American Apparel sells out?

Dov Charney's American Apparel is selling out for $382.5 MM (US)! The horror!

This is a watershed moment in the apparel business and one filled with so many ironies and contradictions.

I knew AA from the very beginning (when Dov would produce home made catalogs with even more suggestive photos back in the late 90's). AA's whole business model was based on socially responsible T-shirt manufacturing. Sure, the sex and style thing was important, but no message was more prevalent than the fact that this company cared for its workers in its downtown Los Angeles factory.

Dov railed against the machine from day one. I remember him calling retailers like Guess, Gap etc "assholes" for offshoring their production and paying minimal wages to downtrodden factory workers in Malaysia, etc. He waved his banner proudly and vigorously stuck his middle finger at the Man. In the early days, I did not think his business would fly given the commodity driven nature of the T-shirt industry. His prices were high, stock levels were awful and product quality was a mess.

But eventually, he figured it out and was able to mine a very profitable vein - the socially aware teen market. Sex sold, socially conscious manufacturing sold, Playboy/girl magazine covers on the walls of his stores sold, his sexual harassment suits attracted all sorts of attention ... and ultimately sold. Genius! As Seth Godin would say, American Apparel's Purple Cow was not clothing at all, but the idea of socially responsible clothing manufacturing.

While this was happening, skinny teens/tweens bought boatloads of expensive AA gear from the retail stores. Eventually (and shockingly) conservative corporate groups jumped on the bandwagon as they bought AA gear for their events (disclosure - yes, we partly are responsible for spreading this gospel to the corporate/cool crowd).

Does all of this change with the sale of his company to Endeavor Acquisition Corp? Endeavor has plans to take the company public and also plans to blanket the world with more stores so they can take on the likes of ubiquitous retailer Abercrombie and Fitch. A&F is not known for its socially responsible manufacturing (at least in AA's view). Is this the future of AA? Coming to you soon in America's suburban malls?

This raises an interesting question that all public companies face. Can the original spirit and joie de vivre be maintained when a company is now subject to the pressures of Wall Street and a shareholder base? Shareholders are typically different than customers in that they really only care about returns, profits, dividends etc (socially responsible manufacturing is nice and all, but only when it delivers a profit).

I am sure that Dov and his partners have thought long and hard about this. It would be a shame for them to compromise their core values just for the sake of extra dollars (they are doing pretty well right now at $250MM in sales annually). I am hoping that the craziness of AA continues to thrive and prosper with its new parents.

Introducing James Graham ...

At 3:30 Tuesday morning (Dec 13), we welcomed James Douglas Graham into the world.

Weighing in at 7lbs/1 oz, he is a beautiful and healthy little guy. Brother Matty has already been to the hospital for an inspection and he gives James the 2 thumbs up. His other brother Jack is at home and can't wait to plant a big lick on James's face when they first meet.

ma.gnolia

I am certainly not the first one to discover this site ... but ma.gnolia is a fabulous social bookmarking tool that allows users to share bookmarks and tags with one another. What I find interesting and different can now be shared with like minded types across the online community.

Holiday Heroics! Booo White Mugs!

Ok - so this is a blatant plug for rightsleeve.com, but this is just so cool .... and we think you will enjoy it.

Our creative team's latest holiday email blast is hilarious and really drives home what we stand for in this business - creative ideas and fun stuff that works for creative and fun clients! Calling all creative and fun clients!!

(oops - sorry, if we have offended the white mug crowd, but lighten up will ya?!!)

U3 smart drives - very cool

U3 smart drive technology is starting to gather traction in the market place. This technology (for now) has only been embraced by the early adopter tech crowd.


The concept is simple. U3 drives look like a regular USB flash memory stick BUT they have 1 differentiating feature - they feature software apps (word processing, email, etc software) that can be launched from almost any computer. The idea is that people in the future will only carry around their U3 smart drive and plug it into any computer. Their software apps and files will run from the smart drive. Data on the drive is encrypted so, if lost, security is not an issue. If this takes off, I am sure we will see much fewer laptops being lugged around on business trips.

This is a pretty profound technology and one that will push us further into the mobile computing space.

Read more here

Why is this relevant to our blog? My prediction is that we (and companies like us) will start to see a shift in the corporate gift space as we sell imprinted USB smart drives versus the standard USB flash memory drives that are so ubiquitous today. I give it 6-9 months before we see this shift in the corporate branded merchandise space. You heard it here first!

Flickr Moo .... Boo!

