Teespring Times - May V002

teespring
times
04
APR 2016

In this issue

043 YOUR BIGGEST 05 PAVING THE PATH
COMPETITOR SELLER SUCCESS

Glyn Williams, monthly Find out why if you're
contributor, on dealing not selling on Teespring
with the ups and downs you're leaving money on
of the advertising the table.
business

TRUST + SAFETY 07 SKRILLA 09
IP OVERVIEW MONTHLY

What is Intellectual Ryan Roland, Teespring
Property? Why does it VP of Finance, shares his
matter? Learn about outlook on the future of
how improving quality fulfillment.
improves sales.

11 UPDATE 13 TEE CON 2016
TS CREATIVES ANNOUNCEMENT

It's time to get Creative. Teespring travels to
Check out our new ad Barcelona! We hope to
tool that will ad some see you this coming June
photographic finesse to for TeeCon EU in 2016.
your next ad set.

CATEGORIES 17 MERCH TREND 19
STATE BY STATE SEASON OVERVIEW

Become a master of US What sells best when?
niches - check out our Brief overview of top
breakdown of popular selling items in a
tags by state! convenient seasonal
breakdown.

21 LET’S GET 27 DEAR RONNIE
DISTRESSED AND SUHAIL

Want that vintage, worn Brand new to the
away, grungy look, and Teespring Times: a
don’t know how to get Springer's spin on the
there? Darren Kane classic "Dear Abby"
shows you how! column!

Hello all,

For those of you I may not have already met,
my name is Brian Marcus and I am the VP of
Seller Growth at Teespring. My team is
responsible for paving the path to Seller
success throughout the Seller’s journey, from the newest
Seller “dabbling” on our platform to the elite entrepreneur,
building a stand-alone business on and off Teespring.com.

A big part of my job: actively listening to our customers and
rallying our teams to deliver on big goals. I love it. And I’m
honored to work with a community of such smart, savvy
Sellers. In the eight short months I have been on board, it’s
become clear that there are three key reasons you come to
and stick with Teespring:

Making more money… with the least amount of effort...
worry-free!

As we kicked off 2016, our team rallied around this promise.
As we enter Q2 and beyond, we will work hard to earn your
confidence that we’re delivering on this promise. Bottom
line, we want to support your efforts to build the business of
your dreams.

Whether you use Teespring.com or our Teespring Shopify
App, we deliver unique value. Teespring is the only global
e-commerce platform to empower anyone, anywhere, to
bring their ideas to market. Your idea. Our infrastructure
and expertise. No hassles. Zero risk. Real money.

The way we see it… If you are not on the Teespring platform,
you are leaving money on the table!

So what makes Teespring stand out? Let me break it down
for you… (continue reading on page 5)

Brian Marcus
VP Seller Growth

MULTIPURPOSEMGZ | 3

YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITOR / GLYN WILLIAMS

Your Biggest
Competitor

Glyn Williams comes from the UK and is an ‘advanced skills’ coach for
many successful ‘springers’. He’s also one of the most consistent sellers
we have and sold over $2.5million of product in 2015 alone.

So you decided to become a digital highway too. I’ve knocked Sales has always been and will
shirt seller. How do you class on doors selling cockroach killer remain a world of ‘Feast & Famine’
that? What do you say when to housing agencies, gone door to
people ask you what you do? door selling utility contracts and When I sold ‘home improvements’
have sold lots more including (nice way of saying windows and
For me I tell them that I’m in sales. doors) I would have AWESOME
Sometimes if I’m in company and I Sales has always months followed by months
feel like impressing them I tell been and will where I would have made more
them I’m a Fashion Designer, that money digging holes in the road.
always starts a good remain a world of - Feast & Famine
conversation. ‘Feast & Famine’
Our world selling shirts is no
Some call themselves ‘Internet fresh air! (Radio Advertising) different to selling anything else.
Marketers’ – in fact you’re not. We have Feast time – we are
In more than 20 years I’ve learned unstoppable! Can sell anything!
The truth of the matter is that we a lot about sales. And the number Hundreds of shirts are bouncing
are all sales people. We sell goods one thing I learned is that your on your dashboard and that
to the public – so we are in retail biggest competitor in a sales dollar counter just keeps going
sales. The fact we advertise using arena..... Is you. up. How do you feel when that
the internet means nothing apart happens? – Awesome right?
from the fact we have a large We all have this ‘self talk’ that goes
potential audience. Think about off in our heads. All the time we Within a week those sales are
that; someone selling clothes in a ask ourselves questions and drying up – you’re spending more
shop that used leaflets to drum answer them too.... Don’t we? money on ads that you have
up business would not call (You just answered ‘yes’) coming in. It seems no matter
themselves a ‘leaflet marketer’ what you do you just can’t ‘click’.
would they? Even those shirts that were flying
have dried up. Every morning you
I’ve been in the sales game for look hopefully at the sales but it’s
decades, both in real ‘bricks and just ‘so-so’.
mortar’ businesses and on this

