RiotGEAR, Come get your RiotGEAR!

I used their sizing guide which translates chest measurements into small/medium/large/Xs. They don’t sell in numbered sizes.

Usually yank womens’ sizings are one szie down on ours ie if you are a size 14 here, you are a size 12 in the US. So if you’re a 12 here, you should be a 10 in their stuff.

How do the chick sizes compare to Australian sizing? Measuring my chest I’m a Large according to the site, but I’m size 12.

Troublemaker reminds me of me!

*hehe*

Picketer reminds me of scabs.

Agitator sort of sounds a bit PMS.

I’ve been stuck in Picketer for months now, much to my frustration.

Jazz.. my financial membership is now less than 24 hours away and counting!

Oh, Curmudgeon would be excellent!!

I’m really hoping there’s a Curmudgeon level.

There almost certainly must be.

Well, demagogue looks pretty cool! But that’s ages away … *sigh* I’m just impressed that there are so many rioty type words in the English language!

Jazz said:

Jazz said :

…a listing of all the user rankings in order…

Ah ha! So what comes after “agitator”? It must be pretty good, as Granny is desperately striving for it.

I’ll take an ELK-designed one, and one with the squashed roo, thanks. In a medium.

Now we’re talking.

What’s more local than a kangaroo, although it would be squashed….

Or maybe a ‘roo which has been culled…

Riot Shields. Police use them when they’re scared of protestors.

Oh, okay, now I get it. Witty…very witty!

Oh, it definitely has to be either the bettong or Alexander Bunyip.

Burrowing bettong and a sun moth, on a field of Canberra bluebells.

I’m thinking a lion rampant above the RA logo

How can you say that amongst all this talk of sourcing locally? What’s more local than a kangaroo, although it would be squashed, not rampant, unless it was one of those carnivorous roos.

Will it be RiotTAZERS next?

More seriously, what odds of an E.L.K. designed Tee?

Riot Shields. Police use them when they’re scared of protestors.

Whats this the “shields”?

It’ll only be wood, but it’ll look cool!

Balsa?

thanks Thumper. better make me a few. I think JB needs one from time to time 🙂

I couldn’t find any particularly witty ones. I’ll wait for the next phase.

I have organised this kind of thing on a small local scale, resulted in it being delivered late, and with spelling errors…

Like everything, there is no way you can be 100% sure that someone you pay won’t f%#kup their job.

Skidbladnir said :

But making -us- _pay_ for merchaniding to promote -your- product? I’m appalled!

As are your grandchildren …

*tee hee*

I have actually organised this stuff on a national scale. Pretty easy to avoid things going pear shaped, really.

While it would be ideal to have massive runs of every product, created in Canberra, handcrafted with love by Jazz and autographed by Jb, and delivered to our door by teams of trained dancing bears…
But for now they’re products with untested demand, no upfront-cost, being created risk-free as needed, and with tested supply chains.
In idealism vs practicality, I can partially understand why CafePress is being used (for now).

But making -us- _pay_ for merchaniding to promote -your- product? I’m appalled!
If it works though, I’m just jealous.

Anyone who has actually organised this sort of stuff knows it has the capacity to go pear shaped ridiculously quickly.

Other than bemoaning the current value of the Australian Dollar, Cafe-press is a sensible choice. The really great thing is I can get my RiotGear Tee and my Eating People is Wrong Tee in the same handy envelope.

RiotGear should make the drinking, cycling and other activities easier to spot and the photos more hilarious.

I disagree. Well… not really, but just to keep it exciting… 😉

It would be a very boring world indeed if everybody agreed all the time, Justbands.

: )

Thanks for the (sensible, non-insulting) reply Jazz. I still disagree with your reasons to send the work offshore, but if we all agreed all the time this would be a pretty boring site.

At the risk of being accused of ingratiating again I still feel I have to say that I think you’ve done a great job, Jazz.

At a meeting a couple of nights ago, one lady and her team had worked hard for weeks putting together a groundbreaking policy on an important issue. I knew how hard they had been working because I had seen all the emails.

It’s amazing how when it was presented to the meeting, people could pick apart in seconds what had taken months to produce. Pick a word here where you would prefer a different synonym. Disagree with all sorts of small points, when it was made clear that this was a first version that could and would be refined in future.

But when they were offered a place on the working party, did they accept?

I just like to acknowledge people’s effort when they have been working hard at getting something off the ground.

Does having one supplier mean you can never change suppliers when an equivalent local service is found?
Does using a drop ship method to start with mean you can’t use another method as the organisation grows and becomes better resourced?

My husband would kill for this kind of opportunity.

In the end, I am just glad I finally will be getting my Riot T-shirt. I love my Riot pin, but this will be so much more obvious. My only regret is that I can’t afford to order the one listing the users and a mug just yet.

