World Cup 2010 is nearly upon us and have we got something special for you!

Firstly, lets have a look at the musical efforts of the teams we are interested in:

Australia: " We are going to socceroo it to you!"




And to celebrate this, here is Mike's reaction to that great song sporting one of our new line of Raglan T's called the "Mike":

Not to say that England have not had their fair share of interesting musical endevours:



So the best I've heard either this:



or this with the John Barnes Rap: "catch me if you can, 'cos I'm an England man" Quality!



We will have a Mike in Red and white for all those England fans out there. Also in Blue and white. More images to follow.

If you have a colour combo you want, let us know and we will see what we can do. As always e-mail me at Rupert

Enjoy!

Online is the way, especially with Free Delivery in Australia

Jules found this in mX on her way home this week. While we are not high fashion, it is interesting to see the slow speed of people moving towards e-tailing.

Certainly food for thought:

Interestingly, there is no mention of free delivery which is one of the main barriers for online businesses. Why would you shop online, if it costs you 10% more than going to the shopping mall. Thats why we decided on Free Delivery within Australia.

The Retail Rubik's Cube puzzle

I was going to use the hellraiser cube as an example, but think that Rubik's may resonate more.

Anyone who has ever had to merchandise a store or retail space will understand where I am coming from here. When no-one is coming into your retail space, you start questioning the set up. Is the sign in the right place, should that item move there, should I be sitting at the desk or standing up. It is almost as if you think that by tweaking with different parts of the space that you will unlock some sort of magical event that will mean your space gets super busy and you sell loads of stuff. As you can tell, ones mind wanders a bit on a hot sticky evening stuck in a stall.

Anyway something that I found recently:

Customer Feedback Part 1

This is from a very happy customer in the UK:


"Good News....I have the T shirt.....AND.....I LOVE IT!!!
Thank you

Perfect fit
exceptional quality
gorgeous colour combo
lovely bit of detail on the front and back with the logo
PERFECT
: ) keeping it on today

You've made my Friday I love it will try to post a pic over the weekend!
(just wish I'd ordered two ha ha ah a)


PS

....did I mention that....

this t shirt is the perfect length - often they are waaay too long "

This was feedback on the Jules Pink and Grey and if you are interested in getting it go here Jules T Shirt

St Kilda Beach Night Market Part 2

Firstly, its over and here are the stats:

10 Markets planned.

2 Cancelled for bad weather (weather turned out to be beautiful)
2 Added in March to cover this (one of which was cancelled for weather)
3 Rained out but not cancelled, ie we still set up and then were rained on.
1 Missed as on holiday
2 Sold nothing but a Frisbee
2 Sold something more than a Frisbee

Apparently it was the worst year in memory for weather. Now Victoria is in drought and has been for a very long time, so I am as happy as the next person for rain, but I am a bit amazed that it either rained or was forecast to rain on 5 of the 10 market days. Some would argue that there is perhaps a message in that statistic, ie don't do St Kilda Beach Night Market on a Thursday.

We also met some very interesting people:

 Rohan from Rock Tease, who detests all forms of music apart from heavy rock, and would get into a bout of depression when the 4th hour of dub reggae started pumping from the nearby sound system. He is about to head over to New York to live the American Rock Dream with his partner,

Cactus Man, from Glasgow, Scotland via Israel, who had a product that didn't mind the rain.... yes you guessed it, the humble Cactus. He also introduced me to two things I had never seen before: A Cactus Fridge Magnet and a Cactus Necklace. On the latter not sure how that works, aren't cacti prickly! Unbelievable successful.

We had a couple of witches next door to us, who had setting up and packing up down to fine art form. They would turn up at 4.30 and be ready to go by 4.35. Spooky! We took over an hour to set up and to pack up. But the prize for time to set up has to go to a local Melbourne couple who every week built this pretty much from scratch:

They call themselves Champ and make wonderful bags and wooden carvings, but this extraordinary stall takes close to 2 hours to put up from scratch with electric screwdrivers, mobile vices. Definitely living their work.

Would we do it again? At the moment the jury is out, but gut feel is probably not. The people there were great, Michele and Maree, the organisers, were superb and had to deal with an incredibly difficult season, but we didn't sell enough and weren't speaking to enough of our target market to justify the time and cost.

A great experience all the same.