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.

• Clothing, Jewelry, Computers This is an interesting Weblog about online shopping and, to be more specific, about clothing, jewelry and computers. So you'll read articles about online shops, shopping experiences, consumers stories and also reviews. But there will be much more than this, as example we'll talk about the online shopping phenomenon and......
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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.

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Derek, considering your big expertise with Cdbaby.com, what do you think about online shopping? Pros and Cons?

Selection is the best. You know “it” (the web) has everything, and at the best price.

Only downside : can’t flirt with the cute employees.

10 years of online shopping, people say there have been diminishing margins and returns due to growing competition, and more investment in marketing than ever (Adwords, PriceGrabber), what do you think about this?

If you’re just trying to sell something that everyone else is selling, then of course customers will just look for the best price.

At CD Baby, we generally sell music you’re not going to find anywhere else. So nobody seems to care about the price much. The artist sets the price, anyway. It’s their creative choice, not ours.

What about fraud?, there has been growing credit card & shipping re-direction fraud, harder to fight back.

It’s no problem. We look at every order before shipping it, and if it looks too suspicious, we cancel it. Been doing it the same way since 1998 and it’s never been a problem.

Thank you for your answers. Now, about you, what are your projects for the future?

Just trying to make cdbaby.com a fun place to find new music. We’re open to any suggestions from music fans.

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Michael, what can you tell us about your Art Gallery?

RockPoP Gallery was launched online in December of 2005 to showcase the best graphic art and photographic talent working in all areas of today’s music industry.
I had the privilege of working with a number of these artists and photographers on projects related to my previous roles as one of the founders of Fuse, the NYC-based music video TV network (serving as Vice President of Interactive Development and Production) and as V.P. of Interactive Production for Fuse’s parent company, Cablevision Systems.

Impressive, please continue…

Over the years, I’ve slowly built a collection of these works of art, and every visitor to my home or office would marvel at the variety and the level of artistry. I loved being able to share the history of each piece and talking with them about the artist who produced the work, the musical artist who influenced the work and even the state of the world at the time each one was created.

Eventually, I figured out that there are a lot of people who have the same passion for this artwork as I have and therefore it just made sense that I’d open a business like this to invite everyone to visit and join as part of the RockPoP Gallery community.

So this huge Gallery includes the works of over 20 of the best-known designers, illustrators & photographers covering the past 50 years of rock music history…

The Gallery’s collection features iconic music industry-related artwork (with a focus on album/CD cover illustrations & photography) for musical acts such as Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Run-DMC, The Grateful Dead, The Sex Pistols, Santana, The Who, Genesis, The Ramones, Cream, Afrika Bambaataa, Peter Frampton, David Bowie, Audioslave, Mars Volta – and many others – all offered as limited-and-special-edition fine art prints, posters and related collectibles.

The Gallery site offers over 500 works of art – with prices ranging from $50 to $2500 – from many of the best-known graphic artists, illustrators and photographers in the music business, including Richard E. Aaron, Jay Blakesberg, Dennilu, George DuBose, John Entwislte, Richard Evans, Karl Ferris, Nat Finkelstein, Jeff Gaither, Howie Green, Brian Griffin, KnuckleBonz, Elliott Landy, Manuscript Originals, Bob Masse, Jim McCrary, Stanley Mouse, PlasticGod, Simon Posthuma/The Fool, Jamie Reid, Carlos Santana, Cal Schenkel, Vic Singh, Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis, Paul Whitehead, Neil Zlozower and others.

This is an amazing list! Thank you Michael for your time.

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