to that end, let's get down to brass tacks. first of all, the visualiser (v9.0) has had a nice facelift and i've jammed as many cool features into it as time and my imagination would allow. you can now bookmark your favorite shirts (either on your browser or through your favorite networking sites), permalink them and even embed them using a handy code provided free of charge. the size chart, email newsletter sign-up, voting and comments areas are all now floating layers right in the store, so i've eliminated all scrolling. all of the information you need pertaining to any print is right at your fingertips! i've also added a handy little dropdown menu at the bottom so you can instantly jump to any design. i think it's pretty nifty.
oh, and there is one more small little feature of the revamped visualiser that i forgot to mention. for the first time in nearly 4 months, you can once again order shirts on it. yes, you read correctly. buy. shirts. on this. here. website. a clothing line selling their merchandise online? what a novel idea! well, have we got some goodies for you. one completely spanking new print, 3 completely new styles (track jackets!! zip-up hoodies!! leisure shirts!! plus the return of regular hoodies and ladies' raglans!!), and some funky new colors too (camo tees? say it ain't so!)
so where to start? well, i always like to lead in with the brightest and the newest. crushR is a brand new print that features a little old school maulin' & crushin' from way back.
11998844 is a monster-sized take on robin antiga's iconic 1984 print- over 20 by 21 inches, our biggest print yet. in fact, the print is so massive that we're only offering it on track jackets and zip-ups for now. 1984 yellow is yet another variation of 1984, this time in a subdued mustard/grey scheme. and 1984 charcoal was an existing print that we're bringing back because, well, we just feel like it.
another variation on a familiar theme: what i like to call the "creamsicle variation" of one of our oldest designs: men in orange makes me long for those summer days of my youth when a buried treasure (anyone remember those?) could be had for a quarter. i'm hungry.
and if we're going to go to all the trouble of setting up screens for that print, i figured i might as well throw another version into the mix: men in white, of course. (and just because i know you're curious, check out men in red, men in blue, men in tan and men in 3d for good measure).
ATAK is another robin antiga gem that we haven't printed for a reeeaaally long time, but which people really loved and always asked me to reprint. and so, lo and behold, i listened. only this time, we will be making the print a bit bigger. and since i can't leave well enough alone, there is a whole new color variation as well: ATAK (red) is a "bloodied but unbowed" take on the flight of the killer pigeons.
and last but certainly not least- something old, something new, something borrowed & something red & grey. killbots (red & grey) uses the same classic color scheme from the original killbots print, but the robots are on the bottom of the shirt (as seen on killbots2, pinkbots, icebots and grisbots).
whew! that's it for now. but i'll be doing this whole thing again in 3 weeks- june 8th is the order deadline for this batch of shirts and so on june 9th there will be 9 new selections available for order over the following 3 weeks. and so on we will go, until the world is full of our clothing. if you want to be notified by e-mail when the new prints go live, join our e-mail newsletter.
so you may be asking something along the lines of wtf? right about now. wasn't zb down and out, finished with the game, consigned to the history books of online retailing? well, yes and no. last year i made a brief re-attempt at selling online again, but after only 6 weeks it became apparent that it wasn't working out. the reason? i didn't change anything about the way i had operated the business for the last 10 years- i was still trying to do everything myself, and i very quickly saw where that was going to lead. this time we are going to do it right. i have learned a lot of lessons over the years of steering this boat, and one of the most important ones is that no one is good at everything, but everyone is good at something. i tried to do everything myself for too many years, and inevitably a lot of things simply didn't get done (or at least not done very well), which led to all kinds of inevitable problems. and so, i said to myself, if i'm going to ever think about doing this again, i'm going to need some help. not just paying some art student a few bucks to come by and clean screens now and then, but a partner. or 2, or 3.
and so i'm proud to say that I have relieved myself of printing duties and i will be passing them on to my very capable partners, friends and compadres: the boys from eclips boardwear, with whom i have shared a print shop for the last 3 years, will now be printing all of our gear. if you're worried about how this will affect the quality of our merch, don't: these guys know what they're doing, and i have no hesitation in saying are actually much more capable and competent printers than myself. if anything, the gear is going to look even better.
this is going to free up my time to take care of the web site, cook up new designs, handle customer service and generally make sure the back end of this operation is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. i hope this translates into a much more rewarding experience for you, the t-shirt browser and occasional buyer. let's hope so anyway.
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