With what simply seems like a blink of an eye 2011 has come and gone and with it some t-shirts have been released, bought, sold and reviewed! I wanted to take some time to shine a spotlight on some brands that I have really enjoyed over 2011. I also want to take time to once again thank everyone that has followed, supported, contacted, tweeted, advertised, read or interacted in any way with IAMTHETREND this year. You guys all have been absolutely amazing and have made this the biggest year by a landslide IATT has had.

This year IATT received over 800,000 visits and over 3 million page views from over 425,000 unique visitors. On top of that IAMTHETREND TV received over 100,000 views this year! I know a lot of sites absolutely dwarf these stats, but for a blog that I run in my free time I couldn’t be more proud.

Anyways on with the list. Happy 2012!

Favorite Tee of the Year:

I have been a huge fan of UGMONK since Jeff launched the brand back in 2008 when I first laid eyes on the brand. Jeff has been able to keep his brand fresh, consistent and exciting throughout the last three years. Within that time Jeff has also mastered the art of simplicity of design and this has never been more present then his “Minimal” release earlier this year. One of the tees from that release titled “Mountains” simply featured two overlapping blue and red triangles and in my opinion showed off that sometimes the simplest ideas and form are the most beautiful, making it my favorite tee of the year.

Brand of the Year:

Greg absolutely never fails to impress with his vision, love and dedication to his brand MIles to Go. Miles to Go has been a brand that I have loved since day one, but I really feel that 2011 was the year that MTG have really started to spread the wings. From a new logo, revamped website, extremely limited edition releases, brand consistency and vision to the fact that MTG continues to improve with every release Miles to Go truly showed this year what it takes to stand out among the rest. I can’t wait to see what Greg and Miles to Go his in store for 2012.

Honorable Mention: TheVNM, 8 Bit Zombie, Electric Zombie, UGMONK, Fur Face Boy

Most Surprising Release:

Possibly the best kept secret of 2011, Kyle Crawford literally came out of nowhere to drop his new line Grave Takers. Consisting of 43 different products not only did this release completely surprise it delivered. From cut and sew pieces, prints and tees Grave Takers arrived with a nuclear explosion of awesomeness.

Most Helpful Brand:

Kyle from Sugar Steak has to be the most responsive dude I have ever met. Shoot him an email and he responds within five minutes or less! I imagine him walking around with his phone in a belt holster ready to draw on it at any moment! Anyways aside from being extremely responsive Kyle has also been extremely helpful in writing some extremely resourceful articles for indie brands including the art of pre-orders, balancing your brand and life and many others. Needless to say we owe Kyle a huge thank you for taking the time to put those articles together.

Under the Radar:

The Imaginary Zebra is honestly one of those brands that seems to fly right under the radar quietly releasing amazing tees and building a huge following. I absolutely love owner, Benson Chou’s style and he has done an amazing job crafting his brand over the years. More people really need to follow his brand.

Favorite new brands of 2011:

Jake Mize has done a great job this year of building and launching his brand Inkefx. From quality designs, photographs and a fantastic looking website Jake has done an incredible job coming out of the gate swinging this year. If you are into simple straight forward design make sure to give his line a look.

LaMuerta busted onto the scene earlier this year after a bunch of hype leading up to their release and they completely delivered. Working with some of the best illustrators in the biz such as Killer Napkins, Johnny Crap and Mr. Gauky, La Muerta have absolutely turned heads with their designs and look. They have been on pace releasing a new design every month which in turn has made following this brand very exciting.

Sometimes simple is more. When many brands are busy filling up their tees with jumbo prints, intense illustration and inks from every color in the rainbow, COLUS has been content sticking to very bold designs lacking of any color whatsoever. What started originally as only white tees with black ink has recently flipped to black tees with white ink, and personally I am loving it. I am huge fan of how Colus’ designs simply pop off the tees. With a new lower price point you definitely need a few of these tees in your closet.

Honorable Mentions: Blood and Grease, Beneath Rejection, Grave Takers

Biggest Comeback:

Imagine getting ready for a huge craft fair/show to come out to your fan and realize that almost all of your shirt stock and show equipment was stolen from your van, in excess of $9,000. Well that is exactly what happened to David and his brand SEIBEI right before exhibiting at Renegade Craft Fair LA. When some people would throw in the towel, David decided to fight for the brand he has built and launched a Kickstarter to help raise funds to get SEIBEI back up and running. With a goal set of $9,000 to cover his lost goods David managed to raise over $30,000 and get his brand back on track. Truly one of the more inspiring tee stories this year.

Most Improved Brand:

To be perfectly honest when Capitl Clothing launched I wasn’t that impressed with them. I thought they had one solid design in their “Owl Knows All Tee” but other than that there really wasn’t too much there to grab any attention. Fast forward a few months and Capitl Clothing was able to win a photoshoot with photographer Josh Guim, launch a brand new line and launch a custom new website all of which are fantastic. You can definitely tell that Matt is taking growing his brand seriously. I look forward to see where this brand goes in 2012.

