On the Comeback Trail!

What month is it?  What year is it?  December?!  Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.

We’ve spent the last few months working on the complete overhaul of the mayamada brand and we’re glad to say we’re almost there.

Way back, in a time when “Classified” still meant classified, we decided to put an end to our previous efforts at selling t-shirts with a smile and have a serious think about how we were doing things and what we really wanted to acheive.  We ended up agreeing that starting from the ground up was the best way forward.  There were many reasons for this, maybe they’ll be a blog post or two written about what we’ve learned!  To put it short for anyone in a similar position to us five months ago: if you feel things aren’t working out, take the time to step back and re-evaluate.  You never know what ideas can come about when you take a good look at yourself.  We did that and decided we could do better with our brand.

So what’s the new brand about I hear you ask?  Well allow me to introduce ourselves…

The new mayamada is all about showing off a positive and quirky confidence.  We’re making Japanese influenced clothing inspired by our fantasy world of Japanese television parody.  Yes you heard that right, we’re making up our own television network!

Think Japanese TV mixed with Looney Tunes and you’ll get a good idea of where we’re going.

So expect to see…well, anything really.  Off the wall television shows starring a random animal cast. Commercials featuring the latest product ideas to come out of our heads and anything related to TV you can think of and we can create.

We’re now gearing up for the launch of our first line of t-shirts and hoodies in January, which brings me to the designs you’ll be able to wear in about a month’s time.

Word Salad

The design reflect what mayamada is about molded to the shape of the mayamada Logo Kai…made up of a whole bunch of words.  Look closely and see if you can find them all out.

Serious Sound

Everyone likes their music turned all the way up right?  How about loud enough to crack skulls, because unless your music causes some long term damage, it can’t be good (just ask Keith Richards).

Cut the Cake

The first of many shows to feature on the mayamada network.  Samurai Chef is a cooking show which a difference.  Anyone can judge food by tasting it, that’s been done to death.  We say, if you really want to get to know your food…you just have to take a sword to it and see what happens!

These designs will be available on a limited run in January and you can make show you get yours  now by reserving a t-shirt now. where also giving 10% off your entire order when you use the promo code “LOGOKAI”…so what are you waiting for?!

mayamada switches on next month.

Stay Tuned…

Never Too Young To Start (Apparently)

As we continue to make progress with the mayamada re branding.  I’ve taken to reading a lot more about this whole t-shirt business thing.  Reading books on branding, business etc.  Checking out blogs and other brands is also a really good way of getting to know the industry, seeing what’s out there and being inspired by other peoples efforts (there’s some seriously good stuff about).

But I was really surprised by this brand I discovered via an article on IAMTHETREND.  The founder Local Advancers posted some good tips for start up a t-shirt brand too.  One that really spoke to me was the call to visualise every detail of your brand.  I learned (and still am learning ) this the hard way.

I think if you are going to start something and do it properly, you have to have the end in mind.  Visualising every aspect of the brand i.e. what the brand means, how the designs will look, how the tees will wear, what the packaging will look like etc is crucial to making a consistent and hopefully successful brand.

What’s significant about though this is the founder’s age: only 15 years old.  Now I don’t know about you but I was nowhere near starting a business when I was that age and I’m only slowly getting the hang of things now.  So to see that kind of drive at a young age is remarkable (and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve wasted the last 10 years of my life at all!).  What’s more is the t-shirt design look good, check out the site for yourself.

I just hope our launch will be as solid.

New Tokidoki Purchase

I may be late to the game here, but I recently picked up a couple tokidoki tees from TheGiantPe​ach.com.

Couldn’t decide between the two so I got both.  Choice paralysis averted.

I like to see different brands come together and collaborate to create something interesting. Also that Marvel let their characters be re-imagined like that. Cool stuff.

Now I’m on the look out for more interested t-shirt collaborations.  If you know any drop a comment below!

Some Thoughts On Developing A Brand

We recently decided to completely re start or t-shirt brand.  Everything is being done from scratch as we look to make a really great brand and product for people.  I always thing it’s good to know when something isn’t working and make the decision to stop, make changes and most importantly, learn from the experience.  As we go through the process of building a brand, some thoughts came to mind so I thought would write them down for anyone in a similar position.

When you start out a brand I think there are some crucial things to consider:

Brand

Image source: logodesignworks

If you are looking to put out a brand that can be recognised it must be given serious thought.

