the things we think but do not say

Hubwear is nearing the close of its second year and it’s been a thrilling ride. But let me back up a second since some of you might not know what I’m talking about.

Hubwear is the project that I created with my finacee and partner Sara just under 2 years ago. It’s a website that sells t-shirts (currently) to urban travelers that have a story to tell. And watching it happen right in front of my very eyes, it’s grown and grown and become a real business, with real products and real customers.

Back at the beginning in April 2006, it grew from a tiny stem cell to what’s now a rather healthy young kid. And to take the child analogy even further, when I started working on Hubwear at the beginning without anyones help, it was a scrawny, ugly kid with little to no sense-of-self or direction. It was a spotty, acned pre-teen. But once Sara got on board, the rebellious brat got a rude awakening and got sent to Excel boot camp! Suddenly, orders were being recorded in a timely fashion! Shipments of shirts from American Apparel were flying in just in time for finishing. Rigorous quality control was finally in place and there was a dramatic drop in errors and wasted product. Our spotty pre-teen was finally growing up and getting ready for high school.

Last year we got a lot of good blog links, referalls and endorsements (most notable was by Springwise ) and this year has seen more of the same. But just in the last week, we got our first major, printed publication!

Chicago Magazine included us in their Christmas Gift Guide this year and we’ve been bombarded with orders. (Irconically enough, here’s a link to the feature on their magazine’s site

There’s just something about being printed, on paper, in a real magazine that somehow gives any product legitimacy. Even in a time where Web 2.0 interconnectivity is everything, having our t-shirts in magazine means we can reach an audience that might never have seen our concept before. This year, Chicago Magazine. Next year, Lucky!

So, Horray for Hubwear! Horray for good press! And here’s to a thrilling 2008!

It’s been a long time since I made any mention of Hubwear, but the site and the business is doing just fine. Sara, my girlfriend, partner and all round best-thing-in-my-life, has become a major part of the company and we’ve refocused and clarified a lot of what Hubwear means. We’ve got a brand spanking new site and it’s a hundred times clearer to navigate, explore and shop. It was a little too art house for mass consumption. Kudos to Sandy Weisz, our wonderful website designer.

But there’s more. Today I have fantastic news as Sara and I were interviewed in Gridskipper.com (the urban travel guide) the othere day and the post went live! We discuss at some length, in which city we’d like to be imprisoned Odd question, it might seem, but it yielded some interesting questions about where we’d go to eat, shop, hang out. Thanks to Brittany Belgardt for the opportunity to talk.

As with any small business, one hopes that each year leads to new and a exciting opportunities. I have a good feeling that this year will be a good one for us.

Hubwear has been in existence for several months now and at launch it had its 15 clicks of fame. It got bounced around on a few blogs and with each new mention, the traffic to the site went up and up. I use ’sitemeter’ to track how many visitors I get and the graph showing the traffic was equivalent to my happiness.

Each peak was an emotional high and each lull was a low for me too. Ahh… the joys of riding nano-sized internet fame.

Things of course died down very quickly and I went back to work, printing orders, sketching up new ideas and working on the structure of the next few rounds. I am proud to say that we’ve now seen a great new development in the flexibility of the ‘routes’ we can offer. You can now mix and match over 20 airports for our Economy routes. But best of all, we are now offering fully customizable First Class shirts. Any city to any city.

But everything else aside, a small dream that I’d been keeping in the back of my head finally came true the other night. Obviously, despite having loftier goals of taking over the world (one shirt at a time), my little mini-dream was to walk down the street one day and see a complete stranger wearing one of my shirts. Seeing one of your mates wearing one is totally different to seeing someone that you’ve never met rocking one of your shirts.

And on Saturday night, it came true. I literally stopped in my tracks and I turned to Sara and said, “Look!”

We went in and casually asked the dude, ‘Hey man, where’d you get that shirt?”, relishing every minute of this of course.

He replies, “Oh my wife bought it for me at the Renegade Craft Fair”

At this point, I can’t keep it in any more and blurt out, “I made that shirt by the way” trying to keep my cool.

“Oh wow!” His mates go nuts. He goes nuts. I go nuts.

Eventually, I ask him, “So, why ORD-LGA?”

“Oh, I used to live there and I go back to New York a lot.”

“Cool. Good to meet you man”.

We chatted a little more and one of his mates takes a photo of us together (Sara took this one) but the really weird part of the whole thing was just how similar we looked. He wore a jacket over his jeans, he was Asian, he had trendy designer glasses…weird huh? I have worn almost his entire ‘look’ many times before… do all trendy Asians dress alike?

Hearing his story about the route is really what makes this whole idea so much fun for me. Knowing that each shirt can mean completely different things to different people is one of the most satisfying aspects of this concept. At the Renegade Craft Fair a few weeks ago (hubwear’s first public appearance), Sara and I met so many people and heard so many stories of why they loved our shirts.