Best Rebrand:

Formerly known as Vampire Fur, which to be honest wasn’t one of my favorite brand names of all time. I was a fan of some of their initial released but owner Matt Haydu really ramped up his brand with the Venus Fallen rebrand. He released his best tees to date as well as launched a fantastic looking new website.

Please Release Some New Designs Already!

It has been way too long since both of these brands have released anything new! They are both two of my favorite clothing lines and they have been keeping us waiting way too long! Let’s get on it guys.

On this episode of IAMTHETREND TV we take a look at some very creative and custom packagng by Eternal Clothing as well as some of their newly released t-shirt designs.

You can check out Eternal Clothing at www.eternal-clothing.com

Before announcing the top 5 finalists for the IAMTHETREND & Josh Guim Photography Contest, I just want to thank all of the brands that submitted to the contest. We had an amazing response and narrowing it down to five finalists was extremely difficult.

When picking the top 5 both Josh and myself weighed several factors including the paragraphs each company had submitted explaining how the company would benefit from the photoshoot and why they deserved a shoot. We also took a look at everyone’s sites to check out their products and weighed several factors such as quality of designs and quality of existing pictures. Some clothing lines already had very solid photos of their line. We really wanted to give some upcoming brands some help!

We also do plan on doing this again in the future, so if you didn’t get picked this time make sure you re-apply next go around!

Top 5 Finalists

Capitl Clothing Co.
Lamebrotherhood
I Love Antix
Half Cut
Among Villains

Starting tomorrow morning until Friday July 29th at 6PM CST visitors will be able to vote for whom they think best deserves the photoshoot.

The winner will be announced following the end of the voting!

Thanks again to all the brands that submitted, we loved you all and it was extremely tough to make the final five decision! Best of luck to the finalists!

One of the main things that I feel indie clothing lines drop the ball on is the importance of taking professional looking product shots of their line. Upcoming clothing companies can skip this step for a variety of reasons, whether it be they don’t believe it’s important, it’s to costly or they don’t know any photographers. Whatever the case may be I have teamed up with photographer Josh Guim to help you solve that problem! Josh has taken some amazing pictures for bands, brands athletes make sure to check his portfolio HERE.

IAMTHTREND and Josh Guim Photography have teamed up to offer one lucky clothing a full professional photo shoot of their line for FREE! Yes for FREE!

Here is how it works. From July 11th to July 18th you will be able to submit a SHORT 3-7 sentence explanation why your company needs, deserves and/or wants a photo shoot. On July 25th we are going to announce the Top 5 finalists. From there we are going to turn it over to our readers whom will vote for whom they think deserves the photo shoot the most, by voting for their favorites.

What’s included?
The winner will be asked to send up to 5 products directly to Josh Guim, and a short description of what kind of look/vision they want and have for their shoot. Josh will take photos for that line and the brand will have full permission to they will have permission to use the photos for web and promotional use for their clothing line. In addition the brand will get a feature on both IAMTHETREND.COM and JoshGuim.com showing off their new photos and interviewing the brand.

How to Submit
Simply send your 3 to 7 sentence explanation on why your company needs, deserves and/or wants a photo shoot and would benefit from it and email it to
info@iamthetrend.com Both Josh and myself will go through the submissions and narrow it down to the final 5 which will be posted on July 21st! From their it’s all in the hands of the voters!

Any questions please feel free to leave below in the comments.

And make sure to support this contest by visiting the following:
www.joshguim.com
@joshguim
@iamthetrend
IATT FACEBOOK

Collaborations are a lot like a relationship, you can take two totally beautiful people and have one ugly kid. Likewise, two ugly people can create the next Blake Lively. The same thing can happen with a tee collaboration between brands and artists, you can take two awesome logos or styles and mash ‘em together into a wicked piece of garbage. For this reason you must selectively pick the brands, bands, or artists you link up with for collaborations. Work with brands that a similar to yours, carry a quality reputation, and aren’t simply trying to ride your wave of success. I recently finished up the very first Sugar Steak collaboration tee and below are the three questions I asked myself prior to doing this.

1) Does the style, target audience, and/or brand reputation work together?

