It’s been silent on the blog front for a while now…but there’s a good reason. We’re currently in the process of completely reinventing the mayamada brand! We’ve gone back to the drawing board and are working on getting some new products out later this year. Personally I think autumn/winter is an underrated time in terms of t-shirt wearing weather…
The blog will be updated on a more regular basis as we keep you updated with the progress and hopefully get to show you some of the new stuff we’reworking on.
At least I didn’t know it was there until last week…
Last weekend, I took a trip to Camden market to visit a shop run by the ifreecans Collective. I first meet these guys at StreetFest and thought I would look them up after hearing they had a shop in Camden. It’s a celebration of arts in various forms: music, painting and tees all in one space.
You might miss the shop walking around the maze of clothing food a tattoo spots in the market area, but the standout feature of this I hung out for a while chatting to the owner Kiboko, who seems to be working on a mural every time I see him! Check this one out:
We chatted for a while about all things t-shirts and I got the chance to look at other bits of art that will soon go up in an exhibition in London (check our Facebook page for more details when we get them). I got these pic from there website, but there was a lot of other nice pieces and I should have taken some pictures of my own. Oh well, I’ll be back there soon so keep an eye out for more.
Last Friday, I was at the home of one A.Sharn Dialekt as he, along with director Jabril Muse were putting together the video for “By My Side”. It’s A.Sharn’s first major video and an ambition piece that comes off really well. A music video sandwiched in between a short story…remember when music video were like that? A lot of effort was put into this, I know because I was there with them editing until 5am…why I was there I still don’t know! I spent most the night half asleep, but from what I saw from half closed eye lids was looking good, very polished. You can watch the trailer and sneak preview right here:
I’ll be sure to put up the full video when it comes out, we’re also working on a new t-shirt in collaboration with A.Sharn that takes inspiration from the song. You’ll have to wait and see the final thing, but I hear it’ll look good. Head over to our Facebook page to be the first to find out when it’s available.
In the UK it was a long weekend and boy did we take advantage! The weather just about held up so we made it a point to check out one of the first summer events of the year, StreetFest.
For those of you that did not click the link above, StreetFest describes itself as “London’s number one street culture festival” which we would agree with. There was a lot going on, Graffiti, Strret Dance, BMX, Skatebaording, Inline, photography, Street art, FOOD music and surprisingly T-Shirts! We didn’t expect to see our fellow competitors in such force but I wouldn’t call it a stretch to say Tshirts were a major attraction.
We ran into the ladies from Show Love “The brand with heart”. I had to get a shot of the varsity jacket shown below. Why? I just love em okay and that’s why I snagged another shot with one of the lads from Ask Your Girl.
We really liked the persistent logo.
Kayobi’s African infused clothing were also present at the festival and drew a fair bit of interest. These guys really understand their audience with their tongue in cheek nod to African culture found within the “Make X not war” line.
There was an opportunity to design your very on Addidas trainers.
(Note the detailed London skyline)
We met Supremebeing as soon as we stepped into the festival. Great guys and a selection that really reflects the brand ethos.
All in all, it was a good day. We came away entertained, better informed and encourages by our fellow T-shirt makers. Everyone was in high spirits and we wish we could feature all of the companies but space is short.
We recently got some time to chat with Rex Osafo-Asare from Asili. For those that don’t know, Asili is a London based clothing company focused on promoting Africa in a positive light. I won’t give everything away though, that’s what’s the interview is for!
Despite being friend of a friend I had never previously met Rex, but we had a great talk about his business and the business of t-shirts in general. We had a lot of fun and found it really helpful as we are just starting out ourselves (I actually thought I would be transcribing all of this!). If you are in a similar position in your business, there is some good advice for you. Even if you aren’t, this is still a fun listen.
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You’ll have to excuse the rough editing. We really had no idea it would go this long but hopefully you find it interesting throughout. We’ll be doing this more often over the coming months. If you are an establish t-shirt company interested in doing an interview with us, get in touch!
Part 1
The original of asili and it’s logo – fashionable clothing for Africa. What Asili means (you have to listen for that…or just Google it)
How many people and why there are no women in the team!
Rex’s role in the company
Some of the obstacles in starting up his t-shirt company (money and awareness)
Grafting to make the business a success and attract fans (Facebook included)
An interlude while Rex got the door!
Part 2
You can never beat word of mouth
The importance of referrals
How Asili got into brick and mortar stores
Some tips on how to approach store owners and dealing with knock backs
How they look to brand themselves through associations with their t-shirts
Part 3
Online versus offline: which is better?
Remembering the importance of getting recognition even on a small scale.
Breaking he myth that online is easier. If you build it..they still may not come. You still have to put in the work
We were working on the new site design while doing this interview. You can check that out now!
Asili reaching as far as America!
Thoughts on appealing to different demographics
Part 4
Having realistic goals at the beginning – you have to measure using realistic standards.
Sometime things don’t do to plan, reality can be tough sometimes.
Breadth versus depth when it comes to products
What’s coming up next for Asili, looking to the future
Don’t forget to check out Asili – World cup tees are out now
If you’ve been following us on Facebook and Twitter (you are following us right?) you’ll have seen we updated the our website. We’ve been getting plenty of good reactions from fans and it made me realise how important a website is to the perception of a brand. So for people in a similar position to us here a few tips from my experience …
Get the colours right
Colours are so important to perception in ways that I don’t even fully understand yet! What I do know is that even I get a different and better feel looking at our new site than the old.