#47 Justbands – Its a trade off. Having previously run a merchandised based business with a far more limited product range than this introduces a number of issues that I dont particularly want to manage again. If it were a core part of RiotACT’s business then i might think differently. Certainly if there were an Australian company with a similar service model to cafepress i would have used them as a preference. However there isnt one that i’ve come across in 6 months of research (happy to hear suggestions) since we first started to think about RiotGear.

# 48 Cameron, Thats possibly true. But given that a quick poll on T shirt slogans produced 200 suggestions in 2 days multiplied by (lets assume) 4 products produces an awful lot of combinations that people might be interested in. Even this thread so far indicates that readers want some more options than the few we put together to get the shop up and running. One of the biggest advantages of the cafepress model is that we can offer something for everyone without having hundreds of boxes filling the garage. Again, if there were a local company that offered us something remotely similar I would use them first.

# 43 P1 – I’ve asked them to produce riot helmets and riot sheilds with no luck so far 🙂

# 30 Lumnock. I made them and i will acknowledge that graphic design is not a strength of mine. There are more in the works.

Cash flowing a range of merch without any clue as to the potential demand for those items can be problematic, and certainly not impossible. I tend to agree with justbands and his view that RA should be using a Canberra based business.

The easiest way around the demand issue is to get mock ups made and take orders (and payment too I guess). Once you have enough orders, get the merch made.

Cafepress (in addition to the demand based production) also allow you to have a huge range – I would think that somewhat unnecessary. A few shirt variations, a hat etc… would probably suffice for us lot.

> So you’ve got no reply but you’re going to have a sulk anyway?

JB, you’re very quick to name & shame other Canberra based business that do not support other locals. I think it’s a fair comment to point out that’s exactly what you’ve done. I did reply to your points, shall I spell it out for you again perhaps:

– Production linked to demand (or are you offering to float the cost of the run and store the merch) – A non issue, we’re not talking about thousands & thousands of dollars here. As I pointed out, if a small independant band can afford this outlay then I see no reason why your business cannot.

– Billing and shipping – You already do billing for advertising. Shipping is a doddle.

– Huge range of merchandise options at no cost to us allowing us to research what the market actually wants – You’re quite happy to research just about everything else about your readership, not a big stretch to spend a little time researching this.

Like you said, it’s a free country.

justbands said :

Oh common johnboy…the fact is that you could easily have got a range of merch made locally with minimal outlay. If Little Smoke could pay for & store the merch, RiotACT could manage to pay for & store the merch. Billing you already do (you sell ad space), shipping is hardly rocket science, storage is a couple of boxes in the back of your garage & you could have easily researched what the market wanted prior to getting anything made.

Your choice I guess, but I still claim it’s pretty poor form for a specific Canberra website. My own little protest will be not to purchase any.

So you’ve got no reply but you’re going to have a sulk anyway?

It’s a free country I guess, sulk away.

When are the Hammer Pants coming out JB? I’m keen to relive my “Firehouse” days 😛

Oh common johnboy…the fact is that you could easily have got a range of merch made locally with minimal outlay. If Little Smoke could pay for & store the merch, RiotACT could manage to pay for & store the merch. Billing you already do (you sell ad space), shipping is hardly rocket science, storage is a couple of boxes in the back of your garage & you could have easily researched what the market wanted prior to getting anything made.

Your choice I guess, but I still claim it’s pretty poor form for a specific Canberra website. My own little protest will be not to purchase any.

I was kinda hoping for something like this with the riotact logo…

There are no local options offering this service.

Find me just one that comes anywhere close?

That includes:
– Production linked to demand (or are you offering to float the cost of the run and store the merch)
– Billing and shipping
– Huge range of merchandise options at no cost to us allowing us to research what the market actually wants

Come back when you’ve got it?

Come on guys, what is wrong with some of you? 🙂

I’m no computer genius, but I managed to work out how to make the images bigger so that I could read what was on the shirts, and also noticed that there are other colour choices in some of the items that aren’t just white.

What’s wrong with white anyway – isn’t it the new black?

I’ll ask Elkie, surely she’ll know! 🙂

Welll..yeah, they probably do. However, it’s not as though they need you to do a run of thousands. Pretty poor form I reckon to snub the local options.

Because local firms probably want to do a run of the merch. Cafepress prints as the orders arrive.

> Unfortunately Cafepress being a US company has no concept of what a stubby holder is. I live in hope.

Why didn’t you use a local company? Back in the early 1800s when I still played in a band, we got all sorts of merch made right here in Canberra…t-shirts, stubby holders, cd wallets, even g-strings!

