Funny T-Shirts, and a relatively funny blog
Funny T-Shirts
RizzoTees on Twitter
RizzoTees' fan page on Facebook
RizzoTees on Friendfeed
RizzoTees on MySpace
Rizzo Tees has one employee - me. My name is Chris, and I operate Rizzo Tees out of my basement (henceforth known as "Rizzo World HQ" or "ManLand"). I have a full-time job, so I work on Rizzo Tees at night. I print, pick, pack, and ship your order myself. I have four industrial shelves filled with 1,400+ shirts. My basement can hold a whole lot more shelving units, and my goal is to grow the business but never grow it out of my basement. I operate the whole business by myself on a MacBook Pro and a couple of printers.
I lied - I do have a little help. I use a local screenprinting company to print all of my shirts, I have a few graphic designers help me vectorize my ideas, and a local web design company built and maintains my site. And my wife sprinkles in the occasional brilliant tee idea.
I sank quite a bit of money into starting Rizzo Tees. But why? Alot of random thoughts pass across my brain (San Francisco has a Chinatown, does Beijing have an AmericaTown?). These ideas are what I think about day-to-day, and I wanted to be able to wear them around. I ended up buying myself some Busted and Snorg shirts for my birthday back in 2007, and realized that my ideas would fit on t-shirts. I learned alot by checking out other t-shirt sites, but these shirts are for the most part my own ideas. When they're not, I've put my own twist on them (like the Home Run King's "756" shirt but with syringes making the asterisk). I have another 500 shirt ideas in the queue, which means I think about t-shirts all the time!
Where did the name Rizzo come from? Honestly, the name appeared before me in a dream, as if some sort of Italian branding apparition. And that's all I needed!
I love interacting with people - customers, people on Twitter, Facebook, blogs. That makes this a very fun business to be in - email me, find me on Twitter and Facebook - talk to me, tell me what's on your mind. The more people I get to "meet," the better. I hope to put alot of shirts on alot of people's backs, but I hope I never have to hire anyone - it's fun being on my own.
Peace to all of you.
Chris
Founder, Rizzo Tees
Facebook Owns You! And Will Eat Your First-Born!
People often wonder how "open" they can be on social media sites - what is the risk of being an open book on Facebook? How "me" can I be? What are the risks of posting my email address, pictures of my loved ones, posting updates about how I'm doing nothing at work while simultaneously being Facebook friends with my boss? (seriously, don't do that! Stop the stupid!)
Well I'm not sure if this is a "risk," but apparently Facebook has changed its Terms of Service and has granted itself full license to use, in perpetuity or until Google buys them, every single bit of information you've ever uploaded to the service. And you can quit Facebook, and they still retain all these rights.
Like I said, I am not sure if this is a risk, or if most Facebookers will care, but it's still worth a mention.
T-Shirt Hell is not closing after all
And I just want to point out that I called it.
post dated Feb 4th
"I asked this before, but I repeat.... Does anyone REALLY think that tshirthell is closing in 6 days?"
Chris
http://www.RizzoTees.com
Chris
http://www.RizzoTees.com
Where To Get Custom T-Shirt Work Done
My site, RizzoTees.com, has been up for over three months now (edit: make that almost 12 months now!), and I am slowly building a following. I worked on my site and my first 32 designs for about a year, and I am now using Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, and other social media sites to spread the word. And I am meeting with some positive results, while having fun too. (Twitter is especially fun).
I often get asked about doing custom work. People either have an event or a company that they want to promote, or they have their own t-shirt idea that they want me to design. I am always flattered when approached - hopefully it means you think I could perform the work!
What I usually tell people is that I don't dabble in custom jobs - I basically just design the funny tees that appear on my site, and then market them. And I can honestly say that this takes up all of my creative energy and time. My goal is to stay completely focused on building my brand, improving my product line, and increasing my visibility. Through the interactions that I've had on Twitter, and through email, I have ascertained that there is a market for custom t-shirt work -- I am leaving that market to others to service.
My friend James the T-Shirt Connoisseur, wrote an excellent article on this very subject, which I've linked to here:
http://www.tshirtconnoisseur.com/2009/01/special-feature-t-shirt-printing.html If there are any other Tweeps out there that do such work, please feel free to comment down below, and I can add your info to this post.
Cheers!
Chris
Founder, Rizzo Tees
http://www.RizzoTees.com
http://www.RizzoTees.com
UPDATE: Here are the resources that have made themselves available to us so far. Note that I have not worked with any of these folks, so discuss your needs with them to ensure a good fit:
Terry Tate - Office Linebacker
You've all already seen it, but it's just too good to ignore. Maybe Terry should handle the bulk of our layoffs - at least we'd be losing our jobs with a crushing blow to the midsection
I enjoy Gary Vaynerchuk and his passion
He's a slight risk to increase your blood pressure, or your heart rate, I get those mixed up. But that's perfectly OK, you need to be prodded in the ass every once in awhile. He's got so much passion - he's simply amped up to do what he loves. Or maybe because he does what he loves.
On top of all that, he's a wine fan. And he's motivational, and I think he's right on in this video.
And his brother A.J. at http://www.PleaseDress.Me is a cool cat.
Have a great weekend y'all,
Chris
Founder, Rizzo Tees
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