Today we interview Justin Hoehn. Justin manages LEADapparel.com, providing a broad range of apparel brands at the lowest prices possible. With 27 warehouses covering all regions of the U.S. LEADapparel.com has the ability to ship customer orders quickly to anywhere in the country and worldwide.
Fashion, internet and our society
Manuel Marino: The styles you present are sporty but also with an elegance touch, we can say unique looks, right?
Justin Hoehn: Absolutely. We try to give our customers diversity. We believe that the stylish consumer has different needs for different occasions. You might want to dress in an urban influenced t-shirt when bumming around town but tomorrow, you might have a tee time & need a nike dri-fit polo.
What can you tell me about your latest alternative apparel line?
We recently added alternative apparel to our product line and are extremely excited about the response we’ve had from our customers. Alternative apparel is in the same mold as american apparel. The line is made from high quality fabrics, fitted and fashion driven. They focus on core prodcuts and do a wonderful job at expanding on colors and certain fits. You’ll see awide range of celebrities sporting the line (Pitt, Timberlake, Leonardo, Clooney, Fergie, Walberg, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Eva Longoria) this is just to name a few.
What do you think about fashion in 2008?
Fashion is always changing, sometimes for the better / sometimes for the worse but at the end of the day, we like the classic / minimal look to pass the test of time. Although everyone appreciates a saville row tailored suit, the reality is you have more people working from home or in a casual office enviroment. They’re more comfortable in a tee & jeans, tee and designer sweats or some sort of combination. It’s no longer a sloppy look since designers have tightend up the fit & color options and it’s become more acceptable in the office, especially at younger companies.
What about fashion and internet, is it a good alliance?
The web has obviously been a wonderful alliance for all business. The consumer has more choices in a matter of minutes than they would in an entire day of shopping at the malls and you don’t have to pay for gasoline. The knock has always been that you need to try on / see in person what your going to buy. At leadapparel.com, we have made it a priority to make this a seamless process. The addition of images for each color and sizing charts for most products elminates the risk of ordering something that doesn’t fit or not the exact look the customer was expecting.
It’s only going to grow into a more sophisticated shopping experience. We’re looking into video displays for certain products and I’m sure by this time next year there will be a must have for online stores such as ours.
Is it really so important appearance in our society? is it really a good thing?
Appearance and style has always been important and always will. Call it vanity, expression or necessity, we all have style, whether it’s bad or not is up for debate. But there is no doubt in my mind that style is an important aspect in for living a more exciting and interesting life. People with a great personality seem to give off more style even if they are wearing the same get up as the next guy with a bad attitude who thinks style will carry him alone. If you are constantly following the crowd, it can become mondane but if you are diverse and comfortable with your style, it’s a major plus on how it comes off to others.
I think it’s only smart to keep your appearance looking good. Sure, there might be too much focus on “appearance” in some circles but I think there’s no doubt that someone’s overall appearance is a direct reflection of a person’s vibe and personality.
Paul Baines is a T-shirt Designer and Blogger. Read his popular t-shirt reviews blog and read also about his highly original t-shirt designs. You can vote now on his latest Threadless.com submission or purchase pieces from his collection at Retrogod, Redbubble, Zazzle. This is his exclusive article for us, a kind of diary, where he talks about tshirt designing, internet and shopping.
The life of a T-shirt Designer
I’m a t-shirt designer, in fact I’m simply a designer, but I’ve found myself straying from the rather bland world of graphic and web design to the glitzy and glamorous world of fashion without even realising it.
I can’t say I’ve made a fortune from t-shirt design, but I will say it’s one of the most rewarding career shifts I’ve taken in my life so far. My time is split between conceiving and designing unique and original ideas for new t-shirts, and reviewing new and established t-shirt fashion labels on the Net.
My consumer market expands daily, these days savvy fashionistas realise they can make an immediate impact in any wardrobe with a few choice artistic tees, a frugal yet fashionable way to stand out from the crowd.
