I bought a shirt because I feel that this is a website is a great resource, and I’m proud to be a member here. Because of that, I don’t mind “advertising” by wearing a shirt with a Sitepoint logo. I want this place to grow, and I want it to be here a long time.
As far as price goes, I’m sure that the countless hours of work I’ve saved because of the advice I’ve gotten here more than make up for the price of the shirt. Heck, just the help I’ve gotten from Rudy alone would pay for at least a dozen shirts.
So the designs may not have been to people’s liking, but if we did have a design contest, so it’s not like the designs were pulled out of a hat. It’s too bad they didn’t go over better.
Haha, thanks for the feedback. Before things get too heated here I’m going to say that I have what I came for and am chalking this one up to experience.
I appreciate you all taking the time to post in the thread.
We all do it, just look at Nike, Apple (iPods), Rebok, etc… I think the other problem is branding. I know SP is cool, but not as cool as say Nike, if you know what I’m saying.
Again the designs and tag lines should be looked at along with making it easier to find to buy.
Maybe the designs should have been a picture/photo, pattern or some funny scene that would appeal to everyone. The SP logo could have been made small and placed in a corner so everyone will have an idea where the t-shirt and design comes from.
The shirt was wild design and totally screamed “geek”. Not sure how else to describe this but I have yet to see any shirt which did this. Mix an affliction/tapout design with like M$ logo.
I was supporting something very well known. I would wear a Google shirt, Firefox, Linux, etc.
If your brand is strong enough that you get public recognition I would wear it. SitePoint, is probably less well known than PHP, which I wouldn’t wear as no one (especially women) would even know what PHP was. What is the point in wearing clothing that doesn’t cause some kind of interesting connection/channel of communication between two people???
Maybe if you copy the way Deviantart sell T-shirts?
I’ve bought more than a dozen from them over the last few years. They last well, are well designed, cheap (even when shipped into the UK), and people respond positively to me when I wear them. Their website includes both male and female models.
“Hey why do you have a Mexican bandito riding a velociraptor on your shirt?” is a great conversation starter : ) When at conferences I often start out by commenting on someone’s shirt… not so much company shirts, but funny ones (which sometimes are company ones, esp when there are swear words involved). But that’s me.
What I see on the site is not a good representation of what I saw in the designs. Something went awry. I know folks liked certain colors and nothing on the pages say we can order them that way.
I certainly don’t mind paying a fair price for wearing a cool “T” that helps put an identity on what I do… but they just did not seem as cool as the designs appeared to be.
first off, let me tell that i could be persuaded to wear a t-shirt with adverts for SP. but, as i openly declared in your blog post, they don’t have anything on them to say that SP is special. even more, don’t have anything on them special. second-rate wisdom found on those designs made me wonder. if the idea was great, the SP advert would go along just fine. but were is the idea?
SP is not MS. so why the square ideas? why not something wild. Sp has the best pointer
Mexican banditos riding velociraptors.
something fresh, even from amateur hour, but with identity, with guts. if you want an advert for SP you should risk more. i would wear a non conventional easy spotting weird but funny looking piece to point out i’m THINKING for a living, and i’m doing my thinking on SP also
but those designs feel too safe for me to even consider, not to mention cheesy and trouble makers, for some ppl could get offended by the paraphrase. SP, i hope, is not some metal band trying to make waves, or some cult looking for followers. it’s more like a pub, a cafeteria, a library, relaxed while keeping it serious, smart, where people connect using their BRAINS. this is what is missing from the message t-shirts lack completely. and a funny, curious, intelligent, fresh graphics.
I’ll also comment they are too hard to find. I would expect them to be on this website, in a products section somewhere, rather than a link on the thread that was used to decide which design to use.
They sell everything at Sears if it’s the same Sears we are talking about I sometimes can only find specific items at Sears but there customer service sucks, here they charge you $1.00 if you buy an item, try it on in the fitting room a few feet away from the check out counter, then come out of the fitting room say you didn’t like it they refund you your money but take $1.00 their excuse “handling fee” that just as bad as those commercials where the Manager takes a bunch of eggs from a kid and the kid doesn’t get the eggs and the Manager says “Egg Management Fee” and the kid replies “What does that even mean?”.
They make up anything to make money, these companies and people just pay it and complain as they walk away I don’t understand !!!
Yeah I know what you are saying, these big brands and even some smaller brands have created a “lifestyle” image and they are selling an image to shallow consumers.
Nike - just do it. superstars you can be one. Harley - American Biker - be a “real” American biker.
They are selling an image to a group of society that has lost their personal identity and image.
“In code we trust” “Born to code” The image of a coder.? I don’t think is really worth any thing to the consumer.(maybe with a few billion in marketing next decade ?)
Looking at the designs now I have found them (!), I also wouldn’t buy them because of the cheesy slogans on them! If they didn’t have these then I would probably buy one of them.
