United, originally uploaded by [clint].

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I recently had a chance to catch up with the owner of More, Patty Rothman, and she told me about the More Mobile that will be launching mid-August. You may be familiar with Flirty Cupcakes – the idea is similar, but I think it will outshine Chicago’s first cupcake truck. Part of the reason is because More sells a better cupcake and secondly, they have some really great ideas for the truck itself that will make it stand out.

For more information about this highly anticipated truck, check out the post I recently wrote for Gapers Block.

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What Works
- Get off line. The internet is a great place to communicate and find people, but we found that nothing beats solid face time with customers and potential customers. Getting out to festivals and art fairs has been an effective way for us to meet customers, artists and to generally pimp the Scared Panda brand.

- Limited prints. I never want a t-shirt that I know a million other people have and I’m guessing I’m not the only one who feels this way. Therefore we decided to make each Scared Panda t-shirt part of a limited collection. We are only printing 100 t-shirts of each design. Once that design sells out, its done and you now own a collectors item.

- Pandas. The Scared Panda logo tee is one of our most popular t-shirts. In fact, it’s  so popular, we only have one left. The next generation of our Scared Panda will be more artistic and will reflect our brand more accurately. Since this is a new design, we will print another batch of logo tees.

- Social networking. Facebook, Twitter and Flickr have been great tools for us to spread the panda love and communicate with customers. Through these sites and applications, I’ve been able to meet and talk with different people from all over the world about our company, what we are about and what they think about our product.

- Women’s shirts: Our yoga t-shirt did really well and we’ve learned that a lot of ladies like our Scared Panda shirt as well. In the future we’ll print each design in both men and women’s t-shirts.

What Doesn’t Work
- Online advertising. Google Ad Words, Facebook and miscellaneous ad time online have led to very little page views from our target market.

- Assuming people know what I’m talking about. I do this all the time, I start talking about something and assume the person I’m talking to sees exactly what I do and they will automatically understand and just ‘get’ what I’m saying. When working with designers and printers its important to lay out every aspect of the design, t-shirt and process that I am thinking about and to double check to make sure the person on the other end is making out what I’m saying clearly.

- Expecting people to just show up and buy stuff. I have a kick ass product and just need to put it out on the web and people will start buying it up. Yeah, that never happens. Running a business takes time, dedication and lots of hours promoting and pimping the product, in this case, getting t-shirts in front of people want them. Part of this includes becoming friends with other t-shirt vendors and t-shirt review sites. Over the past six months we have become very close to some great t-shirt reviewers, bloggers and general fans through out the world and each have helped significantly in helping us promote Scared Panda.

A New Direction
With the popularity of the Scared Panda logo tee, we decided to create a more centralized theme for our t-shirts. The new theme will still involve Chicago, but we are expanding to incorporate other cities as well. In addition, each of our designs will incorporate the Scared Panda somehow – sometimes it’ll be obvious, sometimes it won’t.  A few ideas we’ve been floating around: a Scared Panda climbing the Empire State Building, a Scared Panda conducting an out-of–control el train and a Scared Panda matador (Scared Espanda). The new t-shirts will be inspired by my travel experiences and from stories that I hear from friends, family and other random people I meet along the way.

We’re excited about these changes and hope you are too. Have any travel stories to tell that would make a great t-shirt? Drop a comment below and tell us about it!

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Last night our friend Heather invited us to see a dance show called Time Flies by the AMEBA Acrobatic & Aerial Dance studio. AMEBA is a Chicago-based nonprofit that dedicates itself creating, performing and teaching in the realms of Acrobatic Dance and Aerial Dance. The group is co-directed by her brother Kip Conwell and sister-in-law Chloe Jensen – who rocks multi-tasking by dancing and choreographing in shows.

This weekend will conclude their three-week concert series Time Flies. It’s a matrix of dance, bungees and trapezes to take the dance floor up. All set to the music of artists like The Chemical Brothers, Moby and other well known musicians. If you’re looking for something fun to do and change up your regular weekend, then go check this out.

When
Friday, July 23 at 7:00 PM
Saturday, July 24 at 2:00 PM (matinee performance)
Saturday, July 24 at 7:00 PM

Where
The Ruth Page Center for the Arts
1016 N. Dearborn, Chicago, IL  map

Costliness
$25/ticket, or $20/ticket for groups of 5 or more
Special rates can also be arranged for very large groups.

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We’ll finish the ride around 3 a.m. on the lake front and will stop somewhere to get some breakfast (Pick-Me-Up – hello pancakes!, Tony’s Burritos, perhaps a night cap at Carol’s?) then catch a few zzz’s before heading to one of our favorite soccer bars to watch the World Cup (go Netherlands!).  All-in-all, sounds like a pretty awesome day to me.

If you’re at the L.A.T.E. Ride, look for the group of people decked out in Scared Panda gear and come say hello!

- Kate

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At the end of each quarter we take 10% of every sale from each of our t-shirts and donate that money to the organization that has been chosen for that t-shirt. This quarter we added quite a few new t-shirts into the mix and these new t-shirts brought in new organizations. Take a few minutes and check out these great Chicago organizations:

• Esperanza Community Services
• Imerman Angels
• PAWS Chicago
• The Anti-Cruelty Society
• Mercy Home for Boys and Girls

If you were one of the many people who bought a t-shirts this past quarter, let me say on behalf of Scared Panda and all these organizations, Thank You!

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Chicago Pizza Tours stuck out to me because they take you to different neighborhoods and allow you to sample a variety of pizzas (they even stop at Italian Fiesta – a favorite of the Obamas). On this tour, you’ll get your deep-dish craving satisfied and you’ll get to experience some of the best non-deep dish joints in the city, including one of my favorites, Coal Fire.

For those of you partial to Chicago-style deep dish pizza, check out Slice of Chicago Pizza Tours. This company takes you to some of the most famous deep dish joints in town and, it’s a walking tour so you won’t fall into a pizza coma when you’re done with your journey.

Don’t forget to wear your Pizza Fight t-shirt as you explore Chicago’s pizza scene.

- Kate

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