ll starve. Sure you could grow you own food and generate energy but that still takes an enormous amount of time, money and land to be productive enough to live a trouble-free life. Take it from me, the world is doomed, at least we can watch a few videos-on-demand whilst we wait.

Loose Lips Sink Ships Tee

This rather fab t-shirt seems to be the best seller right now and I can understand why! It’s pretty damn fine as tees go, again just $20 and available for men and women, the image features an enormous pair of lips rising on the crest of a wave on the verge of engulfing a ship (looks more like a boat) crossing its path. Based on the old WW2 propaganda Loose Lips Save Ships, some other favourites at the time were ‘Walls Have Ears’ and ‘If You Speak German I Will Shoot You’ – okay okay the last one I made up but still it makes you think how paranoid must it have been back then. Everyone suspicious of everyone, democracies declaring totalitarian control over their own people in the name of the war effort, a lack of resources, restricted freedom, oh just a minute, I’m wrong, it never did change!

I’ve just been watching a documentary on 9/11 on Controversial TV here in the UK and that made a mockery of just about every mainstream coverage of the time, don’t worry I know you’re probably sick of hearing about how military rather than commercial planes crashed into the towers and that the hole in the Pentagon was too small for an airliner, besides no one wants to rock the boat these days (let alone sink ships) – after all where’s the profit in that? If I do make millions one day for some inexplicable reason and manage to buy my own island I hopefully will be able to re-engage in the art of free speech. Oh if you fancy escaping the oncoming fascist dictatorship of the so-called Western Democracy – do let me know and I’ll reserve a mud hut for you as soon as poss :/

Pegasus Tee

“Everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring spring burst forth” – on a lighter note here’s 410BC’s Pegasus tee available for both sexes and rather sweet all in all. A perfect representation of freedom if ever there was one,. I have a vested interest in seeing horses fly. Essentially a clumsy oaf of an old nag trod on my toes as a kid and I’ve never really got on with them since, I know, I know, they’re beautiful creatures, but I’m just not one of those doggy horsey type of people. Still, flying horses, that would be nice.

Although you’d need to carry an umbrella wherever you roamed as more than likely a steamy pile of manure would surely be heading your way sooner or later. This rather fine illustrated tee harks back to a mythology that’s most in keeping with the brand name 410BC, something of a historical venture rather than a contemporary discourse I like the creative connections summoned up by this image. The fountain Hippocrene, on the Muses’ Mount Helicon, was opened by a kick from his hoof. Hence, he has often been associated with the arts, especially poetry. Very light and airy this tee provides relief from the pseudo-political rantings from obsessive reviewers like myself. Great for the summer, even if you’re not trekking around Greece. Available for men and women for $25.

Dead Vogue Tee

I love skulls, I think that most graffiti artists do, perhaps it’s to do with mortality and creation and the juxtaposition of both and the irony that if you’re very lucky, and I mean lottery winning lucky, your creations may just out live you by years, decades, centuries even, but you’d better be good, the best, the best there ever was. Still getting back to the point, death and beauty, have you noticed how many freaks, the sort that love to Botox every spare mm of their body have taken over everything from the catwalk to the movie screen to the TV? Sure you have, you’re just used to it, I know. But now and again one of those media types doesn’t quite manage to get their injections and all hell’s let loose, their face literally melts all over the screen and the paparazzi are on to them like flies on a dog turd. I am a man (well what a surprise) and I hate crap like Sex In The City, The Devil Wears Prada, all that gumph (wow really I’d have never guessed?), women can call me a party pooper (usually much worse), but every time I see someone glorifying falseness like it’s some kind of religion I want to be sick.

Don’t spend all your money on magazines that tell you you’re old and fat or young and fat, or young and ugly, or old, fat, ugly and badly dressed. At least read a magazine (or even a book – does anyone do that these days?) that makes you feel stupid, and then learn the junk you didn’t know and then spend your time at dinner parties slating that writer and proving that all their writing is mere conjecture, and get real respect, because the mind is a beautiful thing. I am sure there are some guys out there that think the mind is sexy, that intelligence is beautiful, that wit is gorgeous, that creativity is the best thing since size zero – I mean am I the only one? Vogue and every other merchant of physical degradation out there is designed to sell overpriced rubbish to insecure women addicted to shopping.

Even men have started doing it, designer clothes, designer fragrances, designer hair, designer underpants and everything that fills it (or not) – people who are happy with who they are infuriate the couture fashion industry. If people don’t feel bad about themselves then no one buys magazines like Vogue and that means no advertising and that means the writers and editors will have to live like the rest of us – which is in essence how normality should work. Still I’d better get off my soap box now – before someone from the fashionista brigade hunts me down with a gold sequinned AK47 ;) Dead Vogue – a classic at $20 for men and women…

410BC – perhaps my favourite ancient historical moment and fashion brand combined – decide for yourself at www.410BC.com

Most of the net and that most certainly includes Google focus on massive corporations, many of whom own enormous networks of all types of websites selling every piece of junk you can imagine. It’s vital that the Internet consumer is offered an easily accessible alternative, where they can not only find and purchase truly unique items, well designed by artists who understand their public and culture in general, and iamthetrend.com most definitely offers a positive contribution to the cause.

This isn’t just about shopping, I think most of us now understand the effects of the ravenous consumerism and greed our society has experienced over the past few decades, it’s a chance to financially support those who feel the same way as you about life, love, and everything in between. Imagine a world without the creative input of artists, musicians and designers, what a horribly bland and grey place it would be if the only choices of taste and design, meaning and beauty were those of corporate marketing groups and greedy CEO’s.

The world has changed forever, the Internet is here for all of us, the people not the leaders, the public not the celebrities, the trendsetters and visionaries of Earth have a chance to improve our lives, and help us connect with each other, why let the same faces running the same old business models stack the odds in their favour?

What’s more, IATT offers the public a chance to vote, to crowd source, to raise the profile of their favourite bands, artists, fashion designers, creatives of all kinds. Sign up for free and get stuck in now! You know it makes sense, if you’re bored of retail giants and the rubbish on the high street, if you’re looking for something unique, well made, of the highest quality, no matter what it is you’re much more likely to find it at sites like IATT than in the tope ten listings of Google.

Here are just a few of the t-shirt designers you’ll find at IATT:-

Young Lovers

Johnny Cupcakes

Glamour Kills

Linty Fresh

Assault Clothing

Messhead Clothing

I’ve just signed up myself so I can promote my art at PaulBaines.co.uk – should be fun – check out IATT now at iamthetrend.com

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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.