

ASK HN: Would you sign up for this service?  - gghootch
http://signup.frapp.it

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joshstrange
No for 2 reasons,

1) As @lmm mentioned, you can get free t-shirts from just about anywhere and
it's not worth having a huge ad on your back 2) Launchrock is one of the most
annoying 'Coming Soon' pages out there. Why would I share your service/product
on Twitter/FB/Email to my friends and family when I haven't even ever used it

~~~
gghootch
Main focus is on generating feedback right now. Concrete traction building
will start in a later stage.

Thanks for the responses btw :)

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127001brewer
No, because I simply do not see the value of receiving a free t-shirt with
advertising.

Also, it seems like a relatively significant commitment from a person who
signed up because you're asking them to upload three pictures of themselves in
the t-shirt (for either another free t-shirt or "credit").

However, I'm interested to hear more about your business model and I hope your
idea does well.

Presumably,and I may be way off here, you're sub-contracting out the screen-
printing of the t-shirts. And, as I understand it, the cost of producing
t-shirts can be significant and you would probably have to hold a large
inventory of t-shirts in various sizes.

\- What kind of advertiser are you trying to appeal to?

\- Does an advertiser pay only when there's evidence that the t-shirts are
worn? Or why do you have to upload three pictures of yourself in the t-shirt?

\- Roughly, what kind of margins are you expecting to get?

\- Are you trying to focus in a local region or nationally?

\- What happens with any left over inventory?

Lastly, I may be interested in a t-shirt that combines an advertising with
"pop art", but that's just a quick idea...

 _Edit: Clarified the first sentence._

~~~
gghootch
_Also, it seems like a relatively significant commitment from a person who
signed up because you're asking them to upload three pictures of themselves in
the t-shirt (for either another free t-shirt or "credit")._

The system I intend to implement should make this relatively painless.

 _Presumably,and I may be way off here, you're sub-contracting out the screen-
printing of the t-shirts. And, as I understand it, the cost of producing
t-shirts can be significant and you would probably have to hold a large
inventory of t-shirts in various sizes._

Entirely true. But if Lockerz story is any indication of how it can work out,
inventory turnover is likely to be ridiculously fast.

 _\- What kind of advertiser are you trying to appeal to?_

Large consumer goods and local stores. Got a nifty solution in mind on how
this'll scale.

* Does an advertiser pay only when there's evidence that the t-shirts are worn? Or why do you have to upload three pictures of yourself in the t-shirt?*

No, pay up front. Receive elaborate statistics afterwards.

 _\- Roughly, what kind of margins are you expecting to get?_

Back of napkin style; profit margins somewhere between 30%-50%. Margins on
t-shirts alone 50%-75%.

 _Are you trying to focus in a local region or nationally?_

International user base. Allow advertisers to segment their target users by
region/age/interests.

 _What happens with any left over inventory?_

Promote them to first time users. Loyal users get cooler/more shirts.

 _Lastly, I may be interested in a t-shirt that combines an advertising with
"pop art", but that's just a quick idea..._

Definitely a great design idea. The one that's currently on the site is a
drawing an ex-girlfriend of mine made over a year ago. I thought it was pretty
amazing and asked her whether I could print that instead of my own terrible
attempt at a mash-up of several freely available vectors.

~~~
127001brewer
Thanks for answering my comment.

I do have reservations about going after international and hyper-local markets
at the same time. And I have a concern that it sounds like you do not have a
graphic designer to create the t-shirt designs.

However, I do like your idea of reserving the "cooler" t-shirts to more loyal
users (because that, for the most part, solves my issue with requiring a
relatively significant commitment from a user).

Again, I hope your idea becomes successful.

~~~
gghootch
Thanks for the positive feedback :)

 _I do have reservations about going after international and hyper-local
markets at the same time._

International + hyper-local is more of an end goal than the begin stage. See
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4013608>

_And I have a concern that it sounds like you do not have a graphic designer
to create the t-shirt designs_

I know some contractors that are likely willing to help me out. Currently, I
do not have anyone to structurally think/discuss/build this. I have reserved
the summer to work on this and attend a bunch of networking events, hopefully
someone will turn up!