Here's my beef with buzzy web 2.0 sites. Despite rave reviews from in-the-know web evangelists, they still shaft the customer (on occasion).

Everyone loves these sites as they are community oriented and pro-consumer, but it does not do the consumer much good when transactions don't go through thus souring the overall customer experience. We have a big disconnect here.

So, to my point ... Flickr's buzzy printing site Moo can't seem to get its act together.

Here is what's wrong:

1. I crop every one of my 82 Flickr photos for printing on moo.com (a process that takes about 25 minutes ... but I will chalk this up to a creative 25 minutes so I am not griping). btw - the printable area drag and drop process is counterintuitive, but I figured it out in the end.

2. Proceed to the checkout screen - create an account, input credit card info, click proceed and it tells me my transaction has gone through (i.e., a bill is available for printing), BUT at the same time an error message appears.

3. I fire an email off to client service asking if my order actually went through (hey, this is web 2.0 - where is the IM option, or perhaps the ability to check my online account history). Anyways, client service responds in 2 days and says the order is no where to be found - it must not have gone through. Argh

4. So I try again. I repeat the cropping process (25 minutes of aggravation now - it's no longer fun and creative when doing it the 2nd time).

5. I proceed to the checkout and input my login and password at which point the screen freezes and I am out of luck. All that work for nothing. I quit.

6. Two attempts, 50 wasted minutes of cropping (why is my work not saved?) and no Moo cards.

The conclusion is that while I am all for web 2.0, community interaction, digital commerce and positive consumer experiences ... what's with all the hype when the site just does not work properly? This is fundamental and basic.

Moo - I know you are the current darling of the internet photo printing business, but wake up and make it a little easier for us wee consumers! I just want my cards!

Even the Enterprise can be fun!

Much has been written about the Enterprise and its inability to embrace the fun and quirkiness of the web 2.0 world. In a nutshell (according to some), the Enterprise = business, boring, grey, soulless cubicles, the "Man", "doesn't get it" etc.

One of the most tireless tiraders (is that a word? Well, you know what I mean) against the enterprise is Tara Hunt - an outspoken marketing rogue (self described) and evangelist for web 2.0 and the power of communities. Tara has some cool things to say and I agree with most of her marketing philosophies (and admire her passion to boot).

Anyways, the enterprise is not all that evil, especially when the office knows how to have a good time making money, returning value to shareholders and other "enterprise-y" things like that. We think we have set an example in this regard.

The quirky people at rightsleeve.com have recently joined the flickr community and hope that other offices across the land will do so as well (a few pioneering companies have already done so before us). Hey "Enterprise", let's lighten up!

Jakers goes viral!

Yehaw - Jakers (the famous rightsleeve.com office mascot) has gone viral.

Click here for a day in the life of Jakers!

Crank those speakers and shake your booty :)

Office 2.0 Conference, San Francisco

I just spent the last two days (Oct 11-12) at the Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I learned about the event from a friend of mine, Mike McDerment, who was speaking at the event about his new web based invoicing application, Freshbooks. This was the enterprise follow-up to the consumer driven Web 2.0 mesh conference held in May 2006 in Toronto. As a web/office 2.0 enthusiast, I was excited to spend time with some of the leading minds of this movement.

This is new territory. There is no consensus on what the future of Office 2.0 will look like, or whether we will ever get there. In many ways, it feels like we are on the brink of something very profound, yet many question marks remain.

The core principle of Office 2.0 revolves around how users collaborate with one another in an enterprise. Sending documents via email is considered "Office 1.0", while working collaboratively with colleagues on the same documents across multiple offices is what the Office 2.0 movement is all about.

Office 2.0 principles are guiding the productivity gains at rightsleeve.com. We have developed a powerful web based solution to power all of our work flow, CRM and supply chain management. It was not an easy process, but we pushed our development team hard to create something that would eliminate the paper flows, increase transparency and ultimately allow our staff to collaborate easily with one another.

Web 2.0 apps will also power the front end of our web business, ultimately benefiting clients. We have always seen our clients as partners in our success. We are looking to the web to connect clients with each other and the products they order – more on this as we roll out the features over the next few months.

Some of the memorable moments of the conference included:

- Attending the conference during the week of two major Google announcements: (i) the You Tube purchase for $1.65BN and (ii) the launch of Google Docs and Spreadsheets

- Being reminded of one of the principal obstacles to widespread Office 2.0 adoption – broadband and connectivity issues. (network issues repeatedly slowed down demo presentations and Gmail even failed once for a stressed out presenter demonstrating a mashup).
- Innovative office 2.0 applications: Joyent, Zoho, Wufoo, SugarCRM, Koral, Genius

- Andrew McAfee’s keynote address on Enterprise 2.0 (he has written what has become the academic standard on this new phenomenon)

- Esther Dyson’s somewhat luke warm endorsement of Office 2.0. I thought it was an interesting way to start a forward thinking web conference with a leading tech advocate who admitted she was more Office 0.9 than Office 2.0 (well, at least she was honest).