03 | TEESPRINGTIMES

GLYN WILLIAMS / YOUR BIGGEST COMPETITOR

How do you feel when that The Weekday Lull right?
happens? – Pretty despondent
right? In fact just reading that last Mondays to Wednesdays are In corporate business, advertising
sentence made you feel pretty downer days – yes I make money budgets are allocated by the
crap didn’t it? (You just said ‘yes but ROI is much lower and it feels quarter. In many businesses if
again) pointless doing anything. I even the advertising department don’t
considered switching the entire spend their entire budget they
This is the world we live in – it’s account off for these days but are penalized with a lower budget
called self employment. You can’t found that if I looked back when I for the following quarter.
rely on anyone else for your was on a high, it really wasn’t so
paycheck; you can’t go home at bad. Their sales results are also by the
the end of the day and forget quarter. They have two pressure
about work like your friends can. The Bi-Monthly lull points a) get the budget spent and
b) hit the targets for the
You can monitor this effect every People who work for the public shareholders report.
week on the t-shirt groups. sector – Nurses, armed forces,
Mondays everyone is expecting local government etc get paid This often results in massive
lower sales, Tuesdays they start to twice a month on the 1st and the amounts of corporate money
feel down and ask things like ‘is 15th. These people are a HUGE being spent on advertising during
today just a crap day or is it me?’ percentage of the population – the last 2 weeks of the quarter.
By Wednesday they are reaching almost 20% (1 in 5) of people This means that you see higher
for the razor blades and deciding working in the US are public CPM charges for your advertising
which wrist to cut first – left or service employees. So they have meaning you pay more money for
right? disposable income for the first less traffic. Less traffic means
few days of the month and a few fewer sales.
Thursday comes and you can feel days in the middle. Week 2 of the
the spirit lift – people start posting month usually shows lower sales So these are the ‘lull’ periods you
screenshots on Thursdays and on than week 1 and week 4 is usually will see. There are others too such
Friday they are positively buzzing lower than week 3 and in a 5 week as holiday season, the drop after
again! Feast & Famine in action. month! Well, get those razor Christmas etc. This article is to
blades out again. make you question things when
You need to recognize when the you feel down – is something
downside is happening and keep The Monthly Lull really wrong or is it just part of the
it in check. When you feel like Feast & Famine cycle?
everything is going wrong just The last week of the month is
take a breather – look at the hard going. More and more Take note of this for the next
possible reasons for sure, but people are paid monthly now and month. Keep a diary if you like of
don’t consider that you are failing at the end of the month the bills how things are and how they feel
if it’s just part of the feast and are piling up waiting for that – you’ll note that things seem
famine cycle. paycheck. much worse than they really are
when you are in a famine cycle.
I’ve been selling shirts on The Quarterly Lull
Teespring for over two years now Next month I will write about how
and you get to spot the cycles. In business everything is you can leverage this Feast &
Here’s some useful timeframes measured in quarters. Qtr1 is Jan Famine effect.
that I noticed in my business: 1st to Mar 31st, Qtr2 April 1st to
June 31st, Qtr3 etc – you get this Catch you next month
AAA

TEESPRINGTIMES | 04

PAVING THE PATH / BRIAN MARCUS

Paving the Path:
Seller Success

If you are not on the Teespring platform, you are leaving money on the
table. So what makes Teespring stand out? Let me break it down for
you… (continued from page X)

Make More Money on Teespring can refine Facebook targeting using
the encrypted buyer emails we provide.
One of our chief assets in making you more • We also continue to innovate the platform with
money is our relationship with buyers. features such as one-click checkout, enhanced
design testing and availability of new
• Buyers love Teespring! One in 50 Americans merchandise.
bought a Teespring shirt in 2015 alone. In just • Launching this quarter for trusted top sellers, we
three years, we’ve shipped more than 17 million will begin granting direct access to buyer email
products to nearly 180 countries. addresses.

