Scared Panda » T-Shirts

How We Give

Kate — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:42:10 +0000

It’s been a whirlwind year for us and as the end of our first year sneaks up on us, we have been evaluating the impact we’ve made in the local nonprofit community. Long story short, it’s not enough. So, we’re changing it up.

In order to really make an impact, we are going to partner with one nonprofit each year. Right now 10% of the sales from each design go to a different nonprofit. Starting in 2011 10% from all sales will go to one nonprofit that we will choose together. In addition to receiving a monetary donation, we will give time. Clint and I will both volunteer for the selected nonprofit on a regular basis and we will have Scared Panda volunteer days four times each year. This will allow our customers and friends to get involved in their community, to really make a difference.

In the next couple of months, we’ll meet with various nonprofits and narrow it down to three possible partner organizations. During the holiday season – from Thanksgiving until Christmas day – we’ll open it up to the public and let you vote for the nonprofit you’d like us to work with for the upcoming year. Consider your vote a holiday gift to the nonprofit you choose.

If you’d like to help us select a nonprofit or would like to be involved in Scared Panda volunteer days, sign up for our e-newsletter. We’ll let you know when voting is open to help us select a nonprofit and we’ll keep you up-to-date on events.

As we begin our search for our potential 2011 partner, let us know which Chicago-based nonprofits you’d like to throw in the mix.

- Kate

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10 Things You Didn’t Know About T-Shirts

Clint — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:02:48 +0000

You Design It just put together a pretty interesting list of the “10 Things You Didn’t Know About T-Shirts”. For instance, did you know that it takes six miles of yarn to make one t-shirt?

Peep the full list here.

1.) Cotton has been grown for over 6,000 years.
2.) The word “t-shirt” first appeared in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in the 1920′s. Two other best-selling books during the same time period were Farewell To Arms and The Great Gatsby.
3.) That’s a lot of dough for some t-shirts!
4.) In 1939 the first promotional t-shirt was printed for the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.
5.) “Absorbent” cotton will retain 24-27 times its own weight in water and is stronger wet than when dry. Get you some of that polyester!
6.) There are 35,000 cotton farms in the U.S. and 98% percent of cotton is grown in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
7.) T-Shirts made from recycled cotton prevent over five billion tons of textile waste from entering landfills each year.
8.) Top 5 Cotton Producing Countries (2009)

– China: 32 Million Bales
– India: 23.5 Million Bales
– United States: 12.4 Million Bales
– Pakistan: 9.8 Million Bales
– Brazil: 5.5 Million Bales

9.)Annual Dollars Generated by Industry

– Cotton: $25Billion
– Candy: $17Billion
– Jewelry: $7Billion
– Music: $3Billion

10.) It takes six miles of yarn to make one t-shirt.

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Half A Year Of Thoughts

Clint — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:20:08 +0000

It’s been just over six months since Katie & I shipped out the first Scared Panda t-shirt. Since that first tamale t-shirt went out the door we’ve created two more rounds of tees, shipped shirts to Austria and Australia (and all over the US), met some really awesome people and learned more about t-shirts than I ever thought possible. The first six months gave us the time and experience we needed to see what was working and what wasn’t.

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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Win a Free Shirt!

Kate — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:44:58 +0000

I recently had some time to get to know another local entrepreneur, Jess of Jess LC. I’ve been admiring her jewelry and reading her blog, Make Under My Life (try the Throw Out 50 Things Challenge!) for awhile now and have learned a lot about starting a new business, living life with intention and finding joy in everything you do. We decided to do a three-month ad run on her blog and part of that package is a t-shirt giveaway. Head over to her site, check out the interview I did and throw your name in the hat for a free t-shirt.

- Kate

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Happy Summer!

Kate — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:48:36 +0000

Yesterday was the first day of summer and we celebrated by going to Yogen Fruz. I suppose it’s more accurate to say we half-celebrated, half-sought relief at Yogen Fruz. On a 15 minute walk home we managed to get incredibly hot and uncomfortable and needed SOMETHING to cool down. Yogen Fruz is one of my favorite places in the city and, for me, it was a pretty easy decision to stop in and grab a cool treat. We were greeted by a long line of hot, happy Chicagoans enjoying the first night of summer. Something about it made my heart smile. Maybe it’s because I know that in a few weeks people will be grumbling about the heat and the lines. But, for now, everyone seems to be taking their time and enjoying all that summer has to offer (including the sweat). Where is your favorite place to cool down in the summer months?

