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ExploreTee Hunter got to speak with SwishSwosh recently. They are a new british tshirt brand focussing on limited edition tshirts created via an ongoing design competition. I was keen to hear more about their operation, what they offer designers and what they are bringing to the already fairly busy ongoing tshirt design contest market. Please read below to find all about SwishSwosh and their tshirts!
TH: What is your background and how did it lead you to start swishswosh.com?
SS: We are in fact nightclub promoters, based in Manchester. We have been in the trade around 7 years, and have 5 very successful weekly nights. However it was doing a job like this that brought our attention to the amount of “clones” we saw entering the venues. Too many people were out making the ultimate fashion faux pas, been seen in the same outfit as someone else… We wanted to breach the original fashion market, and create a new range of limited edition apparel at affordable prices.
SwishSwosh
TH: What inspired the style and format of the online business?
SS: We wanted to bring something new to the table, not just be an online retailer, but to be a community for fashionistas, designers, and creative minds alike. The design aspect of the site gives depth to SwishSwosh; we are essentially doing 2 things at once. We are selling limited edition apparel as well as providing an outlet for designers to showcase their work.
TH: What made you choose an ongoing design contest, employing voting to assertain the submissions worth printing?
SS: In the USA it’s a tried and tested formula. We already have a huge community, and all we have had is positive feedback. People love the voting aspect, it gives them a chance to showcase their work, and get analysis from likeminded people, and on top of that, who doesn’t want to be £1,100 richer!?
TH: There are a few of these in existence already, what do you feel you bring to the table – that is fresh and new?
SS: We have a new system, currently been finalised, which allows through a new application to reach out to millions who use social networking sites. We also have a two tier voting section, not only do you vote for which t-shirts you want to see put into production, but you vote with your wallet too, as the t-shirt with the most sales is the one which is crowned our overall “Grand-Prize” winner.
SwishSwosh
TH: How limited are your limited edition t-shirts and what prompted you to not mass produce designs?
SS: We only make 50 T-shirts in each size, which is pretty limited wouldn’t you say? Our original aim from the outset was to eliminate the high street clone, so if we ourselves started to mass produce our Tee’s, we’d be turning back on what we set out to do…
TH: What has been your personal favourite design and why? (image please 540px min – width)
SS: I personally loved “colour works”, not for any particular reason other than the fact I think the design looks great on a T-shirt. I like to wear loud clothes, but I’m sometimes too shy to dare, the whole “peacocking” thing is something I’d love to do, but struggle to find the bottle! This T-Shirt allows you to wear loud colours, but its very understated…
TH: What has been your personal favourite design NOT to be printed (perhaps not enough votes) and why? (image please 540px min – width)
SS: Summer Skull (pictured below) – I REALLY love it! In the first month it just missed the cut, and now the votes have stopped coming in for it… Very gutted, that would have been a favourite in my wardrobe!
SwishSwosh
TH: How do you engage with your customers?
SS: Mainly through the website blogs and the Facebook Fan Page. We do competitions, giveaways and post pictures and videos quite regularly, so we always have a pretty good interaction with our customers. SwishSwosh <3’s it’s FB Fans! J
TH: What do you offer designers who enter your contest?
SS: The prize structure is pretty simple – £100 if your in the top 10, an extra £1,000 if you’re the best seller of that range, and 50p commission on every T-Shirt sold.
TH: Where do you see the business/brand going in the next year?
SS: Well hopefully we will have expanded into other apparel markets, namely hoodies, I suppose that’ll be our next step. But for the time being we are just concentrating on keeping, maintaining and expanding our designer pool. By the end of 2010 we will have a huge range of different designs on the site, so as long as the quality of those tee’s matches up to the quality of the launch range, you can expect great things!
Big thank you to the SwishSwosh team for their time and help with this interview!
You can submit your design or purchase their tshirts now!
