T-Shirt Hub

Your Guy @ EY:
Hi, Mike! Thanks for joining us today. I just want to say-- you sell some really cool and funny shirts. Can you hook me up with a shirt after the interview?

Mike Kavanagh:
No. I sent Eric enough free shirts already. What is it with you people?

Eric Yonge:
Mike, please just give him a shirt. He's not going to stop asking. Plus, he's been wearing the one he's got on for the past three days.

Mike Kavanagh:
Fine, whatever.

Your Guy @ EY:
Sweet! So, anyway, tell us how you got into the t-shirt biz?

Mike Kavanagh:
I've been a t-shirt enthusiast since an early age. The idea of designing t-shirts and selling them online became a reality in 2003, and TShirtHub.com was born. Knowing nothing about t-shirt design, website design, or running a business it proved quite a challenging learning experience. As time went own things came together, our product line grew, our business matured, and in 2007 it became time to give TShirtHub.com the look it deserved.

Your Guy @ EY:
What sort of planetary alignment brought you to EYStudios?

Mike:
We first noticed EYStudios in the Yahoo Designer Directory shortly after signing on with Yahoo Merchant Services in 2003. The artwork and client examples stuck in my head ever since because it was so original and visually impacting. It wasn’t until early 2007 that an industry friend hired Eric to work on his e-commerce website. Once we saw what Eric had done for our friend’s site we called him the next day.

Your Guy @ EY:
What differences were there in comparing the final product to the vision you'd originally discussed with EYStudios?

Mike:
The original concept for the layout was very similar to what we finally achieved. It was the colors, artwork and palette that changed drastically from our original concept. Our original idea was a blue & white theme, which Eric immediately steered us away from based on the type of products we sell and our target audience.

Your Guy @ EY:
What was it like working with Eric?

Mike:
Overall experience was great. Eric listened to everything we had to say and was very flexible when it came to making changes and modifications to the artwork as it was developed. Eric’s vision was very different from our original idea, so when he showed us the first draft we were really surprised at how different and unique it was. It wasn’t long until it grew on us and we became very excited about the new design. We knew we made the right choice. It was amazing to watch the progress from initial pencil sketches, to inking/coloring the design and finally tying the whole design together. Eric was very good at working with us to put the final touches on the site and referred us to a good vendor to implement the design into our store.

Your Guy @ EY:
How'd everybody else treat you at EYStudios?

Mike:
EYStudios’ customer service was excellent. Everyone was patient, professional and delivered quick results.

Your Guy @ EY:
Did all the t-shirt fiends out there like your new site design?

Mike:
Absolutely. Our customers have been sending positive feedback on the new design and both traffic and sales have increased. We’re noticing more page-views per customer and an increase in our sales conversion. E-mail campaigns designed with the new artwork are showing signs of viral traffic (a first for us) and we’ve even designed a new blog (the HubClub) utilizing EYStudios’ artwork which is now driving a lot of traffic to the site. EYStudios’ brought our image to a whole new level. TShirtHub looks so much more professional and established that it’s improved our credibility as a retailer and increased customer confidence.

Your Guy @ EY:
Mike, thanks again for the shirt, buddy! Anything else you want to add?

Mike:
EYStudios was the first web-designer we’ve ever hired. We were hesitant at first, but it proved to be a great experience and has opened us up to outsourcing several other services for our business as well. We’d do it again in a heartbeat.

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