Back in mid-February, we lifted the lid on Blank, our mission to make better t-shirts for women (and men). Then, well, we disappeared for a few months. Frankly, we’ve been a little busy this year: packing and shipping almost 100,000 shirts (more than all of last year), moving into a brand-new office, hiring and on-boarding more than a handful of new people, etc. But just because we’ve been quiet about Blank doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any progress. Far from it. We’re just (very) overdue for an update, so here’s everything that’s happened since you last heard from us:

We teamed up with a pattern maker.

Meet Melanie Yi. A 25-year veteran of the apparel industry, Melanie’s been patiently holding our hand every step of the way—producing (and tweaking, and tweaking, and tweaking) patterns, consulting on fabrics, fit, and model selection, and racking up frequent flyer miles between NYC and Pittsburgh. She’s become an indispensable member of Team Blank.

We visited a few factories.

After countless conversations, endless research, and a handful of scouting visits, we landed on a few factory finalists: a full-service apparel maker in Los Angeles, an apparel consultant/liaison who plays matchmaker between brands and factories (also in Los Angeles), and a cut-and-sew factory right here in Pennsylvania. We’d love to keep our production at home in the Keystone State, but we’re likely going to end up out on the West Coast (we know…what a shame to have such a frequent excuse to leave our beautiful Rust Belt weather behind for dreary Southern California).

We produced our first round of samples (and second and third rounds are coming soon).

That’s right, Blank t-shirts actually exist (just not very many of them, and only in a few sizes). We had a first run of samples produced by multiple factories—tri-blend and 100% cotton in medium and 2X for women, medium for men—to compare fit, consistency, and construction quality. If you’re wondering why we didn’t make all the sizes, you always start with just a few—usually only medium—and base all the other sizes off it (in a process known as “grading”). In our case, we developed two separate patterns for our women’s tee (one for XS–XL, one for 2X–5X) to make sure everything fits like it’s supposed to. Truth be told, we’re already pretty happy with the samples. We know that because…

We had our first model fitting.

A dozen local models showed up to participate in our first Blank fit session early last month, and the results were better than we could’ve expected (particularly on our tri-blends and women’s 2X shirts). We’ll be dialing in the fit and proportions over the next few sample iterations, but aside from a few consistent issues (the sleeves were a little tight across the board, and the body was a little too relaxed), they’re already pretty close. A second limited round of samples comes back within days for another model fitting next week, and we’re already producing the fabric for a full run of XS–5X in both men’s and women’s cuts (see our last update for more on that).

We’re preparing for our upcoming Kickstarter.

In our first post, we mentioned that we’d be launching Blank with a Kickstarter this summer, and we’re still on track for that. We’re teaming up with our friends at Sandwich Video to produce our Kickstarter video. The shoot is at the end of the month, and we might enlist a few of you as on-camera talent. If you live in or near LA, you’ll be hearing from us very soon.

You might get your hands on a Blank tee sooner than you think.

As we mentioned, we’re already producing the fabric for a full-scale run of tees, and we’re gonna need some testers (that means you). We’ll be posting a questionnaire for open tester slots in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned on that.

That’s it for now. Thanks for hanging with us, and we promise it won’t be two-and-a-half months before you hear from us again. We can’t wait to get Blank out there.

We have a confession to make: our women’s t-shirts suck.

Alright, maybe that’s a little inaccurate, let’s be more specific: our women’s t-shirt sizing sucks. It always has, and if you’ve ever bought a women’s t-shirt from us and it was way too small, we apologize (chances are, this is not the first time we’ve apologized to you for this). It’s time we did something about it. So all we need to do is switch t-shirt suppliers, right? Wrong.

You see, finding a wholesale t-shirt manufacturer that fits all our criteria has been…challenging (to say the least). We need a brand with modern fits, a wide range of colors and fabrics, ethical manufacturing, reliable quality and consistency, always-available stock, and it’d be reeeeal nice if it was made in America. Finding a brand that checks all those boxes and oh yeah also fits women is damn near impossible. If you can find a women’s brand that comes in our preferred colors and fabrics, it’s only available in mega-tiny junior sizing. If it’s sized to fit most women, the cut is awkward, the fabric isn’t anywhere near our standards, and it comes in whatever color you want…as long as that color is pink. It’s frustrating for us as a company, and every bit as frustrating for you as our customer. We know how demoralizing it is to buy one of our t-shirt designs, wait weeks for it to arrive, then hurriedly try it on only to find out that it’s about six sizes smaller than you expected. It shouldn’t be like this, and it kills us that we haven’t been able to find a women’s t-shirt that works.

So we’re gonna make our own.

Today, we’re lifting the lid on Blank, our project to design and produce better t-shirts from the ground up: our sizes, our fits, our fabrics, our colors. Over the last six months, we’ve been building relationships with people all over the garment industry: pattern makers, fabric suppliers, cut-and-sew operations, industry consultants, full-service apparel factories, fit models, and more. We’ve even produced a few samples. We’re going to need all the help we can get, which is why reached out to Indie.vc for funding last year (remember this cryptic line?) and hired a project lead to give it the attention it deserves (we’ll introduce her in a bit). Exciting, huh? It’s something we’ve been talking about forever, and the fact that it’s actually happening is a bit surreal. Let’s answer some questions.

* * *

OMG will your women’s tees finally fit me?

We hope so! We have a lot of goals with Blank, and #1 is “make t-shirts that fit most women.” We know that we can’t design a single t-shirt that will fit everybody, but we can make something that’s a hell of a lot better than what we have now. And it won’t just be limited to women…we’re making men’s tees too (and if you like how our men’s tees fit, we have good news: we’re not changing them much).

Are you replacing your entire t-shirt line?

Not for a while, no. We’ll probably introduce Blank as a premium option alongside our current Next Level tees, starting with a very limited range of colors and fabrics and gradually expanding over time. It’s gonna take us some time to find our sea legs. We won’t become American Apparel overnight.

Where will your t-shirts be produced? Please say the U.S.

We’re gonna try our damnedest to make these in the U.S. There’s a chance they might even be cut-and-sewn right here in Pennsylvania.

When is this happening?

We’re launching Blank later this year with a Kickstarter campaign (right now we’re eyeing June–July 2017) and they’ll be available as Cotton Bureau graphic tees shortly thereafter. Sit tight. We’re not at the beginning of the process, but we’re also nowhere near the end.

Will I be able to buy them blank?

Yes! We’re not just saving them for our graphic tees. That’s actually something we’re most excited about. Note: we’re not planning on selling them wholesale (not yet, anyway).

This sounds complicated…is this really going to work?

It is complicated. We now know more about yarn gauges, fabric weights, and the finer points of dyeing methods than we ever wanted to (and there’s still so much more to learn). And hey, who knows if it’ll work? We could sink the whole company! But we’ll never know if we don’t try. And if it does work, t-shirts are just the beginning.

Who’s running this show?

Meet Michelle Sharp. She joined Cotton Bureau last September and has been running point on Blank since day one. If you have any comments, advice, complaints, or notes of encouragement, email blank@cottonbureau.com and it’ll get to her. Most future posts about Blank will come from her.

How can I stay up-to-date on Blank developments?

Keep an eye on this blog, sign up for our Blank newsletter at the bottom of this page, and follow the hashtag #BlankbyCB on Twitter and Instagram.

That’s all we have to share for now, but there’ll be plenty more in the coming weeks and months. We hope this makes you as excited as it makes us. Wish us luck.