I think we would all agree it would be stupid for The Hundreds to do a collaboration with Ed Hardy. If you don’t agree, stop reading this now. I mean, one brand is known for quality, originality, exclusivity, and consistent progress. While the other is associated with muscles, Jersey Shore, Costco, and complete sell-out branding. Now I already know someone who went to business school is reading this and thinking “Kyle you suck, The Hundreds would capture so many more customers if they worked with a known brand like Ed Hardy! I mean Ed Hardy is EVERYWHERE!” And my answer to you would be, get off IATT, go hug your business textbooks, and take your crew to The Buckle so you can all buy matching shirts. Sure TH might gain some new customers, but they would lose the respect of the loyal fans they have worked so hard to earn and ultimately lose a lot of repeat customers. People camp out for days to get their hands on a new Hundreds shirt, that means something. Not only are the two brands very different in style, but they cater to very different audiences, and carry very different brand reputations and respect. This is why you see The Hundreds collaborate with brands like Diamond Supply Co, E-40, and other brands/artists that epitomize what The Hundreds represents. When you are looking to collaborate with another brand you need to keep in mind what your brand represents and what the brand in question represents. Make sure your styles match, or have the ability to match together, the best collaborations come from companies that can target the same audience and carry reputations that will complement each other.

2) Will this cross-promotion be mutually beneficial?

Collaborate with brands that are on a similar scale as yourself and/or carry potential that will bring about positive recognition. As your brand starts to become more recognizable you will get approached by several up-n-coming brands suggesting a collaboration or cross-promotion idea. The reason for this is simple, they want to piggy-back off your success. They are looking to help themselves and hope they can leverage what you have worked hard to create. Sure they probably respect your brand and love what you offer, but you need to realize how a collaboration like this can potentially hurt your brand image. It’s one-sided, it will help their brand, but not yours. If you have built your brand name to a place where it is respected and represents quality, you need to stick with brands that have done the same. Don’t be afraid to turn people down for this reason. Sure they might think you’re a dick and say you act all high and mighty, but you have a brand reputation to uphold, it is YOUR brand and you obviously did something right to get it to where it is. Don’t be afraid to protect your image. On the flipside you may be approached, or you may even want to approach a new brand because what they are doing has potential. In that case, go with your gut, recognize talent when you see it and make the choice you feel is best. Now to those of you that have been turned down by brands
for collaborations and cross-promotion ideas because your designs or status wasn’t up to par, don’t get down on yourself. The truth hurts, but the truth will help you improve. Every brand has to start from the bottom, at one point Johnny Cupcakes was laughed at by other brands, but look at him now.

3) What’s the point to this collaboration?

In my opinion there are two reasons why collaborations happen. One, for cross-promotion and increased awareness to new customers. Two, to mix-it-up and get a fresh perspective or design style. If you’re just doing a collaboration simply because someone gave you the idea and you figured “Sure, why not.” Well then, good luck to you, hopefully you don’t waste your time and money. A collaboration tee should be planned out like all your other releases, in fact you should put more thought into a collaboration because it’s not just one but two brand names on the line. If you don’t have a good reason why you’re doing a collaboration, then don’t expect a whole lot to come from it.

Ok, now that I have yakked on and on. It’s time to put my money where my mouth is. Like I said earlier, I recently finished up the very first Sugar Steak collaboration with Saintgraphic, an artist from Italy, and trust me all of these questions went through my head. You can see the mash-up of our two styles in what I’ve dubbed the “Campfire Collaboration” available for pre-order now in the SGRSTK online store.

We’ve all seen ‘em, few have clicked ‘em, and even fewer have used ‘em. I’m talking about those little boxes on the right side of your browser whenever you’re stalking your friends, friends of friends, or that hot chick you saw at last night’s party. As a clothing company owner or blogger, you may think one of those ads could help generate some traffic or significantly add to your facebook fans, but you are unsure if it’s worth your money. Well, I am going to tell you right now, in my opinion “facebook ads suck.” Trust me, I have put these ads together at my desk job prior to owning Sugar Steak and have used them recently for companies I consulted for. There are much better ways to spend your advertising budget. I know what you’re thinking, “But there are over 500 million facebook users.” That doesn’t matter, how many times have you clicked on a facebook ad? Three maybe four times? I have clicked on “one” and it was only because it was an Arkaik ad and I was surprised to see them using one. Most likely just testing the waters, because I have never seen one since. If the previous few lines haven’t talked you out of it, then let me give you some tips below on how you can get the best bang for your buck with these crappy ads. Who knows, maybe you’re easier to please than I am and you will get exactly what you’re looking for.

USE A UNIQUE AND EYE-CATCHING IMAGE

People are more or less immune to facebook advertising. After years of seeing the same ads focusing on Mortgage Fraud, Coupons, Credit Scores, and FBI Recruiting, users have learned to ignore ads shown on the side of their screen. You all know the types of ads I’m talking about. You know, the ones with a stupid picture of a chick trying to eat a 40lb hamburger even though the ad is for some mortgage fraud website. Or a picture of a cop car on 44″ rims trying to recruit future FBI agents. The desperation of these ads should tell you right there, facebook ads DO NOT have good click-through-rates, or CTR if you want to abbreviate it and pretend you’re an SEO genius. The only way the creators of these ads can even get you to look at their ad is to show something so off-the-wall that it will actually catch your attention. I mean, seriously have you ever seen an FBI Agent rolling down your street on a set of dubs getting ready to bust your drug-dealing neighbor? And last time I was in a bank I didn’t see them handing out delicious pizza-size hamburgers next to the mortgage loan officer’s desk. So when you are selecting an image for your ad, I’m sorry but a cool mockup of your tees won’t cut it. You will need a unique cropped image from your look book, one of your logo (if it’s distinctive enough to stand out), or if all else fails… Get a hot girl to model one of your tees for you. The point is, with such a small space to work with, you HAVE to have an awesome image if your ad is even going to get noticed in the first place.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TARGETED DEMOGRAPHICS AND INTERESTS

