Rainbow coloured flags? A massive parade? More Lady Gaga tunes than you could shake a stick at?! Yes that’s right, this bank holiday weekend saw Manchester Pride descend on the city centre. The annual event aims to promote gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights and equality. While I happened to be wondering around the city centre and enjoying the parade, I was reminded by an order that we had here at clothes2order.com that I thought might be of interest to you all. The order came from the London Frontrunners.

The Frontrunners is a running club for gay men, lesbians and gay friendly people who love running. For the seventh year in a row they were organising ‘Pride Run 2010′ down in London. The aim of the run is to bring straight and gay/lesbian people together through sport as well as to raise money for various charities. Having just started with 200 runners taking part, the event now boasts over 1000 competitors with more than £23,000 having being raised for charity to date.

The Frontrunners were looking for their design to be printed on T-shirts, so after a Google search they found clothes2order. Impressed by the price and variety of products they placed an order and got a product that they were happy with. A big congratulations to all that took part in the event, especially to the London Frontrunner who managed the 10km course in 35 minutes 51 seconds (far too quick for my liking!).

Thank you to Martin for answering all my questions, we hope to hear from you and the London Frontrunners again soon!

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Picture courtesy of www.sbs.com.au

Oh mon dieu! You will not believe what some of our French friends have been using printed T-shirts for…..Only to help smuggle drugs!

After a high speed car chase, police in Marseille inspected the contents of the criminal’s car after he had fled the scene. In addition to finding half a kilogram of cannabis, police were also puzzled to find a bag full of printed T-shirts in the abandoned vehicle. After later inspection it was discovered that the text on the shirts matched the registration numbers of unmarked police cars used in the Marseille area.

It is suspected that the T-shirts were to be distributed amount drug dealers as a way to help each other avoid discovery and certain arrest. A representative of the police trade union commented on how drug dealers would normally use graffiti on walls as a means of avoiding the uncover vehicles and would reserve printed clothes for witty insults. Oooh la la!. 

If you read this story, you might think that I’m suggesting to people that using clothes2order could be a great way to keep a secret drug empire under wraps. That wasn’t my intention (please don’t!). I was purely trying to keep you up-to-date with the weird and wonderful world of T-shirts. I hope you enjoyed!

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We get a massive range of orders here at clothes2order.com and by reading the blog you get to find out about the best of the bunch. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be bringing you the stories behind great designs and giving you an insight into interesting organisations.

This week, we are kicking off our new series of case studies with Mikey Levelle’s design – ‘I don‘t hate London’. Mikey (28) lives in London and works as Head of Music and Executive Producer of Music Videos at Shameless (http://parkvillage.co.uk/#/category/music/).

Mikey’s girlfriend visited him from the United States and had her heart set on finding the iconic T-shirt ‘I love London’. After scouring the streets of London for hours and not being to find the elusive t-shirt, they started to joke about how they would now make their own slightly more unique design. Mikey, obviously a very considerate boyfriend, decided to surprise his girlfriend by recreating an ‘I love London’ T-shirt with a twist. Having found clothes2order.com through Google and finding the site to be comprehensive, he placed an order and quickly received a present that he was more than happy to give to his girlfriend as a souvenir.

Mikey design shows how a T-shirt can be a great way to mark an event that means something to you. Whether it be a girlfriend‘s visit, a joke between friends or a present for a loved one, a personalised T-shirt can be a great and fun way to help a memory live on (or at least earn some brownie points off the Mrs!).

A big thanks to Mikey for answering all my questions. We hope his girlfriend was happy with her T-shirt and that you all enjoy his design! 

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I foolishly decided to play football up in Edinburgh this weekend and if the 10 hour return journey wasn’t bad enough, we also lost! However this morning while on the bus, it was the very same city that put a smile on my face. Today the Edinburgh festival announced what the funniest jokes of the festival had been as well as naming and shaming those comedians who had flopped with jokes that were more suited to Christmas crackers. With it being Monday, I thought we could all do with a chuckle to lighten up our blues, so here are just a few of the highly praised one-liners:

1) Tim Vine “I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.”

