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Paramotor/Paraglider Apparel


haze

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Hi All,

Back in 2004 I spent 2 weeks canoeing along the Yukon River in Canada, near the border of Alaska. An adventure in the wilderness I was proud to be part of. Whilst there I bought a T-shirt with a canoe pictured on it and the words - Canoeing Yukon.

In 2006 I spent a month rolling Dice to decide where to go and what to do in the U.S. for 28 days. As part of this, myself and my friend had t-shirts printed up with a logo and the words Dice Trip. (We rolled a die each day to decide what colour to wear).

The year before last, my housemate climbed Kilimanjaro. One of his proudest boasts. He has a t-shirt (A nike logo saying Kili - Just Done It).

When I played guitar and sang in London, I had a song called Indestructible Man. I printed up a t-shirt saying "Indestructible" and then my website address.

Does the saying "Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt" spring to mind? :D

Well, having just finished my paramotor course en espana I realised that there appears to be a real lack of Paramotoring/Paragliding apparel. What little there is, is either brand names (like the Gin clothing) or is in the U.S.

With that in mind, (even while I was Parawaiting for good weather in Spain - yes really) I decided to go ahead and buy a domain name and start designing. :!:

My early prototype designs are going on the similar sort of designs as surf or snowboard wear...a contemporary design feel, but depending on your thoughts and demand I will design some more basic t-shirts as well, that are less cluttered.

SO...Before I go ahead and spend a lot on printing and stocking up, I'd like to ask the clubs' thoughts....

IS THERE A MARKET?

Are you all interested in T-shirts and maybe other things (like caps/sweatshirts) with Paramotor related imagery on?? What's the most you would pay for these? Bear in mind they will be slightly more expensive than a regular tee, but I will endeavour to get close to high-street prices.

I've put the first 5 designs - 3 of which are directly Paramotor related up on my unborn website....Let me know your thoughts and I'll see if it's worth taking forward. 8)

http://www.wingandachair.com/prototypes.jpg

The writing on the t-shirts in this picture is very small, so I added the quotes beside.

Thanks in advance...

Steve Haze

"On A Wing And A Chair"

www.wingandachair.com - (full website not yet created)

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Awesome...the first to reply is a man that shares part of my name! :D

Thanks for your input 8)

Still investigating the best cost vs quality in regards to printing. I'm getting some prototypes made up soon to see how they come out. (also further designs will depend on what the output is).

Having just seen that the club is thinking the same thing as me (printing t-shirts), I don't want to step on anyones toes, but I am looking to cover paragliding and skydiving too.

I think I can get them to high-street prices, but that also is dependent on volumes, hence me testing the water by asking the questions. The paramotor community is smaller than the paragliding one, but I'm a paramotor pilot only at present, and I want my own Paramotor themed t-shirt! :lol:

Steve Haze

"On A Wing And A Chair"

www.wingandachair.com - (full website not yet created)

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Hi Steve.

Some nice designs with plenty going on, the writing on some of them is a bit small to read, you would have people standing in front of you trying to read your shirt, if you could read it about 10-12 feet away that would be great, there is a shortage of good t-shirts and sweatshirts our there, especialy for paramotoring.

I hope you can get them printed.

Dave.

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Hi, yes they are great designs, and as said above, if the "T" shirt and print quality are durable it will be a good seller. The only other thing is that pictures say a thousand words so perhaps a large logo and two or three large words rather than a three line paragraph would say a lot more.

But good luck and look forward to seeing some of your work soon.

Regards Mike :)

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'On A Wing And A Chair' with big pic of motor and pilot is a good design by itself

Also this made me smile http://www.freeflyingduck.com/gear/authentic/product_details.php?pid=71

How about this?

http://www.wingandachair.com/prototype1.jpg

Or did you mean the blue paramotor chap in my prototypes page?

And thanks to all the rest of you for your kind words. Quality is the highest point in my mind at the moment. I'd like to get Direct To Garment printing as that appears to be better quality of image and durability and lets you have more colours than the older types of production.

