Our supporters called in the whole fleet and we’re proud to welcome tri-blend navy tees to the Blank family. Nice job on that stretch goal, everyone!
But we’re not just going to rest on our laurels, lounging away in our sweet navy tees. We’re going to set even more stretch goals. And this time, we’re bringing the power to the people. There’s a whole world of color out there, and you fine folks are going to decide what we offer next!
Here are your options: tri-blend light blue vs. tri-blend red.
So pick your favorite. Tell your friends to pick their favorite. Jump on your mom’s computer and pretend you’re her and pick again. We don’t care how you do it, just vote!
Which color would you like to see available?
The poll is now closed.
Current Results:
You have until 8:00pm ET to vote, and we’ll announce the winner tomorrow.
Then stay tuned, because for every $12,000 over our initial goal of $48,000 we’ll unlock another color!
A little more than 24 hours in and we are fully funded, thanks to all of you!
Here’s what that means:
Blank is a reality! It’s actually happening, people! Get excited.
Our backers are (still) amazing. We were pretty confident we’d meet our goal, but in 27 hours? C’mon. You blew us away.
IT’S TIME FOR STRETCH GOALS COLORS!
Okay, so we’re a little emotional right now, but we’ll try to get through this before the music kicks us offstage.
Most of you have heard why we started Blank in the first place. Making a better fitting tee is harder than people think. Of course our customers already knew that—and they let us know too. Poor women’s sizing is a constant problem in the industry. It’s the reason we started this adventure. Now we’ve made a tee together that is different than all the others.
Over the next few weeks we’ll also be sharing some of our behind-the-scenes video footage that explains where we were before Blank, and our process to get here. If you can’t wait that long, you should check out our shiny new Cotton Bureau page for more details.
Alright, so are you ready for the big news? Or should we tease it even more?
Okay okay, you’ve earned it.
At $60,000, we’re releasing a new Blank tee color. Get us over the hump and you’ll unlock a tri-blend navy option!
Why tri-blend navy? Well, according to our data, it’s a favorite amongst our Cotton Bureau customers. Besides our core color offering, it’s the next most popular tee color we sell.
That’s five—count them, five—Blank tees to choose from. Get us to $72,000 and we’ll release another color, but we might put that one to a vote. Stay tuned for more on that.
And remember, if you back any of the multiple shirt packs, once the campaign is over and you receive our backer survey, you’ll have the option to choose any shirt (men’s or women’s), fabric, color, and size combo that you’d like. Aren’t options great?
Thank you so much for your support, and don’t forget to share #BlankbyCB on social media. Let’s make some noise about better-fitting, size-inclusive tees!
Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for (well, today and the next 27 days) … our Blank Kickstarter has launched! Our project to design and produce better fitting t-shirts for women and men is finally a reality. You want in?
All we need from you is $48,000. Relax, you have until Thursday, September 14 to come up with it. That means there are four weeks to get all of your friends, family, followers, and coworkers to pitch in. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do all the convincing, just point them to our Kickstarter.
You’re only one person, we know, but with a bunch of reward tiers, we’re confident that everyone’s needs are covered. You can back the project for anywhere from one to seven tees (and if you hurry, you might just get there in time for early bird pricing). If you’re a t-shirt brand, print shop, company, conference, or just want a whole mess of tees for some other weird reason, you can back the project to receive even more Blank tees.
We’re starting with four core color options: 100% cotton tees in black and white, and tri-blend tees in heather grey and heather black. If the Kickstarter goes bananas, we might add a few more, but you’ll have to wait and see. You’ll get to choose your size and color preferences via a survey at the conclusion of the four-week run.
We can never say thank you enough for your dedication, but we need to ask one more favor to help us finish the job of making Blank a reality: back the Blank Kickstarter, support us, and preach the gospel of Blank through social media by using the hashtag #BlankbyCB.
Point Blank: you guys are amazing! Less than eight hours in and we’re over 75% funded!
We’ve raised $36,000+ since launching at 10:00 ET this morning. That’s a lot of t-shirts! Again, you’ve overwhelmed us with your support. And, again, we can’t say thank you enough.