When creating your ad you will have the option to select the age group, country, and precise interests you wish to target your ad to. Take advantage of these! Why would you want to waste thousands of impressions on people like your parents who only use facebook to post pictures of their new herb garden or patio furniture. You have the opportunity to sort out who your ad appears to, so if you are targeting misguided and music-obsessed youth with your clothes or blog, select bands you know this demographic listens to and set them as “Precise Interests.” Sure this will limit the reach of your ad, but it will save you money and impressions because your ad will only target those who will have interest in your brand. Also, you might as well eliminate anyone over a certain age and target only the age bracket you know will desire what you’re offering. Don’t fool yourself and think, “But parents will see it and buy something for their kids.” Trust me, if kids want it and don’t have their own money, they will tell their parents about it.

BE READY TO SPEND SOME MONEY

I know the next set of numbers will be debated as everyone has different sources, different factors, and different ways of interpreting click-through-rates. All I’m trying to point out is that facebook ads have a crappy CTR in comparison to banner ads on other websites, such as this one, IAMTHETREND. Anyway, the average click-through-rate (CTR) for facebook ads (based off my research) is between 0.050 and 0.051 of a percent. Put in a percentage that would be 0.0050 or 0.0051, yes that is less than one percent, no typos. In simple terms, about 5 clicks per 1,000 impressions. Any SEO dude will tell you a decent performing banner ad will have a CTR of about 0.09 – 0.10 or so, which means the CTR of facebook ads are about half of what a banner ad on a website should bring you. And that’s the average, you may have an ad that falls well below the curve. You can choose to try and counteract this in two ways. Pay for Clicks, and only be charged when someone actually clicks your ad, or Pay for Impressions, and hope your ad will be presented often enough to entice people to click the second or third time they see it. Personally, I would never pay for clicks as you can blow your entire day’s budget in a matter of hours that way. If you pay for impressions it will allow some fluctuation with your ads, one day you might get 200 clicks, one day you might only get 20, but either way more people will see it. Not to mention, every time your ad is presented you are creating “brand awareness” which any marketing course will push heavily as one of the most important aspects in business. The amount you will pay per 1,000 impressions will vary on the demographics you have chosen to target your ad towards and the estimated reach created by your selections. I suggest going with a budget of at least $20 a day for you ad, say at .50 per 1,000 impressions, that should bring you about 40,000 impressions per day and if you’re lucky 200 people will click your ad, but more realistically you might get 50 or so on average. Just prepare yourself ahead of time, don’t get all hyped up thinking thousands of people will click your ad each day, keep your expectations real. Whether you choose to pay for clicks or impressions is entirely up to you. Try running simultaneous ads and experiment to see what works best with your chosen ad and budget.

OFFER SOMETHING FOR FREE

You want more people to click your ad, “like” your page, or visit your site? Give away some free shit and publicize it in your ad. Something like “Like our page and you will be entered to win a free tee, one winner chosen each day this week.” We’ve all heard the phrase, “You’ve gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet.” If you want to really step up the amount of clicks your ad gets, be willing to give out some free stuff in order to attract people who otherwise would have no interest in your brand and ad message. If you read the Arkaik interview a few weeks back on IATT, you remember Jordan talking about giving away 20-30 shirts a day on their facebook page and adding over 26,000 fans in a month. Now you definitely won’t get that many new fans, Arkaik is a powerhouse, but it just goes to show you Jordan understands giving away free product is one of the best ways to attract new fans and potential customers. Especially with his demographic being largely a teenage audience. After all, when I was a teenager free stuff was pretty much the greatest thing in the world since I wasn’t exactly swimming in dollar bills. However, regardless of age, everybody likes getting something for free.

Well you guys asked for it on the IAMTHETREND Facebook poll! A weekly T-Shirt of the week pick!

So here it is!

This week’s t-shirt of the week pick comes to us from THE VNM and it’s titled “Positive Youth”

There have been a ton of great tees released in the last couple weeks but for some reason this tee really stuck out to me as my favorite. I absolutely dig that it is only a one color print that is bold as it is clean. I can definitely see rocking this tee with a pair of my favorite jeans and loving life!

You can pick up “Positive Youth” for $30 HERE

Flower Children are a clothing company that have literally come out of left field and impressed me. I have written about them a few times before on the site, but decided to get some more insight on this Montreal based company.

