This holiday season is a little happier thanks to all of you. A few weeks ago y’all teamed up with us to raise $4,194 for Donor’s Choose causes. Nice work, fam! Just to add a little perspective, your generosity helped eight classrooms and 890 students get the school supplies they need. Around here, we call that a successful Give Back Friday.
We can talk numbers all day, but it’s more real to tell you about the kids you actually helped. All 491 of you who ordered on Give Back Friday got great tees, while pre-school students got books to read at home, high schoolers got supplies to explore painting, and elementary students got the gift of drones. Your giving also benefited students with autism, children who need tools to practice mindfulness and kindness, and several schools in need of sports equipment. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 30 different projects funded and nearly $12,000 raised since 2015. To see the entire list of funded projects, visit our Donor’s Choose page .
Now that #ALLTHETEES 2017 is over, the elves at Cotton Bureau are bracing for a total tee takeover. We’ve rearranged the office and optimized our Chemex making capabilities so that we can get your shirts to you on time. But we did want to take a moment here and thank you for supporting Give Back Friday this year, everyone.
It’s the holidays, so we’re temporarily raising prices. Nope, we didn’t stutter, we’re raising prices. We’ve got a good reason, and it’s not that we all need a week in Hawaii.
This Friday, November 17, is Give Back Friday. Here’s the lowdown. On Friday, you’ll see the price of our pre-order tees increase by $3. That $3 plus an additional $3 from Cotton Bureau will be donated to fund our favorite classroom projects from DonorsChoose.org.
This year we’re supporting several projects from our hometown of Pittsburgh, and others in Hollywood, FL, Miami, FL, Minneapolis, MN, Cleveland, OH and New Cumberland, WV. Teachers are seeking support for things like sports equipment, laptops, books, paint, and musical instruments to help them drop some knowledge and level up their classrooms. Find the full details and budget for each project on our Donors Choose page.
This is our third year, and our previous campaigns raised $6,409 combined. While that’s good, we don’t settle for good. So this year we want to raise $10,000 to fully fund each and every project we’ve picked.
That’s a lot, but we’ve also got a lot of tees — ALL THE TEES, in fact — so let’s raise ALL THE MONEY.
If you’re ready to rip the band-aid off and check off your whole Holiday shopping list, this is the day to do it. You (or your mom, or your Secret Santa, or your cat) get a sweet graphic tee, and you support learning, creativity, and inclusivity in the classroom.
How’s that for some warm ‘n fuzzy feelings? Now let’s make it happen. Tune in to our Twitter feed on Friday where we’ll be live tweeting our progress.
PS: Reading this from the future and missed Give Back Friday? Feeling extra generous? You can always donate without buying a tee at our DonorsChoose page. Go you!
It’s hard to believe it’s already been over a month since our Kickstarterwrapped. Hopefully you claimed your shirt at the time. If you haven’t, it’s not too late. You can still pre-order Blank in all sizes and colors on Cotton Bureau.
Now, let’s get to the good stuff.
Making t-shirts for the first time is a little bit like, well, like doing anything for the first time. You’re excited and nervous and you struggle right up until you think you’ve got it all figured out only to realize there’s still so much more to learn. No amount of wearing t-shirts or selling t-shirts or even comparing and contrasting t-shirts from dozens of your favorite brands and manufacturers quite prepares you for making your own. We read and watched and talked and listened for months, looking for just the right partner to take us from people who liked t-shirts to people who know them, inside and out. Thankfully, we found some really great teachers.
The fabric has been milled, the sewing is about to begin. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve come a long way in the last year, and our friends in LA are a big reason why. We can’t wait to see years of hard work rewarded when you finally get your shirts in the mail. In the meantime, it’s our pleasure to introduce you to some of the men and women who have been holding our hands along the way
Meet Celseo. Celseo inspects, rests, and cuts the fabric into just the right shapes and sizes before sending it off to be assembled into the final product.
Meet Anna Maria. Anna Maria is a sewing technician. Every Blank tee is sewn by Anna Maria or one of the other talented men and women at the shop.
Meet Victor. Victor is our production manager. Creating and revising patterns, cutting and sewing thousands of shirts, and making sure they look, feel, and fit just right is a team effort. Victor keeps things running smoothly.
Meet Olga. Olga is our finishing manager. Her team meticulously checks our garments for errors. From there they trim, iron, fold and box them up for us.
Meet Jon. Jon is our day-to-day contact for every status update and tiny, nitpicky question. Jon’s been around since the very beginning. We couldn’t have done this without him.
Finally, meet Moe. Moe was the first person we spoke with at the factory back when we were just getting started. He’s the founder and owner, and we’ve grown quite fond of him. It’s unusual these days for t-shirts to be manufactured in the U.S., but Moe’s been doing it for decades and won’t have it any other way. We’re extremely thankful to have found him. Nobody outside of Cotton Bureau cares more about the mission and success of Blank than Moe. When you get yours in the mail, we hope you’ll feel the same way we do.
In addition to Moe, Jon, Olga, Victor, Anna Maria, and Celseo, there are dozens of other people who are just as committed to making great shirts. What we’ve learned over the last year about creels and dye lots and combing and handfeel could fill a book. Thankfully, it’s a book our friends at the factory already know cover to cover and one that you’ll never need to read. Moe, Jon, and the team are totally invested in making the best possible shirts for us, and it shows.
That’s it for now. We’ll have more photos to share, more updates on the ins and outs of manufacturing and the intricacies of what it takes to be in the t-shirt business in 2017 soon. You should follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, of course. Hope you enjoyed this quick factory tour!
Well, here we are. It’s that time of year, and we need your help. For real. If you’ve ever worn a shirt or seen one irl, we could use you on the Cotton Bureau team as a fulfillment specialist this holiday season.
We’ve grown a lot in the last 12 months, and we’re expecting BIG things between now and New Year’s. Interested? Email jobs@cottonbureau.comwith your packing credentials and your December availability. We’re looking to fill 2–3 part-time and/or seasonal positions as soon as possible. (It should go without saying, but you’ll need to be physically present in order to put t-shirts in bags.)
In addition to a few good people to help in the warehouse, we’re also accepting applications for Spring and Summer 2018 internships. It’s been a while since interns have graced our office, but we have fond memories. If you’re in or have recently-ish completed college, a coding bootcamp, or a career (re)training program, tell us a little about yourself and what you’d like to do. We have a variety of opportunities available. (This is a paid internship.)
Oh, and by the way, we now have an official jobs page. Head over there to get the lay of the land. We’ll be sure to update it frequently. If something catches your eye, email us. You just might be, ahem, the right material.
We need models. Okay, what we really mean is that we need people… like the kind who wear our tees, or better yet, the kind who are excited about our new Blank tees. Are you a human between sizes XS and 5X and not too shy in front of a camera? If so, we want to hear from you. That’s parents, students, business owners, activists, athletes, adventurers, homebodies, grandmas, entire product teams, and, well, you get the picture.
We’re gearing up for our next #BlankbyCB photoshoot, and we’re looking for CB fans of every shape, size, and ethnicity. The only catch is that you have to be located in (or willing to travel to) Pittsburgh. What’s in it for you? Well that’d be the satisfaction of showing everyone that Blank fits people. Lots of people. Okay, we’ll give you a couple Blank tees to keep for yourself and some killer snacks too. Sound like a plan? Great. Then email us at blank@cottonbureau.com with your contact info and shirt size, and we’ll be in touch.
Oh, and even if you’re not in Pittsburgh right now, but might visit some day, email us! Michelle is keeping a list, and she’d love to put you on it. 📝
