I'M SORRY. I know this is not a good way to introduce myself to the boards, but I've been into designing t-shirts for a few months now (not very long, I know), and I've been looking around at different indie brands and "street fashion" websites, and most of what I've seen is completely ridiculous looking, and the prices are even more ridiculous.
It sure does seem like I'm hating on everybody/everything, and I KNOW that I need to just find my own niche and follow where it takes me (which is exactly what I'm doing), but I can't help looking at other people's stuff and just wonder to myself "Do people actually buy this crap?" Seriously, most of it looks like it has been designed by a 8-year-old kid or something... like this here for example:
This wouldn't be so bad if it cost $8.40 in the kids section of Wal-Mart, but $84.00 for this piece of "high fashion"?! You've gotta be kidding me. Where's the fashion? Where's the art? Where's the big message? Where's the "lifestyle of the moden day billionaires" as the company so desperately shoots for? I'm just not seeing any of it. Seriously, if somebody can explain this to me, please do.
And this just one example of what I'm talking about - I could go on for hours!
$82.00
$120.00
...etc etc etc.
AND THEY DON'T EVEN LOOK GOOD! SERIOUSLY - HOW DO THEY STAY IN BUSINESS!?!
good point, the first example really is extremely ugly. the fashion business is a strange one. sometimes you just can not explain why something sells so good, not saying that i assume this shirts sell well. let this first ugly **** appear in any music / tv related environment and boom, you can sell thousands of them. very strange, yet exciting business.
brand name , people will pay what they think its worth. Its like art , you say this is worth x amount of pounds and people say ok, it must be. If youve got 120 dollars to spend on a t that looks like that then you wont be worrying about money. If you havnt got it youll try and get it to keep up.
I think people buy stuff like this, they just don't wear it. They get it home and realise "What the hell was I thinking?", or they wear it a couple of times and stop when their friends (or worse still, potential hook-ups) ask why they're wearing such an ugly shirt.
Hard to be sure that's the case - but when was the last time you actually saw someone walking down the street wearing that ugly ****? Yet, when was the last time a fashion company selling that ugly **** went out of business?
Seems to me there's stuff in every fashion cycle that slowly sells... it just doesn't get worn (how many of us have bought something ugly, but never ended up wearing it? I'm raising my hand to that one).
Maybe they didn't even produce many units - it's just there to grab attention. You can bet it'll be the first thing on the sale rack come season's end.
Yes people do actually buy this stuff. It's a matter of personal taste. I bet you, your designs won't be adored by everyone either.
I read your other post hating on Affliction, and yeah its overdone, but is it overdone by them or other people influencing their own brands with their specific style? (One downfall for them is that I don't think they have prepared themselves as a diverse brand so when the trend has ended, they could fine themselves in trouble, but who is to say they won't launch another brand with another name?)
You also have to learn more about brand loyalty. If an Ed Hardy fan buys his clothing regularly, and his litterally prints poo, yes poo, people will still buy it!
So instead of knocking them so much, learn from them. They are very smart brands.
Yes people do actually buy this stuff. It's a matter of personal taste. I bet you, your designs won't be adored by everyone either.
I read your other post hating on Affliction, and yeah its overdone, but is it overdone by them or other people influencing their own brands with their specific style? (One downfall for them is that I don't think they have prepared themselves as a diverse brand so when the trend has ended, they could fine themselves in trouble, but who is to say they won't launch another brand with another name?)
You also have to learn more about brand loyalty. If an Ed Hardy fan buys his clothing regularly, and his litterally prints poo, yes poo, people will still buy it!
So instead of knocking them so much, learn from them. They are very smart brands.
I understand brand loyalty.
I was not knocking the specific brands I mentioned (like Affliction), I'm just knocking the now-completely-overdone style as a whole, it the sense that it is no longer artistic or creative in any sense at all. This does not revert back to Affliction, because they are the innovators and trend-setters. They started from nothing and became everything.
I HAVE learned from them (as in the big brands, like Ed Hardy, Affliction, even the classics like Gap and Abercrombie), and this is what I've learned: You've got to stick with your gut instinct. You've got to produce what you believe in. Don't worry about what everyone else is designing, and what's selling. You've got to ignore the current "trends" and believe that yours will make it big. If it doesn't, keep trying. If you can see a market for your designs, do it. Never give up, no matter what everyone else is saying. Almost every big brand you've ever heard of has created their clothing empires from absolutely nothing.
Honestly, it seems pretty rude to make posts just to bash other companies.
Sure, it's great that you learned what not to do, but bashing other people's buying tastes and design tastes aren't really helpful just because they aren't inline with your own design ideals.
Everyone has different tastes and business goals.
If they don't work for you, great. But why make such mean spirited posts about it? It's not really productive and the people you're making fun of could be reading this thread.
This forum is about helping others, not making fun of others whose business ideals or design tastes you don't agree with.
Honestly, it seems pretty rude to make posts just to bash other companies.
Sure, it's great that you learned what not to do, but bashing other people's buying tastes and design tastes aren't really helpful just because they aren't inline with your own design ideals.
Everyone has different tastes and business goals.
If they don't work for you, great. But why make such mean spirited posts about it? It's not really productive and the people you're making fun of could be reading this thread.
This forum is about helping others, not making fun of others whose business ideals or design tastes you don't agree with.
Rodney, I know I came off like I was bashing other brands and clothing styles (which I'm sure I was..), but my main intention to posting this thread was to see if anybody in these forums (who are obviously big t-shirt fans) had ever purchased any of the clothing similar to the things that I listed (for such absurd prices), and their thought process regarding the whole thing. I also just wanted to hear other people's opinions regarding the clothing styles - but I can see where I gave a negative vibe to the whole post.
Personally, I think the tees that I'm designing right now are a bit crazy and out there (mainly because I haven't really seen any other companies sporting similar designs), and I just wanted to see what people thought about the current "trends" before releasing my own designs. I'm sure there will be TONS of people who don't like my designs as well, but constructive criticism never hurt anybody. I guess it's kind of just a market analysis thing, still just trying to figure out who's buying what to determine my niche in the market.
I think I may have a problem with saying exactly what's on my mind, because I'm not afraid to say what I think.
I feel people have been a bit overly sensitive on this post. I agree the post should be about positivity and helping but, critisicsm is part of that. This is a discussion, if people cant voice an opinion then what kind off decent debate can you have, which is what he wanted- a debate. I agree although maybe a LITTLE harsh with your initial comments ,affliction are big enough and hard enough to take a bit of critisism. If i was from affllciton reading this id be like " so what ", look at my brand and how well we've done.Its great people are talking like this. If you get so big and continue to do the same thing then good on you, but they know better than anyone that it wont last for ever.As long as the celebrities wear the designs the everyman will buy them and that . is what sells tshirts on a mass scale. Celebrity and connections is what ed hardy and affliciton have been masters off. Throw in some decent design and hard work and there you have it. But in order to establish new trends to keep things moving a little bit of critisism is necessary, opinion is jast that, opinion.
Thank you Andy! You understand what I was going for here, even though this thread was more targeted to the clothing brands without any style at all (like the pictures I posted), but seems to have transformed to a discussion of Affliction, which DOES have great style and celebrity backing (what I was trying to get across about Affliction is that the whole style is just wayyy overdone right now and copied by other smaller brands trying to piggyback off of the success of Affliction).
Do people really buy stuff like this? 
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