Credentials first, Name, Age, Location and favorite tv show

Jerome Gagnon, I’m 21, I live in Montreal, Quebec. I’ll go with Arrested Development because I can’t stop thinking of Gob’s best quotes lately!

Can you start out by giving us a bit of background on Flower Children and why you decided to launch a clothing company?

I know this may sound very common, but I wanted to use clothing as a mean of communication. I’ve always loved buying good looking tees and choosing them according to my personality and feelings at that moment. Two years ago, when I started thinking about this brand, I had little experience with the t-shirts industry but I’ve really felt and imagined the potential of it. So I decided to found a company which would give me the chance to express my artistic vision to the world. To own a clothing company is the perfect balance between art and business in my opinion!

The name Flower Children immediately brings to mind images of tie dye, peace signs, and basically anything hippie. What was the thought behind using that name and how does it tie into the “hippie” culture?

Basically, I wanted to create something that would go beyond shirt designs only. I wanted to create a story and express myself as an artist through the concepts of every piece we’d do. Flower Children was just the perfect name for that story.

Eventually, we want to create a whole new branding before the end of the year. Hopefully, we’ll be able to change our company’s image, refine the general concept of the line and gradually dissociate ourselves from any visual ”hippie” reference.

I was blown away with your website and imagery. How did you come up with the concept behind the website and whom designed it for you?

The website design and development was a huge project we’ve been working on for 6 months prior to the launch. The talented guys at The Black Axe have been totally killing it. We really wanted to create an immersive and unusual experience for the user. At that time, designer and illustrator Derek Deal was still part of the Axe so we asked him for a complete illustrated website design to suit our first line aesthetic.

We came up with the concept while creating the ”Nenuphar’s Territory” shirt design. After their journey, the characters were supposed to discover the imaginary Flower Children world in an animated introduction. A last minute decision was made to remove the introduction from the website to enhance performances. Nonetheless, the design is still very impressive and unique!

I really love how you guys have come out of the gates blazing with great looking tees, photos and website. What was it like preparing for the initial launch of Flower Children and how long did it take to put together?

Preparing that first release definitely took a lot of thought. I’ve been doing pretty much everything by myself but had some help from friends from time to time. It took almost two years to put together and the brand evolved a lot during that lapse of time. There are a couple designs we decided not to print, even a complete website we never released. Some mistaken decisions I did at first taught me a lot of things in the end. Oh and I’d like to say a special thanks to Etienne Dufresne who did a wonderful job on the photos!

Where do you see Flower Children going as a brand and what is your ultimate goal for the company?

This brand is the most beautiful wearable thing on Earth to me. I’d love to see people wearing these colors all over the world. I think they must know this exists, whether they like it or not. My ultimate goal is to create something timeless and to be part of the cultural development. Music and clothing always have been very close. Working with bands on unique projects directly in relation with Flower Children or not is something I am already thinking about. Hopefully this will happen soon!

What advice would you offer to people looking to start their own clothing line?

The market is near saturated at the moment but there is always space for new entrepreneurs in my opinion. Try to think of something different. Create a concept you believe in that will make you stand out of the crowd. I think that conceptual lines tend to live longer and are easier to manage on the long run.

Do you have any sales or coupon codes you would like to share with our readers?

I thought the best way to celebrate this IATT interview was to offer your readers ALL of our tees for 15$ from now until Sunday night only, no coupon needed! This low price will not be happening anytime soon so make sure you grab something before midnight(EST), April 3rd! We also wanted to let people know that we are doing a Spring sale: type tees will be 15$, conceptual tees will be 20$ and hoodies 25$ for the whole April month!

Any last minute shout outs or announcements you would like to make?

We are working on some new exciting illustrations with Derek Deal and other great designers so keep your eyes open for a summer release! I suggest you like us on Facebook for a chance to win a Free shirt regularly and stay informed about the preorder deals coming soon!

Thanks to I Am The Trend and Adam for this interview!

The end of round 1 of Tee Madness is scheduled to close tonight at 12am EST time! There are a TON of match ups that are either tied or with in a few votes of each other.

If you haven’t already please take a second to visit the tournament and vote for your favorite brand as they definitely need your help!

VOTE HERE

Round 2 will start tomorrow at NOON est and run till Friday at Midnight EST.

In this episode we take a look at tees sent in from indie clothing brands, Ruthless Apparel and Formatic Clothing t see how they stack up!

Check them both out at:
www.ruthlesspb.com
www.formaticclothing.com

With the new Iamthetrend.com only being up for two weeks now I figured I’d put together a quick tour of the site to highlight all the new features. The video basically spells everything out very simply as far as how to find the information you are looking for as well as how to submit news to the site. Hope you enjoy!

