New Facebook App. to help Cafepress shopkeepers increase sales

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Brian Buser
• Co-Founder, Shirt Shack
• Brian Buser's LinkedIn Profile
• http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=18119779549



What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Marketing of Cafepress shops."


Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"Shirt Shack is a Facebook application that allows people to easily import their Cafepress designs into Facebook. Users of the app promote the designs by displaying them on their profiles and sending them as virtual gifts to friends. This is similar to the extremely popular apps Bumper Sticker and Pieces of Flair. Additionally, the designs in Shirt Shack link to marketplace pages in Cafepress, which enables interested app users to buy the shirts directly. So users’ Cafepress sales will grow as their designs are shared throughout Facebook."


What makes you/your company remarkable?

"Shirt Shack is bringing together the very active Cafepress and Facebook communities in a way that has not been done before. Facebook has over 175 Million users; each of which is a potential t-shirt buyer. But before Shirt Shack, there was no easy way for Cafepress designers to promote their designs within Facebook."


From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"We're just solving a need in the marketplace. The other Shirt Shack Co-Founder, Tom King, and I both have Cafepress shops and use Facebook daily. We figured there should be a way to promote our designs to the Facebook community. So, we designed an app that would not only accomplish this, but also be fun for the average Facebook user who is not a t-shirt designer."


What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"The app has only recently been released to the public. So we are calling on the t-shirt design community to help build up the collection of designs in Shirt Shack. Early users of the application will have a chance to have their Cafepress designs highly visible in the app."


Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"Our goal is to create an app that helps designers increase sales in Cafepress. We'd love to hear your feedback of any kind. People can get in touch with us in our Facebook group. Everyone is welcome!"

Join the group here: Shirt Shack

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and may be featured here. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Brian D Gryphon: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Brian D Gryphon
• Owner & Photographer: Digital Gryphon LLC
• Brian D Gryphon's LinkedIn Profile
• http://www.digitalgryphon.net


What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Our primary focus is design, but we also work on marketing. On-line POD firms produce for hundreds of thousands of designers; they are most interested in marketing their own brand. "


Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"The Digital Gryphon LLC offers various merchandise featuring my photography- with an emphasis on florals and felines. We use POD ("print on demand") firms such as CafePress, PrintFection and Zazzle to do everything from production to customer service. I am pretty much the entire company."


What makes you/your company remarkable?

"I have 35 years of photographic and almost three decades of business experience combined with an artist's curiosity and desire to blend old and new."

Tell us about your T-shirt expertise and areas of interest.

"I began working with Screen Printers to produce t-shirts as fundraisers for various community organizations in the late 80s and early 90s. I investigated doing my own set up, but decided it was best to leave production in the hands of experts."


From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"My florals are mainly from the world-famous Whetstone Park of Roses in central Ohio, although I take a camera on all travels and so have images from a wide range of places.

My feline images are from the Cat Welfare Association, a 'no kill' shelter in central Ohio- used as a fundraiser for that organization."


What are some challenges you currently face or have overcome in your career? Lessons learned?

"Using POD firms guarantees I can't compete on Price. Fortunately my previous Sales experience included training on how to sell around pricing issues... it may sound cliche but there really are people who want service and quality and will pay for it."


What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"I've reached the age of fifty- and still enjoy learning."


What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Enjoy what you do- or move on."


What is something unique that you can contribute to the LinkedIn T-shirt Professionals group?

"I like to be a bridge between Designers and Producers; make sure everyone appreciates that while actors get the glory, 'the crew' is the foundation. I was both an Account Manager and a Customer Service Consultant- the former paid more, but I know that the latter position is where the real work gets done."


What are you looking to find in the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group? What types of people do you want to connect with?

"I want to keep in touch with other small businesses- we sell product that might not seem 'luxurious' but which are most definitely 'discretionary'."


Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"Still very new here."

Is there anything else you want the world to know about you or your company?

"We take time to stop and smell the roses."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!

Meet Jesper Popma: Linkedin T-Shirt Professionals Group Member

This week, meet another member of the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals Group. Watch for more member profiles as members reveal valuable secrets, share their expertise, and offer advice.

• Jesper Popma
• Co-founder/owner of Jazzy et James
• Jesper's LinkedIn Profile
• http://jazzyetjames.com/


What segment of the T-shirt industry do you work in?

"Wholesale, bulk, design, printing, promo wear"

Tell us about your company and your role in it.

"I’m a co-founder/owner at Jazzy et James. I can help you promote your brand by providing you with printed bamboo shirts that your target group will love to wear (because of its softness and fit). If you are thinking of using shirts to promote your brand, make sure you go with beautiful design. I have lots of promotional shirts in my closet witch I only use for “Dirty Jobs” (like painting my house). Because of their bad fit I don’t like to wear them in public. So where’s the promotional / commercial value of these shirts?"

What makes you/your company remarkable?

Our Perfect Fit Philosophy:
Our vision on promotional clothing - The Perfect Fit Philosophy – is based on three pillars:

1. A perfect fit for any size, in our own design.
2. Made from bamboo fabric for maximum comfort.
3. A sustainable raw material (bamboo).

Comfortable bamboo fabric:
Bamboo is a revolutionary discovery for the production of fabric: breathable, with a high absorption level (four times higher than cotton) and bacteria static and hypo-allergenic properties. Jazzy et James shirts are, by the use of silky bamboo, very comfortable to wear. That’s why we say: Joie the fibre!

Your own unique design or printing:
Order shirts from the Jazzy et James collection with or without imprint. You have a choice out of 3 lines: the Basique, the Basique en Plus and Unique.

Basique
Basique is our basic product, without imprint.

Basique and Plus
A basic shirt with your own logo, text or image as print. Give us your artwork and we take care of your Basique and Plus collection.

Unique
Your own unique shirts printed with a special design developed just for you. Based on your needs (for example, your theme or event), made by our own graphic designer.

In any color:
The Jazzy et James collection can be ordered in the color of your choice. What do you think of promotional clothing in your own corporate color?


From where do you draw your inspiration? Motivation? Ideas?

"Inspiration for prints comes from the customers briefing, marketing values, image and line of business."

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

"Development and design of our patterns, finding a good bamboo fabric/production supplier and the launch of our website."

What advice would you offer to someone new to the industry? Any tips or trade “secrets” you want to share?

"Be aware of properties of fabric you are using. All fabrics have different properties and act different during washing and wearing. Make sure you examine these properties before starting production."


Do you have an experience with the LinkedIn T-Shirt Professionals group you’d like to share? Have you made some valuable connections?

"So far I’ve made a couple of connections of which one is particularly valuable to me."

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Members are welcome to complete the interview and will each be featured here for one week. If you are a T-Shirt Professional looking to make new business connections, join LinkedIn and look us up for details!