• Shoppers convert to buyers 20% more frequently Least Amount of Effort
on Teespring than competitor sites. And 40% of
Teespring customers are repeat buyers. Power Sellers want to focus on ideas, not
customer service. Our job is to reduce the
Two, you will make more money, because we barriers to bringing your products to market:
prioritize Seller Success

• You keep roughly half of all revenues for every • Using our composer, Sellers can create and
shirt you sell – it’s the most lucrative deal in the launch a new shirt in less than 5 minutes.
industry, and it’s simple. Sell 10 shirts at $20
each – you earn $100. • Our messaging tool enables sellers to message
their past buyers as many as 3 times per week –
• It gets even better as you build your business, as typically delivering an incremental 2-3% sales
we offer price breaks on larger sales volumes. boost.

Three, we are committed to offering you a • Launching this quarter, our new API will eliminate
constant stream of new sales opportunities manual data input into spreadsheets, saving
some sellers 4 hours per day simply by running a
• We provide marketing tools that help you simple script against the API data.
accelerate your business. For example, all sellers

05 | TEESPRINGTIMES

BRIAN MARCUS / PAVING THE PATH

We offer passive income opportunities that Worry-Free
boost revenue >20% and drive >50% higher
profits: Our vertically integrated supply chain ensures
unmatched quality, every step of the way:
• Boosted retargeting: We offer premium ad
placements; you pay only when you get a sale. • Teespring’s state-of-the-art production facility in
Kentucky features the latest digital and screen
• Email marketing: We curate Teespring-branded printing machinery, software and manufacturing
emails that cover large audiences, featuring your to keep quality high and costs low.
designs.
• Over 100 million people have bought Teespring
• Product listing ads: We put your designs in front shirts, and our merchandise holds up better wash
of shoppers in Google and other search engines; after wash than the knock-offs from the
you pay only when you get a sale. competition.

• Launching this quarter is the Teespring • Our global fulfillment infrastructure optimizes for
Marketplace: We help buyers find you via our time and money – keeping shipping costs low and
proprietary personalization engine, search delivering packages quickly, worldwide.
engine, and insight-driven curation on our And, of course, we handle customer service,
Teespring.com site, driving new buyers to your payment processing and currency conversion so
designs. you don’t have to.

Wherever you are, whenever you work, Since Walker and Evan invented this industry
Teespring provides unmatched comprehensive roughly three short years ago, so much has evolved.
Seller Support: Our role is to continue to innovate social commerce
and lead in seller success, every quarter to come.
• Our 24x7 seller global support team is made up Together, there’s huge opportunity in front of us.
of real people who provide hands-on help for Expect more tools, more services, more
troubleshooting any issues. merchandise options, better passive income
opportunities and ownership options coming soon.
• Our global community is top-notch, providing a It is no surprise that we have aligned with some of
forum for Sellers and Teespring experts to the most prestigious investment partners and see a
actively help each other succeed, with 100+ clear path forward to a very bright future. Last year
individuals sharing their learnings within a private alone, we minted scores of new millionaires and
Facebook group and Slack channel. thousands more quit their day job. That should tell
you something. If you aren’t working with
• Launching this quarter, our Loyal(tee) program Teespring, you are leaving money on the table!
will provide perks such as faster payouts and
early access to new features to anyone who’s sold
more than 100 shirts on Teespring. Top sellers
even get a dedicated account manager to help
you maximize business potential.

TEESPRINGTIMES | 06

IP OVERVIEW / TRUST + SAFETY

Trust + Safety
IP Overview

Our Goal: To reduce campaign suspensions
and grow your business.

What is a What is What is right
trademark? copyright? of publicity?

Definition: word, symbol, or Legal protection given to “works Right of publicity is the right of
phrase, used to identify a of authorship” which meet the famous people to control the
particular manufacturer or following requirements: commercial use of their name or
seller’s products or services and likeness. So Taylor Swift has the
distinguish them from the • Fixed in a particular medium right to decide whether her name
products of another. (painting, drawing, written, digital or face will appear in a product
art, etc.) advertisement.