Btw, if you think of anything else you'd like to discuss; don't hesitate to
contact me at garm@frapp.it

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citricsquid
Yes, I _love_ t-shirts (I own over 160) and I know that a lot of people really
love free stuff. As others have said there are issues like what if someone
misrepresents a brand, but ignoring that I think the idea is fantastic.

If you market it well (I would suggest aiming at end of high school / start of
college age people) it could really take off. I don't think posting it here
will get you much useful feedback, the HN demographic aren't really the sort
of people this will appeal to.

~~~
gghootch
_I know that a lot of people really love free stuff_

That's what I figured. Lockerz grew enormously until it imploded due to many
factors. Rethink their business model, go niche and this is where I ended up
at.

 _the HN demographic aren't really the sort of people this will appeal to_

But at least they are likely to provide slightly more insightful feedback than
the average feedback I've received from friends/family.

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jazzylady
I think it's great idea. I would at least try it. I'm not really a T-shirt
person but I know many who wear them and I think some would be interested in
something like this.

I like your landing page as potential wearing customer, but I don't think it
would attract me to advertise with you. I would only change the pictures
representing what kind of pictures people upload. Here you can't see that
person wears T-shirt on an event or in a day in their life, you only see
T-shirt and don't get the feeling person is wering it outside of their
bedroom.

I think that feature of choosing what brand will you promote with this T-shirt
is important. You can see that many commenters saw this as a problem. But I
think that here is a problem from the side of companies who would advertise on
your T-shirts as well. If I used your service for promotional purposes, I
would like to know that in front side of T-shirt there would not be something
opposite of what I would like my brand to be. But I think that for starters
you can filter that out manually.

~~~
gghootch
_but I don't think it would attract me to advertise with you_

I wholeheartedly agree. However, this will change when an actual landing page
is in place.

 _I would like to know that in front side of T-shirt there would not be
something opposite of what I would like my brand to be_

Manual filtering/personal design for the companies that advertise is probably
the first step. Next comes incentivizing users to contribute their own design
and let the smaller customers pick their company designs. I think that'll work
out, though there's obviously no way of being sure.

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lmm
No. A t-shirt I don't particularly like is worth approximately zero to me (you
get them free at conventions), and it doesn't sound like the front will be
cool enough to justify the back. Particularly since the back's probably going
to be McDonalds or something.

~~~
gghootch
Doesn't _sound_ like the front will be cool enough to justify the back. What
if when we presume it is?

Ideally, McDonalds-like t-shirts will be the minority of the t-shirts you will
be able to choose from. What if it is a t-shirt courtesy of your local
Radioshack?

Moreover, you'll be able to see in advance what company is sponsoring the
shirt. Don't like McD? Choose another one!

~~~
lmm
>Doesn't sound like the front will be cool enough to justify the back. What if
when we presume it is?

What I meant is, I can't imagine a front so cool that the overall t-shirt
would still be cool. (And if you came up with a t-shirt front that cool, you
could sell it with a plain back for $50 and make a tidy profit without all the
complexity of this idea).

>Moreover, you'll be able to see in advance what company is sponsoring the
shirt. Don't like McD? Choose another one!

I'm not seeing that anywhere on the page. If true, that changes things; as
long as the photo verification isn't too much faff I'd happily sign up for
t-shirts from companies I actually like.

~~~
gghootch
_I can't imagine a front so cool that the overall t-shirt would still be cool_

Can't please anyone, although it does not hurt to try.

 _I'm not seeing that anywhere on the page._

Pitched this idea once at some startup contest. Judges didn't get the concept.
Spoke to other contestants and later stage judges that did get it; advice #1
'simplify, simplify, simplify'. Although I can talk on for an hour detailing
the concept, it's best not too cause information overload.

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heelhook
I would, and once I get my shirt I would wear it or not, depending on what's
in the back, my advise to you would be to allow people ordering the shirts to
pick what company or design they'll have in the back, I might have a problem
wearing merchandise of companies that don't sit well with my lifestyle (e.g.
as a vegetarian, I wouldn't wear the shirt of a company that primarily sells
meat, like McDonald's).

Offering the people that are wearing the shirts a mix of back designs (say,
three different ad designs to pick from for Whole Foods or any other
advertiser) would be a plus to improve adoption.

