Welcome to another awesome T shirt brand undressed interview, this week we have Aaron from the cool indie brand known as Thought Space Apparel.
Thought Space Apparel has not been in existence for very long but they already have a huge following. As ever whenever I want to feature a new brand for an interview, I always check out the brands social media presence, I feel it is a useful Yard stick to deciding how successful a brand really is.
Judging by their Facebook page Thought Space has a great relationship with its followers/customers and in conjunction with the brilliant designs they are producing are a brand making waves on the Internet for the right reasons.
Geek Shirts HQ welcomes Thought Space Apparel
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Now time for that interview! 
Who are the people behind thought Space Apparel? Can you start by giving some background about yourself? Where you are from? Who creates the designs? How did you get into shirt design?
Thought Space is my brain child, started back in early 2011 while I was Tour Managing for Last Chance To Reason. After developing the concept behind Thought Space and bringing it to life I joined forces with Lou Di Monaco and Michael Lessard. Mike and I were born and bred in Maine and Lou lives and works out of New York.
I have a diverse background from working retail to working in a distribution warehouse. The majority of my work experience and background has been in the music scene, though. I have done everything from promotion and merchandising to tour management and beyond.
All of our design work and concepts so far have been inspired from my interest in philosophers, artists and musicians of the world. I'll take the feeling I get from an idea or concept and work with my go to graphic designer, Tony Graystone, at Sneaky Studios to try and translate that into a creatively inspiring shirt or article of clothing.
My shirt design experience started with my latest job working for a distribution warehouse. Everyone seemed down in the dumps there was no colour or self-expression, so I started a "Tie-Dye Friday" with all my co-workers.
It started off small, with like 5-10 shirts, but quickly caught on throughout the entire warehouse and I quickly handmade over 500 shirts. This gave me the motivation to get into the whole independent clothing brand scene after seeing how the power of art can have an impact on all different kinds of people.
It was like this common language between the entire world that a lot of people had forgotten about.
I also noticed how a lot of major brands will get their shirts from outsourced companies or as they get more recognition on their brand, the shirt quality had been really poor or poorly printed. I wanted to create a brand that used clothing made in the U.S. by the most ethical means possible, I figure every little effort helps with trying to get our nations economy out of the rut we are in.
Astral Expansion T-Shirt
Where did you get the name Thought Space Apparel?
Thought Space, to me, came from the idea of how powerful the mind is when you feed it knowledge & nurture it with inspiration.
Can you tell me more about the brand Thought Space?
I fell that we as a human race have lost the excitement of "what if" and the ability to dream. I wanted Thought Space to kind of plant that seed again in the human condition and to give an outlet and banner for progressive thinkers to get behind those are the people I like to call “The Collective“.
Black Astral Expansion T-Shirt
What makes Thought Space Apparel different from other Apparel Vendors? What is your USP?
I think that would be what we as a brand are setting out to do and the quality and morals behind the clothing made. We want to be able to inspire, and promote free thought. I want people to be able to say its okay to follow your dreams and take chances.
Our shirts are held to a extremely high quality standard, when it comes to comfort and wear-ability, everything is either printed via discharge or water base processes. We also are on the road a lot going to shows or being on tour, I think this provides a unique opportunity to actually get to meet face to face with the people who enjoy what we do, we always want to be as accessible as possible to the people who rock Thought Space.
Meditation T-Shirt
What’s coming next for Thought Space Apparel?
Currently we are working on our fall release which will consist of at least one new shirt design and a hoodie. With these hoodies we thought it would be fun to design a little collectible zipper pull, being cast and created by Cash Cannon of Addicted To Ink Tattoos in White Plains, NY & 4TheLuvOfToyz to offer something different and support fellow artists with a collaborative effort.
Thought Space Logo Tee
Where do you see yourself in 10 years both for yourselves and your business?
The response to the brand has been awesome! We are hoping over the next couple of years to will be able to start endorsing tours for musicians, put out larger seasonal lines with more designs and clothing options and maybe a B+M store – who knows. We will keep inspiring as long as people are willing to dream!
How much importance do you place on Facebook Twitter and similar sites when marketing your brand?
I think social networking is a useful tool when trying to reach out to an audience. One thing that I have personally noticed that really bums me out is how when making posts on Facebook recently, it only really reaches about 10% of your audience. So I guess all in all its useful way to answer questions and share things that inspire us. But what we really benefit from is road dogging it on tour and meeting people face to face… it’s the only real way, in my opinion, to connect with the people who support the brand.
When getting your apparel printed what is the process that you prefer?
Water base and Discharge, you can’t beat the no feel printing!
What brands of apparel do you prefer to print on?
American Apparel all the way! I got to support companies who don't outsource their manufacturing and you can beat the quality!
What would a customer expect when ordering a product from yourselves?
Other than a super comfortable, high quality shirt with an amazing & original design? All our logistics are done by the 3 of us personally, from the folding to the hang tags. So with that being said, there is a lot of love that goes into our brand, we usually hook people up with stickers and whatever other freebies we can throw their way to make the order feel special.
Grey Infinite Space T-Shirt
Anyone you want to give a shout out to?
Anyone that has supported us, came out to a show to hang, bought a shirt, donated to our Kickstarter. We couldn't be doing this with out you. Also to all the bands that we work with that wear our brand including Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, Last Chance to Reason, Dead Letter Circus and White Arms Of Athena. If you haven't heard of any of those bands please check them out and support them, they are making amazing progressive music and constantly pushing boundaries.
Who are your favourite designers and/or brands?
I guess I would have to say any designer and or brand out their that is looking to do something different and create a high quality product. It takes a lot of passion to try and breath life into a dream and I have respect for anyone trying to accomplish that!
Mandala Hoodie (PREORDER)
Is there anything else you want to add?
Hope to see everyone at a show or talk to them on facebook. We love meeting and talking to everyone.
Where is the best place to find your designs and buy some of your shirts? And of course get in contact with you.
Instagram: @thoughtspaceapparel
Thank you Aaron for an excellent interview.
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