2) David Gibson “I’m currently dating a couple of anorexics. Two birds, one stone.”

3) Emo Philips “I picked up a hitch hiker. You’ve got to when you hit them.”

4) Jack Whitehall “I bought one of those anti-bullying wristbands when they first came out. I say ‘bought’, I actually stole it off a short, fat ginger kid.”

5) Gary Delaney “As a kid I was made to walk the plank. We couldn’t afford a dog.”

It seems a shame for such great gags to not be shared, so why not choose your favourite and help spread some Monday cheer for once!  I’ve done a couple of example T-shirts for you below, see which one is your favourite or make your own via the website. 

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I am the American Dream, Mrs Federline, Brunettes are so hot right now, He loves me

In my opening blog, I made you a promise that I would bring you some inspiration and a bit of fun. Well who better to provide both than Britney Spears! It seems that she is the leading celebrity in wearing printed t-shirts…

Now I know taking fashion advice from a woman who has shaved her head and been booked into a psychiatric ward might seem a little strange but if there is one think this pop princess definitely knows, its how to make a statement. In her life of flashing light bulbs and paparazzi, Britney is well aware of all the stories that the press have been writing about her. When everyone wants a piece of her, its seems she wants her T-shirt to do all the talking for her.

For Britney it seems the best way to get something off your chest, is to get it printed on it. So if you got something bothering you, get it out of your mind and down on fabric! Have a look at our printable t-shirts.

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With the economy how it is, there is no shame in not having a job at the moment. Most  seem to be ‘career planning’, ‘weighing up their options’ or at the very least a ‘freelance facebooker’ (aren‘t we all?!). If only we could we could all invent dream jobs for ourselves!

Enter Jason Sadler or as Fox Business dubbed him ‘Entrepreneur of the Century’. With his salary in excess of $80,000 a year and a job description of ‘wear some printed t-shirts’, I feel that title might just be justified.

‘How the heck does he do it?!’

To put it simply, Jason Sadler’s body is for sale.…well, his torso at least. By putting his chest on sale to any business, charity or freelance facebooker that wants it, he offers to become their living and breathing billboard for one day of the year.

Jason Sadler has managed to create a cost effective marketing strategy which firms are willing to take a risk on. By wearing a promo t-shirt all day and writing about it to his facebook friends and twitter followers, a company’s logo can be exposed to potential customers. Jason even posts videos on youtube and holds webinars via his website (http://iwearyourshirt.com/) to inform people about the company that temporarily owns his chest. With over 17,000 followers on twitter, and 7,000 on facebook, he offers a business a new and innovative solution to social media coverage.

The power of a promo t-shirt has really gone global!

The demand for Sadler’s body and cheeky smile has been so great that he has had to employ someone to help him wear all those t-shirts. Sadler admits that his dream is to have to do nothing at all, but rather pay other people to do all the ‘hard work’ for him. His search for new recruits might be explained by him having to wear printed t-shirt 365 days a year and to any event, including weddings and funerals.

What the case of Jason Sadler proves is that companies are constantly looking for new ways to be innovative with their marketing strategies. By taking the hallmark of many companies PR strategies, the promotional t-shirt, and giving it a fresh twist, has Jason Sadler managed to create a job to make you all green with envy?

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Well, no but I have got an excuse…its only my fourth day! I’ve only just started working for clothes2order.com and I have been lucky enough to have been given the task of managing the blog for you. So from my still uncluttered desk, I thought it was about time to introduce myself and tell you what you can expect from future posts. I am hoping to bring you a range of topics with my content focussing on three fronts:

Case Studies:  From businesses to charities, stag-dos to artists, we have a massive range of cliental who all use our services to suit their individual needs. I’ll be bringing you the scoop on some of our most interesting designs and customers so that you can gain some inspiration for you own orders!