• Original (independently created
by the author, doesn’t matter if
similar to existing works, quality,
ingenuity or aesthetic merit don’t
matter

• The result of at least some
creative effort

07 | TEESPRINGTIMES

TRUST + SAFETY / IP POP QUIZ

Pop Quiz
Can you identify which shirt in each pair
could be flagged for infringement

12

34

Answers1. A

Campaigns that use the name, likeness, artwork, or lyrics of artists and celebrities,
logos or names or brands and sports teams may be suspended.

TEESPRINGTIMES | 08
2. B 3. A + B 4.B

SKRILLA MONTHLY / RYAN ROLAND PAYDAY

Skrilla
Monthly

Ryan Roland
VP of Finance

Being in Finance and staring at numbers for the Combinability! You can now add a completely new
majority of my life, I've accepted the fact that most product to any of your pre-existing or new
people don't automatically put me on the VIP list at campaigns. We’ve seen data that shows that
the club. The bouncer never comes to me at the back campaigns with stickers and shirts show conversion
of the line and says "Damn Son! You look hot! Come rates of 25-30% higher than standalone product
with me and skip the line." The business of $krilla just campaigns.
isn't appetizing to a lot of folks. I get it.
More margin for sellers = more flexibility for your
Sometimes it feels like Fulfillment and Operations marketing. We have dropped the base price of
hangs out with me at the back of the line a lot too. stickers from $2.70 to $2 (small sticker), and $4.70 to
Sourcing, cycle times, ship times, inventory, $3 (large sticker). This drop also opens up the ability
throughput, margins. Are you kidding?! Those could to use promo codes like "Free Shipping" on these
be some of the hottest words I've ever heard. In a campaigns.
world dominated by juggernauts like Uber, Amazon,
and Alibaba, logistics is sexy. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Better shipping rates for buyers! With this release,
founder and CEO, has been obsessed with it from the the shipping price of stickers will be $1.50 for the first
company’s early days. It's not only selection that can sticker, and $0.25 for additional stickers (down from
drive our growth flywheel. It's lower cost structure $1.99 and $0.50 respectively). We are also hoping to
leading to lower prices that makes it spin faster. sweeten the deal for international buyers, by
dropping international shipping from $3.99 to $2.50
Recently our fulfillment team had a major (and $0.25 for additional stickers).
breakthrough that is hugely impactful for our entire
ecosystem. The new release of stickers marks not More selection. Higher conversion rates. Lower
only the first (of many) new products to be added to shipping for buyers. More margin for you, our sellers.
the composer, but also a number of developments Spin that flywheel baby! Not everyone finds
that will pave our way to fulfillment glory in weeks to fulfillment excellence like this as sexy as I do, but it
come. So what are they?! makes the Teespring world go round. Thanks sellers
for the hard work that you do!

09 | TEESPRINGTIMES



TS CREATIVES / UPDATE

Update
TS Creatives

Introducing a true game changer with
Teespring Creatives

We’re just as tired of seeing those white squares over wooden planks as
you are. Our new Teespring Creatives tool brings your design to life
(quite literally) by placing your graphic into high quality lifestyle scenes.
You'll have over 300 images to choose from, giving you the freedom to
test and discover what type of imagery truly resonates with your niche.
With this update, you will also make more money on Teespring and
significantly improve the effectiveness of your ads.

Check out some photo highlights that show a few examples of the new
Teespring Creative tool - head over to the bottom of your
campaign’s setting page to try it out for yourself!

It’s a fact that Facebook rewards those who
champion fresh and new content. This update is
just another reason why if you’re not selling on
Teespring, you’re leaving money on the table!

11 | TEESPRINGTIMES

UPDATE / TS CREATIVES

Over 300 unique
images to
choose from to
fit your design
to a tee!

TEESPRINGTIMES | 12

TEE CON 2016 / SPAIN

Tee Con 2016
Announcement

Get Ready for Tee Con EU

When: June 25th

Where: Barcelona, Spain

Want to meet fellow springers,
gain invaluable insight from top
sellers, chill with the Teespring
Team and vacation in one of
Europe's holiday hotspots?
Then don't miss out!

Sellers of all levels are invited to
attend TeeCon EU 2016! We will
be selling a limited number of
tickets to this event. Stay tuned
for guest speaker
announcements and ticket
sales.

