Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, link building, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Well this is a small shirt on a my girlfriend that is 5' 2" tall. She is a size 0 if that gives you an idea of the size. Most of these tshirts run True to size. Alot of tshirt out there I find say S but are like a L....
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GoodTease -Sexy Tees for Sexy People www.goodtease.com
trying to help out my detroit fam. and get them in the line...... no point in me using 3 models for all my gear.... i try to get a different person in each piece
i have about 5 more designs coming out in the :industrial: collection......
just working on the details for the next run of gear.......
first i have to hustle in some architecture work though
b
__________________ www.237am.com blog link on homepage also
I disagree, the fact is when you are modeling a garment you want little attention to be drawn to the model. Thats why you direct them to wear subtle makeup or cutoff the face entirely.
Also, I think you may unknowingly be turning off customers, unless you have a narrowly defined market and are trying to relate with your customers taste and preferences (whom you feel is punky, trendy and outgoing as taken from the colorful hair.) She is cute though and the shirt is awesome
my approach with my line is that i'm putting familiar faces that people know in my gear.... hence some of the artists that i'm working with
i disagree about "taking the person" out of the pic,...... whats the point of the model then.... just toss the shirt on a manniquin then and call it a day....
my gear has been selling fairly well considering that i just jumped into this about a year ago....... my background is in architecture and construction and i need another outlet for design......
people have visited my site because they seen a person on my flyers/pics and have bought an item. considering that my "scheme" isnt the typical idea of putting an image on a shirt...but i created a "graphic" that gets people curious and they further look at my shirts when i have a table at an event.
i have had all ages and races buy a shirt..... simply because i dont really want a "niche"..... i have a "theme" per each one of my collections that i'm developing...
those that are into the the music scene will recognize the artists i'm working with..... it'll give me a better image once things really take off.....
why do you think nike/puma/etc get well know people to model/support their line.... they dont cutoff their heads in the ads.....
i think that if you have some respected people rocking your gear then the word will get out faster and your image will be alot "bigger" than if you hide things.....
i support detroit artists and we all try to help cross-market each other....thats the way to do it.......
a pic of a famous hip hop artist.......baatin of the original slum village group
b
__________________ www.237am.com blog link on homepage also
Nice reply, there are two sides of every story. You're right about the mannequin and I can definately see the advantages you point out of not using one. Still it seems like something isnt right. The garment either receives all the attention without model and background, or becomes part of a story with a setting. Sure this is a great technique and is excellent to display the shirt in action, but in my opinion really great products should be able to sell themselves. In this manner your product would certainly appear more timeless when isolated and more trendy when worn by a trendy model.
I see two important sides of your business 237am, being the design (unique tshirt cuts) and the art. Im sure you can be confident with the approach you are taking because it may also be the most realistic. Maybe the second approach is better suited for couture.
This may seem like a contrite argument, but understanding how buyers think is a science. Clothing projects an image that the wearer is showing the world. If they dont relate to your model than maybe not having a model creates less obstacle.
at first i was before i decided on using artists in the line i was just gonna do the regular take a pic of the shirt on a plain backdrop...
then i got to thinking.....
in order to get some "street credit" i decided to get the artists.... it actually worked out too.....
i can see your point of letting the work stand for itself..... alot of my other work i tend to keep that mentality.... but since i release my detroit set of graphics first, i figured i would tie in the shirt and graphic with the environment of detroit....... so theres this tie and people will hopefully see that .
i also posted the graphic on the side to help people see the graphic being used on the shirt.... thought that would be a good idea since it tends to be an issue to see a graphic in a pic of a shirt and be able to read it.
aside from the shirts, i also have a mixtape coming out with more artists that will be in the line also.... most all jazzy hip hop with some other tracks...but it should be a good idea to help cross market too..... the mix will be out when i re-release my line in the spring.... hoping to do a few shows also....
right now just working on my other forum and my blog to hopfully get more hits/sells/work for the company...... been a hard 8 years since i started : 2:37am :
also thinking of shooting a commercial for online use...... might start that in feb/march though...
all we can do is move forward and maybe one day a door will open.
b
__________________ www.237am.com blog link on homepage also
I can see different points here.
Some preffer to direct all the attention to the garment, chopping heads, others like to show the model to give it a more "real" look.
I use both.
Since BigCartel lets me put up to 3 pics for each product, I do 1 close up shot (could be a "manequin" type shot) 1 pic with the pure design
, and 1 pic in which you can see the shirt from afar, or in a situation that relates to the shirt.
Most of our shirts satirize Puertorrican pop culture, so we have a lot of fun coming up with interesting/entertaining/funny concepts for our photo shoots, so they are not just generic fashion poses.
"I Love You Tube" and "Afrodo" shirts are kinda obvious.
The "Psycho" one is a pun, the design is a spoof of an iconic puertorrican Ice Cream company called "PAYCO" (pronounced "pyco")
The "Muerte al reggaeton" shirt is controversial and could cause you to get your *** kicked...so we just blatantly make fun of the fact that you'd still look cool with a busted mouth as long as you wear our shirts XD
I use my brothers as the models and my mad Photoshop skillzzzz to retouch and make magic!
So yeah, that's my approach. Have a concept, make it interesting yet sellable! Be more than just another tshirt shop!
Re: Photo Shoot thread - Post your promo photos 