You t-shirts must have some kind of link between them, something to hold them together something that people can sink there teeth into so to speak. There are so many brand out, what makes your different? They don’t need to look the same, they don’t need to even all be t-shirts, but there should be something to attract people beneath the designs themselves. That just my opinion anyway. I like the brands developed by people Johnny Cupcakes, Tokidoki and Superdry because of their strong concept that shines in everything from the website to the product to the people behind product.

Team

Image source: icebirdy

Are you doing it yourself or in a group? If by yourself have you got the right skills? You might be good at design but if you can’t get the business right then you might find it difficult to get traction.

I’m a fan of working with other people who are good at what they do, so we have a small team of people here. If you have a team make sure you’ve got the might mix of people to cover all the angles.

  • Vision – What is the long term plan for your brand, Where are you going with this?
  • Product – The designs you create to the physical the t-shirts you put them on.  Print, material, packaging etc
  • Business – The foundation of it all.  Sometimes the boring parts, but essential to making something successful

Even if you’re in a group, be prepared to wear different hats when starting out. We recently had to do taxes for the first time and the only thing it taught us is that we needed someone to do this for us next time! Really, it was not fun (respect to people who have to do this for a living!)

Plan

It’s an oldie but a goodie: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” – Winston Churchill

Once you have all the pieces together how exactly are you going to make it happen? What’s the next step. I’ve never been a big fan of pages and pages of documentation (you’ll see why in a bit), but you need something on paper so you (and everyone in the group) know what you are going can coordinate actions. If you don’t have the discipline to even write down a plan of attack, you’ll probably never make it to the castle gates (not sure where that analogy came from…).

Adapt

Allow me to contradict myself. As soon as you start that plan you scribbled down, it’s going out the window. Let me explain. Things change and rarely ever go exactly as planned and you need to be flexible. This is why I’m not for hugely detailed plans, because that’s fairytale and it won’t happen like that.

Enjoy it

Image source: mjagiellicz

Last, but probably most important. Don’t do something you’re not going to enjoy. We only at the very start of are journey and it been tough, I can’t imagine what experienced and successful brands are going through but I hope to find out as I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Do you agree? Disagree or have anything to add? Drop a comment or vist our Facebook page.

Johnny Cupcakes London Store Saves A Long Trip

I was excited by the recent news that Johnny Cupcakes is opening a store in London! I read through his story this year and was really impressed by his journey to becoming a recognised and successful brand. It also may have something to do with the fact that I’m subconsciously drawn to cakes due to a supposed sweet tooth as one friend put it.

As all the stores were in the US I was planning to make a visit the next time I was in California. This will save me a journey, although I may actually be in California by the time the store opens…oh the irony.

Switching Things Up

It’s been silent on the blog front for a while now…but there’s a good reason.  We’re currently in the process of completely reinventing the mayamada brand!  We’ve gone back to the drawing board and are working on getting some new products out later this year.  Personally I think autumn/winter is an underrated time in terms of t-shirt wearing weather…
The blog will be updated on a more regular basis as we keep you updated with the progress and hopefully get to show you some of the new stuff we’reworking on.
Stay tuned.

A Little Known Gem in Camden Town

At least I didn’t know it was there until last week…

Last weekend, I took a trip to Camden market to visit a shop run by the ifreecans Collective.  I first meet these guys at StreetFest and thought I would look them up after hearing they had a shop in Camden.  It’s a celebration of arts in various forms: music, painting and tees all in one space.


You might miss the shop walking around the maze of clothing food a tattoo spots in the market area, but the standout feature of this I hung out for a while chatting to the owner Kiboko, who seems to be working on a mural every time I see him!  Check this one out:

We chatted for a while about all things t-shirts and I got the chance to look at other bits of art that will soon go up in an exhibition in London (check our Facebook page for more details when we get them).  I got these pic from there website, but there was a lot of other nice pieces and I should have taken some pictures of my own.  Oh well, I’ll be back there soon so keep an eye out for more.

