The blog for all things mayamada
Posts tagged mayamada
The Problem of the Last Mile
Feb 27th
Ideas are easy, but finishing is (disproportionately) harder.
Our website is almost done and we’ve also just finished rebranding efforts including brand new designs (available now). The whole experience has been a lesson in seeing things through to the end.
Everyone has good ideas (just as the Winklevoss twins). As I’ve learned over the past year, that’s not difficult. You may have some good ideas, some bad ones and one or two will probably be excellent. But generally it’s something anyone can do.
So you have a bunch of good ideas, you pick one and run with it. Putting in the work to implement your idea ranks a little higher on the difficulty scale, but getting 90-95% of that killer idea is still quite achievable.
The truly difficult task in any pursuit, is finishing it. Getting to 100%
That last 5-10% is where winners are separated form everyone else. For some reason that last mile – when you can see the finishing line but aren’t quite there yet – tests you much more than whatever work took place beforehand.
I don’t quite understand it myself, but maybe Malcolm Gladwell will write a book explaining it one day.
That is when you been at it for months or maybe even years and just want to see the finishing line. When things are taken longer than expected and when the problems seem to want to crop up. If you’re going to be successful, you can’t stop and call it ‘done’ at 90% – you have to persist all the way.
It helps if you have a good team of people around you to fill in the gaps that you leave (like graphic design ability and patience!), but however you get there just remember that you’re not done until you get to 100%.
Mayamada: Behind The T-shirts
Jan 16th
Ok maybe not so much behind as right in front and taking pictures.
Things are finally coming together with the t-shirts and hoodies for our new brand. The t-shirts have been printed and we’re putting the finishing touches on them now. Remember, you can still put in a reservation for a t-shirt or hoodie and we’ll save one for you when they’re available.
There are three new designs in a range of colours. Here’s a sneak peak of a few:
As we speak our t-shirts are being stitched with with come cool tags…we got a bunch just to be sure!
We’re also giving away free goodies with every order.
It’s exiting to be making progress heading towards the launch of the new brand. Drop by our Facebook page and let us know what you think.
The launch is in February…Stay Tuned!
What For?
Jan 8th
The pieces are coming together as we prepare for the release of our new range of t-shirts and hoodies. We have to get the t-shirts tagged, packaged and shipped to our first customers, sort out the website and organise a photoshoot all inside three weeks. This month is going to be crazy!
If you’ve been following us from the beginning you’ll probably have seen our previous efforts to sell t-shirts…which didn’t go so well. I’m one for learning from failure and since then we have completely rebranded our efforts and are almost ready to re-launch.
Towards the end of last year, I was asked why we we’re going at this again after our initial efforts didn’t go as planned. The question took be by surprise, not because I didn’t have an answer, but because it was obvious to me. So obvious I never actually stopped to think about the answer before.
Because this is what we want to do.
Because we want to create a really cool brand that people can related to, create something that takes our interest in Japanese culture and puts our own spin on it. Because we want to make something great.
I recently watched the Social Network and for all the negative perceptions of Mark Zuckerburg and the general concerns over Facebook (security, privacy etc), for me the biggest takeaway from that film (or “movie” if you’re reading this stateside) is that at the end of this day he went and did something great because that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t ask for permission, didn’t check with anyone along the way (except Justin Timberlake). He just did it and that spoke volumes to me.
Now, before someone make a crazy assumption, I’m not saying mayamada is going to be Facebook. What I’m saying is that creating anything from nothing is hard, but that doesn’t meaning you let setbacks stop you if that’s what you really want.
So here’s to making things happen and to a great 2011 for everyone reading this!
On the Comeback Trail!
Dec 10th
What month is it? What year is it? December?! Wow, time flies when you’re having fun.
We’ve spent the last few months working on the complete overhaul of the mayamada brand and we’re glad to say we’re almost there.
Way back, in a time when “Classified” still meant classified, we decided to put an end to our previous efforts at selling t-shirts with a smile and have a serious think about how we were doing things and what we really wanted to acheive. We ended up agreeing that starting from the ground up was the best way forward. There were many reasons for this, maybe they’ll be a blog post or two written about what we’ve learned! To put it short for anyone in a similar position to us five months ago: if you feel things aren’t working out, take the time to step back and re-evaluate. You never know what ideas can come about when you take a good look at yourself. We did that and decided we could do better with our brand.
