About a week ago, I purchased the domain Tooshytees.com. If you couldn’t guess from the URL, I really want to make and sell Too Shy to Stop-related t-shirts.
I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what makes someone want to buy a t-shirt. Utility? Coolness factor? Novelty? The commemoration of a once-in-a-lifetime event? Price?
(Pictured at left: T-shirt, t-shirt, t-shirt, GOOSE, by Robyn Gallagher)
I buy concert t-shirts when I really like the band, but I will also buy a concert t-shirt that looks unique. Some people buy Lacoste polo shirts because the embroidered alligator is a status symbol, but others refuse to buy anything with a designer logo because they find it obnoxious.
What would motivate someone to buy a t-shirt from a relatively unknown brand (TStS) that doesn’t have a physical presence (concert, storefront, or body)? I have a few ideas:
1. The t-shirt should make a statement about the individual wearing it, even if 1,000 other people are wearing it too.
2. The t-shirt can’t make the person look like a walking advertisement, even if that person doesn’t really mind being a walking advertisement.
3. The t-shirt allows the person to identify him or herself with a group or a “tribe”, as Seth Godin would call it.
4. The t-shirt reflects some new and trendy that doesn’t have to withstand the test of time. No one buys t-shirts as investment pieces.
5. The t-shirt should be flattering enough so that the person actually wears it during activities other than sleeping and mowing the lawn.