Wilfred Laurier

I have already done my part.

wreckembent

i don't have issues with blanl jerseys or even doctor seuss, but in the town i used to live in in oregon, EVERY time i saw a roadie on the bike path, he was wearing jerseys with 100 logos, silks, and often designer wraparound shades and riding an obviously VERY expensive bike with carbon frames and exotic spokes and patterns. it would make me roll my eyes. i have serious issues with all manner of social climbing and view such people as thinking... "i'm so euro with my campignolo and rich... i'm better than you." seeing all kinds of yuppie targeted fashion items etc. in roadie magazines convinces me that at least a fair amount of roadies are social climbers who'd sell mother nature out in a heartbeat for a lattee.

the responses aren't meant to be taken as "absolute" but as ballpark "vibes' and i just added the extra "i'm a hippie..." to make the question funner and sound less like annoying and boring legalese. i wanted the survey to have a light, playful, conversational tone that says "i'm a cyclist just like you, and i'm not doing this to get rich, but because it's what i truly believe in and something i'd love to do, but i still do have to pay the rent."

the way i word things often rubs people the wrong way when that's NOT what i mean. when i TRULY want to do that, i don't mince words and go straight for the "your momma #^%@!"

i'll have to go back and edit the survey to be more "neutral" but it saddens me that the fun factor i intended will be diluted. i'm not a corporation... DESPISE them as parasites that are destroying the planet actually, and wanted the fact that i'm just a "regular guy" to shine through. i have a very logical personality that doesn't filter my thoughts through emotions like 98% of the rest of the poulation and it has troubled me my entire life

wreckembent

regarding organic fabrics...
that's one of the reasons i WANT to do DTG... i don't like the idea of petroleum based plastisol inks. they go against my tree hugger philosophy and selling out for $$$ is not my way.

i WOULD like to get into organic ink based dye sublimation some day, but you can't print on dark shirts with that tech

i plan on a bunch of toon designs like the "poseur" one for people who walk multispeed biks up even slight grades and can't wait to draw up my "bike rage" design with a cyclist attacking a luxury car or hummer. toons are a good fit for my drawing style. i'm always open to ideas.

regarding the abortion thing... yeah, people should be neutered after they father or mother 2 children. that's never going to happen though. i've never bred once for whatever that's worth.

Machka 

I prefer the "regular guys" I deal with in business situations to be professional ... to act, write, speak professionally.

Keep in mind that many of us on these forums are older and professionals. We may not be the audience you're trying to attract.

Wilfred Laurier

If you define a 'roadie' and 'someone who wears expensive logo'd kit and rides an expensive racing bike,' then yes - it is quite believable that every 'roadie' you saw had expensive logo'd kit and an expensive road bike. But there were other road riders out there, I promise you, not advertising to the world that they spent more on their wheels than I have ever spent on a car. But since they weren't advertising, you didn't notice them or include them in your count of 'roadies,' as defined by you.

Machka 

Incidentally, one of the survey questions I was thinking of is question 32.


Really? That's the one specific example you could come up with for a so-called "humorous design"? Is that really so common an issue that you've got to get all emotional and worked up about it?

Quite frankly, if I were to wander through our local weekly market, and see your stall of T-shirts, I might be drawn by the promise of cycling-related T-shirts ... but as soon as I saw that one, I'd walk away.

bgraham111

I'm not your target audience. I couldn't make it through the survey. You're not trying to collect data. You are trying to make a point.

Good luck.

BlazingPedals

So, OBVIOUSLY, these people aren't wearing the clothes and riding nice bikes because they like the product and can afford it, they're doing to advertise that they're stuck-up, snobby, and probably anti-American. This is an old subject; and the problem is you, not all those 'roadies' who probably don't even know their existence is offending you.

delcrossv

+1. Time, and past time, to get over the class consciousness.

fietsbob

Wicking Polyester wont get soggy .. then the inks are sublimated, gaseous state, so they dont clog up the fibers , like Screen printed inks do on Cotton

That is how the Bike Jerseys get all their advertising for the team sponsors on them.

CliffordK

I think I'm the Oregon "Roadie" that does not own any jerseys with logos, no tights, no leotards....

I do, however, like to tell people that I paid 300,000 for my bike

That was, 300,000 Lira, of course. It seemed expensive at the time, but many people buy a single wheel for more than the actual cost of my bike.

I will, on occasion, buy a cute T-Shirt with some design. But no bands, no stores... perhaps the only organization that I ever display on a T-Shirt is my home-town University.

Mixing university logos with bicycles on T-Shirts might be interesting, but I could imagine licensing might be a nightmare. Do they also need "approvals" from the universities?

delcrossv

Licensing school logos is big business. So, yes.

wreckembent

i'm not specifically trying to "target" any specific audience" as much as find out who IS interested in my design ideas, sense of humor, and militant environmentalist bent. (pun intended) i'd like to think, at least with the "front and back" series i intended to come up with that features most major types of bicycles would appeal to most riders. i even intended to include wheelchair sports, for example, into a few designs.

i'm NOT seeking approval in the survey. if someone doesn't like my personal point of view or sense of humor, then hopefully the survey gives them the options to say in essence "yeah... whatever... i don't want anything to do with your designs!" that's OK, you can't please everyone and i really wouldn't want to try... for ANY amount of money. i'm just trying to get an idea of how good or bad the potential for my ideas is as best that i can. that's what market research is for.

