So, I just got back from Renegade Chicago, and I’ve been on the road all day, but I wanted to write some of this down before I sacked out on the couch with some Venture Brothers.
Basically, Renegade Chicago was a blast. I’ll break it down into a few major points, and go from there.
1. I MET THE LITTLE FRIENDS OF PRINTMAKING. Having been a fan of theirs for a long time, it was fantastic to have them tell me that my stuff was awesome, that they were glad I was doing well, and that they even wanted a shirt or two for themselves. They even remembered who I was from seeing the ICE WIZARD on the internet awhile back! I scored a huge limited edition print of theirs, and a wallet. It was great just to meet them and to get to chat for a minute; the rest was just gravy.
2. I MET ONE OF THE OWNERS OF THREADLESS, AND HE BOUGHT GIVE US A KISS. So, on Sunday, this dude walked in wearing this really sick t-shirt with a rabbit on it, so I asked him where he got it, and he said it was a Threadless shirt, but that it wasn’t available yet but he had one because he’s one of the owners. He then looked at Give Us A Kiss (which, if you’ll remember, was booted off Threadless with a 1.45), and said he really liked it and felt like he’d seen it somewhere before. I told him what had happened, and he said that it sucks when good stuff is voted off. So, when he bought the shirt, I asked if I could take a picture (for vindication’s sake), and he was totally cool with it:
I think I did a little dance after he left.
3. I SAW SOME REALLY GOOD FRIENDS! Not only did I get to hang with my friend Bianca all weekend (she helped me work the booth), but my good bud Luke Stacks drove in from Iowa to hang out with us, see the city, and eat some tasty, tasty pizza. I also got to see Rafael from The Handsome Sausage, and a bunch of other guys and gals I’ve met at events before. And I got to re-meet Laura Park, who I’m gonna be doing a t-shirt with sometime! Awesome!
4. WE SOLD AN ABSOLUTE BUTTLOAD OF STUFF! Seriously, it was like the montage in Requiem for a Dream where you just see cash and drugs changing hands and money stacking up. Here’s a shot of it being somewhat busy:
We made tons of new friends, got some retail offers, and got our name out there.
5. SOMEONE STOLE OUR CASHBOX! Okay, so this totally blew. Our Saturday profits were socked away safely, but I was too busy and distracted to take much of the money out during the day Sunday, so while we were halfway through packing up and distracted, our cashbox, with most of Sunday’s profits inside (about $2400) was snatched without notice. So, I guess the good news is that my brand is good enough to make that much in a single day, but the bad news is that I really could have used an additional $2400 or so. We still made a bit of a profit thanks to Saturday, but not nearly the one I was hoping, so fun things like fixing my broken tooth, getting health insurance, and taking Kate out to dinner at Nobu will have to wait.
SO. The new batch of releases (some of which are now live: Give Us A Kiss, Smoking Can Be Fun, Strange Invaders, and new colorways for Thirsty for Blood, Hungry for Tacos and the Dinosaur Checkerboard) are up, because the only way I can get this money back is by selling more shirts. We’ll be releasing two more designs in the next few days, so here’s hoping you like them, too. Some dickhead stealing our cashbox isn’t going to be the end of us, but it not a small amount of money to any small business.
Also, we’ve released SEIBEI NATION cards, because we need people spreading the good word now more than ever.
Anyway, Renegade was a complete blast, and I’d do it all over again, even if our cashbox got stolen again, because it was completely worth it. The organizers couldn’t have done a better job, and they couldn’t be nicer people. Anyway, I’m going to go watch some tv with my girlfriend, and tomorrow I’ll get to all of your orders (I just drove all day to get back home, so I need a little break, dude!).
xoxo
Related posts:
That’s so awesome about the Threadless thing.
And still sucks about the cash box. I feel like I’m getting hit in the gut every time I read it.
wow! it’s great it went so well. but what can i say about the bastard(s) that took the cash box. i felt pretty #@$%!*-off just reading about it.
[...] Check out his blog post here. [...]
WOW total bummer about the whole cash box thing! well think about it this way KARMAS A BITCH!! AHAHA They’ll get theirs!
[...] to Renegade Craft Fair last weekend and managed to do pretty freaking good. That is, until someone stole their cashbox on Sunday which had that days earnings of about $2,600 in [...]