13 | TEESPRINGTIMES



TEESPRING EUROPE / EVENTS

Teespring EU
Events Calendar

Hey Springers! In order to stay on top of the biggest commercial holidays you’ve
got to plan ahead! Last month we reminded you about Mother’s Day (celebrated
on May 8th in the USA & EU, and May 29th in France & Sweden) - so now it’s time
to start thinking about Father’s Day! For more information on translations and
global events join the Teespring EU Languages group on Facebook today!

Event Calendar

June 2016

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Zürich Father's Day
1 2 4
9 Festival (CH, DK)

3 (CH) 5
National Ibiza Pride London Pride Father's Day
Day
June 6-12 (UK) (AT, BE)
(SE) (ES)
Start of 10 11 Mother's
6 7Ramadan 8 Day(LU)

12

13 14 15 16 Granada 18 Father's Day
Glastonbury International
Festival (UK, US, NL,
(UK) Festival IE, FR, CA)

22 23 17 (ES) 19
Paris Gay
20 21 Pride March
Wimbledon Barcelona
(FR)

24 25 26

Tennis Pride Amsterdam
Championships (ES) Roots Festival
27 28(UK)
(NL) 30

Haro

29Wine Festival (ES)

15 | TEESPRINGTIMES

EVENTS / TEESPRING EUROPE

Top EU Buyer Markets Free Translations for
Father’s Day
Belgium Netherlands Germany Denmark
Dutch Dutch German Danish This Father’s Day, Teespring’s
French Translation Team will be offering
German free translations for
father-themed campaigns; email
United Norway [email protected] and
Kingdom Norwegian write fathersday in the subject
Finland line of the email. Also make sure
English Finnish to add a “fathersday” tag to any
Ireland new campaigns you launch if you
English want it to be featured on the
Teespring homepage (learn more
France about categories and tags here).
French This is a big commercial holiday
in the USA and UK so don’t miss
Spain Sweden out!
Spanish Swedish

Portugal Czech
Portuguese Republic
Czech

Luxembourg Switzerland Italy Austria
Luxembourgish German Italian German
French
French Italian
German

Campaign Cutoff Dates: DAD

To ensure buyers get their gift in time for Father’s Father’s Day 2016
Day pay attention to the following cutoff dates:
Note all locations below are reflective of their select Plan on launching a father-themed
fulfillment region. campaign? Get featured on the

Father’s Day – June 19, 2016 Teespring homepage! Add the tag
‘fathersday’ when setting up new
USA June 9
Canada June 4 campaigns!
United Kingdom May 31st
Europe (Netherlands, Ireland, France) May 23rd TEESPRINGTIMES | 16

Father’s Day - June 12, 2016

Europe (Belgium, Austria) May 16th

Father’s Day - June 5, 2016

Europe (Switzerland, Denmark) May 9th

POPULAR CATEGORIES / STATE BY STATE

Popular
Categories

State Category 1 Category 2 Category 3

Alaska Snowmobile Hiking Fishing
Arizona Yoga Wine Science
Arkansas Auto Racing Fishing
California Hunting Horse
Colorado Yoga Guitar Food
Connecticut Skiing Beard Hunting
Delaware Airplane
Florida Alcohol Auto Racing Yoga
Georgia Freemasonry Fishing Horse
Hawaii Scuba Diving Penguin Yoga
Snowmobile Yoga
Idaho Hunting Food Yoga
Illinois Samurai Food Alcohol
Indiana Hunting Wine Hunting
Alcohol Fishing
Iowa Beard Freemasonry Fishing
Kansas Auto Racing Beard Beard
Kentucky Skiing Truck
Louisiana Reading Hunting Hunting
Maine Hunting Fishing Hiking
Maryland Horse Snowmobile Horse
Massachusetts Fishing Fishing Reading
Michigan hunting Food Wine
Minnesota Fishing Yoga
Mississippi Yoga Horse Truck
Missouri Yoga Auto Racing Horse
Montana Hunting Fishing Snowmobile
Nebraska Hunting Yoga Alcohol
Nevada Horse Yoga Science
New Hampshire Hunting Yoga Snowmobile
New Jersey Fishing Hunting Reading
New Mexico Hunting Beard Reading
New York Yoga Snowmobile Food
North Carolina Fishing Food Science
North Dakota SUV Fishing Alcohol
Hunting Fishing Fishing
Ohio Yoga Fishing Horse
Oklahoma Auto Racing Food Wine
Horse Fishing Auto Racing
Oregon Hunting Yoga Science
Pennsylvania Hunting Fishing Reading
Rhode Island Yoga Horse Beard
South Carolina Hunting Sewing Yoga
South Dakota Yoga Truck Truck
Hunting Yoga Yoga
Tennessee Snowmobile Science Fishing
Texas Helicopter Coffee Mathematics
Utah Yoga SUV Beard
Hunting Horse Computer
Vermont Snowmobile Truck Auto Racing
Virginia Hunting Wine
Hiking Alcohol
Washington Fraternities & Sororities
Washington DC Hunting
Snowmobile
West Virginia Snowmobile
Wisconsin
Wyoming