So what’s the new brand about I hear you ask? Well allow me to introduce ourselves…
The new mayamada is all about showing off a positive and quirky confidence. We’re making Japanese influenced clothing inspired by our fantasy world of Japanese television parody. Yes you heard that right, we’re making up our own television network!
Think Japanese TV mixed with Looney Tunes and you’ll get a good idea of where we’re going.
So expect to see…well, anything really. Off the wall television shows starring a random animal cast. Commercials featuring the latest product ideas to come out of our heads and anything related to TV you can think of and we can create.
We’re now gearing up for the launch of our first line of t-shirts and hoodies in January, which brings me to the designs you’ll be able to wear in about a month’s time.
Word Salad
The design reflect what mayamada is about molded to the shape of the mayamada Logo Kai…made up of a whole bunch of words. Look closely and see if you can find them all out.
Serious Sound
Everyone likes their music turned all the way up right? How about loud enough to crack skulls, because unless your music causes some long term damage, it can’t be good (just ask Keith Richards).
Cut the Cake
The first of many shows to feature on the mayamada network. Samurai Chef is a cooking show which a difference. Anyone can judge food by tasting it, that’s been done to death. We say, if you really want to get to know your food…you just have to take a sword to it and see what happens!
These designs will be available on a limited run in January and you can make show you get yours now by reserving a t-shirt now. where also giving 10% off your entire order when you use the promo code “LOGOKAI”…so what are you waiting for?!
mayamada switches on next month.
Stay Tuned…
Never Too Young To Start (Apparently)
Nov 8th
As we continue to make progress with the mayamada re branding. I’ve taken to reading a lot more about this whole t-shirt business thing. Reading books on branding, business etc. Checking out blogs and other brands is also a really good way of getting to know the industry, seeing what’s out there and being inspired by other peoples efforts (there’s some seriously good stuff about).
But I was really surprised by this brand I discovered via an article on IAMTHETREND. The founder Local Advancers posted some good tips for start up a t-shirt brand too. One that really spoke to me was the call to visualise every detail of your brand. I learned (and still am learning ) this the hard way.
I think if you are going to start something and do it properly, you have to have the end in mind. Visualising every aspect of the brand i.e. what the brand means, how the designs will look, how the tees will wear, what the packaging will look like etc is crucial to making a consistent and hopefully successful brand.
What’s significant about though this is the founder’s age: only 15 years old. Now I don’t know about you but I was nowhere near starting a business when I was that age and I’m only slowly getting the hang of things now. So to see that kind of drive at a young age is remarkable (and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve wasted the last 10 years of my life at all!). What’s more is the t-shirt design look good, check out the site for yourself.
I just hope our launch will be as solid.
Some Thoughts On Developing A Brand
Sep 23rd
We recently decided to completely re start or t-shirt brand. Everything is being done from scratch as we look to make a really great brand and product for people. I always thing it’s good to know when something isn’t working and make the decision to stop, make changes and most importantly, learn from the experience. As we go through the process of building a brand, some thoughts came to mind so I thought would write them down for anyone in a similar position.
When you start out a brand I think there are some crucial things to consider:
Brand
Image source: logodesignworks
If you are looking to put out a brand that can be recognised it must be given serious thought.
You t-shirts must have some kind of link between them, something to hold them together something that people can sink there teeth into so to speak. There are so many brand out, what makes your different? They don’t need to look the same, they don’t need to even all be t-shirts, but there should be something to attract people beneath the designs themselves. That just my opinion anyway. I like the brands developed by people Johnny Cupcakes, Tokidoki and Superdry because of their strong concept that shines in everything from the website to the product to the people behind product.
Team
Image source: icebirdy
Are you doing it yourself or in a group? If by yourself have you got the right skills? You might be good at design but if you can’t get the business right then you might find it difficult to get traction.
I’m a fan of working with other people who are good at what they do, so we have a small team of people here. If you have a team make sure you’ve got the might mix of people to cover all the angles.
- Vision – What is the long term plan for your brand, Where are you going with this?
- Product – The designs you create to the physical the t-shirts you put them on. Print, material, packaging etc
- Business – The foundation of it all. Sometimes the boring parts, but essential to making something successful
Even if you’re in a group, be prepared to wear different hats when starting out. We recently had to do taxes for the first time and the only thing it taught us is that we needed someone to do this for us next time! Really, it was not fun (respect to people who have to do this for a living!)
