I have a bit of a weird relationship with t-shirts.
My dad was a self-employed t-shirt printer up until about a year ago (he retired, sorry it sounded like I meant he died, he isn’t dead, he’s alive, he’s called Kenny, he loves digestive biscuits.)
Anyway, me and Bethan talked about the idea of designing and printing our own t-shirts. I just assumed my dad would do it.
Now, it’s not like he wouldn’t of done it even though he was retired, the problem was that he sold all of his equipment, so he literally couldn’t.
How inconvenient.
Originally we were going to wait until after the wedding to make our first t-shirts, but as we are getting married in September, we’ve recently been on a drive to raise as much money as we can (surprise, surprise, weddings aren’t cheap!) so we decided to go for it!
So we ramped up our ideas and decided that we would sell t-shirts a few months before the wedding – to get us over the line in terms of money – and to test the water to see if our previous customers and social followers (who are the bees knees) would enjoy them.
Now, growing up with a dad who lived and breathed t-shirts. I knew a few things:
1. Screen printed t-shirts last longer and feel better
2. The t-shirts need to be soft and light
3. Overstocking would be okay, as we sell at conventions
Now, because I know the process of creating a t-shirt, I wanted to print them myself. The only issue is that space is not something we have in abundance. So for these first designs, we were going to have to find a supplier!
Me and Bethan talked and were recommended a company by our friend Adele (off topic: she runs an AMAZING company called DogFuriendly which promotes places that allow you to take your dog, they also arrange meet up and other wonderful events)
The company she recommended was called RampTshirts. A screen printing company, with incredibly affordable prices and they shipped within 2 weeks.
PERFECT!
Next step? THE DESIGN PROCESS! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!
First, we did what we always do. We talk and talk and talk about ideas, we talk about what t-shirts we like, what colours make us happy and what niches make us smile.
As the Incredibles 2 is coming out in July, we thought it would be smart to do 1 of the designs around this. And we are both massive Frozone fans, so the super suit quote was an easy choice. (when are we getting an origin movie???)
Our other design came from a line in the Hercules hero song which I NEVER picked up on, the line is: “Bless my soul, Herc’ was on a roll. Person f the week in every Greek opinion poll”
I don’t know why. But that is comedic genius to me. Seriously, bravo.
With our ideas ready to create, we started to design!
Some visuals were good...
…some not so good…
But eventually we nailed our designs and put them online!
The response online was sublime, with Bethan controlling our Instagram she played an absolute blinder. Finding a lovely balance between promotion and excitement. She also had the wonderful idea to include raffle tickets in each t-shirt we sent out – an extra goodie for all customers.
Overall the process was quick, fun and extremely easy.
If you are thinking about t-shirts just do it, we are already thinking about the next one.
Here is a selection of all the amazing people who tags us in pictures with their t-shirts!
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