To celebrate the launch of the new IAMTHETREND we will be giving away a $100 Johnny Cupcakes Gift Card as well as a $25 Threadless Gift Card to two lucky winners! And if that isn’t enough I will be giving away tees to random tweeters ALL DAY TODAY!

How to Win:

Either Tweet or Facebook one or ALL of the following messages by copying and pasting them into either site!

The new IAMTHETREND.COM launched and giving away a $100 @JohnnyCupcakes Gift card! RT for a chance to win & visit their site! #IATT

The new IAMTHETREND.COM launched and giving away a $25 @threadless Gift card! RT for a chance to win & visit their site! #IATT

The new IAMTHETREND.COM launched and giving away a T-Shirts all day! Just RT this to enter and visit www.iamthetrend.com #IATT

Winners will be picked at random and announced all day Friday!

Welcome, welcome, step right in! Just wanted to take a quick minute to welcome everyone to the new Iamthretrend home and point out a few of the new features on the site!

The Big Changes
There are two main obstacles that I have with running Iamthetrend. First keeping up with the amount of requests for posts and actually having enough time to cover them. With the new version of the site companies can now submit their news in a formatted way that lets me quickly pursue and approve the post. Once approved it will get immediately posted on the site. But never fear I will still be here writing articles, lists, interview, etc. This is basically a simple way for companies, bands, artists to make simple news posts about sales, new items, releases, prints and more.

The second obstacle I have is that I have is that I have a pretty wide readership base, especially in the t-shirt world. From clothing company owners looking for resources and articles to tee lovers just looking for cool new tees and apparel. Thus one category of “CLOTHING” doesn’t really cut it which got me thinking about how to make it easy on everyone to find exactly what they are looking for. So on top of our standard categories we are now going to be using sub categories. From now on you will be able to sort and find what you are looking for in the following sub-categories: Quick Tips (250 word blasts about new products), Resources (in-depth articles focused on how to run brand), Epic Lists (t-shirt lists), Interviews (with various industry figureheads) and of course just standard Articles.

I am really hoping that these new sub categories will make it very simple and quick for readers to find what they are looking for more efficiently.

The Smaller Changes:
New cleaner more modern look that focuses more on the articles and images and less on the site itself.
Color coded categories. Since we have 5 different categories on the site I really wanted to make it as easy as possible for readers to distinguish what articles belong to what categories.
Facebook like buttons. We are finally moving into the new era of Facebook and changing all Facebook share buttons over to like buttons. Small change but we hope you “like” it!

Thank you!
I also wanted to thank all of the readers that come to this site everyday and help spread the word about IAMTHETREND. I truly appreciate everything you guys do and the support that you give and I hope that you find the new version of the site an even more impressive home. If at any point you have any suggestions, ideas or complaints about the site I can always be reached at info@iamthetrend.com

Huge thanks to Zach Reed at Blue Tide Productions for once again putting together a killer site and home for IATT. He knocked another one out of the park!

Please feel free to leave any comments on the new site below!!! I would LOVE to hear them!

Yes you read that correctly. On March 1, 2011 Emptees.com will be shutting down and thus leaving an incredibly huge void in the t-shirt world. I am honestly just blown away right now that this is truly happening. Honestly without the Emptees community and resources Im not quite sure if Iamthetrend.com would have ever got completely up and running, and to the point where it is today.

So before I go on, I just want to give the biggest THANK YOU to Matt and everyone at Indie Labs, whom ran Emptees.com. IATT is truly indebted to you guys.

There have been several talks on the Emptees forums about a new site or different options for the existing Emptees community. Currently there is a site called Bandjob.com which is run by the good dudes at The Black Axe. Out of the gate this site looks to be the front runner for taking over most of the existing Emptees crowd. I have been a member on BandJob for quite sometime but in all honesty nothing ever felt like home quite like emptees.

There have also been several talks from Emptees communities members such as Rob Dobi about creating a brand new site and home for Emptees. This idea really seems to be gaining a lot of traction with several coders, designers and community members looking to pitch in anyway they can to help. You can read more about this HERE. The idea of a community built by the community is an exciting prospect but could run into problems such as having no clear leader to take the reigns, and too many different ideas pulling in to many different directions.

Whatever happens when the dust settles I am sure that the community of Emptees will find a new home and hopefully this negative announcement brings something new and positive. If you have any opinions or ideas for the new Emptees home make sure to visit HERE As Rob Dobi is doing a kick ass job trying to get a new community together and started.

Any thoughts on adding a FORUM to the new IATT? Not sure how many people would actually use it, but if there is enough support I am always down.

Leave comments below!

To read the full release on why Emptees.com is closing visit HERE

Thank You!

With the end of the year coming to close I wanted to take a few seconds to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone that read Iamthetrend.com this year and/or suggested the site to a friend. This year readership cracked 300,000 visitors, with close to 1 million page views which is something that I am more than proud of and can’t thank you guys enough for all the support throughout the year.