The beauty is there are so many sources for t-shirt design these days that you are bound to find a design you love, a design that no one you know and perhaps not even friends of your friends have yet discovered. Impact and individuality, artistic style and originality, these are the watchwords of the t-shirt fashion industry and its consumer base.
One explanation for the ‘t-shirt boom’ is a revolution in Internet technologies, with the arrival of Web 2.0, more and more websites, stores, business and consumer networks, search engines and directories realise they have to keep their audience engaged, and consequently interactivity has become the name of the game. It doesn’t really matter what you create or sell, if your potential buyers are bored they will leave.
Unlike the ‘real world’, the online shopping experience cannot rely on the vitality of human senses such as taste, touch, smell to inform their choices. Perhaps we’ll find a way in the future to replicate these essential components of the human and therefore shopping experience. Until then we have one vital advantage on the Net and that is the interactivity of community. Something unheard of in the modern world, a concept one might even describe as old fashioned, has created a revolution on the Web. The explosion in user-rated and user-generated content has changed shopping online forever.
Amazon.com and Ebay.com are the most likely pioneers in this way of selling, consumers turning to the opinions, comments and reviews of past buyers and contributing their own. The difference is that this methodology has moved far beyond seller ratings and book reviews, and I’m proud to say that the t-shirt fashion world is leading the next stage of the Internet’s development as a fully-rounded experiential shopping platform.
Until recently t-shirt designers had two choices, firstly they could set up their own independent store with ecommerce capabilities and secure hosting and hope and pray they can cover their costs. The second choice was Cafepress.com which has been running for over a decade now and provided designers a way to economically begin to sell their unique t-shirt designs to a worldwide audience, whilst keeping costs as low as possible for their consumers. The problem with Cafepress.com and Spreadshirt.com (a later arrival offering higher quality screen printed tees) is that neither offers any real quality control. Yes Cafepress.com still sells a basic white t-shirt with the design of your choice from only $9.99 but they have serious limitations on the size and placement of any contributed image. Essentially you’re talking a 10″ square box in the middle of your t-shirt, no matter what the design may look like.
Some years back a new company, formed originally as a thread on a t-shirt forum burst onto the scene, and it completely revolutionised the way that people buy fashion. Threadless.com introduced the idea of totally empowering the customer, not only enabling them to rate the current collection on sale and communicate personally with each designer, but more so, the customer can decide if a t-shirt is ever even made! Yes, before a new design is printed users of Threadless.com can vote through a 7 day process that defines the fate of every t-shirt they sell.
I can imagine a bright future for the online consumer, more and more choice, variety, control over design and production. The only problem is the rising cost of fuel. The ‘virtual shopping’ experience may always be able to compete with smaller items, but as the world runs dry, shipping expenses will become highly prohibitive. The future may be far less complicated than any of us can imagine.
Jared W. Olen, founder of OlenJewelry.com, made an intense trip and his story is featured in this article. Olen Jewelry is an international retailer of high-quality, sterling silver jewelry. Jared told me a fascinating story about the campaign he will start soon and that will have the name Fair Trade Silver.
An intense trip in the profound Mexico
My idea for Fair Trade Silver came from a trip I took in May of 2006 to Mexico. My best friend, Kim, and I flew into Benito Júarez International Airport in Mexico City. We had worked since that January to plan a trip to see the “real” Mexico, that is, a trip that did not include staying in Americanized hotels and resorts.
While reading Jared story I thought, well, this is a really nice experience, in Mexico, culture and tradition are seen as central to life and society and Mexican people are profound and warm, not at all superficial. But you can’t understand their traditions if you stay in hotel. I continued to read his story…
My main goal for visiting Mexico was to visit Taxco in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
Taxco de Alarcón (Taxco) is a former colonial silver-mining center in the northern part of the Mexican state of Guerrero on the western arm of the Sierra Madre del Sur. It is located 200 km southwest of Mexico City along the old highway to Acapulco at an elevation of 1,800 m (5,900 ft).