I was very impressed with the conference organizer, Ishmael Galimi, who whipped together this conference after evangelizing the concept in his blog earlier in the year. His philosophy (expounded on his blog IT Redux) about the move from desktop installed software to hosted web applications spurred much debate before and during the conference. It was pretty impressive that he and his team were able to assemble such a strong line of speakers and vendors in such a short period of time.

Cool things to do ...

-Take the day off work to read a new book.

-iPod>Music>Songs>All>Shuffle

-Walking your dog before sunrise

-Take photographs – lots of them

-Blow a party horn at work

-Laugh really, really hard

-Do something outside of your regular routine

-Be the first one your son sees in the morning … DAAAADDDDEEEEEEEY!

-Attend a conference
outside of your specific industry

Starbucks – why art thou inconsistent?

I have praised Starbucks in the past (and will likely continue to again), but they appear to have some creaks in its armour as it marches towards global domination. Starbucks’ brand was built on high quality coffee served in a comfortable environment. I suppose one’s expectations of a company like Starbucks are so high after consistently positive experiences at their stores.

However … what’s with Starbucks stores in the United States? I generally find them dirtier, ruder, factory-like and generally unimpressive (compared with Canada). Starbucks in the US feels more like a Burger King outlet.

-Employees are sloppily dressed (why wear the baseball cap when it’s 4 sizes too small for your head?)
- rude (“yeah, what you want?”)
- have limited selection (Chicago airport, I believe is operated by a company called HMS Host, only offers 1 brew (mild) + 1 decaf …. where is my bold? – customers have been trained to ask!!)
-ill trained (why does it take 3 staff members to process a credit card transaction?) and is more expensive ($1.75 US vs $1.75 CDN for a Tall).

You want your favourite brands to succeed, not falter. This is why I am writing about this. Howard Schultz – get over to Chicago and fix those HMS operated stores. (oh, and go to Las Vegas afterwards – the airport operated stores are not much better there either).

Creativity and chaos

The best and craziest ideas at rightsleeve.com often result from those long and tiring days when someone snaps the silence and creativity block with a comment like "hey, wouldn't it be cool to showcase our staff top ten product picks online?"

Followed up with a "ya, and let's take pictures of us in silly positions with the number 10".

Followed by ... "oh yeah, let's sharpie marker that long sleeve shirt with the number 10 and get the boss to wear it for his photo ..."

Followed by ... "I'll up that and lie on the floor in 3 positions (and 9 photo takes) to make up the number 10" (bring it on, Photoshop!)

"This is wacked ... okay - how about making 10 out of sushi and what' this? ... a dozen eggs less two = 10?"

etc etc

The bulk of our office and web creativity comes from these random 30 minute sessions of frenzied discussion, photo taking, marker wielding chaos, heated debate and creative gymnastics. Check out the results here. It may not be polished, but it's passionate!

We hope to bring you more of this in the coming weeks as this is the stuff that really makes rightsleeve.com tick.

Loot bags at TIFF 2006 ...

As an industry insider, I always find it amusing to read about the outsider's view of this business. Most people express (rightly so, in some cases) snide and snarky comments that this business is all about cheap plastic, swag, chachkas, crap, doo-das, etc etc. This business is unfortunately populated by many uneducated "professionals" who service uneducated buyers. [I won't get into what these people are called in our industry] The result is a bad product that people just don't need, let alone want.

I find it interesting that TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) distributes promotional giveaways to celebs who yawn at yet another pair Fendi sunglasses, iPod or the latest swanky cell phone. Read more in the Globe about this. Ratchet it down a notch or two for the regular folk and this is the same as a corporate buyer ordering cheap plastic pens for a high end corporate executive conference (and it happens ALL THE TIME). Cheap plastic pens for a high end corporate executive conference? You have to be kidding!

This is where this business gets its ugly reputation from. Poor purchasing decisions and poor market research - why spend the money at all?

Many promo companies squander the opportunity to make their clients look like heroes when it can be so easy! Why? People LOVE free stuff, however people REALLY LOVE free stuff that appeals to them. See more in my previous post on Starbucks where I say that people REALLY LOVE free stuff (even if it's cheap) when they perceive the value to be high to them. This is why this is an $18 Billion industry in North America alone.