Think about how you want people to feel when they look at your site. This isn’t just about you favourite colours but about what each one represents and how that relates to your brand.
I’m not even going to get into colour theory because I’d be way out of my depth. However, you might want to take a look at helpful article from Smashing Magazine we used to get us to think about this.
Show, don’t tell
If you’re selling something, visitors should be able to go on the website and immediately see what you sell. Don’t make people work for it, because you usually only have a few second before they go back to Facebook so don’t waste time!
If you didn’t know about us, it wasn’t easy to tell what we did looking at our old site. There’s no question now: T-Shirts (OK, we do hoodies to but stick with me here I’m trying to make a point).
Pictures help in a major way as they let people see your product in action and let people get a better idea of what you are about. Hopefully they like it and look deeper.i.e. start browsing your shop.
Let the world know!
Don’t just keep it to yourself, tell the world. There’s always a danger of being blind to your creation’s faults, but your site can always be improved so be on the look out for opportunities to do just that. It is so important to get feedback from people who have had nothing to do with the development.
It never ceases to amaze me how someone can point out something that I had been staring at for ages, but never even noticed. Plus, getting people involved engages your audience and makes them feel part of the process, which is a good thing.
And on that note…What do you think of the new site? How important is the website to a brand? Let us know your thoughts here or on our Facebook page.
Don’t forget we also have to new tees ninjastar and superstar, available now in male and female. Check them out!
It’s been a hard few weeks, but we’ve been hard at work getting out an all new website featuring the pictures from our photoshoot. We think it looks great and you’ll get to see it over the weekend. Along with that, we’ve got two new tees from a new theme. Here’s a preview:
We’ve had a good reaction so far and hopefully you will like them too, we’d love to know what you think. They’ll be available as soon as the new site is up on Friday…finger crossed!
What else is coming up for mayamada? Well we’ll be at StreetFest on the 30th of May checking out all London has to offer in street culture. We’re looking forward to meeting some interesting people and seeing the mix of talents and styles at the event. Look forward to lots of pictures and video from us there.
Check out these pictures and video from past events:
First Image: PHOTOGRAPHY Yoshitaka Kono
Second Image:PHOTOGRAPHY SUELAN & YOSHITAKA KONO
Have you been before? Are you going to this years event? Let us know on our Facebook page.
I stumbled across this presentation via the How To Start A Clothing Company blog. It features Jeffrey Kalmikoff and Jake Nickell, co-founders of Threadless. They talk about how they turned a hobby into a multimillion dollar business and more importantly (for me at least), a leader in their market. Only a few companies are able to dictate trends in it’s market and when it comes to crowd sourcing t-shirt designs, Threadless are the go to guys.
What really struck me was the way they approached their business in the initial stages. When I first came across Threadless, I never really thought of how it got started. I would have thought that for a company so big, there much have been some corporate business plan indicate how they were going to utilise crowd sourcing to maximise profits or something like that, but apparently not. It was simply two guys doing something they loved. The most important thing I took from this is that they just started doing something. That’s a really important lessen for me. If you want to go somewhere, just start running. Don’t get caught up in how things could turn out or what happens if…just start doing it. You never know what a start could lead to.
As you may have noticed if you’re a fan on our facebook page, we spent some time over the weekend at a gig headlined by the Luminaires band. The plan was to get the word out about ourselves and try and sell some tees, it also ended up being a lesson in the difference between knowing when to sell and when to promote.
Here are two things we learnt from the night.
Know the audience
Although we got to talking with a a few members of the crowd, most where distracted by a notion that they were here to see a band and drink. Buying something that doesn’t come in a shot glass doesn’t usually come into the equation at that time of night (time to rethink our packaging maybe?). People just want to have fun, anything else is a distraction. Try selling a t-shirt to these guys:
Ok, it wasn’t exactly like that but you get the idea. Talking to people about the brand is much more effective in a situation like this. People are much more approachable and will listen. Have a few business cards handy and you can get yourself a bunch of interested people checking you out.
Know the environment
If you are going to set up at an event, try and get an idea of the of the place before you go. This could mean visiting the day before, asking someone who has been to the event…or casing the joint in the dead of night. Whatever works for you.
The point is to know what to expect. The one thing that bcome obvious when we arrived was the noise, we didn’t realise we’d be so close to the noise! It makes it difficult to sell to someone when hand gestures are the best way to communicate. We really need a t-shirt selling sign language for situations like these…
Despite this, we did get positive reactions from everyone we spoke to in between sound checks and performances and some good bands fo free which isn’t too bad.
The way I see it, daylight is best for selling, the night is better left to promoting…and maybe a spot of crowd surfing.
We recently got word that one of our t-shirts made an appearance out and about. Our friend Shaun from the Luminaires was sporting a design from the Styles range at a gig a few weeks ago. Guess which one Shuan is…
And guys, I think it’s also worth noting the pulling power of a mayamada tee, just saying…
We’ll be joing the guys in person at an upcoming gig this saturday so stop by for some music (£5 entry with the flyer in the link) and if you want to get your hands on a mayamada tee, we’ll have you covered with a selection of tees from our shop at a discounted rate of £15!
