JoystickJunkies
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Posts posted by JoystickJunkies
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Atari make money, we make money, and can make more t-shirts with designs you like on them.<snip>
If you're happy wearing a poorly designed t-shirt that's fine but why should i have to wear a t-shirt that's too big or doesn't fit right or is made of so thick cotton that you sweat too much and the print comes off in the wash and it's only comes in a couple of colours.
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Let's face it, Atari was so cool in the 70's that we all bought in to it, we HAD to have one. This is just the same....
I honestly couldn't care less whether the new "Atari" makes money or not. Maybe they can do something productive in the future, but other than the FB2, the recent "Atari" owners haven't done much worthwhile. The real Atari is long dead.
Not sure what sort of flea markets you're scavenging to get your comparison "cheap" t-shirts, because you make it sound like every other t-shirt out there isn't fit to use to clean your house with. Holy hyperbole!
I don't think it's the same thing to be a first-party admirer of Atari, as in, was actually there and was a fan, as it is being someone who has no clue about Atari and what it was like back in the day, and just wanting an "Atari" t-shirt because it's "so cool" and all your "friends" are wearing it. (BTW, where are all these throngs of young people, or any people for that matter, outside our hobby that are dying to throw their cash at getting an "Atari" shirt? Seriously, really?)
Again, not against what you're doing or anything... I just think that some of your comments are a bit outlandish. Granted, you're understandably biased, but still.
Well if the new Atari makes money, we get to bring more and more of the old atari designs out in clothing which people can buy (if they're not making money they won't let us of course!), including hopefully those people here who like them. Not everyone's had the chance to buy some of the classic designs from years ago. Well i've seen few quality atari t-shirts in the last few years and believe me i've looked. Of course overstating the case but to make a point - a lot of the time the designs are poorly done and the stock shirts used aren't that great. Some of us do like to wear nice tees and shouldn't be penalised for that.
I think it's great to get more people wearing atari because it's cool, some of them will remember their days playing the 2600 or St etc and some of those may find their way here and add to the wealth of knowledge and atari stories here and find new friends. I'd be amazed if any guy i know didn't remember playing an atari and he's probably got an atari story of some kind - it would be a shame not to awaken those memories in people and embrace them, we shouldnt be so exclusive in the gaming hobby that we don't want new people otherwise one day there won't be many people left on this site....if those new people haven't played atari every day does it matter so much? What happens when everyone who's played an atari 2600 or st is dead, should sites like this close or will you allow new people who've found out about the heritage but never played?
There are in fact throngs of people buying atari t-shirts - certainly here in the UK where sales have started first you've got some of the biggest retailers in the UK ordering and selling stocks of the t-shirt. I'm not saying it's going to be the hottest tee in history but it's certainly enough to be noticed and make it worthwhile for us as a business to keep bringing out some great designs that hopefully atari fans will enjoy.
As I've said i'm looking for design ideas from people - tell us what you think should be on a tee and we'll see what we can do!
The reason i come on here and talk about it all is i want to find out what people think so thanks for the feedback of both kinds it is actually very useful, i prefer to have a positive discussion about it rather than never know. it's not always going to be what you'd re'ally like to see as this is a business that has to pay for itself but you have got an atari fan at the helm and i'm here finding out what you think rather than not giving a monkeys. :-)
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Again, you seem to make this sound like a fashion statement or trying to be cool. And to be honest, I couldn't care less if some actor is wearing video game material or not. Being acceptable? Please...people were wearing these types of shirts over 20 years ago.Are you seriously doing this for the LOVE of Atari or are you just trying to make a "fashion statement" and hope everyone will look "cool"? Cause that is exactly how I'm reading this. Again, I'm still not buying any of your stuff. I've got plenty of video game shirts (cause I love video games, NOT to be in fashion or cool).
Well atari and other gaming graphics have become a fashion statement whether you like it or not - Atari has been voted as one of the classic logos people would most like to see reusrrected (they obviously didn't realise it's being used again!). We've managed to get ourself in at the helm of designing the graphics so at least it's not some company that has no idea about the atari brand or graphics and what's important or relevant. We're a fashion label though - that's our business to make things so cool even non gamers want to buy them, as long as those same designs are true to atari it shouldn't be a problem. Oh we've got to try and make money at the same time so if it's cool and more people buy it, great! People have indeed been wearing them for 20 years but now they're becoming mainstream and getting in to magazines so it's good for everyone. Atari make money, we make money, and can make more t-shirts with designs you like on them.
Yep I'm seriously doing this because I love the atari brand - and still have my original console and a few more i've bought. It's why i've spent 4 years trying to get the licence and we probably won't make money on it for a year so considering the investment so far. I don't hope everyone will look cool, i know they will look cool, because we've invested a lot in the design and quality of the garments. If you're happy wearing a poorly designed t-shirt that's fine but why should i have to wear a t-shirt that's too big or doesn't fit right or is made of so thick cotton that you sweat too much and the print comes off in the wash and it's only comes in a couple of colours.