17 | TEESPRINGTIMES

STATE BY STATE / POPULAR CATEGORIES
TEESPRINGTIMES | 18

MERCH TRENDS / CALENDAR 2016

Merch Trend
Season Overview

What sells by season

Spring • BELLA+CANVAS Unisex Premium Jersey V-Neck
Summer • BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Jersey V-Neck Tee
• American Apparel Triblend
Fall • Hanes Women’s Relaxed V-Neck
Winter • Gildan Unisex Tank
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Tank
• BELLA+CANVAS Unisex Tank
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Fitted Tank
• Alternative Women’s Meegs Racerback Tank
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Slouchy Tee
• American Apparel Women’s Fitted Tee
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Flowy Tee
• American Apparel Long Sleeve
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Flowy Long Sleeve
• Hanes Full Zip Hoodie
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Slouchy Sweatshirt
• Hanes Unisex Crewneck Sweatshirt

• Hanes Unisex Crewneck Sweatshirt
• Hanes Kids Crewneck Sweatshirt
• Hanes Full Zip Hoodie
• BELLA+CANVAS Women’s Slouchy Sweatshirt
• Gildan Kids Hoodie
• American Apparel Pullover Hoodie

19 | TEESPRINGTIMES



LET’S GET DISTRESSED / DARREN KANE

Let’s Get
Distressed!

Design tutorial by Darren Kane

Understanding the Concept

Okay, for the distressed look, what are we really after here? What we want, is to simulate a t-shirt that’s been
through the wash so much, that small pieces of the printed design have flaked off, allowing the t-shirt color
to show through those missing pieces. That may sound obvious (and it is), but thinking about in it that way
helps with the approach. We’re deleting pieces of our design, to allow the background color (the t-shirt color)
to show through. So, let’s start with this concept exercise:

Step One

Create a new Illustrator document, and on the first
layer, draw a navy blue rectangle that fills most to all of
your artboard. This is a background that represents our
t-shirt color, and this is almost always how I begin a new

t-shirt design. (Sometimes I actually paste in a screen-
shot of a blank t-shirt as the background, but for this

tutorial, let’s just do it with a rectangle.) Lock this
background t-shirt color layer, because we don’t want to

do anything with it for now.

Step Two

Now on a separate layer above our background, let’s
draw three simple shapes: a white circle, and then two
smaller pink squares.

21 | TEESPRINGTIMES

DARREN KANE / LET’S GET DISTRESSED

Step Five Step Three

Once both pink squares are selected, hit “Delete.” Okay, Let’s move the squares, so that they’re both on top of
what’s happened? The squares disappear, and the circle the circle in different ways. One square is completely
remains. Just as you’d expect. Wow, incredible.
within the circle, the other overlaps the circle edge.
Step Six
Step Four
Let’s “Undo” that delete, to bring those squares back.
Now, using the selection tool (not the magic wand), Using the magic wand tool, click on one of the pink
select all three shapes. Yes, that means the circle and squares. This should automatically select all the other
both squares, all selected together.
objects of the same fill color, which in this case just
means the other pink square.

Step Seven

With all three shapes
selected, let’s use the
Pathfinder functionality in
Illustrator. Within Pathfind-
er, there are different
options of how to affect
overlapping shapes; if you’re new to Illustrator, I highly recommend you play
around with them, to learn what each option does. Many come in very handy,
and are often essential. In this case (and this is the key to this tutorial) we’re
using Pathfinder > Trim.

Step Eight

After applying Pathfinder > Trim, it seems at first as though nothing
happened. But let’s see what it actually did. Using the magic wand again, click

on one of the pink squares. This will actually select both squares, since
they’re both the same fill color.