…Taxco is known by many as the sterling silver capital of the world for it is home to countless shops that sell beautiful machine- and hand-crafted sterling silver jewelry made from silver mined just outside the town.
Taxco reminds me of quaint European town with its narrow, cobblestone streets and white-washed buildings that are perched on the side of a mountain. When one visits Taxco it is shocking to see how purely “un-Americanized” it really is. There are no Wal-Mart nor are there other corporate giants.
I love corporate giants :) and I would love to see a Wal-Mart in Italy, but this time I really envied Jared for this experience. The Aztecs founded a city they called “Tlacho”… what artistic treasures Jared will find?
…the silver trade in Taxco relies on buyers that travel from around Mexico, the United States, and the rest of the world to Taxco with cash in hand to purchase goods to bring back to their stores. I met many buyers there on their annual buying trips for stores in the United States and Canada. What really struck me, however, was the indigenous population that lives nearby.
Taxco has an “Indian Market” where indigenous people descend from the mountainside every day to display and sell hand-made goods to the citizens and visitors of Taxco. I thought to myself what a great idea it would be to establish a reliable international silver trade network between the silver shops and artisans in Taxco and the rest of the world.
As Olen Jewelry moves into the future, I am exploring the possibility of opening a community crafting center in or around Taxco where local artisans can use the workspace for free to create their jewelry. I will then bring their goods to the United States where they can be sold to the mass-market. All artisans will receive the majority of the proceeds from the sale of their jewelry. In this way, those people who do not have the money to invest in equipment and raw materials can still put themselves to work creating jewelry that truly is an expression of themselves and of Mexico.
This is admirable… well, a good business idea, of course, but also admirable, indeed. And we wish Jared to succeed in this project! We’ll post an update about this in the future.
Today we interview Oliver Aigner, owner of CarTFT.com. His business is very particular and I’m sure you’ll love to read about it. They offer people a cheap way to integrate computers into cars.
A beautiful Car-Pc
When did you start your business?
We started in May 2003. (You can read this page).
How did you have the idea to start it?
I personally installed my very first car-pc in 1996. At this time a mp3 player was very expensive and I wanted to hear mp3 in my car. So I took an old big desktop PC and put it into the car. Later I also added a GPS receiver for getting navigation.
Why we should have a Car-PC?
When you want to have a very own customized system with all possibilites in your car, then a car-pc is the only way to go. And especially if you are a PC enthusiast, nothing comes around a car-pc. You will be able to stay fully updated with all latest technologies and possibilites.
Is GPS really useful?
I would never take a printed map again :) A map can not show you the nearest rest station or restaurant. And a map does not tell you where to drive and when you will arive there. GPS simply adds a lot of comfort to your life.
How do you see the future of technology?
There recently are a lot of approaches from the industry to fully digitalize our lives with total networking, internet & digital services everywhere. Best examples are ViiV or MID units. However I guess people either are not ready yet for all the new possibilities or they simply do not want to go this “next step”. So actually I am not sure about the future.
What are your next projects?
As we know that the topic “car-pc” is not so easy to understand, we currently work on a new improved systembuilder which will guide our customers to the best configuration based on their needs and not on their knowledge. We also will add new techniques like Geotracking for parcels and PayPal Express checkout. And we will more and more use Ajax on our website as this brings a lot of comfort for the visitor.
Wally August is the owner of a gift baskets business. Since 1987, this commitment to quality, beauty and service has made Fancifull Gift Baskets Hollywood’s #1 gift basket company with a worldwide clientel. They have provided baskets and gifts for over 500 movies and TV shows.
Wally said me: I have lots of great stories for your weblog, we have trekked to little known regions of France and Italy to find foods and meet with wine makers.
And this is one of these stories, exactly, one story written by my wife, Terry, about finding a “new” winemaker in France. This happened in May of this year.