So back to TIFF - why give a celeb something they have 10 of already (that they'll now get taxed for)? Why not think outside the box and get them something they really want (which may be nothing at all) ...

rightsleeve.com video premieres on You Tube

rightsleeve.com premieres it first major video release :) - "Day in the Life" video on You Tube.

Wired Mag - truly gets it!

Kudos to Wired Magazine - quick and easy to subscribe!! 2 clicks and I was done - even for a Canadian! Poor Fast Company still can't figure this out (to follow the saga, check out the previous post on how to make subscribing to your modern/new age magazine convoluted and positively antiquated).

rightsleeve.com - what's in a name

I get asked a few times a week about where the name Right Sleeve came from. Like most cool names (well, we think it's cool at least), it came from random inspiration. It also follows some basic common sense rules about how peoples' minds work.

1. Come up with something that people can spell (but I am constantly amazed by the few people who spell it "wright sleeve" - okay make sure 95% of the population can spell it).

2. Come up with something kind of quirky that people will remember. ABC Promotions is lame (not sure if ABC exists, though I am sure it does). I believe they have a much harder job ahead of them - even if they are great people that provide a great product.

3. Come up with something that has its own unique url. Web sites with hyphens or descriptors like "marketing" or "world" or "inc" are just lame. Sorry. Old brands usually suffer this fate when they venture online.

4. If you can loosely relate your name to what you do, all the better. We sell a lot of apparel. Logos are embroidered or screen printed on different parts of our apparel (left chest, right sleeve, lower left hem, right cuff, etc). There's our loose connection.

5. I believe the best and most memorable brand names in today's new economy are quirky and offbeat. Google, Boing Boing, Amazon, Flickr (though this hard to spell), Yahoo, Expedia, etc etc. These are hard names to forget.

6. Don't take yourself too seriously. Pick a name. Make sure people can spell it and remember it and then get on with your business.

Fast Company ... not so Fast

It's ironic that one of the champions of all things digital and "fast", Fast Company magazine cannot even make signing up for a subscription easy for anyone outside of the US.

Check it out for yourself here (top right - click SUBSCRIBE)

If you enter a non US address (say Canada) and click "APO/FPO-Canada" for the state, you will be continually rejected. (the error message reads "Please enter your name.Your city, state and zip did not match with postal records." even though this is not true) btw, the site keeps defaulting to the Middle East.

In today's digital world where ease of use on the web is king/queen (think iPod, Google, 37 Signals, etc), Fast Company fails big time. This is annoying that I now have to email their customer service department specifically to receive a subscription (and it has taken 3 business days and still no response from them - how antiquated is that)! Imagine walking into a store with $100 ready to buy a gadget and no one is standing at the counter to take your money.

Fast Company: please join the ranks of other progressive organizations that practice what they preach - make it a little easier for your customers to pay you money for your product.

Time to subscribe to Fast Company = 3 days and counting. How "fast" is that?

Vitamin D

For those of you in the business world who have been residing with a remote Amazon tribe for at least the last year, Seth Godin is a 7 time best selling business author.

"The Purple Cow" is just one of the 7 titles that has been floating around the Right Sleeve office since its release.

This morning, I sat down at my desk feeling a little frustrated from the week of busy work. I needed some type of inspiration. Thanks to the wondrous powers of the World Wide Web, I found it quite quickly.

I came across a post on Seth Godin's blog.

"The thing about the wind" is a post that should be read by absolutely anyone who is feeling frustrated by slow progress with clients, suppliers, and even coworkers.

Go ahead and read it. I guarantee it will shed a little vitamin D on your day!


Seth Godin has also been mentioned in "10 People You'd Invite to Dinner and Why"

Growing Again ...

rightsleeve.com is looking for a few account managers and one production coordinator (to join our Toronto office).

Impressing The Pants Off Your Clients 101

I was at my local Starbucks this morning in mid town Toronto. I asked for a Grande Bold drip coffee and the barista told me apologetically that I would need wait 2 minutes for a new pot to be brewed.

It did not seem to be a big deal, but nonetheless the barista was rather fussed about the wait time. I paid $1.96 for the coffee and with my change, he handed me a free coupon for "Any Starbucks Beverage" that I could use at my convenience in the future.

Here I am thinking: "wow - these people are smart. They asked me to wait 2 minutes for my coffee and for the inconvenience they are compensating me with a coupon worth over $5 - and I was not even upset to begin with!"