Now, delete the selected pink squares, and look what’s happened. The
spaces where the pink squares had been are cut out of the circle, allowing

the blue background to show through.

This is because of how Pathfinder > Trim works. After we applied it, only
what we could SEE of the three shapes remained. In other words, Illustrator
actually ditched the parts of the circle that were hidden by the squares. When
we selected and deleted the pink squares, it revealed that we cut holes out of

the circle.

Another way to think about what Pathfinder > Trim did: it cut our overlapping
shapes into puzzle pieces, all on the same, flat plane. Remove any piece from

the puzzle, and a hole remains where that piece was.

TEESPRINGTIMES | 22

LET’S GET DISTRESSED / DARREN KANE

Let’s Actually Distress This Thing

Okay, now that we’ve run through the process of how to punch holes right through a design with Pathfinder
> Trim, let’s do it again, using a distressed pattern.

Step One

Here’s our white circle, just like before, a separate layer
above our locked background t-shirt color layer.

Step Two

In a separate Illustrator document, go ahead and open up your distressed pattern,
and…

Whoa, whoa, wait! Where did THIS come from?! This is actually a freebie vector
distressed pattern I found online a while back, and I did some minor tweaks to it.
So, you’ll have to hunt down your own pattern (freebie or an inexpensive buy), or
there’s fairly easy ways to make one.

Anyway, note how I currently have the pattern colored in the same navy blue as
the t-shirt colored background in our main doc. Select the entire pattern and copy
it.

Step Three Step Four

Going back to our “circle” design, paste the distressed That’s why I like to change the color of the pattern, to
pattern right on top of it. something entirely different than what’s used in the
design or the background color. So I can clearly SEE the
Are we done already? I mean, it looks like we’re done. pattern. Let’s make it the same pink as the squares from
But we’re not. We’ve simply overlaid the pattern on top before.
of our circle, and since it’s the same color as the
background, it LOOKS like we’ve deleted out pieces of
the circle so the background shows through, but we
haven’t deleted anything yet. (This actually though is a
nice preview of what we’ll end up with.)

23 | TEESPRINGTIMES

DARREN KANE / LET’S GET DISTRESSED

Step Five

Select both the circle and the entire pattern together.
Then, same as we did before, Pathfinder > Trim.

Step Six

After trimming, magic wand any part of the distressed
pattern, and it should select the entire pattern. Because

hey, every path in the pattern has the same pink fill
color.

Step Seven Step Eight

Delete the pattern…meaning, that’ll delete everything But let’s make sure you did it right! It’s really easy to test: go ahead and
pink. You’re left with a distressed circle design, with the unlock your bottom background color layer, and change the color of that
background color showing through all the “missing” rectangle to something else. Like say, red.
pieces.
If you can see the red through the cracks, then you know you’ve successfully
deleted out pieces of the circle, allowing the t-shirt color to show through.

Closing Tips To Distress You Out:

• Once you’ve found (or made) a distressed pattern that you like, play around with the positioning on your
design. You may only want to use distressing on select parts of your design -- like on the outside edges -- to
enhance the overall look, and not detract from it. Often using it sparingly is the best way to go.

• Be careful with sizing down your distressed pattern too small, where the “cracks” get microscopic. It may
become problematic to print, because the ink ends up filling in the holes. And thusly, defeating what we’re
going for.

• Always, always, always save out a clean version of your artwork with everything intact, before you distress
it! In fact, I often distress designs, in a different file altogether.

TEESPRINGTIMES | 24

TEELYMPICS PREVIEW / MAY - GYMNASTICS

Teelympics
May Preview

Gymnastics - Score the Perfect 10!
You hit the sand for Beach Volleyball in April, but now it’s time
to trade your swimsuits for leotards. Gymnastics is an sport
that requires strength, endurance and a little bit of style. That’s
why for this month’s challenge winners will need to exemplify
all three to earn a spot on the podium!

To win: Now’s the time to dig deep
and master a brand new niche! No
one ever scores a perfect ten
without practice, so start doing
some research.
At the end of April, the sellers with
the most units sold in an entirely
new niche will take home a
Teelympic medal.
To qualify a “new niche” campaign,
enter “Teelympics” as one of the
tags along with a description of
your design’s category.