A Taste of Fate: Meeting Winemaker Jacky Blot
Many of my vacations truly are “working vacations”. Yes, we spend three weeks in France, but we are visiting wine makers, cheese producers and the like. Yeah, I know, tough job - but someone has to do it. I can’t complain. I do work at hunting out products. Much like the truffle pig, I am always sniffing around, looking in local shops, watching what the locals are eating. Of course this often means eating and drinking many things to be assured of quality - I never just take someone’s word for it - but that is another story altogether.
When I eat a cookie I like in Italy, I will find out who imports it to the U.S. I am quite vigilant. This is just the best way to bring my customers items they might not find otherwise, such as many of the wines we have in our shop. Sometimes I find them through a focused tasting or meeting wine makers. Sometimes greatness just falls in your lap, almost like Divine Intervention.
Forces were at work when we discovered the lovely wines of Jacky Blot: Domaine Taille aux Loups (whites) and La Butte (reds).
The Intervention came by way of a kindly Paris wine shop owner, Christophe Vidal. While we were buying some wine from his shop, I noticed some odd whiskeys from Japan which started up a conversation (and some sampling of said whiskeys, did I mention how nice this guy was?). In our discussion of the wine business, we mention that we are planning to visit a winemaker or two in the Loire Valley. As we are about to leave we hear a shout. He comes running up to us with an open bottle of wine. Turns out that the winemaker, Jacky Blot from the Loire Valley, had been in his shop earlier for a tasting of his wines. Jacky had left an open bottle but Cristophe didn’t need it, perhaps we could take it back to our apartment and enjoy it. We took our Taille aux Loups wine, happily skipping back to our apartment and marveling at the kindness of strangers.
The wine is a delightful surprise. Chenin Blanc grapes, light, crisp, wonderfully balanced. What a nice gift! My husband, Wally, ever diligent, looks up the winery and I can see he is contemplating - actually becoming determined - to find the winery in our travels. We move on to the Loire and are having dinner in the city of Tours when, lo and behold, the Taille Aux Loups is on the wine list by the glass. We have to order it, and yes, it is as good as we remembered. Okay, that settles it; we have to find this winery.
After a few days of trying wines in Chinon and Saumur (both great cities to visit and sample wine), we track down the winery Taille Aux Loups. We drive along curvy roads, follow the river (because we don’t know exactly where it is) along the south bank of the Loire east of Tours. Eureka, we find it! Jacky’s daughter Françoise greets us warmly as we come in from the rain, and sets up quite a tasting for us. We try sparkling wines, the whites that we love, and reds from nearby Bourgueil. It is quite fantastic, especially since we don’t even have an appointment. Jacky pops in and gives us an exuberant hello, but he is quite busy with a bunch of clients in another room. We write down the name and phone number of their distributor in California and buy some bottles to add to the collection we have amassed during the previous few days. We high five ourselves once we get in the car, feeling the excitement of another successful hunt. We rub our hands in anticipation of tasting this wine for our clients back home, and hope that the distributor, Adventures in Wine, carries the wines we want. We have never bought from them before, or even heard of them.
We return to our Paris apartment a few days later with our cache of prized wines. I really want to serve Jacky’s wine at our upcoming tasting in two weeks. I need to email my assistant Dave to find this company. As I am looking in my purse to find the business cards from the wine makers we visited, I find a card for Adventures In Wine! I have no idea how it got there. I don’t remember ever meeting the person whose name is on the card. There is no other business card from America in my bag, having cleaned it out before we left. Françoise at the winery did not give me a card, she just had me write down the name in my notebook. But here it is. Magic! That did it. We were obviously destined to have this wine in our shop.
The importer has the whites I want, not the reds, but they are ordering them for me. So with this happy set of circumstances, I am able to offer this fantastic wine to our customers. And it all began because I had noticed some odd whiskeys at a Paris wine shop and started asking questions.