The cost for Starbucks (on even their most expensive drink) is about $0.25. The value to me is over $5.00, but more importantly, I will remember this for weeks to come. In fact, I have already told 3 people about it today and now I am broadcasting this on our company blog for the world to see.

Not a bad investment - for about $0.25, Starbucks is getting all of this free word of mouth advertising. By cultivating this special relationship with their customers - by far their most important asset - they have guaranteed an ongoing revenue stream until the time they really screw up!!

American Apparel pushes the envelope (again) ...

We have been in business for about the same amount of time as American Apparel - the funky/sexy/stylish line of women's/men's apparel we now sell by the boatload to the trendy set.

Their controversial ads have always had a gritty and honest feel about them - very "auteur" and "home movie". While they have been attacked in the past for the age of their models and the provocative nature of their product shots, they certainly have hit a nerve in youth culture.

AA is also about pushing the envelope. Their retail stores around the world showcase the covers of old Playboy and Playgirl magazines - all framed along the walls. It is a nod, they say, to the company's retro chic roots and the celebration of old school pornography is a part of that.

Most recently, they started using porn actresses (most infamously, Lauren Phoenix) to showcase their gear. There is a much ballyhooed ad featuring this actress modelling AA's retro socks (below).

AA Press release on this Lauren Phoenix business is here

Check it out - what do you think? Is AA exploiting women, or are they marketing geniuses that know their market and does not care what others think of them? Would you stop buying their products knowing this is how they market themselves?

World Toilet Day

Funny but true - after reading this weekend's Globe and Mail (Aug 19), one learns that Nov 19 is World Toilet Day (according to the World Toilet Organization - the lesser known WTO). The Globe article is only available to those who subscribe to the online edition.

Funny but true - we even make gear for toilet enthusiasts.

Stuart MacDonald - Exit Interview

Right Sleeve in the press! Stuart MacDonald, founder of Expedia Canada, was featured in the Globe and Mail's Small Business Magazine in the "Exit Interview" section.

Mugging for the camera, Stuart is wearing our cap produced for the mesh web 2.0 conference in Toronto.

10 People You'd Invite to Dinner and Why

Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of the Purple Cow. I love this book for its small size and refreshing view on what is wrong with traditional marketing. He has a very cool perspective on what makes a product/company great.

Michael Nichols, National Geographic photographer (above). Well known for his wildlife photography in Africa. The Last Place on Earth is a retrospective on his journey through the Megatransect in Africa.
















Jim Nachtwey, VII Agency photographer (above). While he taken some pretty depressing photographs of war torn nations, poverty and environmental degradation, he is one of the few artists who can make something beautiful out of something so tragic.

Larry Page/Sergey Brin. Creators of Google. I read a good book about these two and I loved the description about their "healthy disregard for the impossible" when setting up Google. (in reference to their desire to catalogue the entire world wide web in the late 90's).


To be continued ...

Red Bull/Matty G

Even Matty G (23 months) likes it. Red Bull gear is all over the place at Right Sleeve.

Innovators Dilemma

All innovators are hated in their first term - Mark Graham

NYC/103rd St

This was a cool shot taken in the NYC subway last week. Love the repetition of the pillars. (photo Mark Graham). 

Jobs!

We are currently looking for an office manager and an account manager to join our growing company.

Jakers

This is Jakers - our office pooch. He keeps our office under control and ensures that no visitor is left without a warm welcome.

rightsleeve/mesh

We just came back from a web 2.0 conference called mesh, held at Toronto's MaRS Discovery District.

Right Sleeve was the official merchandise sponsor of the event. We provided T-shirts (yes, shirts that people actually wore because they fit .... especially the women!), caps, hip golf shirts, classic button downs and cool mini messenger bags. For 2 days, the entire MaRS building was crawling with our signature apple green bags. What a sight!

The gear has even been posted on Flickr by one attendee

rightsleeve.com has always been a style leader in the archaic ad specialty industry. People love how we present our gear online and also gravitate to the fun environment we have created (see Jakers above). However, we want to engage our community more. Our products create an emotional connection with people. After all, people LOVE free stuff, especially when the products are well done. Clients send us thank you notes, email us pictures of their staff with our products, etc etc. We want this online. We want our users to interact with us more. Now we have the tools to help you to get started.

Over the coming days/weeks, we will be building out our news/views blog. We want our clients and friends to visit often. Post your views - what's working, what's not working, do you have a great story for us, a cool pic, etc. We want to know what's on your mind. Really.