Custom t-shirt site I've been working on the past few months.

http://www.teemakers.com

by teejayvanslyke • 14 years ago

16 28 14 years ago

teemakers.com

habosa• 14 years ago

Seems to be down. I'm interested to see when it is up though, we could use a modern custom tshirt site done right.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Oh yeah? That's strange, seems responsive to me. I'll look into it.

HardyLeung• 14 years ago

You gotta fix your website (I'm using Chrome, and the background image took forever to load, and for the longest time I was puzzled by the small window to the right with some text). Not leaving a very good impression... Plus $29?

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Sorry about that; the splash image is a bit large and could use some optimization.

calbear81• 14 years ago

It seems to be a bit cheaper than CustomInk with no quantity requirement but once you go above 15-20 shirts, you can get volume discount through CustomInk. Is the $29 for double-sided printing?

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

We only allow single-side on the website, but we can definitely accommodate most requests by hand. Contact us on Twitter: @teemakers

jandy• 14 years ago

Static assets are taking a very long time to load for me.

I noticed, for example, that the Select a Color image under Learn More is 1024x786 and weighing in at 590kb despite only being displayed at a size of 282x212. I'd recommend you do something about that.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Thanks for the warning! I'm still ironing out performance. I'll take a look at that one in particular right now.

tiddchristopher• 14 years ago

To improve the preview for Windows and Linux users, why don't you use Typekit with Nimbus Sans (a rather accurate Helvetica clone)? Many designers and typophiles won't trust a service that doesn't accurately render the type on a typographic product. Also, I'd rather see the flat front of a shirt than the current view when previewing how the text will be set.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Awesome, thanks mate. Better typographic accuracy on non-Mac OSes is definitely on the list.

yoseph• 14 years ago

Works fine for me, but it would be great to be able to adjust the line height of the text.

austenallred2• 14 years ago

Constructive criticism: The first page looked like an opt-in or a launchrock page. I almost left because I didn't want to sign up for anything. Looks cool, though.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Good call! Maybe increase the size of the call-to-action?

dave5104• 14 years ago

Definitely. Making a t-shirt seems to be the one action you want people to take from the landing page, so it should be represented as a big honking button saying "CLICK ME!" (More elegantly designed, of course.)

austenallred2• 14 years ago

At least. For me, a picture background offset with a dark background and light text says "temporary landing page" - like your website hasn't been set up yet (see http://launchrock.com or http://grasswire.com to see what I mean).

I would definitely center the "get started" and move it up to just under "express yourself."

I would also change the messaging on the button so it's less ambiguous. Instead of "get started" say something like "start designing." I'm just not sure what "getting started" means. That should up your clickthrough rate and lower your bounce rate.

</marketing>

ChrisNorstrom• 14 years ago

(Add overflow-x:hidden; to the .splash .foreground .inner element to get rid of the scrollbar on the bottom.)

It's creative and different but I'll bet you an arm and leg that if you made the site more normal with a regular landing page you'd get higher conversion. Putting a lot of information in a little tiny box that you have to scroll through is just bad usability.

Why doesn't the custom t-shirt making just load on the landing page underneath the call to action. Why hide it from users? If you have a lot to load just ditch the full screen background image.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

You're right, the box is a bit constricting. I like the idea of dropping the editor below the splash. Thanks man! I'll probably do that.

paxunix• 14 years ago

No white on black?!

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Right now, no :(

Unfortunately, our supplier uses a DTG printer which uses CMYK inks. So no light on dark... at least not yet.

I was bummed too.

yesimahuman• 14 years ago

First thoughts: make the landing page for this hacker news post the custom editor, and put it right into "edit" mode. The landing page does need work, and the right side box feels a bit wonky and the "get started" button doesn't stand out at all.

The custom maker is your bread and butter and it's pretty sweet, so highlight it. It's definitely faster than the one on Custom Ink! Though I ran into an issue where my final shirt render had the image at the bottom of the shirt rather than the top.

On the price: anyone who has made shirts before would think $29 is way too much for a custom shirt (though I just realized it's AA). I can only suggest searching for way to bring this down a bit.

Good luck, and congrats on launching! I know how gut wrenching it can be to read HN comments after launching your first version.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

Hey mate, I took your advice and made the editor the main page with a call to action linking to "Learn More". This puts the editor at the forefront. Thanks for your feedback; it's very insightful!

seanlinehan• 14 years ago

The customizer is pretty sweet. The layout is nice and clean on that end. I think the parallax effect is interesting, but as others have noted probably won't convert as well as it could. You might want to try running some A/B tests with some dramatically different layouts to test the whole spectrum.

Quick Note: You may want to redirect teemakers.com to www.teemakers.com, it throws a security warning.

Good job though! Best of luck with the project!

flipstewart• 14 years ago

while editing: http://cl.ly/JyDj while ordering: http://cl.ly/JzFn

Some kind of rendering issue in Safari on OS X ML.

I don't think the price is outrageous, but since some folks seem to think it is, check out Tultex. Good quality of shirts with a similar fit to American Apparel, and a good bit less expensive.

zoneinfinite• 14 years ago

Hmm...I'm not really sure why I would use your service over the many other tshirt printers online? E.g. BlueCotton charges $29 for one screen-printed (not DTG) AA tee with multiple colors allowed, and the price drops significantly if you order in bulk. I think you need a very strong differentiating feature to compete with the big printers IMO.

cpolis• 14 years ago

A few notes:

- The 'Get Started' button needs to be placed and styled more prominently - it took me longer than it should have to find it.

- Adding glyphs takes the user out of editing mode

- I would have the Facebook and Twitter buttons on the main menu, i.e. don't nest them. Having a few blue buttons on the otherwise black menu should increase CTR for sharing

- If possible, add more color options. I'm not sure what your printing setup is, but I really didn't like the available colors. I prefer navy blue and black shirts.

- In the order form, all the options on dropdown menus are unreadable - they are light grey on light grey

- $29 for one single sided shirt? I wish I would have known before going through the creation process!!! Can I buy in bulk for cheaper? Can I get double sided printing?

Hope this helps.

teejayvanslyke10• 14 years ago

So helpful! Thank you.

davidcelis• 14 years ago

Your SSL cert comes up as unverifiable on mobile Safari

thiagoperes• 14 years ago

No international shipping? WTF?

Custom t-shirt site I've been working on the past few months.

Related Stories