While we have you here, we might as well give you some highlights and a few updates. Here’s a rundown of our first seven hours:
It seems like this Blank thing just might catch on. Guess that means there should be stretch goals. How does adding a few colors like… actually, let’s just save that for a future update 😏.
There’s no such thing as a stupid question (so far). You guys have asked, and we’ve answered. Our FAQ section is continually being updated. Go check it out!
So what happens now?
We keep this train rolling! We’re just a thread away from reaching our $48,000 goal. You’ve been great spreading the word on social media so far, and we’d love for you to keep cheering us on. And remember, use #BlankbyCB. Here are a few resources to help you do that:
We have a confession to make: We love our women’s t-shirts.
Alright that’s a little inaccurate, let’s be more specific: We love our new women’s t-shirts.
Sound familiar? That’s probably because you remember where we were six months ago… you know, back when you told us our women’s tees were so small you had to give them to your nine year old niece. Well we’ve made some progress since then. A lot of progress, actually. All it took was almost a year of researching, tweaking, testing, tweaking, and, did we say tweaking and testing? We produced five rounds of samples and gathered your feedback along the way. Now we’re ready for Blank to hit the streets, but not before giving you the scoop on what we’ve done to get here.
Say hello to Blank. No, the new Blank
Is a soft and durable fabric, more comfortable neckline, just-right sleeves, and a fitted but not too fitted body something you’d be interested in? Okay that’s a trick question. We already know the answer—and since we’re being honest, we mean that you already told us the answer. Funny how that happens when you send 350 samples to customers, friends, and followers of every shape and size.
We already had our own ideas of where we needed to improve, but there are only so many of us here with opinions lol. So in June, we pushed our baby out into the real world like a proud parent, knowing there’d be good times and times when Blank would come home crying.
Your responses didn’t disappoint.
Blank was largely met with love and praise, but there were also some hiccups. Many of the issues we knew about. Some of them we didn’t. All of them we fixed. There was plenty to celebrate, but to us, the verdict was clear: good but not great.
We didn’t go back to the drawing board, but we did make some halftime adjustments. That’s good news if you were one of the testers who loved your sample, because it means not too much has changed. It’s also good news if you were one of the testers who didn’t love your sample, because the tweaks we made addressed your issues. Blank is still recognizable, it’s just all grown up now. If that’s too vague, we’ll be more clear: Blank is the same tee that we set out to create for you since the beginning, but now it’s better because of your input. THANK YOU.
Make sense? Good. We’re gonna give you a rundown of everything anyway.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Let’s start by covering the basic changes and a few things we learned along the way:
When more than half of testers think your product is really good or perfect, you’re basically already in the Showcase Showdown.
There were still some things that needed to be tweaked, but there’s no such thing as a quick fix. Every t-shirt variation came with a different set of challenges. Tri-blend is not the same as cotton; women’s tees aren’t the same as men’s tees; an XS isn’t the same as a 5X. No surprise here, but that means each issue needed to be addressed separately, but we’ll cover that more later.
Philosopher Mick Jagger said it best: “You can’t always get what you want” (you sang that last part, didn’t you…). We knew we wouldn’t be able to please everyone, but there were some obvious modifications we could make so you could get what you need. We’re here to cover those modifications.
We’re designing and producing a comfortable, size-inclusive, quality, American made, crew neck t-shirt in great colors (for women and men) because nobody else is. That means it’s hard. Like really hard. Now you know why this was a year long process…so far.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let’s get on with it.
There’s no such thing as a universal truth—unless it’s our sizes
We nailed a couple of things right from the start. One of them is our size range—specifically for women. It’s not just that we offer XS-5X either, it’s that our tees fit like they should fit. A true crew neck that’s true to size… now that’s rare. Blank lands in that soft middle spot between a basic crew neck and a fashion fit. It has shape—unlike the men’s shirts women have had to order from us in the past—and it still looks great with a graphic design on it.
“Amazing. I really liked the length and how it didn’t ride up. I would buy 50 of these shirts even with the neck issue for the length and comfort. Also I didn’t feel fat in a T-Shirt in the first time in my WHOLE LIFE. Literally.”
