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Nov 01, 05 | 12:30 pm

Anatomy of a clown Perspicuity



anatomy of a clown t-shirt

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Back in 1998 there weren't as many t-shirt sites as we have today.

I remember when I first started selling T-shirts back in 1996, it was a challenge to find ways to promote a new T-shirt line. Basically, there was Yahoo and that was about it. There was no Google there were no AdWords or Overture. No T-Shirt Links directory (although teefinder was in the making), no Buy Tees, no T-Shirt Forums, no CafePress, no Zazzle or PrintMojo.

One of the only sites that existed to help promote t-shirt designs was a site called the Top 50 T-Shirt Countdown chart. It was a site that manually collected votes for the top 50 t-shirt designs on the web and every week, the webmaster would tally the votes and post the rankings.

I bought many a t-shirt from that site, and it's interesting to think how many t-shirt sites that have vanished that were around back then.

I was happy to see that Craig from Perspicuity was still posting t-shirts, drawings and other musings to his website.

One of the first t-shirts I bought online was the Anatomy of the Clown design from "Perspicuitees".

Although I really hate clowns, one of the things that stood out for me with this design was how simple it was. A black and white skeleton with a red clown nose seemed to fit perfectly together. It now hangs in my closet as a tribute to online t-shirt sales history (and as a memory of me fitting in a size large t-shirt :)

This month I hope to take a trip back through the t-shirt memory lane of 1996-1999. Showcasing some of the most notable sites and designs that existed before print on demand spawned a whole new generation of t-shirt sellers and before Wall Street discovered online t-shirt sales :)

I can't say it was a "better" time for t-shirts back then. Time brought innovation in both t-shirt design, t-shirt printing and ecommerce. By lowering the initial starting costs, I think hundreds of great designs were unleashed that may have never seen the light of the web. Not all the new t-shirt designs are great of course, but it's great to see the industry grow each year.

This month will be a tribute to those that did it "the hard way", with a slight nod to the up and coming new t-shirts that are worth noting.
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