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Soccer T-Shirts By Studs Up Football Club

Clint — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:49:34 +0000

Right now the biggest sporting event in the world is going on all over South Africa. No matter what you do or who you are, it’s difficult to ignore the World Cup for the next month. So, if you can’t be on the pitch or in the stands with a vuvuzela, don’t worry because Studs Up Football Club has got ya covered with some great football, or soccer if you prefer, t-shirts. My favorites are the more colorful & animated Whimsy collection.

$35 at http://www.studsupfootballclub.com

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Hold The Ketchup T-Shirt on Hide Your Arms

Clint — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:37:18 +0000

On Tuesday Andy of Hide Your Arms was his super awesome self and posted about our Hold The Ketchup T-Shirt by Kristen Wenke on his site. If you’re not familiar with HYA or Andy, well, let me tell you about them using their own words:

Hide Your Arms blog aims to cover (pun!) all aspects of the independent clothing industry, bringing you news and point out items of clothing, with a focus on long-sleeved goods like hoodies, track jackets and sweatshirts.

And he had this to say about the t-shirt;

You know how hot dogs are regarded as being made with the bits of the pig (and other animals) that you generally wouldn’t want to eat? Is there anyone out there that makes Hot Dogs with quality meat, or would they just not taste ‘right’? I ask because in America there are lots of famous hot dogs (such as the Chicago-style hot dog pictured), but it seems to be that they’re famous because of everything but the dog, or am I missing something here?

Being that he is over in the UK, they don’t have the same passion for the hot dog as we do here in the states. But none the less, Andy liked the t-shirt and give us some love, so what else can you ask for, right? So, thanks to Andy and HYA!

Check out the full post here and buy the Hold The Ketchup T-Shirt here.

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Food Trailers + Cupcakes

Kate — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:26:48 +0000

A couple of weekends ago, Scared Panda and friends headed south to Austin, Texas. One of our favorite things about traveling is, of course, the food. If you can’t tell from the three food-themed shirts we’ve produced, we love to eat. And searching out local food is such a great way to learn about a particular culture and social scene. During our time in Austin, we discovered, and fell in love with, food trailers. If you haven’t experienced this yet, please make it a point to do so. The best food we ate during our four days in the city was produced in a food trailer – tacos, crepes, snow cones, cupcakes and more. Here is a short video of Clint destroying a strawberry cupcake from Hey Cupcake! Enjoy.

- Kate

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The Original Rainbow Cone

Clint — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 20:24:25 +0000

Last week we stopped by The Original Rainbow Cone at it’s new Loop location, kindly tucked into the corner of the Halsted Street Deli at State & Lake.

Original Rainbow Cone has been an ice cream favorite in Chicago for 84 years. This vintage ice cream shop, housed in its distinctive historic pink building on the Southside of Chicago, has been pleasing the palettes of three generations.

The layers of the cone are Sherbert, Pistachio, Palmer House(Venetian Vanilla with cherries and walnuts), Strawberry and Chocolate.

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How many t-shirts on my kitchen table? Somebody knows!

Clint — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:57:10 +0000

The time has come to announce the winner of our “how many t-shirts are sitting on our kitchen table?” contest. We had lots of guesses that were all over the place; some were way high, some were way low and some were just one or two off. However, only one person knew her way around a pile of t-shirts and said…twenty five! Yes, twenty five t-shirts on the table. This lucky guesser is Marsha Spaniel. Congrats Marsha. Please take a tour through our extensive t-shirt collection and pick out one shirt that you like.

Marsha’s not a stranger to arts and crafts in Chicago either. You can find her this Sunday (6/6) at the Constructor Craft Fair in Berwyn as well as other places on like like Etsy and Twitter. So check her out and hopefully you will catch her wearing her new Scared Panda t-shirt.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a guess!

Peace out,

- Clint

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