Inspiration: Sometimes its hard to know exactly what would look good on a t-shirt, or the best way to make a promo t shirt. So if the case studies aren’t enough, I’m here to help you! I’ll be bringing you ideas of what you can do to make the most of your personalised clothes.

A bit of fun: I’ll be scouring the web to find you things in the clothing world to make you crack a smile or raise a surprised eyebrow.

There will also be room for debate, so you can really get involved and let people know what you think! All that’s left for me to say is enjoy the blog and I’m here if you have any questions or comments. (Duncan@clothes2order.com)

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The Korea Times has revealed that in Seoul, there are concerns about dress codes in the workplace. A local survey of 578 recruitment officials revealed that complaints about ‘ugly’ workplace clothing are quite different to the ones that might be seen in the West – topping the list of unpopular garments are miniskirts and low-cut dresses!

After that, men wearing V-neck shirts that show their chests are considered the most offensive to colleagues. And third on the list: see-through clothes. Amazing. It’s a whole new insight to the world of Korean offices.

Fourth on the list of unpleasantness: unwashed garments – because they make the place smell bad. Fifth, slippers with bare feet (do they mean sandals, perhaps, or are the Korean office workers actually turning up in their fluffy footwear?) and eighth – sleeveless shirts or dresses.

If this sounds amazingly trendy – don’t forget that Korean Air had its 1990s uniform designed by the late Gianfranco Ferré. And if you get told off for wearing your bunny slippers to work, say they do it in Korea!

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At a time when the ‘double dip’ is being talked about as a real possibility, recession-wise, it may seem odd to be advocating a uniform as a money-saving, and maybe even money-earning, measure, but there are four reasons that investing in a staff uniform can save money and may actually boost business.

1.    Health and Safety – there are many reasons why wearing a uniform can save a business money and safety is the main one: investing in proper footwear, specially designed clothing such as overalls or aprons and carefully chosen accessories like toolbelts, caps or gloves can mean that there are many fewer accidents which not only means less time off work with injuries but is a major force in avoiding compensation and injury claims from disgruntled employees who’ve harmed themselves in the workplace.
2.    Pocket money – literally! These days, when every penny counts, people love to be able to wear a workplace-provided uniform as it means that they don’t have to wear their own clothes in the workplace and that means they save money!
3.    Productivity – people wearing uniforms tend to waste less time in the staff toilets, checking themselves out in the mirrors – a US based time and motion study found that uniform wearing retail staff worked, on average, 27 minutes more in a day than those in their own clothing.
4.    Team building – when individuals are dressed alike, they become a team – that’s schools give children a vest to pull over their normal clothing when they are playing a team sport. Similarly, when people in the workplace are all dressed alike, even if it’s only the same printed T-shirt, they will identify as a team and be more committed to team goals.

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This month an online shopfront with a difference has opened – it’s for Pope Benedict XVI’s September trip to the UK and offers a series of mementoes: an embroidered baseball cap like the one the Pope has been seen wearing himself this summer, keyrings and fridge magnets and a range of T-shirts including one that can be personalised to include the name of the individual’s local church.

Several commentators have remarked on how similar the highly detailed printed T-shirts are to heavy metal designs and colour schemes it’s hoped they will appeal to a wide range of ‘pilgrims’ to help cover the £7 million cost of the visit.

The church is not alone in merchandising for the trip: the National Secular Society also has an online presence offering T-shirts with the slogan ‘Pope Nope’.

If your business is merchandising for an event or promotion, try thinking about how you offer your merchandise – you can use the angle of local identity, perhaps by promoting your locality, alongside your business, offering T-shirts with maps to local parks but including your shop.

Try point of sale branding if you have a physical location too, such as on sunny days giving away a baseball cap with your telephone number on it, or a rain hat or umbrella on rainy days. You can even offer a random prize for people buying in your shop or ringing up, every sixtieth customer, or whatever, can be sent a promotional T-shirt with their order, and you can give unrecognisable information about each winner (eg their first name and initial of surname, to keep within data protection rules) on your website.

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