The trick at the moment is finding a supplier that will do the above (with a design that covers most of the front of the t-shirt) and not charge a fortune. - Watch this space!

And admins/mods - I hope this thread doesn't come across as a sales pitch...I'm just starting this, so just wanted opinions. If I get it off the ground (no pun intended) I'll do the honorable thing and pay for advertising.

Regards,

Steve Haze

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Hey thanks, I really appreciate the positive vibes. :D

Well, I'm going to contact the printers on monday to get a prototype or two printed up...and then I'll see what quality it is.

I'm opting for printing DTG (direct to garment). It's slightly more expensive and more for smaller runs...but I'm not going to be ordering hundreds to start with, so that makes sense. Plus, I'm led to believe it looks better than the other options (for these full-colour pictures).

Still looking at prices...but (comparing to Next's printed t-shirt range) ball-park is going to be maybe £15-20 including postage. Depends how many I order. The more requests/orders...the cheaper. 8)

(This is all dependant on the quality being good and me being happy with it...)

Maybe by the end of the week I'll find a cute girl to model a t-shirt for me (and then try to seduce her!) :wink:

Steve Haze

"On A Wing And A Chair"

www.wingandachair.com - (full website not yet created)

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Hi Haze,

I do like your designs very much and I can relate to the lack of decent UK based apparel. I recently designed a cartoon character flying a paramotor/paraglider and would like to utilize him a lot more.

All I've done with the design so far is applied it to items on US based sites where the items are just made to order with a piddly commission going to the designer. I would love to do something better (not sure what yet, some kind of co-operative effort maybe) with UK contacts and be able to offer physical items to sell, hopefully through Simon's site if he's interested.

I'm a friend of weesplat and i've been paramotoring for a good few years now but I'm new to the group. I don't know the policy on plugging designs or items, url's etc. so i'll wait to hear if I can.

Simon - Is posting the url to the US sites showing my design on items in a forum a no no?

Cheers

Alan

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Hi,

Apologies Steve, last thing I want to do is hijack your thread. I was just contributing to the apparel subject as we share the same frustrations at lack of decent stuff this side of the pond and to prod you to see if there was any interest in doing something co-operatively to bring decent apparel out for the sport.

Alan

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No worries at all. I was only kidding about the thread hijack.

I've been looking for an excuse to use that picture for ages. :lol:

I mailed you back about the co-op idea....check your message and let me know what you think. 8)

I actually really appreciate the helpful nature of this forum. Everyone has been really great coming forward with ideas and support, so a big thumbs up to you all! :D

Steve Haze

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Hi Norman,

Thanks for the interest in seeing my design, if you google 'alsparastuff' you'll find it on the 'zazzle' and 'cafepress' websites.

It's not me personally that's selling these items, they are just items that are using my design, they are US based sites too which doesn't help. It's a frustrating situation that I'm hoping to rectify maybe with help and pointers from others on the forum.

Being able to produce PMC branded versions of items in the UK for sale through simon's shop would be ideal and like Steve I will be going the full banner advertising route as soon as it's viable to do so, it's just early days at the moment, just throwing things out there, gauging interest etc

Hope you like what you see anyway, and all feedback good or bad is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Alan

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  • 3 weeks later...

The first batch are in!!! Woohoo! :)

I had the blue ones done and the black ones (with the paramotor and the logo).

Very happy with the blue ones, but the black ones they've made the logo smaller than I wanted. So I'll get some proper pictures posted and the website finished this weekend. Then they'll be available to order.

The black ones will probably be cheaper as they aren't as I originally wanted and don't look as good as I'd hoped.

The print looks good though, and the t-shirts are good quality, so yeah...expect to see them being advertised soon.

I'll also talk to Simon about getting them put onto the PMC shop to make it easier for you good folks! :)

8)

Steve Haze

http://www.wingandachair.com

Paramotoring & Paragliding Apparel

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