~~~
gghootch
3 different advertisers requires mass customization => extra overhead. You'll
get to choose advertiser + t-shirt combos; not sure if added flexibility will
make up for the increase in price, but I'll keep it in mind!

~~~
heelhook
As an advertiser, I would definitely like to be able to be allowed to A/B
different designs for the ads, it sounds pretty simple for an advertiser to be
able to provide a few different designs and let people choose from them, or
are you referring to a different cost?

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pavel_lishin
I assume there's more fine print to this.

What if the advertisers don't like the context in which I wear their t-shirts?
If I upload three photos of myself wearing my t-shirt at a KKK rally, or being
beaten by police officers at a protest, or throwing a puppy off of a bridge,
will I continue to receive free t-shirts? Or would advertisers be able to
black list certain frappers?

For the record, I signed up, and will probably be donating most of the ones I
receive (if any, I do get beaten up a lot at KKK rallies for throwing puppies
of bridges) to the homeless.

~~~
gghootch
Advertisers on their own in the way the content industry operates, no. Frapp
the company, yes.

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dshlos
I think it's a good idea. Not everyone will wear any type of t-shirt, so maybe
you should find a way to match people to brands. For example, I'd wear a
t-shirt advertising technology companies whose products I use, but I wouldn't
wear a Ford t-shirt because I am a Toyota/Honda guy.

Someone launched a similar site years ago where they would give you giant
stickers to put on your car doors and pay you $200 per month as long as you
drive 20+ miles per day.

~~~
gghootch
Do you happen to know what site that is?

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dholowiski
I would sign up for this service, on both ends... to get a t-shirt and to
advertise on t-shirts (provided I could get in on a very small scale - a few
t-shirts).

As others have said, whether I would wear the shirt depends on the ad. It
would be great if I could see the ad before the shirt was sent.

Also, the word 'order' almost turned me off. it immediately suggests I'd have
to pay.

~~~
gghootch
Cool to hear that you'd sign up for advertising!

Ad will be completely visible before the shirt is sent.

Thanks for the tip on _order_. Hadn't thought of it that way. Is _receive_
better? Feels like it's less clear on how that t-shirt will end up at your
place.

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huhtenberg
No. It looks like a pyramid scheme of some kind, so I didn't even bother
finishing reading the page. Sorry.

~~~
gghootch
Would you care to elaborate? Why does this look like a pyramid scheme to you?
The same way that 'FB is a ponzi scheme'?

~~~
huhtenberg
That was my first impression from skimming the page. Now that I have looked at
it again, it's obviously not what it seemed to be.

The pattern of "Get one, give back 3, receive something back" is the
pyramid/Ponzi pattern. Basically your copy needs to change, it's heavy. Drop
the numbered list, get to the point faster and more succulently.

Also, somewhat related. Have you seen this - <http://www.iwearyourshirt.com> ?

~~~
gghootch
Ah yes, the get one, give back 3, receive one back does indeed look a lot like
a pyramid scheme at first glance.

Copy definitely needs work. I'll be trying some different things in the
future. Thanks for the tip :)

Hadn't heard of iwearyourshirt, very interesting proposition. Thanks again!

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kschua
It depends on the advert.

If it was a cool brand which I would like to associate with, then yes, I would
wear and photograph myself in it.

If it was a brand which I don't intend to associate myself with, then no, I
wouldn't wear it much less have a photo of me in it

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phamilton
I only see this being useful in a college campus setting. My freshman year I
used to have "Free T-Shirt weeks", where I would wear all the swag shirts I've
received because all the shirts I actually liked were dirty and I didn't want
to do laundry yet.

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vog
The site currently shows an error message:

 _> It appears that something may be broken. We apologize for the problem. If
you think you have reached this page in error, please head over to our support
page._

Well, that's not appealing.

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angry-hacker
I wouldn't but I know a lot of people who would. If your startup is able to be
profitable like that I believe it's an excellent idea...

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jstanley
If we assume that the shirts look good, sure. I always like free stuff.

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hafabnew
Yes, but just so I had tonnes of gym/exercise t-shirts.