“My parents make this trip every year”

“We’re making this trip as a family”

“I want my boyfriend to move here, so make it a one-way”

“I have a winter home there…”

But the best one was an interchange between a young girl and her mother. They both got the concept right away and I heard the young girl say to her mother, “Look, ORD-LHR! I want that one. Now I’ve got to go to London!”

If that doesn’t pull on your heart strings then you should start watching the Oxygen Network.

I probably sent out the largest bcc’d email I’ve ever written today. It was a ‘press release’ for HUB and I can now tell you all with great satisfaction, that this project is finally out.

Very simply, HUB is an idea for t shirts that’s been knocking around in my head for years. Take a pair of three letter airport codes of any trip and put them onto a t shirt. Then place the same two codes in reverse order on the back for the return. That’s it. You’ve got yourself a Round trip t shirt. Pretty simple huh? And pretty easy to rip off too. I just hope that it can get enough recognition and establish itself before it gets copied to death. If it’s a hit, then great. If it’s a dud, then at least I’ll know that I did my best to make it real.

Right now, HUB is only offering ‘routes’ as shirts from my home town, Chicago. And it’s a way for me to bring some well deserved attention to Chicago. I think that New York has enough fan boys.

Thanks for everyone that helped in the last few weeks of beta testing. And a huge, huge thanks to Derek Snape who made the site all in Flash, including the dope shopping cart database. He is a very clever man.

So please proceed in an orderly fashion to our departures terminal. From this Chicago based flight crew, thanks for flying HUB.

I’m so close now. I can almost taste it.

I’ve had a long time pipe dream to design some t shirts, make a few and then one day see someone out on the street wearing it. That would be super cool.

So after years of talking about it and being sick to death of my own crapness, I’ve finally got some head way with the dream. And as anyone who works in a creative field each day, it’s surprisingly hard to find time to work on your own projects outside of the work day.

My process so far:
Get the idea out of my head and make a napkin sketch.
Do nothing with it for about a year.
Talk it over with friends and get excited.
Do nothing again for about a year.
Make a prototype print with a test screen and an old GAP t shirt.
Do nothing again but wear my own t shirt for about two more years.
Get sick of wearing my own idea.
Take my napkin sketch and talk it over with some friends, a lot.
Take the sketch into Illustrator and draw a rough mock up of the shirts.
Write the story behind the idea.
Get excited.
Discuss the logic and the thinking behind the designs and check that it’s not a bunch of bollocks.
Talk things over with a few internet t shirt makers and get their advice on how they did it.
Talk at length about whether I should make the screens and print the t shirts myself, or find a printer to do it.
Realise that I don’t want to print the shirts myself per se, but want to design the shirts and then have someone else print them.
Find a local screen printer.
Make final drawings for printer.
Order my first twelve shirts from printer.
See my shirts for real and get super excited.
Think about making a web site myself to promote the t shirts, then soon realise that I’d be rubbish at it.
Find a designer who can create the website and get behind the thinking.

I think that I’ve found that designer and I think that things are going to work out great.

Man, it’s so close now…

Watch this space.

I’d like to take this opportunity (my blog) to feature a few of my favourites from the new Holiday issue of Skymall this year (out now!). Maybe it’ll be a mini series over the next few posts. I’ll write my bit first, then I’ll seamlessly transition into the real Skymall blurb.

First up is a real ‘innovation’ in the ‘traditional’ world of ’shirt making’ and ‘tailoring’.

“Remember the last time when you’ve been getting ready for a date and you’ve spent hours agonising over which shirt/tie combo to wear, only to have to ‘conform’ to ’social norms’ about what’s ‘appropriate’? Every time you and all those other schmucks wear, a ’shirt’ and ‘tie’ and simply let that collar cover up that prized, silken jewel, you’re just doing what the ‘fashionistas’ are telling you to do. Are you’re a man that doesn’t listen to ‘common sense’? No! You make your own rules. Where do you think ‘common sense’ comes from? That’s right. Common people.

Well, It’s finally here. The shirt that allows you to show off your expensive ties ~what a great idea~ Weave them through the collar of this unique design to create a masterpiece that’s all your own. Perfect for the man who has everything! Exclusively fashioned with American ingenuity and European style. Exquisite craftsmanship, shaped fit, superior quality fabric, double pearl buttoned cuffs.
Choose from three colors: Winter Frost White, Sky Blue, Midnight Black.
Original Woven Collar Shirt.

Yours for $227.00 Get it here.

Ok, I can’t keep it in anymore. WTF is this guys wearing? And why is he so happy? Maybe he’s the ‘inventor’ and he loves that fact that each shirt cost about the same as an iPod nano. And what she so bloody happy about? “Ha ha ha, I’m with a guy that wearing a double breasted suit and an original woven collar shirt. Wow, I’ve hit jackpot with this bread winner.”

