Oddica Loves Me
by 
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with I got my first Oddica package today, and I’m quite impressed. The shirt quality is excellent (American Apparel, no surprise) and the ink looks great. And of course, snailbot is the coolest thing ever. But most of all, I was impressed with the quality of the packaging and freebies they included.
Check out the swanky packaging? If that doesn’t say, “We love you”, I don’t know what does.
The way I see it, they’re not just selling me shirts. They’re selling me a WAY OF LIFE. Okay, no, not really, but there is an experience in opening the package that is every bit as important as the product itself. It reminds me of the iPod packaging. Not the Microsoft version, but the feeling of opening up a wonderous world of portable music and being terribly afraid of getting fingerprints on the cold metal within.
Inside I found a nifty Thank You package with postcards, buttons, and what appears to be library checkout cards for each of my shirts. Not sure what’s up with that. Regardless, the point is that it’s things like this that make me feel like they value me as a customer. It’s along the lines of the 37signals sticker test. If you haven’t bought any shirts from them yet, and are interested, I highly recommend you give it a shot. I almost can’t even throw away the packaging.
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Man all that for $20… deal!
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(Post Author)
Well, I got 2 shirts… $20 for one shirt is too much. The other shirt isn’t pictured. It’s much more reasonable at 2 for $24.
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(Post Author)
Oh and hey, Sean - I always meant to ask you, what do you do at Combined Arts Media? Just curious - I live in Dallas, and noticed you were in Fort Worth.
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Brian, we sell advertising for and publish arts playbills for about a dozen arts groups here in Tarrant County, and we also provide various technical and web based support for the organizations. In fact, we’re about to launch an online ticketing service this summer that will be free for all arts groups in North Texas. Just like alwaysBeta is comprised of you college students, we’re a group of artists (I majored in Music - Sax) that make a living helping the arts… its a lot of fun, but keeps me busy running things.
So, 2 t-shirts for $24… how did i miss that deal?
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I bet the library cards are for when your friends love that shirt so much, that they borrow it. You essentially are signing out the shirt. Cool idea there…
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Hi Brian.
Thanks for the post. I’m an avid t-shirt collector as well.
I also like the plugin you guys are using to show images. Do you know what it is called?
thanks,
Sean
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(Trackback)
Nogz Blogz » Oddica: Awesome T-Shirts.
[…] AlwaysBETA have a great article on Oddica shirts. They loved the packaging, I love the shirts. This one happens to be a big favourite… […]
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(Post Author)
Sean,
It’s a modified version of Lightbox. See Building aB: Customizing Lightbox for more info.
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(Trackback)
Great Packaging Makes All the Difference at Amit Gupta’s Blog
[…] more on alwaysBeta… […]
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(Trackback)
Blogging the Brand: Oddica at joosbox
[…] May 2006: Coverage on Always Beta> […]
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The oddica tees are great and so is the packaging, but, i’m afraid they were alreday beaten to the extra goodies punch by an Australian company - People Like Us. The tees are just as good if not better, all limited edition, hand signed and numbered plus you can contact the artsist, you get their bio, what inspired them to create the design, candy, postcards, stickers and a lovely handpainted box. i cant say enough great things about these guys - go aussies! you can see it all here: www.peoplelikeuscollective.com
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(Post Author)
@Mike-
Thanks for the link! I just looked over some of the shirts, and surprisingly, one of the artists (Ross Zeitz who does this shirt) also has several shirts up at Threadless including my all time favorite Pandamonium.
My only complaint about People Like Us (from looking at their site) is that a single shirt is $32 US, not to mention shipping. That’s almost 3x what I paid for shirts at Oddica (2 shirts for $24).
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Brian, I understand your concerns as they were mine too at first. You’ll notice the “FREE SHIPPING” signs all over the site which i think is pretty cool. Also youi pay for the exclusivity. i got my tees and they were hand numbered (one was # 21 and the other # 88). Knowing that i’ll probably be the only person in the state with the tee is a great comfort to me, and it makes it all the rarer. i think they make like only 100/200 of each. I also got a personal email from the owners asking some questions and thanking me for my purchase, and i’ve since become friends with them and put them onto one of my friends who is designing some tees,
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A handpainted box, totally awesome.
We hadn’t seen that Aussie company, but thanks for pointing it out. Great stuff. Back in 2002, we (me and a friend, George Soto) put out a graphic response to the events of 9/11, called DEFCON, and it was chock full of goodies, including a T-shirt, postcards, etc. All of it shipped in a metal can, limited edition of 199, hand numbered, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/links/news.aspx?NID=2654
We don’t claim to be first here with anything, nor should anyone else. Buttons and stickers and T-shirts and have been around before all of us were born, and adding goodies as a sales incentive is older than the lightbulb. We just put our particular spin on it, just like the Aussie collective has done. Cheers. Brian. Oddica.
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postscript: we eventually pulled DEFCON after we had sold maybe 90 pieces. (Or was it 70?) What had begun as something of a, What has our world come to? thing, left us feeling uneasy when Cheney & Bush decided they needed to go to Iraq and bloody the world. Eventually, we abandonded the entire Apollo 26 project. We have a box of cans if anyone is interested.
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(Post Author)
Wow, the DEFCON package looks amazing. Too bad it’s not around anymore
Without waxing political, I’d say we need stuff like this more than ever.
Thanks for the comment though, love the shirts - keep on rockin’.
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(Trackback)
Changing Way » Blog Archive » Oddica Tshirts
[…] People who’ve received Oddica shirts seem very impressed by the packaging and the schwag, as well as by the shirts. For example, my fellow Bostonian Brian feels loved. […]