Last week we disclaimed that not all of our new premium heavyweight Comfort Colors 1717 and 1566 colors were available on demand. Well, time flies and now they are. If you’ve been looking for bay, berry, blossom, blue spruce, butter, chalky mint, chambray, crimson, crunchberry, flo blue, light green, orchid, graphite, grey, moss, mustard, orchid, terracotta, violet, watermelon, or yam, you should see them now.
We’ve made some big changes in the past few weeks to our default color bundles.
For 10+ years we’ve sold almost exclusively lightweight tees. First from American Apparel, then Next Level. We did offer a heavyweight tee from Gildan (first the 2000, then the 5000), but the intention was primarily to make sure we had a size-inclusive option in the lineup. Starting a few weeks ago, though, we’re proud to add the Comfort Colors 1717 as a premium heavyweight t-shirt option. We’ve been testing it (ahem, wearing it) frequently, and we’ve got to say… those of you who have been on #teamheavyweight for years have been absolutely right. This is a fantastic shirt.
But that’s not all. In addition to the 1717, we’ve expanded our on demand fleece lineup to include our all-time favorite crewneck sweatshirt, the midweight Bella + Canvas 3901. We’ve also added the B+C 3719 midweight pullover hoodie, the B+C 3739 midweight zip hoodie, and the Comfort Colors 1566 heavyweight pullover crewneck sweatshirt. These are all phenomenal sweatshirts that we know you will love wearing.
On a less exciting but more practical note, we’re returning to the Gildan line of sweatshirts for our basic fleece option. Last year we switched to Delta fleece in order to provide more color variety and a higher quality garment. Unfortunately, and if you don’t follow the t-shirt industry this may come as a surprise, Delta lit itself on fire earlier this year and no longer exists, which meant back to the drawing board for us. The Gildan 18000, 18500, and 18600are solid, practical options that allow us to offer a full range of on demand colors this season.
On the pre-order side, not only do we have all of the above styles available, we have also added the Independent Trading Co. IND4000Z heavyweight zip hoodie in a wide array of colors. We’ve always used and loved this particular outdoor sweatshirt, but we’re happy to be able to increase the number of color options available by default.
N.B. Not all Comfort Colors 1717 and 1566 colors are currently available for on demand products, though we anticipate that will be resolved soon.
Expanding the core products we offer did require some updates to the user interface and how we talk about the product. Traditionally, our default shirt was simply the “Standard” tee, while the more size inclusive option was the “Heavyweight” tee because not only was it bigger, the fabric itself is heavier. With the new heavyweight tee coming it at a higher price point and quality, we needed to disambiguate the styles. Since this is likely not the last time we’ll need similar language, we’ve developed several new labels internally including “lightweight”, “midweight”, “heavyweight”, “basic”, and “premium” to hopefully make it easy for everyone to tell the difference between styles at a glance.
Hello! If you love a good screenprinted shirt (like we do) and want to offer a pre-order campaign on Cotton Bureau for the holidays, well, this is it. This is the holidays.
Your last day to submit the campaign is Monday, November 25. That’s 10 days from today. All 2024 campaigns must end by Monday, December 2 in order to be printed and shipped this year.
Pre-order campaigns can be 100% configured and launched directly from the product creator. Whether you want to release a special edition of an existing design or try something brand new, there’s nothing quite like the quality and durability of a screenprinted shirt.
Finally, a minor housekeeping note, if you’ve been around since the beginning (👋), you’ve seen us go through a handful of long-form writing platforms and locations over the last 10+ years. While we’ve never stopped typing, a lot of those posts became hard or impossible to find. We’re happy to say that 99% of the Cotton Bureau writing has been scrounged from old blogs, tumblrs, Mediums, etc. If you want to re-read the history of Blank or catch up on old designer interviews, we’re happy to say the full archives are now available in one place.
We’re in the eye of the storm, folks. Appreciate this week or two before the holidays come crashing down. Here’s our ~weekly contribution to a nicer and healthier internet sharing ecosystem.
Our good friend Kelli Anderson is back with another impossible book, this time on the history of typography. The project is already well-funded, but if you want in on the first edition, you have only 10 days left to join the Kickstarter. Fun and informative for all ages. Shipping in 2025, though it does come with a book voucher and full-color brochure for holiday gifting.
Speaking of friends, kids, and books… Jessica Hische just released a brand-new one (a book (for kids)). It also just so happens to be about letters, or more specifically all the fun and unique ways you can draw letters. The perfect gift for the aspiring child artist in your life.
Did you miss our interview with husband-and-wife design team Fell? We won’t apologize for being suckers for anything and everything NPS.
Shop the full Fell collection on Cotton Bureau.
Love the logo, hate the packaging. Thick, rugged, high energy. A welcome return to the peak of my Mountain Dew drinking years (late ‘90s and early ‘00s). Could do without the establishment date in the negative space but whatever. Read Armin Vit’s review at Brand New for a full breakdown.
Peanut allergies weren’t a thing when I was young. With our own kids (ages 9–16), we’ve also always had somewhat of a laissez-faire attitude toward parenting, so carefully shielding them from peanuts was not something we remotely considered.
Whatever skepticism we had toward the validity of peanut allergies was less of a disbelief in their existence and more of an affirmative position toward the general hardiness of kids.
My wife grew up on a dairy farm. Her family kept raccoons as pets, which meant that when our children were small I was more concerned with them contracting rabies or possibly being flattened by an off-road vehicle than the chance they would be attacked by a rogue legume.
Anyway, good to hear that our general shrug emoji approach seems to have been validated by new and better science this time.
(Link via Kottke.)
That’s it for this week. Send us your favorite links so we can share them with everyone.