During my weekend home in Chicago, I went to a small show in Wicker Park called the Renegade Craft Fair where I find this wonderful store called Imperfect Articles. They sell lots of lovely tee shirts, one of which I’m modeling here in the photo. This one is designed by Cody Hudson. Patrick Swayze is classic 90s cheese. There was a point in his career where he could do no wrong. A killer ‘three-fer’ of “Dirty Dancing”, “Road House” and the his seminal work, “Ghost”. But really, isn’t he really just an ironic slogan for a tee shirt these days? Well for some he is more.

I’ve been traveling for the last couple of weeks and today I flew down to Orlando, FL, to do some research for my new project. As I exit the terminal looking for a cab, I see a mature woman working the taxi rank. Her hair looks tired of being dyed. She calls a cab for me and then eyes my tee shirt.

“Patrick Swayze, huh? As in the actor?”
“Yeah.” I don’t know what to say. It didn’t seem to be the right time to say ‘it’s an ironic comment on post 90s pop culture’.

“You like him then, huh?”
“Yeah. I’m a fan.” I lie. I’m tired.

“I just got the DVD of that dancin’ movie. I think it’s one of my all time favourites.”
“I’m the president of the Chicago chapter fan club.” I don’t know where this came from, but I’m going with it.

“Really? Well, that’s understandable. He’s amazing. He’s such a great dancer!”
“I know. We all think he’s great.”

“Do you know if he’s working on a new picture? You know, one with more dancin’?”
At this point I’ve got her eating out of my hand. I pause for a second and my eyes shift from side to side.

“Well, you didn’t hear this from me, but he’s working on a sequel to Dirty Dancing right now”
“He is?! Oh I hope there lots of dancin’ ”

At this point the taxi driver arrives and carries my bags. I start to leave with him, my new friend agog with joy. I shout back at her, “You didn’t hear this from me, ok?”

I get in the cab and smile to myself. My work here is done.

Imperfect Articles can be found here.

Why, oh why, do people wear those stupid little holsters to carry their cell phones? The example shown here is a particularly bad example, the ‘gun slinger’, as I like to call them, but all those crap, leatherette/molded plastic, cupping, gripping, no hand holding, holsters make you look like a twat.

Is it really too much to ask that you just carry the phone in you pocket? Or in a jacket pocket? Or even just in your hand? But yes, I understand that it’s more comfortable to have it attached to your hip… but at what cost I ask?
Three reasons to not wear your phone in a (hip or gun slung) holster.

A) You’ll look like a twat.
B) You’ll look like a twat.
C) You’ll look like a twat.

God help you if you double up with one of those god awful, bluetooth wireless headsets.

Shopping in San Francisco is always fun and there’s a number of stores along Hayes St that I love to visit whenever I’m in town:

Gimme shoes is great for shoes that no one can afford. They were the place I found my super rare lacoste sneaks that were sold out all over London when they came out.

HUF is a great sneaker store and this place is filled with beautiful Adidas kicks. They unfortunately did not carry the all green classic rereleased Rod Lavers that were sold out in the Adidas store in SoHo in NY. Bugger

Propeller” is a store full of beautiful, expensive, and essentially useless things for your dream house.

Friend is very similar to Propeller, in that they sell conspicuously over-designed objects for your tiny SF studio apartment.

Flight 001 is a unique store that specialises in luggage and other flight related products.

Fritz is an crepe and french fry restaurant that has a wondefully sunny back garden. All the crepe dishes are named after artists. My favourite is the Mark Rothko.

Scandinavian Details is yet another home furnishing store that seem to be everywhere on this street. Expensive and beautiful scandinavian designed objects. This is where I bought my favourite new watch.

Seersucker is and will probably always be a complete fashion gamble. For some reason, the fashionistas that be have deemed seersucker to be the next big thing. Seersucker pants, jackets, suits, shorts, underwear, socks and even jumpsuits are now falling prey to this vicious fabric.There’s apparently amazing properties that makes it breathable, light weight and comfortable. But the one property that at it’s core is it’s ability to render anyone to look like a knob jockey.

If you’ve been spared the horror of experiencing one of these garments, then consider yourself lucky. But if you must know, it’s that crinkly cotton fabric that has those crap litle stripes all over it. Please take a look at the examples here. Let’s just say that these 10x8s aren’t going into the front of these model’s portfolios.

To this onslaught I give you some simple steps to see if seersucker will make a sucker out of you. (Oh come on, it’s called seersucker for Christ’s sake.)

A. Try on a jacket and look at yourself in the mirror.

B. Let the fabric work it’s magic.

C. Give yourself a pat on the back for trying to make something that very few men can pull off.

D. Take off the jacket and thank the nice homeless person for his time.

It’s just one of those things that at best will make you look like a cock and at worst, will make people think you’re Colonel Sanders.

It’s got ‘flash in the pan’ written all over it.