Plan
It’s an oldie but a goodie: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” – Winston Churchill
Once you have all the pieces together how exactly are you going to make it happen? What’s the next step. I’ve never been a big fan of pages and pages of documentation (you’ll see why in a bit), but you need something on paper so you (and everyone in the group) know what you are going can coordinate actions. If you don’t have the discipline to even write down a plan of attack, you’ll probably never make it to the castle gates (not sure where that analogy came from…).
Adapt
Allow me to contradict myself. As soon as you start that plan you scribbled down, it’s going out the window. Let me explain. Things change and rarely ever go exactly as planned and you need to be flexible. This is why I’m not for hugely detailed plans, because that’s fairytale and it won’t happen like that.
Enjoy it
Image source: mjagiellicz
Last, but probably most important. Don’t do something you’re not going to enjoy. We only at the very start of are journey and it been tough, I can’t imagine what experienced and successful brands are going through but I hope to find out as I’ve enjoyed it so far.
Do you agree? Disagree or have anything to add? Drop a comment or vist our Facebook page.
Johnny Cupcakes London Store Saves A Long Trip
Sep 18th
I was excited by the recent news that Johnny Cupcakes is opening a store in London! I read through his story this year and was really impressed by his journey to becoming a recognised and successful brand. It also may have something to do with the fact that I’m subconsciously drawn to cakes due to a supposed sweet tooth as one friend put it.
As all the stores were in the US I was planning to make a visit the next time I was in California. This will save me a journey, although I may actually be in California by the time the store opens…oh the irony.
Switching Things Up
Aug 11th
It’s been silent on the blog front for a while now…but there’s a good reason. We’re currently in the process of completely reinventing the mayamada brand! We’ve gone back to the drawing board and are working on getting some new products out later this year. Personally I think autumn/winter is an underrated time in terms of t-shirt wearing weather…
The blog will be updated on a more regular basis as we keep you updated with the progress and hopefully get to show you some of the new stuff we’reworking on.
Stay tuned.
A Little Known Gem in Camden Town
Jul 1st
At least I didn’t know it was there until last week…
Last weekend, I took a trip to Camden market to visit a shop run by the ifreecans Collective. I first meet these guys at StreetFest and thought I would look them up after hearing they had a shop in Camden. It’s a celebration of arts in various forms: music, painting and tees all in one space.
You might miss the shop walking around the maze of clothing food a tattoo spots in the market area, but the standout feature of this I hung out for a while chatting to the owner Kiboko, who seems to be working on a mural every time I see him! Check this one out:
We chatted for a while about all things t-shirts and I got the chance to look at other bits of art that will soon go up in an exhibition in London (check our Facebook page for more details when we get them). I got these pic from there website, but there was a lot of other nice pieces and I should have taken some pictures of my own. Oh well, I’ll be back there soon so keep an eye out for more.
Night and Day
Apr 14th
As you may have noticed if you’re a fan on our facebook page, we spent some time over the weekend at a gig headlined by the Luminaires band. The plan was to get the word out about ourselves and try and sell some tees, it also ended up being a lesson in the difference between knowing when to sell and when to promote.
Here are two things we learnt from the night.
Know the audience
Although we got to talking with a a few members of the crowd, most where distracted by a notion that they were here to see a band and drink. Buying something that doesn’t come in a shot glass doesn’t usually come into the equation at that time of night (time to rethink our packaging maybe?). People just want to have fun, anything else is a distraction. Try selling a t-shirt to these guys:
Ok, it wasn’t exactly like that but you get the idea. Talking to people about the brand is much more effective in a situation like this. People are much more approachable and will listen. Have a few business cards handy and you can get yourself a bunch of interested people checking you out.
Know the environment
If you are going to set up at an event, try and get an idea of the of the place before you go. This could mean visiting the day before, asking someone who has been to the event…or casing the joint in the dead of night. Whatever works for you.
The point is to know what to expect. The one thing that bcome obvious when we arrived was the noise, we didn’t realise we’d be so close to the noise! It makes it difficult to sell to someone when hand gestures are the best way to communicate. We really need a t-shirt selling sign language for situations like these…
Despite this, we did get positive reactions from everyone we spoke to in between sound checks and performances and some good bands fo free which isn’t too bad.
The way I see it, daylight is best for selling, the night is better left to promoting…and maybe a spot of crowd surfing.