there are a lot of riders that aren't as environmentally aware as i imagined and i'm POSITIVE my "liberals are wishy washy butt kissers who aren't in your face enough" aesthetics aren't going to go over well with foxnews viewers like all of those venom spewing, uh... people, that rant on bant (design teeshirts) that crack me up and like the site so much for daring to be controversial and say what so many, even in the biking community, won't. i really like that website... it's very close to the vibe i'll be going after, but more bike and graphic oriented.

if only 1 person in 10 likes where i'm trying to go. it's good to know that. then i can calculate that 10% out of the 1.5% of city dwellers that commute to work is my approximate market size. all that math gives me a headache though. i'd rather just do my thing and sell tees to whoever likes my designs and jokes. not everyone will... especially coal stackers, corporate suits, and other liberal hating types. that's fine... let them get their shirts where they like the designs.

regarding materials:
as i said before, synthetics and DTG don't get along well. the water based inks don't bond well to synthetic materials. someone mentioned woll... that's a terrible fabric to try and print on. DTG printing doesn't work well with raised fibers as they block the ink jets and create off color spots where the ink doesn't cover. even with teeshirts, the thicker and softer weave patterns aren't good surfaces to print on. the technique requires a smooth print surface.

there are plenty of compromises with the tech, but they're totally balanced against being able to print ANY design one off virtually instantly and in full high res color.

personally, i've never liked old school silk screened plastisol. the printing, if it's 1-2 color usually looks cheap, and i really have issues with cracked ink. DTG ink never cracks, but it does fade.

think of mountain design teeshirts. i love those! the ink outlasts the shirts and never cracks.

regarding roadies:
yes... a lot of roadies are just ordinary folks. i used to be a roadie myself, and once, on a long trek to the coast, hung out with a cool homeless roadie that just treks around wherever. i wasn't prepared for the trip and got sick along the way for lack of food, and he shared some with me as did the 4 roadies one their way to the other coast for jesus.

today, i counted 3 out of 4 roadies that were casual dressed, one, even *gasp* a minority!

even though it might not sound like it, i love anyone that gets off their lazy butt and gets from one place to another on a bike. they are soldiers for mother nature to me, and if they ever run anyone over, the person will most likely live and fully recover.

bicycling is totally a way of life for me. that's why i have such a passion for making cycling tees. it's my little stand against corporate scum america keeping citizens brainwashed into being addicted to oil. i want to make teeshirts that in my own little way flip the bird at the oil industry. if i can inspire just one person to switch to cycling in my life, i think i've accomplished something.

regarding "question 32" aka "rack hogging a-holes"
no, that's not the ONLY funny thing i can come up with, but it's an issue, as an every day everytwhere cyclist i CONSTANTLY have to put up with. it drives me nuts that jerks can be so insensitive and keep others from using a rack. whenever i get blocked from parking my bike, i fantasize about letting air out of tires or putting stickers with the slogan on their seat. sometimes too, it goes beyond simply being an a-hole. it's a favorite technique of BICYCLE THIEVES! there was one rack that someone blocked hoping that someone would lock up to a gate next to it that they could easily slip a bike off, and just last week, where i get groceries and have seen rack hogs dozens of times, someone hogged the entire rack and literally WIRED a fake rack section to the rack hoping someone would lock up to it so they could easily steal a bike.

so no, it's not the ONLY funny thing i can come up with, but it is something that enrages me on a daily basis and i really WANT every scum who does that to be publicly embarrassed by my teeshirts calling them out for the aholes that they are.

it's "a calling". it's something that needs to be said.

wreckembent

regarding "spendy roadies"

no, i don't like social climbers that have to advertise that they have so much money. golly... i wish i had a roadie magazine right here so i could quote all the GQ corporate scum serving "rolex" type products that people who tend to be insensitive sociopaths... the type who profit off destroying mother earth buy.

i have no respect whatsoever for 3 piece suits or luxury cars. those are the enemy of mother earth. they are parasites, and studies have shown, that those most obsessed with money really are so self absorbed that it can manifest itself in hostility and even sociopathy... oh, like that SUV driving richie rich piece of crap that ran over and killed someone and then got away with it with an "i grew up with no consequences for my actions so i'm incapable of even understanding what a waste of human skin i am" defense.

i wish i could post a link to that study that examined the 4 hostile traits of social climbers who are so self absorbed they're incapable of empathy.

nope... i have no use for social climbers. i've met many homeless people with more heart... you know... the kind of people suit wearers spit on.

BTW, i've been homeless and know what it's like being harassed just trying to mind your business.

i know what it's like to be verbally assaulted by a BMW driving harpie for trying to get gas money (change) back to the city you're gainfully employed in but can't because your car's been broken into and you lost your wallet in the ocean trying to cool off because you're so stressed have security kick you out of the front of a grocery store only to have an old mexican grandmother hand you $5 at the next store and refuse to let you repay her!!! you know that $5 meant more to her than it did that MEAN AS A HONEY BADGER ON METH yuppie hag.

i've had more than one luxury car driving piece of crap assault me with their vehicle... especially on a skateboard. i lost an effing limb to a luxury car driving piece of crap making an illegal turn and had the cop that took my report effing LIE about what happened so they could get away with it so don't expect any sympathy for the devil from me.

i have no sympathy for those that don't themselves. be a nice person though... and i don't care what your religion or skin color etc. is.

bottom line... social climbers generally don't get where they are through generousity. if they did, the planet wouldn't be dying.

Dannihilator

This has gone far enough...