A.Sharn Dialekt Video Teaser

Last Friday, I was at the home of one A.Sharn Dialekt as he, along with director Jabril Muse were putting together the video for “By My Side”.  It’s A.Sharn’s first major video and an ambition piece that comes off really well.  A music video sandwiched in between a short story…remember when music video were like that?  A lot of effort was put into this, I know because I was there with them editing until 5am…why I was there I still don’t know!  I spent most the night half asleep, but from what I saw from half closed eye lids was looking good, very polished.  You can watch the trailer and sneak preview right here:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXnB8lEN9Q

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRThwXOvpSw

I’ll be sure to put up the full video when it comes out, we’re also working on a new t-shirt in collaboration with A.Sharn that takes inspiration from the song.  You’ll have to wait and see the final thing, but I hear it’ll look good.  Head over to our Facebook page to be the first to find out when it’s available.
Don’t forget to also check out A.Sharn Dialekt’s facebook page for news on the video.

StreetFest !!!!!

In the UK it was a long weekend and boy did we take advantage! The weather just about held up so we made it a point to check out one of the first summer events of the year, StreetFest.

For those of you that did not click the link above, StreetFest describes itself as “London’s   number one street culture festival” which we would agree with. There was a lot going on, Graffiti, Strret Dance, BMX, Skatebaording, Inline, photography, Street art, FOOD music and surprisingly T-Shirts! We didn’t expect to see our fellow competitors in such force but I wouldn’t call it a stretch to say Tshirts were a major attraction.

We ran into the ladies from Show Love “The brand with heart”. I had to get a shot of the varsity  jacket shown below. Why? I just love em okay and that’s why I snagged another shot with one of the lads from Ask Your Girl.

We really liked the persistent logo.

Kayobi’s African infused clothing were also present at the festival and drew a fair bit of interest. These guys really understand their audience with their tongue in cheek nod to African culture found within the “Make X not war” line.

There was an opportunity to design your very on Addidas trainers.

(Note the detailed London skyline)

We met Supremebeing as soon as we stepped into the festival. Great guys  and a selection that really reflects the brand ethos.

All in all, it was a good day. We came away entertained, better informed and encourages by our fellow T-shirt makers. Everyone was in high spirits and we wish we could feature all of the companies but space is short.

Mayamada Interviews Asili

We recently got some time to chat with Rex Osafo-Asare from Asili.  For those that don’t know, Asili is a London based clothing company focused on promoting Africa in a positive light.  I won’t give everything away though, that’s what’s the interview is for!


Despite being  friend of a friend I had never previously met Rex, but we had a great talk about his business and the business of t-shirts in general.  We had a lot of fun and found it really helpful as we are just starting out ourselves (I actually thought I would be transcribing all of this!).  If you are in a similar position in your business, there is some good advice for you.  Even if you aren’t, this is still a fun listen.

[audio:http://blog.mayamada.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/asili_interview_pt1.mp3|titles=Asili Interview pt1] [audio:http://blog.mayamada.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/asili_interview_pt2.mp3|titles=Asili Interview pt2] [audio:http://blog.mayamada.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/asili_interview_pt3.mp3|titles=Asili Interview pt3] [audio:http://blog.mayamada.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/asili_interview_pt4.mp3|titles=Asili Interview pt4]

You’ll have to excuse the rough editing.  We really had no idea it would go this long but hopefully you find it interesting throughout.  We’ll be doing this more often over the coming months.  If you are an establish t-shirt company interested in doing an interview with us, get in touch!

Part 1

  • The original of asili and it’s logo – fashionable clothing for Africa.  What Asili means (you have to listen for that…or just Google it)
  • How many people and why there are no women in the team!
  • Rex’s role in the company
  • Some of the obstacles in starting up his t-shirt company (money and awareness)
  • Grafting to make the business a success and attract fans (Facebook included)
  • An interlude while Rex got the door!

Part 2

  • You can never beat word of mouth
  • The importance of referrals
  • How Asili got into brick and mortar stores
  • Some tips on how to approach store owners and dealing with knock backs
  • How they look to brand themselves through associations with their t-shirts

Part 3

  • Online versus offline:  which is better?
  • Remembering the importance of getting recognition even on a small scale.
  • Breaking he myth that online is easier.  If you build it..they still may not come.  You still have to put in the work
  • We were working on the new site design while doing this interview.  You can check that out now!
  • Asili reaching as far as America!
  • Thoughts on appealing to different demographics

Part 4

  • Having realistic goals at the beginning – you have to measure using realistic standards.
  • Sometime things don’t do to plan, reality can be tough sometimes.
  • Breadth versus depth when it comes to products
  • What’s coming up next for Asili, looking to the future

Don’t forget to check out Asili – World cup tees are out now