April 3, 2005
more happy fun t-shirt debate:
In the comments of a recent post, Ulrich says:
It seems you don’t understand the difference between having an order system and giving a T-Shirt you offer to everyone who asks (let’s say, that would be 334 people), and offering something at Wal Mart.
I was criticizing what Rick Segal said: that selling more than 200 shirts would piss people off. What an elitist attitude is that? “I want to be the only one (with 199 others) who has that shirt; if there’s demand from 334 people instead of 200, f*** them.”
Sorry, but this is just creating artificial shortage of a product. Of course the situation is totally different for bespoke suits, where supply is limited by work capacity! And Wal Mart is a whole different issue, too.
Funny, Ulrich. I chose the number 200 because that’s the minimum number per design the factory will handle.
Had their number been lower, let’s say 50, I would’ve gone with 50.
Firstly, to make large amounts of designs available, to anyone who wants them, when they get around to wanting one, while still retaining high quality control and a competitive price is an expensive business. Spending large sums of money “just in case it gets really successful” isn’t my style.
Secondly, the simple fact is, I don’t want to make lots of designs available in large, mass quantities, and I believe the majority of my most loyal readers don’t want me to, either.
And since I care about what these people think FAR MORE than what “Hypothetical T-Shirt Customer Number 334″ thinks, the scarcity you mention is not in fact artificial; it is real. Until I change my mind.
Thirdly, how do you know there are more than 200 people wanting a certain t-shirt design? Are you willing to put up your money to cover my surplus stock if there isn’t? I’m assuming you are not, but still, feel free to send me a check for $250,000 and I might reconsider changing my business model to fit your anti-elitist worldview.
[MORE THOUGHTS FROM CHRIS:] “The Psycology of Scarcity”.
Hmmm…
Perhaps they could be true originals (like your buisness card art) — simply breakout the Sharpies or fabric markers and draw them directly on the shirts!
My brother is busy planning a t-shirt line he’s designed (not Savile Row t-shirts, hehe, but more along the line of surf/technical/teen wear).
We asked someone fashion-conscious for an opinion on the designs. This guy only wears dsquared, so we thought him the market-maven/clued-up kind. Turns out the only reason he pays $200 for his t-shirts is because there are only 2 dsquared stores in the country, and they only bring in 2 of any one item at any given time. So, he schmoozes with the store staff, and gets them to keep stuff aside for him. That’s his reasoning — the designs and quality are no better than anywhere else, but it’s real limited edition.
Why not just make your own custom t-shirts then?
Uniqueness is part of what makes artisanal products special. I’m just surprised that this is news to anyone.
Compare the prices of the original works of art hanging in museums to the prices of the very good reproductions available in the same museum’s gift shop. Compare the prices of truly limited edition signed and numbered prints to the prices of mass produced prints. Dali’s works, to name just one example, have lost a huge amount of value over the years because of the rumor that Dali signed thousands of sheets of blank paper.
Call it artifical scarcity if you want. I call it a sensible business plan for any artist in any era.
Hugh,
I must admit the limited quantity run is appealing and would push me over the edge to buy one. I would wear it when going to conferences or travelling, a way to pick out, and be picked out, by like-minded individuals. A modern day geek shibboleth, as it were.
–joe
A dose of capitalist flavoured elitism never did anyone any harm. I once used to only buy T-Shirt s in NY (i’m in london) to make sure of that…
Hugh, I’m not sure how things work over there across the big pond, but here in the states, I could make 200 t-shirts for you with four different designs (50 of each).
In fact, we run orders of 36 pcs. all the time.
If you wanted to run t-shirts here in the US for your US fans, I could help you with the production and fulfillment.
After starting to read English Cut and then your blog, I decided to create my own blog at http://promoman.blogspot.com/. It’s not as good as Thomas and yours, I still have a lot to learn. Mostly, what to write, how to get people to read it and how to get people to link to it. Any advice?
I think that you should also think about selling sets of coasters with your designs. They would have four different designs per set. I could help you with this.
If you had a unique design, I think that people would love to have an ‘English Cut’ t-shirt. Maybe it could be part of a suit pattern. They might not be ready yet for bespoke, but they might buy a shirt. Again, I could help you with the US market.
Lastly, I love London. Having been there more than 25 times myself, the last time being in June 2004 (a week in London and then a week in Paris). One the places I love to go to is the Red Lion Pub in Mayfair. The restaurant is in the rear. It’s right in the middle of the Mayfair neighborhood at a deadend corner, hard to find, but very enjoyable with great food.
We’ve seen a famous Welsh entertainer who drinks there a few times.
You say: “Firstly, to make large amounts of designs available, to anyone who wants them, when they get around to wanting one, while still retaining high quality control and a competitive price is an expensive business.”
and I agree with that. I wasn’t criticizing that you might only offer a limited number of designs, or only a limited number, if that’s what a factory allows you to produce for a reasonable price.
“Thirdly, how do you know there are more than 200 people wanting a certain t-shirt design? Are you willing to put up your money to cover my surplus stock if there isn’t?”
I don’t. So if you produce the shirts before you take orders, then indeed a small quantity makes more sense. Maybe there aren’t even 200 people, right.
A growing trend in our economy seems to be build-on-demand, however, so I thought, you’d take orders, and when there’s enough of them, you might sell shirts.
I don’t think you would or should sell shirts in mass quantities to Wal Mart, like another post understood my response. You say yourself that there might not be huge demand, so I don’t see any problem there.
My first comment was referring to Rick Segal’s comment, that if you were to sell another, say, 200 shirts later, because there’s lots of demand from your readers, some people might be pissed off. I think this is elitist, as I already wrote. Sure, we’re all individuals, and buy clothes that we like. But (I hope) we don’t determine this “liking our clothes” by the fact if 200 or 2000 people on earth bought the same shirt.
Hope this clears things up a bit…
Say someone doesn’t get in on the first 200 (myself for instance), yet I still desperately want a shirt. I’m cheap, so I won’t pay a jacked up ebay price — I’m sure there will be a few on sale there — and as far as I’ve read, there will be no reprint. Would you have an issue if I took one of your drawings to a local shirt design shop and paid for printing myself (with credit to you — “gapingvoid.com” on the back)?
To be honest, I’m in two minds about that.
I’d rahter people not rip off my work, but there’s damn little I can do about it. If somebody’s doing it for their own use, it’s not that big a deal. If somebody tries to do it commercially, then I’d be pissed.
Then another wee voice tells me, perhaps a robust conterfeit market would be good for my business/brand equity?
That’s just what I was talking about: if one design is sold out, and 250 more people would announce their interest (immediately or a year later), I see two possibilities: you reprint the design, or someone else does (in mass or just for one shirt).
You say you’d be pissed if someone else did that commercially. I can totally understand that. But why then do you refuse to answer that demand yourself? Do you think it would “hurt” the tulipmania if instead of 200 shirts for a demand of 450 there are 400 shirts for a demand of 450?
Since most arguments you bring up are about business and money, I really have trouble seeing your point. As you say, a counterfeit market might even improve brand image — but so would selling *some* more (not talking Wal Mart here, ok?) to your fans.
“Do you think it would “hurt” the tulipmania if instead of 200 shirts for a demand of 450 there are 400 shirts for a demand of 450?”
Yes, it would.
It seems pretty obvious to me that if supply is 44% of demand, the good will have more perceived value than if supply is 89% of demand. If I were an economist, I could probably tell you exactly how much value is lost, but I’m not.
Again, the only thing I don’t understand is why any of this is news to anyone.