CorporateCasuals

Wall Street Journal printed a story today on Columbia Sportwear’s antitrust lawsuit against Gore tex for forcing brands to sign an exclusivity agreement in order to license their technology. A dominant force for over 30 years, you can fathom Gore-tex needs some way to keep its dominance. Technology has advanced so much in apparel and still gore-tex owns the “waterproof, breathable” claim. I’m pretty sure it’s legal to make someone sign an exclusivity clause and Gore-tex’s brand is so strong that no outdoor brand dare lose their license trying another product. I agree its not the nicest terms but if antitrust is brand dominance, better start going after Nike!

I have no excuses for not writing more. Its not that anyone is really interested but I enjoy the process of writing about our business, customers, employees, etc. It is helpful to highlight product updates and technology changes but its essential for perspective. I, like anyone, get caught in the day-to-day operational challenges….so I like the opportunity to step back and for a larger view of what we’re trying to accomplish, how we’re growing to be better tomorrow and why. Therefore, I would like to set a goal of writing more often. I know myself well enough to not put a schedule on it right now.

Anyway, enough about me: We’ve had an exciting year launching iTshirt as a way to order tees on your phone for under $5 shipped. We continue to expand our product offering which recently included Red Kap which is a top industrial brand. And, just this week, we added a new dedicated customer rep named Hanwei. All this is made possible by our incredible customers that still range from schools in Atlanta, GA to a beer brand in Dallas, TX to a handyman in San Diego (all customers today). There is nothing more satisfying than a happy customer and we are fortunate to gain them one at a time

Very cool video…..looking ahead to custom and mobile commerce… which functionally is not far off. Now we just need to see how fast customer adoption follows

p.s. saw this video on www.treehouselogic.com cool site

Just received this photo from our friends at Hertz showing off their embroidered shirts (plus one custom t-shirt and an embroidered hat) we sent them last week. Looks like it was for make-a-wish foundation and they certainly had a beautiful day!

I can’t think of anything cooler than a boy uploading a youtube video promoting his Corporate Casuals online store. Check it out:

http://stores.corporatecasuals.com/s/clayco/

p.s. a lot of new custom t-shirts and embroidered hats are already on the way to General Clayton!

We had a little fun with the Product of the Week part of our weekly meeting this morning. Mark took it upon himself to model a new Charles River Apparel Ladies Jacket!

p.s. sorry for the blurry shot….it was taken at the spur of the moment and from far away

Terrafugia is one of our embroidered store partners so I’ve seen the logo for a year or two now but last night I noticed them on the Evening News! The company is also located in Massachusetts and is about to begin production on their flying car! George Jetson would be jealous.

Congrats to Terrafugia and can’t wait to try or see one of your car/plane!

SpreadShirt.com is a top t-shirt printer with offices in Boston. They are based in Germany and really led the way in Europe before moving to the US and competing with CafePress and Zazzle.

Jana Eggers has been their CEO for three years and announced she is leaving the company today. I was fortunate to meet with Jana a year or so ago at her office. She’s passionate about self-expression tees and triathlons. I am always amazed by endurance athletes, so we chatted about her training and next event most of the time (with a little ‘shop talk’ in between). I hope her new endeavor involves her favorite sport in some way. Best of luck jana!

Karla has been a production guru at Corporate Casuals for many years. Today she turned 29……just like last year!

Quick shot of some of the logos being embroidered and printed around 3:30pm on Friday July 23rd……
Have a great weekend and, as one of the taglines says, kick up the yum-yum!!