[contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

gaekwad · 2011-10-23 14:52:46

Hello, everyone. I’m Pete.
I’m writing this with my shopkeeper hat on because I’m pleased to announce that a Textpattern swag store will be coming soon, likely before the end of November, hopefully in time for Black Friday.

The store will be run on the Zazzle platform and as such items will be print-on-demand. With that in mind, there’s an element of flexibility on what can be offered without the drawbacks of having to find warehouse space to store 3,000 t-shirts in various sizes, cuts and colours. What a drag.

Products purchased in the store will include a small profit margin and sales commission on the sales price, with all of the profits going to the Textpattern cause. The final details of the funding destination(s) are yet to be decided and approved by the Textpattern head dudes, but please rest assured there’s no profiteering on my part here.

We’re using Zazzle as they offer a clear and transparent accounting system and are proven at order fulfilment. Additionally, they offer regular promotions on a variety of products so prices are very keen if you keep on top of things (I will be doing this).

As I write this, it’s late October 2011 and the time has come to select/create the first batch of products to go live in the store. In the first instance, these products are most likely to be based around the Textpattern hammer/chisel logo and text. They will be tasteful (I know this is a weasel word and taste is subjective) and aimed at the ongoing promotion and increased awareness of the Textpattern CMS.

So, preflight out of the way – what do you want to see? The full list of products on offer can be found here.

Here’s a selection of my current list of products to create:

i) hammer/chisel logo pin badge and stickers
ii) logo and text bumper sticker
iii) logo and text t-shirts, polos and hoodies
iv) logo and/or text beanie hat (the winter’s a-comin’ for Northern Hemisphere types like me)
v) logo and/or text mugs

Clearly there’s no point in having myriad products that aren’t to sell, so I won’t be covering all products in every possible permutation. Also, I am not yet psychic, so I’m not sure what you want to see on sale…so help me out a bit and let me know what you want, eh?

As a final thing, when the initial raft of products is put up for sale, there will be opportunities for people like you to design Textpattern swag for sale on the Textpattern store. You will, of course, be credited for your design and sales will help fund the Textpattern cause. If you have ideas about product designs you’d like to see on the store and are keen to get started, you can download templates directly from Zazzle here.

Thank you in advance for a) reading this far b) your suggestions and c) thinking very carefully before suggesting a ‘Developers of Textpattern in Subtley Erotic Poses’ calendar.

Last edited by gaekwad (2011-10-23 15:00:47)

Gocom · 2011-10-23 15:31:04

Posters. If there was a great Textpattern poster, I might order one taken quality (the poster needs to be very high quality), price, shipping location (not going to deal with customs) and payment method. I personally have zero interest in shirts, stickers, mugs or anything like that. I do not like branding outside office walls, and I hate bulky white mugs that get stained too easily.

^{(Ugh, I’m such a negative brat.)}

Last edited by Gocom (2011-10-23 15:32:13)

mrdale · 2011-10-23 15:57:45

A mr.Carver dartboard… I always hated that guy.

philwareham · 2011-10-23 16:45:59

TXP Skateboard and Pet Clothing please.

Seriously, I’d probably just buy a mug or two, maybe a poster if it was suitably creative.

Last edited by philwareham (2011-10-23 16:46:26)

gomedia · 2011-10-23 23:53:39

T shirts & mugs would be the obvious things to start with. Coincidentally, I’ve recently just designed & purchased both from Zazzle & they seem to do a good job. Ordering & delivery were efficient enough too.

In addition to the carver logo, maybe something a bit more esoteric:

<txp:magic />
<txp:goodness />

or some puns on <head>, <txp:body /> & other parts of your anatomy.

ruud · 2011-10-24 10:05:27

<txp:love />

I got a lot of reactions from people whenever I wore that T-shirt.

And for the devs and forum admins, shirts that say <txp:wet />, <txp:stef />, <txp:els />, etc…

Too much choice isn’t good though. I looked at the Zazzle website and seeing the amount of stuff they offered, I immediately lost interest.

gaekwad · 2011-10-24 10:14:55

Great – thanks, everyone.

Keep your feedback coming – this is really useful.

wet · 2011-10-24 14:46:00

gaekwad wrote:

…‘Developers of Textpattern in Subtley Erotic Poses’.

Can do that.

Great news otherwise.

Destry · 2011-10-26 10:34:53

It might be worth mentioning that the store initiative is all part of the magazine’s revival, but the store will be active before the magazine’s first issue and new website are launched. There will be adequate calls to action via the magazine to the store.