Also huge thank you’s to all the clothing companies that were kind enough to send in tees over the course of the year. There are just way too many to list, but I really want to say it is appreciated and I look forward to reviewing and checking out to tees from all of you as well as new companies in 2011.

Lastly huge thanks to everyone that has advertised on IAMTHETREND over the course of the year. Without you guys this site would be much more difficult to run and manage. I can proudly say that ad spots remained sold out for the entire year, with a waiting list already for next year which can be gotten on at: BUYSELLADS.

Reflection on 2010

For myself 2010 was one hell of a roller coaster ride with some extreme ups and downs. Most importantly this year I was able to marry the women of my dreams and we moved into our first home together. IAMTHETREND saw traffic increase 50%, and I launched my first company called Pong Deck. I was also lucky enough to be hired to do some outside sales work with Threadbird Screen Printing. On a sour note, my 2007 Ford Edge basically took a giant crap, a gigantic tree fell down in my backyard, narrowly missing my house and my dog, Lucy blew out her knee and requires surgery. Bummer. Overall though I must say it was a great year and have high hopes for 2011.

IAMTHETREND in 2011

If you have been following me on TWITTER you may have seen me talking about revamping the site a bit. Well Zach at Blue Tide Productions is hard at work at IATT 4.0, or at least that’s what he tells me! Ha!

Without giving away too many secrets about the new site here is some of what you can expect.

In Closing

I wish all of you nothing but the best moving forward in 2011 and thank you all for a great 2010. For myself I feel like 2011 is going to be a huge year, and I hope the same for you as well!

I also will be gone from The beginning of the year until January 6th at the World Series of Beer Pong for Pong Deck, so posts are probably not going to resume their regularity till around then.

Have a great New Year!

~Adam

In this week’s video we review tees sent in from both Monster Mash and NY Illustration!

So here we go a look at Wolves Vs. Lions Apparel. WVL is a relatively new company with only four designs to their name, but as you guessed it these tees focus around LIONS! It always amazes and impresses me how companies such as Omunky, Hamburger Disco and now Wolves Vs Lions can take a extremely niche idea and create several different spins on basically the same concept.

When you have a clothing company based entirely around lions and wolves you would think that it would be rather exhausting and redundant, but Wolves Vs Lions does a great job taking the lion concept and portraying it in several different lights.

They sent me in two tees for review, the now sold out “Mother Savannah” and “Ghost Wolf” so let’s take a look.

The 4P’s (Packaging, Printing, Price, Presentation)

Packaging

The mailer that was sent in was interesting to say the least. WVL, has take a standard United States Post Office envelope and spray painted their logo on both the front and back of the mailer. This is honestly the first time that I have seen a company do this and in all honesty it stands out. While this isnt the perfect and most professional mailer I have ever seen, you have to love the effort and creativity that these guys put into this.

The package also included a poster of each design which was a nice touch!

Grade: B

Printing

The printing on both of these shirts is both very clean and well done. I can’t spot any screen printing mishaps and the ink on both tees feels pretty soft. I can see these getting even softer with one wash. While there isn’t a ton of small detail that the screen printer had to pull off they did do a good job making sure everything was printed with clean lines and did not cake the ink on. Which is exactly what you hope for when buying a tee online, well done.

Grade: A

Price

Both of these tees are priced at $18 which comes well under that $20 price range that I love. That being said these tees are also not printed on fashion fit blanks. “Mother Savannah” is printed on Fruit of the Loom and “Ghost Wolf” is printed on Tultex. While both of these blanks are decent they are not the top of the line American Apparel or Alternative Apparel. For $18 each I think this price point is well justified with the quality of screen printing and the decent blanks. Also if you use code “IATT” you will get an extra 15% off your order!

Grade: A

Presentation

Last but not least we have the overall presentation of the tees. I would have to say I like what I see from WVL, but I am a bit concerned with how much the brand jumps around with their styles. As I stated earlier I am in impressed with the different angles WVL took with their line, but I do feel looking at some of their newer tees such as “Splatter Wolf“ this brand is either about to change it’s style or its spreading itself a bit to far.

Overall between the packaging, printing, and price WVL definitely is on the right to track. With a bit more honed “brand identity” these guys will do good things!

Grade:B+

Check out the full line at: www.wolvesvslions.com and make sure to use code IATT for 15% off!

Here is the scoop:

We are looking for 64 T-Shirt Companies to fill out our bracket. Seeding will take place this Monday on IATT.TV. All 64 Teams will be put into a hat and drawn live on the show for bracket placement.

We will have a schedule drawn up, people vote, winners advance. With final Champion being announced and crowned April and announced live April 12th!

Champion will receive: Grand Prize:
$150 Storenvy.com Printing Credit
$100 Worth of Stickers from Standout Stickers
$75 Worth of Buttons from purebuttons.com
$50 Visa Giftcard from Blue Tide Productions
1 Month of Advertising on IAMTHETREND TV

4th Place:
$25 Worth of Buttons from purebuttons.com

So who is in?
We need 64 companies!
Email us at info@iamthetrend.com or leave a comment below!

