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STC threadwear business card/beer

www.STCthreadwear.com

It's 12:05am, and I'm starting to fade. The 3 hours of sleep I got between last night's shift and this one is catching up to me. I've got a really drunk guy sleeping off his booze in room 15. Lucky bastard gets to sleep. Maybe I'll crawl in next to him. Don't worry, I'll make sure I'm the big spoon.

While Jake napped, I met with Dan and Laura today to strategize. It was a good meeting. We have some direction. Laura is going to spearhead the campaign to enlist reps and call shops. I hope we can really get this thing ramped up in time for the holidays.

I also designed a new business card. If it looks like a can of beer, that's because it was inspired by a can of beer. I actually made a design similar to this for the Upslope Brewery folks to use as a coupon. They had already paid someone else to make a design for them, so they didn't end up using it. But I liked it so much, it seemed like a waste to not use it. Just another alcohol inspired misadventure I guess. But it does work nicely as a business card.

Happy Halloween from STC threadwear!!!

It's 2:40am, and I've got 3 psych patients in the ER. They are remarkably pleasant folks, and at this hour, they are thinking saner thoughts than me.

I sent out a design for a track jacket in the last post. It seemed to be reasonably well received, but I'm just still not sure. Dan likes the idea of vertical stripes. So I did a version with vertical stripes. We are planning to market one of these to the resorts. The left chest logo can be pressed to fit whatever resort is interested. One of the nurses here suggested putting the vertical stripes on the back. Not a bad idea. BTW, the front view model is actually me this time, rather than that metro American Apparel guy.

Just saw a little kiddo that's feeling lousy and probably has the flu. Her parents are really nice folks and appreciative of our care. Kinda makes me like my job a little more, even at 3am.

I'd love some feedback about the designs (thanks to those who've already given feedback on the first design). Sometimes I think they are good, and then sometimes, i just want to start over. As opposed to the t-shirts that we are selling, i would actually buy one of these jackets. Of course, it would have to be drastically reduced, but I'd be willing to buy it. This puts me in foreign territory because with the t-shirts i had to keep reminding myself that even though I would never buy a t-shirt (I have a million), other people apparently will. But with the track jacket, I have to ask myself which one I'd rather have. I think I want both.

I should go check on the baby with the flu, and then i've got to figure out what to do with my contacts that I forgot to take out before leaving the house.

until next time,

I'm out.

STC threadwear Track Jacket

(American Apparel Jacket,

STC threadwear design)

STCthreadwear.com   sparetirecycling.com 

As mentioned in the last post, I would like to put out a track jacket in time for the holidays.  Check out the pics and let me know what you think--design, colors, etc . . . 

The inspiration came from the old school IMBA track jacket they put out a while back.  I tried a number of different design ideas, but I just seemed to gravitate to back to this one.  The retro stripes was very popular at Veloswap, and I think the stripes work well on the jacket too.

BTW,

 that model is an American Apparel model, not a buddy of ours.  

Veloswap

STC threadwear       www.STCthreadwear.com.

www.sparetirecycling.com

We hauled our wares to Veloswap this past weekend to introduce them to the world.  For those who don't know, Veloswap is like a giant flea market for bikes and bike stuff. It was a bit of a nervous beginning as hordes of rabid shoppers busted through the gates of the Western National Complex on their way to consumer heaven.   The attached pic is of our booth the day before the event after setting up.  The stampede headed straight for our booth . . . and then kept on going, all the way to the depths of the complex where the mega bargains live.   The first couple hundred folks that come through the doors had been lined up for hours outside of the building, braving 40 degree weather for the chance to get the first glimpses of Veloswap's best deals.  Those folks blew by without even a glance.  They were focused.  Finally, a lady walking by our booth turned to her husband and matter-of-factly said,"I want that one."  She was pointing to the Columbines and Chainrings design.  Ah, at last, a sale!  As I scurried to the back of the booth to press out a fresh shirt, the flood gates opened.  For the next 4 hours, I barely had time to pee as the orders kept coming in.  Thankfully, Laura had come to rescue us just as things were getting really busy.  Both she and Dan worked the front of the booth as I tucked myself into the back to work the heat press.  At one point I turned to Dan and stammered, "This is more stressful than a packed ER, or even a patient trying to die!"  We got great feedback about the designs throughout the day.  I'm sure the "FREE BEER" coupons helped some (We partnered with Upslope Brewery to offer a free pint in their taproom in Boulder for every shirt sold.)  But for the most part, the designs held their own.  It was pretty cool.  We were hoping to just break even, but we ended up doing significantly better than that.  And considering we were selling at near retail cost in a wholesale, prices-slashed environment, that's not too shabby.  

BTW, if you guys have a Facebook page, you can friend us, or become a fan, or something like that.  Amy put one of our designs on as her profile pic for a while.  She started a trend because a number of other random people have done that as well.

Last thing.   Big props to Ryn and Cindy who crushed the San Jose marathon.  Ryn later told me that it was easy.  Show off.

I'm trying to convince Dan to let me put out some track jackets.  More on that in the next post.  But We'd like some honest feedback about the design.

Until next time.

out.

-wu

Check out our new website at http://www.sparetirecycling.com/.

STC update

It's 1:15am, and I'm waiting for a CT result to come back. The late night ramblings tend to be somewhat incoherent, so I apologize in advance if this post sucks. but Jon has been on me about the paucity of updates (none) since the Breck Epic.

I never provided adequate closure to the last stage of the Epic and the race in general. I had many things I wanted to say about it, but I can't remember them all now. It was the coolest and most fun bike race I've ever done, and I hope to be able to keep doing it in the years to come. one of the coolest things about the last day of the race was meeting Keith Bontrager. For those who don't know, Keith is one of the pioneers of mountain biking and frame building. I have 3 of his bikes. I happen to run into him after the last stage (read, I stalked him like Kathy Bates in Misery. "I'm your number one fan!!!"). He was really cool. Thank you, Keith, for not calling me out as the obsessed fan that I must have appeared to be.

In any case, the Epic was really cool, and I recommend it to all. There are so many things I want to say about it, but I'm too tired now. But I'm signed up for next year. Since Jon will be in New Zealand all summer, he won't be able to race with me next year. I enlisted a World Champion though to take his place. For those who haven't heard, Ken is the solo 12 hour clydesdale WORLD FREAKIN' CHAMPION! Great job Ken, you better start wearing the WC stripes.

I'm kinda burnt out on biking right now. I shut it down after Leadville, and have only ridden a couple times since. It's time to get back to ball sports, at least for now.

The big news these days for STC is that our online store is up and running. Thanks to Dan, we've got a full-on store with a check-out page and everything. See it at http://www.sparetirecycling.com/. Drew's kids are getting us some model pics to replace the mock-ups on the site, so it's going to look even cooler. Big thanks to Karen Hogan for being our very first online customer. We are looking forward to the day when a complete stranger buys something.

Last thing, we are taking our wares to Veloswap. Dan somehow sweet-talked the fine folks at Upslope Brewery (newest microbrew in Boulder) into giving us "free beer on the tap" coupons to entice people to buy our shirts. Pretty cool deal.



until next time,

-wu