We’re watching this thing by NOVA. (The best scientific show known to man, which my dad used to watch) It’s called “Is there life on mars ?” it started tonight at 8 on PBS. They’ve discovered frozen water on mars. Pretty cool stuff. if you can catch this show on a rerun check it out. It’s a great dorky time.
Archive for December, 2008
life on mars?
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008we’re so over two thousand eight
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008perhaps not quite yet. though, we do think we’re just about ready…
how was your christmas/holiday-time-thing? ours was mellow. rich spent his weeping alone while i spent mine with an extended cold and troubleshooting hardware issues. anyway, on to the good stuff:
a note: no, i didn’t not notice the creative commons mention at the beginning — it’s just that i’m with joe stump on this one… web nazis.
notice anything different? probably not, because i can’t confirm anybody really even reads this beside katie and ali. and, they both only do it out of pity. we’re trying hard to come up with something entertaining for you but until now the conversation has seemed so one-sided… so guess what? we have got actual software powering this section of the site now. that means comments! and, no more bullshit links — thinks are actually categorized. try for yourself.
also, i wanted to give you a way to help spread the word in the unlikely event that something here is actually interesting. that’s where that share/save menu on the top right of this post comes in. sharing is caring.
and, as promised from way back, we’ve now got a legit rss feed to subscribe to for those in the know.
well, that’s about it for now. it’s super late and i have to hit the hay — only two days left in the year to try and catch up at work.
what are your plans for the new year?
fanmail
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008we’ve been getting more emails sent in lately as more people discover us (thanks grooveshark and friends). some of them are nice, some of them funny, and some of them really clever. I’ve been thinking of having a kind of q-and-a here and received an email today which I felt was cool enough to inspire me to do so. hopefully this isn’t boring.
subject: where’s the beef?
dude where\’s the elias stuff?
great question. we were stoked on elias, and they were one of the magic 5 we were hoping to start with. i won’t get into details but basically things just kind of fell apart with our relationship with them. i think they’re just very busy. perhaps someday we can give it another shot.
subject: gift cards
Do you guys have gift cards available for us old fogies to give to our kids?
FYI, saw your ad on grooveshark.
Bert
hey bert, per your request, we took the gift cards shtuff live. thanks for the nudge.
subject: Website
Hey guys, Just wanted to let you know your website is VERY laggy due to the high res graphics and poor concept, I hope you guys realize not everyone has a 500mbps upload and 8000 GT graphics card!
i’m sorry, but this made me laugh. i mean, that really sucks, but we’re pretty cutting edge as far as the internet is concerned. yeah, right. stop using internet explorer.
subject: Reason
I read through your “reason” section of your site and am wondering how you are trying to be different. You sell the same clothes as many other retailers/etailers and realistically are not doing anything different from the rest. I guess I am just curious to how you are defining your brand/identity. I think your User Interface is top notch and look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Brett
Hey Brett,
Thanks for the email. Good questions. We weren’t sure anyone was reading that, not that we didn’t intend for anyone to.
I suppose the biggest difference is our entire approach. We’re not trying to get rich quick. We’re not stocking inventory, cutting corners and modifying the site for mass appeal. We are simply doing our own thing, particularly with the technical side of things — I think most main-stream companies would have a fit considering the technical requirements to even browse our site.
I think it only takes a quick look at other sites like, [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], etc. you will immediately feel this sense of “I’m being marketed to” and they feel like every other ecommerce site. Don’t get me wrong, they are all very successful and do a good job at what they do. To be sure, they’re definitely on a different level than us. Regardless… it just feels so… traditional and impersonal, to me. There’s no personality to the sites, if anything just an image.
Yeah, basically, we’re just selling clothes, and many other people do that. And, I suppose the only way to really step away from that would be to not-sell clothes.
To really prove that we’re different is just going to take time, I think.
We have some other web stuff we’re working on that has nothing to do with the store, but that’s top secret for now.
I guess in the end it’s really a subjective thing. We know it’s different because I’ve worked in the industry long enough to know we’re not just another team of bullshit guys with money trying to make more money by tapping into a market we feel safe about. We don’t even think like that.
We are more like: we like this stuff, lets get it and put it on our totally experimental, irreverent website. We strive to make the website almost this personal extension of us – our thoughts and style injected into every bit of it from the design, the code, the inventory, the text, the photos… In that sense, we don’t think about our brand/identity any more than we think of our own. We just let it happen. If you dig it, cool. If not, that’s ok, too – there are plenty of other places to buy tees online.
That’s a lot of random points, I know, but perhaps that’ll help give some perspective as to what’s going on around here.
We must be doing something right and somebody’s watching because I’m seeing some of these sites I’ve been following and using for years now, just recently starting to do some *very similar* stuff 
Though it’s more likely just coincidence, right?
Anyhow, thanks again for the email, and the kind words.