+1 about this being a positive thing.

+1 on a revival of the <txp:love /> shirt.

-1 on bumperstickers

(Unless stickers are small and can be put on other things besides car bumpers, like a notebook, laptop, etc. Btw, do cars even have bumpers anymore, like existed when those stickers were invented?)

While I’m absolutely not saying this to propose a change about Zazzle, because I fully stand by the decision Pete made regarding Zazzle’s product options and order-handling abilities, but I share Ruud’s feelings about visiting Zazzle, which to me has a very Hallmark cards, or tourist shop vibe to it, and that doesn’t seem to target the sensibilities of digital craftspeople. Threadless, as an example to compare with, seems like it has our crowd in mind, but it only offers tee-shirts, and I’m not sure if it provides a make-on-demand option (or what the situation is with shipping costs, etc.). The M-o-D is especially important for us.

I see mention of the “carver”… With the exception of Dale (who’s meaning is clear), are you guys talking about the original logo, or mean the new logo with hammer and chisel? It’s not in Txp’s interest to revive the old carver, which would just confuse branding.

Is there any value in sketching some tee-shirts having the Txp logo in different sizes and positions on the shirt? I think size and position can make a big difference as to one’s decision to buy a shirt or not. We might want to get that right before etching the plate.

Oh, and I’d put in a vote for kids tees down the road. My two kids would wear them, and my girl would probably love something like <txp:♥ /> or <txp:♡ />.

Last edited by Destry (2011-10-26 10:44:23)

Bloke · 2011-10-26 10:58:23

Great suggestions so far. I never got a <txp:love /> T-shirt so that’d be on my list.

My recent foray into a T-shirt, with my decidedly non-designerish approach, ended up merely serving for identification purposes in a busy pub:

If it’s too small to see, the back had logo, name and a suitably pithy slogan regarding us being “The designers’ choice CMS”; mainly because I couldn’t think of anything better and VistaPrint’s lead time meant I had to act quickly. Doubtless someone — anyone — can do a better job on the design front!

gaekwad · 2011-10-26 11:03:01

Destry wrote:

While I’m absolutely not saying this to propose a change about Zazzle, because I fully stand by the decision Pete made regarding Zazzle’s product options and order-handling abilities, but I share Ruud’s feelings about visiting Zazzle, which to me has a very Hallmark cards, or tourist shop vibe to it, and that doesn’t seem to target the sensibilities of digital craftspeople. Threadless, as an example to compare with, seems like it has our crowd in mind, but it only offers tee-shirts, and I’m not sure if it provides a make-on-demand option (or what the situation is with shipping costs, etc.). The M-o-D is especially important for us.

I fully appreciate there is some feeling toward Zazzle that it’s a jack-of-all, master-of-none outlet. Go to the Zazzle front page and you will be bowled over by the volume, variety and ‘holy frick’-ness of some of the stores…but that’s the thing – it’s not the Textpattern swag store front page. The Textpattern swag store won’t have billions of things in it, and won’t have garish, unfunny tat at every junction – it’s far more focussed than that. Sales reports and feedback will dictate how it’s doing, and fine-tuning is, of course, a given.

Also, given the Zazzle embedding/API functionality, I can’t see a reason why, given time and resource, the storefront could effectively be run within the txpmag.com stable and Zazzle are used for fulfilment, so there’s limited branding seen.

I have no unbreakable connection to Zazzle; I don’t work there, I’m not a shareholder and I don’t have any contractual arrangements with them – I have used them for shop provision in the past with no problems. If it turns out that Zazzle’s not a good fit I will be more than happy to switch allegiances to The Other Side (whatever that entails).

Last edited by gaekwad (2011-10-26 11:10:59)

Destry · 2011-10-26 11:16:00

He’s quoting me, everyone, but he’s talking to you, because like I said, I stand by the decision to use Zazzle, and I know we’ll create a more slick “storefront” in the magazine’s UI. :)

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#1 2011-10-23 14:52:46

[contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#2 2011-10-23 15:31:04

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#3 2011-10-23 15:57:45

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#4 2011-10-23 16:45:59

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#5 2011-10-23 23:53:39

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#6 2011-10-24 10:05:27

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#7 2011-10-24 10:14:55

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#8 2011-10-24 14:46:00

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#9 2011-10-26 10:34:53

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#10 2011-10-26 10:58:23

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#11 2011-10-26 11:03:01

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

#12 2011-10-26 11:16:00

Re: [contrib] What would you like to see (and buy) from the Textpattern swag store?

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