This afternoon I went on 3.65 mile hike, then delivered my blanks to Jimmy at Downtown Screen Printers so they can print me a new batch of San Jose (EMNSJ) shirts. Later, I went to Meeting of the Minds, the collaborative paint party, and painted a fun piece with my fiends Catrina & Eddie. When I got home, and in bed I started sketching out the design for a new mural I’m working on. Tomorrow night I’m DJing & hosting karaoke for a high school graduation party at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk from midnight till 2 AM. Busy, busy, busy…
The SubZero Street Fair is next weekend. Friday & Saturday. It’s an art festival that I’ve been vending at for a few years now. Today I went online to order blanks to print more San Jose tees but they were sold out at all the places I shop at. Luckily, I have 45 blank tees sitting in a box that were originally going to used for my original Eyes, Mouths & Noses design. EMN will have to wait because the San Jo’ tees sell better. I’m waiting to hear back from my screen printers to get the ball rolling and drop off the blanks. I hope I can get them back in time before next Friday.
Today I dropped off the remaining blank shirts at the screen printers for the custom 1.0 orders. I think they'll be done in a day or two. I also started working on the gifts for everyone who purchased custom & pre-orders. I'm not gonna spoil the surprise but here are some teaser pics of what I'm making.
Tonight I got all my black 1.0 shirts back from the printers, finished, and a few of the pre-orders & customs too. I'm still waiting on a shipment of blanks to arrive before I can take them to get printed. Today I also picked up the Frankie Mcfly USA maps I reordered in every colorway. I also printed some Frankie Mcflyers at home. All this is for Friday's Street Mrkt & Art Walk where I'll be vending my usual gear.
The second shipment of shirts arrived today! I took them, and the shipment that arrived yesterday, and dropped them off at Downtown Screen Printers. I'm still waiting on 5 more shirts to arrive but they're gonna start printing, the ones I already dropped off, tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked because now I'm back on track and should have my shirts for Friday's event and be able to ship out the custom & pre-orders next week.
The first shipment of blank t-shirts arrived today! I'm still waiting on two more orders though. I might be able to restock my black 1.0 t-shirts and have them ready for this Friday's event and have the remaining shirts (customs & pre-orders) printed afterwards. I'm going to talk to my printers tomorrow. Hopefully the remaining shirts arrive tomorrow too.
Tonight I updated the neck label artwork for the 1.0 shirts. They're less cluttered and easier to read, especially after dropping the "wash cold - hang dry - have fun" line. I got an email this morning from one of the two t-shirt vendors I ordered blanks from saying that 7 of the 9 shirts I ordered from them weren't in stock. Is kinda pissed off but didn't have time to argue, nor would it have helped the situation. I spent the rest of the day emailing back & forth, looking for alternatives and contacting buyers. I think everything is good now but I really doubt I'll have the shirts ready by this Friday like I originally intended.
I'm only waiting on a couple email replies to order blanks for the 1.0 shirts. I didn't it would take this long. I didn't account for any delays, like the minimum orders or shirts to be out of stock. Now it's getting really close and I don't know if I'll get them printed and in hand before vending on First Friday on August 6th. Fingers crossed!
I spent hours today looking for alternatives to the shirts I wasn't able to buy, either because they were out of stock or had to be bought by the case. Then I emailed those alternatives to everyone whose custom orders were affected. Now I'm waiting on their replies. Today was also my install appointment for two new tires. The old tires, one had a big crack in the sidewall, both had tread that was pretty low. While I waited on my tires I started researching my first assignment from work, using CRM (customer relationship management) software. At night I went to Meeting of the Minds, where artists get together then partner up to paint a canvas. I wasn't going to paint, just hang out, but then a local artist Chuck invited me to work on the canvas he'd been painting by himself. Busy day!
All custom & pre-order 1.0 shirt invoices have gone out so it's time to buy the shirts. While I was going through my orders and adding the blanks to my cart I noticed couple styles & colors of shirts can only be ordered by the case. So instead of being able to order three individual shirts I would need to buy 72 of each (216 total pieces). That's a no-go. Then there are a few shirts that are out of stock in certain colors & sizes. Those I'm not surprised by but they're a setback nonetheless. Tomorrow I'm going to search for alternatives, in-stock, and reach out to those who's orders are affected.
I sent out a few new mockups today for some custom tees. Some toddler & youth size crew necks and adult women's V-necks for my friend and her two daughters. It'll be so cool to see them all wearing my shirts! I think I'm going to call last-call for preorders tomorrow then place the order on Friday and hopefully have the shirts shipped early next week. In other good news, I had a meeting today regarding a mural that I'll start working on next month. I'll share more details on that after the agreements are signed and everything is in place. It's a pretty exciting project and I can't wait to tell everyone about it!
Today I created some mockups for a couple custom requests. A teal v-neck and black crop top. I had to do a little research on the shirts since they're not the usual blanks I print on. I also created new accounts with a couple different t-shirt vendors with bigger selections. I'm waiting on them process my applications before I can see resale prices and quantities in-stock. Hopefully that gets done within the next couple days so I can place my orders and have them shipped then delivered to the printers.
That means the the window for pre-orders is closing soon. Sometime this week. I'll give it a few more pushes on Instagram before ordering the blanks. Tonight I started thinking about including fun little prizes for people who pre-ordered shirts. I got a few ideas that I'll be working on over the next few days.
Today I ordered blanks to print more EMN t-shirts with the updated "Redux" artwork. I updated portions of the original graphic where the details were too small and came out blurry on the actual t-shirt. I plan on reprinting more of the classic purple on black, like before, but I also want to print a new color. Below are the colors I'm considering:
I few weeks ago I started wearing a new brand of hoodie that I've never worn before with the intention of using them as blanks for my brand. Here are some of my notes:
It was easy for me to decide which brand blanks I wanted to print on when I made my Frankie Mcfly t-shirts. I had already worn the brand's shirts for years and loved the way they felt and their quality. Now that I'm considering hoodies, I don't have lots of experience with them, or at least any that I absolutely love. The ones I've been using for personal use were good but not great. Today I received a new blank. I'm gonna try and wear it as much as possible and run it thru plenty of washer and dryer cycles for the next few weeks to see how it holds up. I want to make sure this garment is the same high quality as my t-shirts before embellishing it with my work/art/name.
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Frankie Mcfly's
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