Are Nigel and Johnboy going to present a free “My grandchildren were appalled” hoodie to Margaret of Ainslie?

It seems only fair.

Is there 1 with VY’s “I only belive in gay marriage if both chicks are hot?”?

It made the Times afterall!

Are there any witty ones?

Of course, one could just take one’s favourite poolroom quote, nick the logo, and go make up a Remo one! ‘cept they’re a tad pricey. Nice but.

Actually a lot of the items come in a variety of colours, just have a play.

I’m a little stunned by the variety! I figured we’d see a few shirts, maybe a cap, a coffee mug – but wow, there’s a wide range there.

Some more variety in colour might encourage a few more sales. I don’t wear white either (unless I’m playing cricket!).

Anyway, nice community building stuff. See how it goes. All the best with the sales.

What a curious concept. Why would I want to wear a Riot Act T-shirt or hoodie? What next? A clothing range by “The Canberra Chronicle”? “City News” merchandise?

they are really ordinary. and no colour choices. I dont wear white.

Jazz said :

There will be more to come lumnock.

who is designing the choices if I may ask?

There will be more to come lumnock.

*** actually can’t read what’s on the pictures at all on my screen.***

well, you ain’t missing anything… the worst – ever

I really like the idea of RiotACT gear, and would buy a shirt or something myself, except all the designs look so….nerdy. Like the sort of shirts that an IT Sys Admin would wear. A lot of it has to do with the RiotACT logo which is fine for a website, but not so crash hot on a t-shirt I think. Not necessarily suggesting a new logo or anything (though it may not be such a bad idea), but maybe a design competition could be made for the clothing line, and the winner gets a free t-shirt or something. I would give it a crack anyway…

gunghalin al, you could buy a plain one and print your own…

mebbe i should do that; all those suggestions and none used – hrmph! ; )

Hmmm, any recommendations for the scrag elite to wear for the races?

Gungahlin Al said :

Throw a blazer over later for country club mingling.

Yeah right…know your audience.

Look good. Disappointed none of my proposed slogans got up. Will buy but.

GA – are you a Queenslander but?

When you have your ad exec position filled, will a graphic designer be next on the list?

Womensware? Mensware? Kidsware?

Men swear by Ken Cook. 😉

Unfortunately Cafepress being a US company has no concept of what a stubby holder is. I live in hope.

Or i’ll just sort out some from another source and give them away to lucky punters who turn up to RiotACT events 🙂

Throw a blazer over later for country club mingling.

Yeah right…know your audience.

Look good. Disappointed none of my proposed slogans got up. Will buy but.

Jazzman, will there ever be stubby holders?

Thanks for the suggestion deezagood. I’ll will update them all to make it easier to read the slogans.

Thanks, Jazz! I have ordered one of those.

: )

Jazz – uou are probably already onto it, but as it is difficult to read the slogans, you might want to include the phrase in the product description for each shirt, so that people know what they are buying.

The products are fab – I’ll be buying some!

Check the limited edition section granny.

Berraboy, One has just the URL, the other has Canberra News, Views and Stuff underneath the logo.

I want the grandchildren one! Which one is that, Jazz?

Thanks Jazz….I think one of either “Making Canberra Better, One opinionated bastard at a time” or “Because everyone is entitled to read my opinion” would be good.

no g-strings?!

The one in blue and yellow has all sorts of lovely inappropriate sayings, mostly taken from the taglines which rotate through the top of this page.

The other ones that scored a guernsey (or mug) for the launch are :
Canberra News, Views and Stuff
Enjoy “In Moderation”
Making Canberra Better, One opinionated bastard at a time
Because everyone is entitled to read my opinion
A listing of all the current user rankings in order

and for a limited time;
My Grandchildren were appalled
and, I am appalled

> I actually can’t read what’s on the pictures at all on my screen.

Me either Granny…list guys?

whats the guitar above some?

bloodnut, yes.

That was one of the few I could make out while peering at the screen.

I’m getting a golf shirt. If only there were stubby holders!

JB: Why are there two golf-shirts advertised when they look identicle? Am I missing something?

I actually can’t read what’s on the pictures at all on my screen.

: (

mmm – did we use ‘my grandchildren were appalled’?

> Click on the “View Larger” link, or somesuch.

I don’t want to click on each & every pic….perhaps we could get a list of the phrases posted here? It’ll help me buy a t-shirt, hence put money in RiotACTs pocket! 🙂

Click on the “View Larger” link, or somesuch.
I especially like the inappropriately smiling face of the guy when he’s displaying the “One opinionated bastard at a time” t-shirt.

In fact, I’m appalled.

I followed the link but couldn’t read the line printed underneath ‘Riotact’ in the pics they provide… Care to shed some light on what it says, anyone?

Wooooo hoo!!