25 | TEESPRINGTIMES



DEAR RONNIE AND SUHAIL / Q + A

Dear Ronnie
and Suhail

Every month, new wise Springers will take
the stand to answer questions from Springers
new and old. First up, Australian Springers,
Ronnie and Suhail!

What are some of the things you look for to pages, replying to comments & archiving old designs
know if you should scale an ad? (we have an enormous back catalogue).
It will always be the ROI. Depending on the overall 5 x Designers - 2 are full time, the other 3 part time
ROI will determine how aggressively we start scaling. and bring different skills and designs to the table. We
We have lots of rules in place to make it as black and are always looking for talented designers to help us
white as possible. bring fresh new designs to the market.

We let the numbers do the talking and at this point 3 x Internal Springers - we have recently employed 3
we are only concerned with 1 thing...Sales. Not guys in our office to run campaigns for us. We are
oCPM, not CTR or the amount of likes or shares, basically paying these guys to be educated with life
SALES. Often times people get too bogged down in all changing skills!
the data that is available when their focus should be
on quality of designs & targeting. The only time we 1 x Website VA. This guy takes care of posting to our
look at these is when we’re looking at new niches or more brand centric pages where we are building
trying to work out why a campaign isn’t selling. communities/brands, updating websites content to
offer the niche more than just products to buy. We
Do you have a team? If so, how many members are actively aiming to build a culture around this
do you have and what are their tasks? brand where people want to live and breathe
We wouldn’t be where we are if we didn’t have a everything to do with it!
team. A team allows us to focus on the most
important money making tasks. Do you sell mostly in the US or in the EU? Do you
target by country or by state?
2 x VA’s - Philippines based, these guys take care of The lion's share of our launches are stateside
uploading campaigns and posting to the various however as soon as we have got a few sales on a

27 | TEESPRINGTIMES

Q + A / DEAR RONNIE AND SUHAIL

campaign we immediately launch it in the UK and EU What do you do to automate your selling?
shortly after. In some cases where we know the Good question. Having VA’s is a massive help in
niches well we will launch to the UK and EU first. automating a lot of the more mundane jobs. Having
rules and a schedule have helped a lot in automating
The thing people need to realize is that it is not hard parts of the business however to really unlock the
to sell to the UK & EU. They are people with a sense power of selling on Teespring you need to spend
of humor or sense of pride as well and want shirts as time in the trenches, learn your niches, learn you ads
much as the next person. The targeting is a little management etc. Once you grasp these things then
tougher at times and the language barrier (i.e. those start outsourcing different elements.
countries that don’t speak English) may pose a slight
problem BUT it is worth it. There is soooo much If you could sell any product aside from shirts,
opportunity and by not launching over there people what would it be?
are leaving money on the table. Anything that solves a problem for someone. If at the
end of the day we can get something in someone's
What words do you live by when it comes to hands that they want/need and we can make a profit
selling on Teespring? to continue doing that then we will look into it. Both
Keep on keeping on… eventually things will turn in Suhail and I have had other business in the past and
your favor as long as you keep learning, adapting to the thing we love most about Teespring is the ability
changes (market & Facebook) and testing (new to only have to focus on key areas instead of the
niches, ad types, scaling methods etc). whole solution. With Teespring we don’t need to
worry about building & refining landing pages or
What’s the best part about being a powerseller? websites, split testing different colored buttons,
We’re powersellers? That’s not a term we throw there’s no concerns with trying to get better postage
around lightly and are still searching for what we rates or print quality.
believe that term actually encompasses. We have
learned a lot in our journey and have SOOOOO much If we can sell products through Teespring where we
more to learn. One of the things I love about being only need to focus on coming up with a concept and
able to do this full time is the connections we’ve selling then there are only two areas we need to
made with other sellers and the guys at Teespring. focus on to be successful. Much easier than being a
Ever since starting out in business I have wanted to jack of all trades. It’s all about the team and
work with people who I get along with and because Teespring bring a very important, reliable solution.
of the scale of this community it is an absolute So as for the products? No idea.
pleasure to “work”.

There is also a byproduct of having success with
Teespring. We have flexibility to do what we want,
where we want, however we want… We have time to
spend with our families, time to step out for a coffee,
time to step back make strategic decisions about our
futures. Teespring has given us what we’d only ever
dreamed of in terms of freedom, we are now living a
meaningful life that allows us to help others.

TEESPRINGTIMES | 28