How to sell a t-shirt
Published April 9th, 2008 in GeneralWhile in Tokyo I had the fortune to stumble upon the UT t-shirt shop in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. The shop offers a fantastic example as to how to make a t-shirt something aspirational. UT’s philosophy is:
A t-shirt is more than just a t-shirt. It’s an expression of who you are. Where you’ve been. What you love. That’s the UT philosophy.
The store sells limited edition t-shirts. You walk in and each floor is full of capsules lining the shelves on either side of the room, like cans on beer in a liquor store.
In the centre of each aisle are t-shirts hanging on railings that go down the length of the room. The customer browses the t-shirt, finds one he likes, but instead of taking it off the shelf he reads the code on the label. Then he has to go the section of the store marked with the code on the t-shirt where he will find his t-shirt, which is one of a limited quantity that has been produced. Needless to say, I walked into the shop and after the process was explained to me, there was no way I was leaving the shop without a t-shirt.
This is an extremely innovative way for a retailer to create demand for their products by raising the perceived value of the item in the eyes of the potential customer.
6 Responses to “How to sell a t-shirt”
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hi Piaras,
On the note of t-shirt selling, are you familiar with www.threadless.com? I haven’t bought one from them yet, but love the idea.
Yeah funnily enough familiar with them also, but never bought from them either
Threadless have some great stuff however I would recommend 2k by Gingham . some of the best tees you will ever see.
http://www.2kbygingham.com
Another company doing amazing things in tee shirt land are America Apparel. www.americanapparel.net I worked for them for 5 years and they are very progressive.
They recently intro’d RFID for stock control and real time statisitics. They are also a company that has bucked the industry trend of manufacturing in the Far East. They manufacture everything in Downtown Los Angeles and are opening retail stores in China where the wages are huge compared to other companies operating in China. Their founder Dov Charney is well worth a google.
Great post, prove if it was needed that with a little thought, you can take an everyday product, give it an edge and end up with an entirely new concept
looks a lot like uniqlo? they do the exact same thing in their global stores, I have a pile of them, from tokyo and london. it’s a great idea.