We don't make t-shirts for gamers otherwise we really wouldn't sell that many - gamers don't buy t-shirts, people buy t-shirts, and if some of them happen to be gamers and love the reference even better. The great thing is most people in their 30's and 40's have come in to contact with an atari games machine or computer and usually will remember it well and now they can buy something that is as good quality as the atari console was. Let's face it, Atari was so cool in the 70's that we all bought in to it, we HAD to have one. This is just the same....
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damn so now wearing gaming shirts is cool and hip... Guess I'm years ahead of my time... Guess it is time to start wearing something else so I'm not like everyone else...haha sounds like it!! A friend of mine recently sold an original atari shirt from the early 80's on ebay - did pretty well i think!
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Id pay $40 USD for *FAST ASS* size 4x 5x 6x Atari anything. Most places assume only the little punks want this stuff
Us fat guys want it too.AX
hey golden axe we're looking in to this now actually - will let you know how we get on. We're certainly looking at 2xl and 3xl but they get more expensive as you go up
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and thanks for the sig sorted! :-)
Anyone remember cannon fodder on the st? i still remember going to bed still seeing glaring green fields and hearing the screams of pixellated men! lol
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hey guys, thanks for all the replies, we've got access to all atari imagery, not just the fuji logo so I'd love to hear any ideas you've got, but those were the obvious ones to start with and the retailers we sell to all requested the basic logo for their first orders. Yeah we could have done it pirate style but big fashion stores won't take pirate product so it's fine if you just want to sell a handful but not if you're running a business.
The funny thing is casual gamers and people who aren't 'gamers' in the true sense of the word are starting to see gaming imagery is cool, it's becoming normal and acceptable to wear gaming graphics which is great - the hobby is becoming more mainstream as more kids learn to play games. It's not THAT cool yet that a major star is wearing gaming t-shirts so don't expect a Von Dutch like fad just yet - that would be awful! Trust me people wouldn't be wearing an Atari t-shirt just to look cool - they'll be wearing it because they remember it, either because they made music with it or because they loved the games like i did. The next generation of atari designs we'll do will be a lot more subtle and hopefully people will wear them to look cool - we are a fashion label after all so we won't be doing our job if they don't! I'm sick of the crap looking gaming t-shirts that are so badly designed and the argument that 'being true to gaming' is an excuse for poor graphic skills. Why can't t-shirts based on video games be as cool as the hottest t-shirts in the fashion stores....that was my idea 10 years ago and now they are...they're ours....
I know we're still expensive in the US - I'd love to be making high quality shirts there and sell them at a better price but we can't yet, so here's the solution, I just created a discount code for Atari fans here, if you fancy getting yourself one use the promotional code below when you checkout.
iloveatari
That will get you 20% off so the t-shirt will cost you around £20 or $29.60 (today's exchange rate) and that includes shipping for free - yes remember we pay for the shipping to the US in that cost too.
I've always been a massive atari fan - played every arcade machine to death, bugged my parents until my dad managed to get the ex-demo atari 2600 from his mate at the TV store, demanded we stop at every arcade to try the new machines and finally managed to put my love and knowledge of the games in to practice with Joystick Junkies. It took us 6 years to get Joystick Junkies to the stage where Atari would even take our call, and 4 years of discussions. I'm really glad we made all the effort though as it was my dream to be able to work with the Atari brand. Just wait and see what we do!
Now I know some of you are still thinking we're raking it in at those prices so have a read below on the breakdown of what we make from sales below, and remember we mostly sell to fashion stores - £24.99 is the going rate for a good quality t-shirt in Europe in fashion stores, and if we sell online we have to sell at the same price as the stores do we're not undercutting them.
- A shop sells a t-shirt for £24.99
- They buy a t-shirt from us for £10 - they mark up by x 2.5 - good margin but they have to pay for retail space, staff, bills and be able to discount the tee in sales and still make money
- Out of our £10 we pay a royalty to the licence holder - typically this is 10%
- So we've got £9 left.
- We don't mass produce like 1000's - we tend to make say 500 at a time in different colours so we don't get stuck with loads of stock - no one can afford that these days
- So our tee probably costs around £4.50 to make in high quality tee shirt jersey with all the branding, labels, high quality prints etc - yep we're using a professional factory that is good enough for major high street stores not some terrible child labour place in china.