WE HAVE FILLED THIS CONTEST! If you are in you have received and email from me! Sorry to the companies that did not make it in, this filled up extremely fast and it was straight first come first serve…

Here are the details on how to win!

A 1 Minute Video of yourself doing 15 revolutions around a bat, hockey stick, broom, or whatever cylindrical object you may have. At the end of your 15 revolutions you must draw a mythological creature!

You then need to post your video on our facebook wall at: facebook.com/iamthetrend or post it on any video hosting site such as youtube and send us a link!

DEADLINE IS THIS SUNDAY! April 18th!

Recap:
Fire up those webcams, 15 spins then draw a mythological creature! The more creative the better!!!!

For those of you that aren’t as adventurous you can simple retweet this page and we will pick on retweeter for a $25 Visa Gift Card!

So here are the details grab one or both of the following pictures and visit GetGrossedOut.com, Simply upload the photo, make it gross and save it! To submit your picture simple visit our Facebook Fan Page and post it to our wall!

We will pick 1 winner and announce them live on IAMTHETREND TV Monday February 15th! There is no limit to the amount of times you can enter!

Remember you have to be our a IATT Facebook Fan to enter! So make sure to visit our page and add us! Or Click become a fan in the right hand column of this site!

If you have any questions, post them in the comments below!

Use one of the following images: (right click save as, to save picture)

First off I just want to thank each and every one of you for visiting the site this year. The site is not even a year old and it’s already expanding way past what I had originally imagined a year in. Huge thanks also to all the amazing indie clothing companies that have sent in their tees for reviews and giveaways! Without you IATT.TV wouldnt be possible!

Enough with the old, now with the new~
What you can expect from us this year is MORE, MORE, MORE! More articles, more interviews, more awesomeness. We will be slaving away this year to provide you with the best and freshest content that we can dig up. Some of the biggest upgrades will probably be aimed towards IAMTHETREND TV. We just recently purchased and HD camera so now all of our live IATT.TV broadcasts will now be broadcast in HD! I really think that this addition will really enhance the entire show by being able to see all products that we are reviewing in HD!

We will also be making an effort to include more interviews, on site tours, new segments and of course more T-Shirt giveaways! On top of that we are going to try our hardest to have a preview video up the week before every show so that you can see what we will be talking about and giving away ahead of time!
Our first show back for the new year will be on JAN 11th at 8PM CST so make sure to tune in!

Lastly I want to give a huge thanks to all the contributors to IAMTHETREND.COM, their work has really helped take IATT to the next level.
-Beau Doran (Music and IATT CoHost)
-Steve “The Magician” Lobo (Responsible for putting IATT.TV together!)
-Sarah Seemiller (Wares)
-Bo Mekavibul (Clothing
-Jody Heavener (Music)
-Alexis Page (Music)
-Blaire Bommer (Art)
-Vickee Tweed (Music)

We are always looking for guest authors, so if you would like to contribute to the site please email us at info@iamthetrend.com

Thanks again & See you in the New Year!
We will be back in full swing Jan 4th!
Adam
IAMTHETREND.COM

Episode Guide:

Industry BS:
27 Sweaters you wish your grandma would be buy you!
Anti Theft Lunch Box!

Sales:
Threadless $9 tees all day today!
Single Second Clothing: 40% off blood40
Craig Watkins “Wotto” $10 tees, and original artwork on sale
1of7.com Free Shipping the rest of the year

Do You like my Tee-Tees
Zombie Liqourice -We review the entire new line!
I Miss You Clothing Review:
Retro Campaigns

STORENVY GIVEAWAY!
Fright Rags: Ladies of the Evil Dead $79.95
10 colors, discharge, comes with evil dirt, 11×17 signed poster, trapdoor box

Very Nice
Adam’s Pick: Ugmonk: Two Are Better Than One $24
Beau’s Pick: Mr Tastee’s Illinois $22

All of this would have not been possible without Zach Reed from Blue Tide Productions he absolutely took our vision and turned it into a reality. I also want to give a HUGE thanks to Jud at shirtfight.com and Tim at Assaultblog both of those dudes helped us out immensely with brainstorming ideas for the new site! Also a huge thanks to anyone that jumped on IATT.TV and gave me feedback as to what they would like to see on the site!

Lastly, please let us know what you think!!! We would love to hear the good and the bad of your thoughts on the site! Feel free to email us or leave comments below! Yes, you might find a few bugs here and there and we would love it if you could let us know what you find. We are trying our hardest to get all the old content from the old site over to this site and get it formatted properly, so bear with us!

That being said, there is a TON of new content that has been posted, so take a look around and let us know what you think!

Adam & The IATT Crew!