— Blank Tester, Women’s 2X
Oh, and men, that’s no shot at you. Full disclosure, our current supplier makes a pret-ty, pret-ty good t-shirt for guys, but we felt like there could be some improvement there too. Our men’s cotton tee is a tad more relaxed, the length is a touch longer, and again, our sizes are more inclusive. And that whole length thing, yeah… we carried it over to the women’s tees as well. Finally there’s a shirt that doesn’t ride up when you bend over or try to do pretty much anything. We know, ladies. You can thank us later…like in the Kickstarter.
As far as fabric goes, well, maybe we were wrong—you can always get what you want.
Survey said: our cotton is as soft and durable as any out there. It’s not too thin. It’s not too thick. It’s breathable but not see-through. And our tri-blend is just as comfy as any we’ve tried before. Still, we’re flying to our factory in LA next week to see what we can do about making our fabrics even better.
“I like that it’s soft and light weight, but not see through. The length is just right, even after washing and drying! Can I have 6 more?”
— Blank Tester, Women’s 4X
A crew neck tee that fits all sizes was definitely a good start. We’d even say it covered everything a base model should. But we’re going for the sports package here, which meant there was still some souping up to do.
So we rolled up our sleeves—which meant rolling them down
We came up a little short with our sleeves. No biggie. Nothing some lengthening can’t correct, right? Well not exactly. It wasn’t just that our women’s sleeve length was off. They were too tight too. Ditto for the men’s tri-blend.
One thing they don’t tell you before you make your own t-shirts is that the sleeves affect the chest, which affect the rest of the body. Yep, it’s kinda like a domino affect. We fixed this weird armpit/chest thing that was happening, and consequently, lengthened and widened the actual sleeves too. A few alterations later and voila! Fabric bunching in the chest and armpit weirdness be gone. We ran a reverse on the men’s cotton tees which suffered from the opposite problems and were quite pleased with the results. Now about that collar…
General consensus was that the neck rib/collar was a little“off” somehow. In some cases the collar became flimsy in the front after washing, and sorta like a piece of 🥓. So we got rid of the extra fabric along the seams, flattened the rib, and found nicer thread.
Now might be a good time to mention that we adjusted the back collar of the women’s tees as well. One common complaint was that our necklines crept up too high in the back, so we added a subtle scoop. And even though this is a crew neck (we heard you about v-necks, don’t worry!), we went ahead and lowered the collar on the women’s tees. Larger men’s tri-blends received the opposite treatment.
But wait, there’s more
Here’s where things get complicated. We’re dealing with four different shirts, each with its own personality. Since we already covered universal flaws and fixes, it’s probably best if each tee goes their own way at this point. You understand.
Let’s start with the women’s tees:
Tri-blend XS-XL results were unanimous: too tight up top. Aside from the changes mentioned above, we made the entire pattern bigger. Nothing drastic, but enough to make it work for more of you.
After washing and drying, the hips lacked the fit we were looking for, so we kept the general shape, but very subtly took in the sides from the lower waist and hips, for both fabrics.
We also added a tiny bit of length to the women’s tri-blend since it was running short.
Now for the men:
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: our tri-blend tees were too tight, so we gave them room to breathe: longer and wider in the body, and better proportioned sleeves.
Our cotton tees were refined for a slightly more modern look. Always gotta be different, this one. But don’t worry, there’s still more room in them than our current tees.
Grading between the tri-blend XL and 2X was fixed. Our 2X let itself go, but we put it on a strict workout routine and it’s back in playing shape.
It takes a village to raise a tee
Six months ago, we lifted the lid on Blank. We’ve relied on your opinions, testing, and support ever since. For a minute, we were worried about running out of ways to show our appreciation. Then we realized we don’t need to say thank you. It’s not because you don’t deserve it, it’s because we’re partners in Blank—and partners work with each other, not for each other. You’re as invested in this process as we are, which means we’re light years past the point of thank you. Together we designed and refined Blank, and it’s been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Now comes the big ask.
This month we’re launching our Kickstarter. Finally. The research is done, we just need production to begin. We already know how committed you are. What we need now is for you to tell your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and your mailman to be committed. We need your help spreading the word about Blank to everyone you know. Put #BlankbyCB on Twitter. Put it on Facebook. Heck, put it on your dog. Because we love our new tees, and so will they.