- So our margin is £4.5, Oh I forgot , those big retailers - when they order they tend to like a 10% discount so we just lost another £1 - so our margin may only be £3.5 or $6-7
So what does that pay for? Well there's the graphic designer who gets paid for the design work on the graphic, the swing tag, the labels, the garment designer who designed the fit of the garment, the product developer who picked the colours for the t-shirt and researched the fit and style it should be for next year, then there's the pr agency to promote it, the sales team to get orders, the office space, heat, light, the time spent trying to get the deal, trips to the US to discuss the deal, the office staff wages not involved in design and sales, warehousing staff and space and shipping costs couriers, etc etc. As you can see it's easy to not make money in this business!
Now obviously you can see we make more margin online - When we sell a t-shirt online we pay VAT on the sale - that is the UK's equivalent of US sales tax. It means we're actually selling at the price of the t-shirt plus 17.5% - we have to pay the VAT no matter who buys it from where. So we actually only get £21.27 after VAT, less the royalty - about £2.10 so we're down to £19 and less the £4.50 cost we're down to £14.67. We also pay for the shipping so typically it might be another couple of pounds so about £12.67 and then there's the cost of warehousing so maybe we're down to around £12. So that helps pay for the stuff above as well but in reality we don't sell a huge amount online as it's better to focus on selling to stores and bigger orders.
So i'd really love to hear ideas for t-shirts or other garments, do you remember seeing cool old Atari polos or scarves or bags? Got any pictures? What was your favourite games cover we could use for art? You don't have to be an artist just point me in the right direction, if it's something i've never seen before and we make it I'll send you one when we get them through!
We also do pay for designs. If we go ahead with a submitted design we pay £150 or around $220 so pm me if you'd like to find out how to submit ideas
really appreciate all the feedback!
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Just out of curiosity, what agency was the licensing agreement struck with and how is your company marking these as "officially licensed" products (through tags, labels, holograms, or other methods)?hey guys if you have a look at say www.urbanoutfitters.com you'll see t-shirts well over $30 in the US - have a look at brands like Diesel, Modern Amusement - we're not hear to make cheap t-shirts that shrink after a wash or compete with Top Topic. The aim of Joystick Junkies is to make high quality garments that are good enough to sell in the best fashion stores and do the graphics justice. Atari are coming down hard on all the pirate t-shirt guys on ebay as they don't want bad prints and upset customers who find out it's not official when they recieve it.
The deal was done through Atari's licensing agent in the UK and in conjunction with Atari themselves. The garments feature an official licenced swing tag, a tonal print of the logo on the back of the shoulder and appropriate legal text in the print. We've just done an exclusive numbered box set from 1-1000 with Play.com featuring a really cool pixellated rainbow foil print. If anyone wants to see the official press release that's gone out with all the details of the parties involved feel free to drop me a pm.
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Yep that's right, it only took us four years of talks, negotiations, and banging on the door! Joystick Junkies recently signed up the official rights to product Atari clothing based on the classic 1972 Mount Fuji logo and other original icons of the Atari age! Having played my own Atari 2600 to death and dreampt up all kinds of justifications why just one more cartridged NEEDED to be added to the collection it's a real pleasure to be finally bringing some of the Atari love in to my work. We've got a couple of designs up on www.joystickjunkies.com - check the Atari page - and more varied designs will be added over the coming month. We ship worldwide free of charge and the tees are fashion quality - that means they survive lots of washes, they're really soft handle and have a great fashion cut. Having seen some appaling pirate tees over the past few years it's great to finally see some decent quality garments for Atari.
I'd love to know ideas what you think think we should be putting on tees - from the obvious to the more obscure we're really open to suggestions. We're selling in fashion stores so they have to be commercial but you'd be surprised what is commercial these days - right now the UK fashion scene is all over the retro games graphics - it's suddenly very cool. The trick will be in re-inventing the graphics and keeping it cool as the trends move on. I've even picked up some working Atari's off ebay for some events and office - don't you love it they still work perfectly after all these years!
cheers!
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Hi folks, odd question has anyone got a technical drawing of the Atari 2600? You know like the classic car manuals showing an exploded view of the components?
cheers
chris
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Official Atari Clothing
in Buy, Sell, and Trade
Posted
Well we have two ways of finding designs, firstly we have a group of designers that we've found over the last couple of years who get paid to produce specific designs - usually because we know their skills are best suited to the design we want. However genius designs usually come out of the blue and so we also open up the brief to other designers who would like to pitch us ideas. We find a designer will usually come up with one or two great ideas in ten. Once we agree to use the design, we have to get them to sign a release form before we are allowed to use the design commercially and the ownership of the design only passes to us once they are paid in full. Creative businesses like us do not thrive on ripping off designers, we have to nurture them and help them grow with us.
Once we have purchased one or more designs from a designer we also commit to buying at least one design off them in the next season's design process. So they know it's worth doing some work on designs going forward.