Convergence of Ideas, Methods and Products

Every year when the Magic trade show rolls around I get anxious. I haven't exhibited in trade shows for years and have limited my wholesale activities to t-shirt printing jobs, blank t-shirts online and a few stores that buy my designs from time to time. Still it is as if the call of the wild is in my bones and I start making things every summer as if I was going to go to the trade show and exhibit my products and be a huge success all over again. When push comes to shove I don't spend the money on a booth and attempt to get some other company to carry my stuff, which never really works out.

Nobody will sell my products like I would and by the time everyone involved gets a piece of the action it just doesn't seem worth it. The draw to trade shows like Magic is to increase the volume of production for some of my products so that I can crank up my capacity and have a steady stream of orders instead of the stop and go that comes from only selling retail. Originally the store in Los Angeles, Y-Que was to be like a wholesale showroom so that I can avoid trade shows altogether, but now it is pretty much retail with a few racks in the back for the wholesale t-shirts I sell online.

I have been mixing my techniques and have been making a bunch of different products/things that are almost ready for market, but it takes thinking about a trade show and actually selling these things to finish them and make them presentable. That is one of the best uses for a trade show is to get products finished into a form that customers may indeed consider carrying in their own store. Here is a scribble image of the assortment of products and accessories that can go with some of the same t-shirt designs that I currently print.

I often make things that are decent, but the finishing touches are missing when I put the items on the shelf and sell them one at a time in Y-Que Trading Post. Sure it's fun, but it's not the same as putting it on a table in a 10 X 10 booth and standing next to a limited number of products while analyzing the gaze of potential buyers to see if they think my "items" are the next big thing. This process is one of the few ways I have made things that I could actually sell to other companies and without that inspiration my products sort of float around the retail store until the sample is gone or broken.

This year I need to break the cycle and approach wholesale manufacturing again, but use the store as if every day is a trade show. My products are almost ready for the market and if I catalog and clean up the loose ends I think I can make a consistent presentation for potential customers that do come into the store looking for the next "thing". My product line includes an assortment of image based products that I have turned into t-shirt designs, key chains, mesh trucker hat designs, magnets and stickers, the usual suspects in a pop-art line of products for retail gift stores. I'll post a sampling of the concepts here just to get the ball rolling.

As far as t-shirts go the main development is to break down the designs into an interface that will allow my retail customers (or wholesale buyers too) to be more particular in their choices by selecting from a wide range of t-shirt brands when purchasing a design. These days everyone is a critic and the availability of fitted and standard cut t-shirts is overwhelming, but most people are very determined to get the exact type of shirt they want. I need to make that happen in my own little world in order to satisfy the demand for different shirts in different markets for different people with my designs. In fact some designs work better on some shirts than others too.

Most people have switched over to fitted t-shirts these days which I call the trendy styles, but older people, 30 years or more, still tend towards the standard cut t-shirts. Young Men in the urban market also go towards the standard cut and larger cut t-shirts like the Alstyle 1301 which I call the skateboarder styles. There is no easy answer for all the reasons why some people like one t-shirt brand over another, but one thing is for sure and that is you can't just offer one type of shirt and think that it is going to work in all markets. Plus people need more information about the t-shirts that they are ordering these days so that they are comfortable with their choice. Nobody wants to be surprised about the fit and color of an item once it shows up in a package at their home or office. The cost of reshipping, making and the time involved are all wasted if a customer does not get the right item the first time.

My goad has been to resolve this without resorting to t-shirt transfer printing, which is an option. I have been modifying Ekay.com to include a wide array of designs, but to also include a Brand Selector. Within each t-shirt design there is going to be a choice of brands and even styles within some of the brands, so that customers can drill down to find the exact style, within reason, for any t-shirt graphic design that I offer. Check it out and excuse the dust while it is being developed. This is sort of my trade show for now.