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.