chaunt: t<3    |

In this post I’ll be looking at the tshirt store that’s not a tshirt store. Vintage Vantage sells tees, sure - some are damn cool too.

But cool is what this site does well. It also sells ‘things’, koozies, wallets, stickers, and more.

Think that’s cool so far? Think again. Because this site doesn’t just call itself Vintage for the hell of it, or because it sounds cool. These guys do vintage. An awesome range of real vintage tshirts from years gone by. They sell the cream of the crop on the site and some cheaper options via eBay auctions.  Anyone want to buy me this one for Christmas?  Go on, it’s only $2,300 …

I’d actually be interested to know which element of their site makes the most money - the mass produced tshirts, or the high price vintage.

I love niche sites, businesses, approaches.  It takes a lot of confidence, belief and ability to be successful with niches - most people play it safe and go for the mass market. But then they get lost in the masses and struggle to stand out.So when someone goes ’super-niche’ I have even more admiration, and that’s what Christine has done with her tshirt site Retro Campaigns. She’s not only gone for a politics niche, not just an American politics niche, she’s gone for old school, retro, US political campaigns niche. And what an amazing job she has done with the site - it looks beautiful, it’s information and most of all, it’s easy to buy shirts. The site is also full of interesting information, spotlights, clear FAQs and contact info. There are even Facebook and MySpace groups.

I must admit that, being a Brit, the tees don’t mean as much to me as I am sure they do to you Americans out there. But even I can recognise ‘cool’ when I see it.

It’s interesting, blogging about t-shirts.  I didn’t realise I would be contacted so often by people running their own t-shirt sites, selling their designs and generally trying to get some publicity.  I am actually going to start writing about them more often, but only when I think either the site or the deisgns are worth the time to.

One site I heard about today, Robit Studios, ticks both boxes, but particularly the site design.  I think the slogan “just another pretentious t-shirt company” on the homepage sums up the owner and his attitudes.  He also either knows how to design websites, or has employed a studio who know their stuff.Browsing the t-shirts couldn’t be easier.  The rollovers are large and clear, the key information is there (price!) - though perhaps available sizes would be a nice addition.  Likewise, the page with info about custom printing is clear and to the point.

So the designs themselves?  Well the range is quite limited at the moment, but what’s there is pretty cool.  I particularly like Karloff and Joust.