innerTee

DemoCamp Austin :: Recap

// February 27th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Austin, General, Web tech

I just posted a quick recap of DemoCamp Austin over on the Bootstrap Austin blog and wanted to do the same here. It was an amazing turnout and really cool that Cafe Caffeine let us take over the whole place.

Also, on a quick sidenote, there is a small festering group of Dallasites (yes there is a cure for that) who for some reason have decided that Dallas has a ‘cooler’ tech scene than Austin. What? Um, I’ve seen the really exciting pics of DemoCamp Dallas and I was at the Austin event (flickr, SnapPages). Not sure if the lights are off for naptime or if they snuck into an old office building but nothing says cool like lights, caffeine and a dude in a blue bandana… that’s #$@% cool!

All jokes aside thanks to everyone who made is out and all of the companies that presented. I think it was really helpful and we hope to do it every quarter as interest allows.

screen printed vs transfers ::: the digital divide

// February 21st, 2007 // 5 Comments » // Fashion & Tees

We get a TON of questions regarding our ability to create ‘on-demand’ screen printed tees and I thought it would be good to explain a little more about what we do, why we do it and how its different. There are a few main reasons we chose to go with screenprintng:

Quality
There’s nothing better than a super soft screen on a high quality tee, its what makes life worth living.

We knew something about it
Having run a screen shop for a few years and still running redarmyco we’ve been toying and tweaking with our process for a few years. Its something near and dear to us and we learn more everyday.

We couldn’t afford digital transfer equipment
No, not the crap you buy at Office Max, that’s cheap. We’re talking about the top of the line, super spiffy direct to shirt printing setup. They are super $$ and still not on par with screen printed tees yet esp when it comes to light colors on dark apparel.

Outside of that it was really about how much we loved the look & feel of screened tees and our comfort level with how it works. Yes, we’ve screwed some stuff up along the way and are still working to make it ‘perfect’ but that’s what keeps us going.

All of that being said there are some differences between screened & digital tees that we continue to work on in regards to innerTee…

Screen printing limitiations
Size & color of artwork is locked-in before artwork is published for mixing. You can’t flip or skew the image since its basically a one-sided graphic. It’s one thing that in an online setting can be a little frustrating but we are looking at offering mulitple sizes and colors a little later on.

Digital transfer limitiations
You can do more online but its when you put the shirt on that the differences jump out. Transfers are usually not as bright as screened tees and don’t seem to hold up quite as well. They also have trouble holding their color on dark apparel items and can feel like some of those awesome 80’s iron-ons at times sticking to you like glue.

So far we are still loving the overall look, feel & quality of our screended tees. We’ve also been blown away by the great response from people who’ve gotten their hands on our tees and we will keep working to make that experience even better!

innerTee contest | design our new shirt label

// February 12th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Artist Q&A, Design, Fashion & Tees

We’re looking for a new label design that will be featured in all of our limited edition ‘innerCircle’ mixes that will be launching soon. I’ve posted the details on the forums if you are interested!

The innerCricle mixes will be part of some new features we are adding to the site that we are really excited about.
Please send all submissions to contest@innertee.com & let us know if you have any questions!

update – thanks Joe for helping spread the word!

fight club @ CommunityNext

// February 11th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // General, Web tech

We just got back from the CommunityNext conference out in Stanford and it was a blast. We met a ton of cool people and the speaker line-up was really good – especially the last panel that included six community founders with more than 5 million members. But there’s really only one word that can sum up our short trip out to the left coast… FIGHT!!

I’m not sure if a few of the local super stars in attendance got their RSS feeds crossed or what but it was ON Friday night at the Blue Chalk Cafe. Yahoo! was the party sponsor and if the fight was included as part of the deal it was top dollar. There was a mass of security guards, girls screaming at their boyfriends, police cars and even some spincontrol as photographer fetching was forced to delete photos of the incident before leaving. Noah puts on a mean conference but man the fight really made us feel at home!

All kidding aside, we did get a lot out of the conference and there are already a bunch of good write-ups on what went down. There were so many cool people and ideas floating around it was great to be in such a creative environment. Looking forward to seeing everyone again at SXSWi next month.

Update: Megan over at Valleywag has posted a full write-up of the brawl complete with fight pics & photo album that has our ugly mugs included.

SXSW Interactive ::: Web Awards Finalist!

// February 2nd, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Austin, Design, General, Web tech

We found out today that innerTee has been annouced as a finalist for the business catagory of the SXSW Interactive Web Awards! We are really excited and there are some awesome companies up for nomination, its an honor to be included.

As part of being a nominee we are also up for the overall People’s Choice Award so drop us a vote (daily if you feel the need!). And thanks to everyone who’s been a part of innerTee, we’ve just gotten started but its been a blast so far!

innerTee on okdork.com ::: killer tee experience

// February 1st, 2007 // 3 Comments » // General, Web tech

Noah at okdork.com has been kind enough to feature innerTee as this weeks grouporation. Please feel free to post your ideas and suggestions – we are always open to suggestions!