Pointless…

So the past few weeks I have been thinking over the whole “Sponsorship” thing.
The end answer, became clear every time I thought it over. When the fall line comes out, I will be most likely revamping the whole site. With that change, will come another. I will no longer be “sponsoring” or “endorsing” bands. To me, I think it’s a massive joke. It’s a gigantic pissing contest in reality. Let’s be honest. There’s 4 clothing companies with any sort of clout or relevancy in the music scene. If we really want to get into a pissing match, I would be pissing old faithful all over the 3 of them. But that’s not really what this blog is about. Scene points and cool chips. It’s about how retarded the reality of the whole “SPONSORSHIP” thing. Basically it’s bribery, straight up bribery. While it’s cool for a mere 5 seconds. But then the second that that same band wears another “rival” company’s shirt, then you’re going to see the stink eye coming your way. It’s a high school mentality contest, I am choosing to no longer be a part of. These “other”companies. Pay thousands and thousands to be a part of a tour, they pay for band’s scrims, and tour buses, and staging and “collab” shirts, aka, borrowing a bands name to bring some sort of attention to yours and then splitting the money with them. To me, doing a collab shirt is pointless. I take my job very seriously. to me, if a band is hiring you for a shirt, the name is important, THE MOST important, then the artwork. I would be ruining such a cool shirt by slapping ELECTRIC ZOMBIE on there. Plus, this is a band shirt, not a nascar shirt. I don’t need to leech off a bands popularity to bring some attention to my brand. I’m going to focus on making the best shirts I can, at the best price. But let’s get back to the bribery, yes thats how sponsorships or endorsements work. I just don’t believe in it as all. Companies like Rockstar and Merchnow, or whomever sponsors tours, it’s a completely different situation for them, and they have that kind of money to spend. But with my situation, my designs already make you money, and my designs are awesome ( I think at least) that you should be stoked to wear it period. I shouldn’t have to flash some dollahhsssss at you to talk you into wearing a shirt of a peace sign, or some stupid saying that involves dancing, or some sort of wild life creature, slapped on a shirt, that has zero meaning whatsoever. Not saying that freddy krueger wearing sunglasses does, but to me, these are pieces of my childhood and memories. I’m getting off topic here. I don’t believe in spending 150k on a tour, to sell some shit targeted to preteens and girls, or put my logo on the top corner of a scrim. I don’t need that kind of attention. I guess the difference between myself and those other companies is, they are riding on the hot at the moment coattails, while I’m doing the whole ” I’ll do what I want” thing. As far as the collab shirts with other bands, I design shirts for bands, so it’s a little different, technically every shirt is a collab shirt. I just don’t want to borrow your name, or vision so I can sell a shirt. It’s stupid. I’m also not going to ask my bands to post shit on twitter, or ask them to BLAST the social network bullshit. I never ask for any of the bands I’ve worked with for anything. It’s cool enough that they like my stuff. I want them to be just as excited for what I put out as much as everyone else. They’re normal people, and fans just like you. I want them to want stuff, not because they’re out of clean clothes on tour, or because you promised them this and that, or you’ll pay for this or that, or simply because it’s free. I have the courtesy of a lot of bands who only take what they’d wear, and not because it’s free. There’s some bands out there, who ask for everything I put out, and it’s annoying as shit and they’ve stolen from me, and get all butthurt when I don’t send them a shirt out of a list of 283728937 things. Is it worth it to me? no, it isn’t. I don’t need anyone’s help to make me seem cool and popular. All I can do is be the typical asshole, who makes cool shirts and sometimes says funny stuff about bands and turds. I just want to put out the best stuff, at the best price and i don’t need to be a fucking name leech like everyone else out there.You think giving someone 1 shirt once, because they were hot and nasty after slaying the stage, makes them a part of your “family” you’re a fucking moron. If you have to pay someone to be a part of something, then your shit sucks. If you have to con your way into someone putting on a shirt, or because “they have nothing else to wear”. Guess what, your shit is terrible. I’m not saying that I will STOP giving stuff to bands. I am buds with many bands, bands I am not going to name in this blog, because that would be completely contradictory. If you see a shirt on a band out on the road, it’s going to be out of respect and loving my brand. Not because I asked them to, or paid them to, or sucked their dick with compliments and brown nosing the fuck out of someone, or buying something that the band needs and slapping my logo on there. There’s more to running a clothing company than, who wears your stuff. If you are solely relying on how many, or what bands stuff wear your company, then you’re going to be stuck with the worst customers and fanbase, and you’re just as disposable as they are. When your main focus becomes who wears your stuff over what you’re making, then you’re nothing more than a groupie bitch who is sucking them off via t-shirt handouts. Bands break up and tours end and then what?
Things are going to change, but also stay the same with Electric Zombie. I love and respect all the bands I work with, I’m not saying I will never be apart of tours, or do collab shirts to go with those tours, but it’s going to be tasteful and meaningful. But once that new site goes up, I’m not going to brag about it, instead I’m just going to take over and the people that take over with me, are doing it because they want to, not because they were asked to. You can put that in your full page AP ad and sell it… You’re a joke.