By June of the following year (2007) Shirtseed had found its way into a few shops. I spent a fortune on printing, the prints were edgy. This was an education. Edgy prints on an organic product is a bit confused. Organic was still niche and still wholesome for children’s apparel anyway. The shirts were accepted into organic clothing boutiques with some enthusiasm but also on necessity. No one had those sizes so there was luck involved but the feedback was hot and cold.
I wanted to try new prints, but printers don’t do samples. How hard could it be? Well its not hard to learn how to screen-print. What’s hard is doing it consistently well at a sellable quality level. Whether it was the right or wrong business decision, it forced out my inner artist and gave me incredible flexibility with design. It cost me many ruined shirts and a lot of hours but the satisfaction and cost savings now are pretty great and the ink, which is easier on the environment is not used commercially around Vancouver. Bonus!
Ultimately, the decision has brought me closer to my customers by enabling a quicker response to their needs. There are lots of creative people there buying up organic shirts and putting some pretty brilliant artwork on them, though not many have their own clothing label to do it on. This has definately given Shirtseed an edge because I can take risks and create all different kinds of options. I’m still trying to work up the nerve to design a shirt for kids that says “My mama loves Obama” Any takers?
